Okay, here is the literary version of my trip. I do not have photos from the other girls, yet, so they will be coming later, I believe. Hope this will do for now! :)
Monday 1 - Brussels
Our first day of our European vacation. Woo hoo! We left early in the morning for our flight to Brussels, stopping through London. We were all so excited! Nicolas met us at the train station (where we rode to from the airport which we arrived at at 2pm, I think) along with Arne and Catherine, a couple friends of ours from Queens. They were staying with us at Nicolas' house, too. It was great fun!
Nicolas showed us around Brussels that afternoon and evening. The most breathtaking thing I've ever seen in my life was the City Hall in downtown Brussels. I can't even describe it. I just found the architecture to be amazing! We ate supper at a Greek restaurant closeby. Good day. :)
Tuesday 1 - Brussels
The original plan was to go to Bruges, but we decided to hang out at Nicolas' house all day instead. It was so wonderful! We had the best weather, which is crazy because it's Belgium! Nicolas and Arne wheeled out the ping pong table and we had a few matches. I also asked Nicolas to bring out any board games, etc. that he had. Melissa and I played Guess Who for a good half hour I'd say. Other than that, we just lounged around outside in the sun. Haha! So GREAT!
That night, Nicolas' sister and her boyfriend came over to eat dinner with us. It was perhaps my favorite night of the whole trip. It was so great to just be with people that I really love, and the newbies were really friendly and nice and fun. :D
Wednesday 1 - Brussels/Barcelona
Nicolas drove us to the airport after one last brunch at his house. It was really sad to leave him, and we almost convinced him to just come to Barcelona with us, but the tickets ended up being ridiculously expensive. Haha! It was fun, though.
We finally made it to our hostel and dropped our stuff off in order to go get some food. It was really excited for me to be in Spain!!! :D The restaurant we went to wasn't actually very good. I mean, they charged us like they were phenomenal, but really they weren't. Luckily, we found a convenient store afterward that hadn't closed, yet, and bought some groceries to eat in the hostel. It was much better!
Thursday 1 - Barcelona
We just walked around and shopped a bit all day. It was really relaxed, which is what all of us wanted. Thankfully, some of the sights of Barcelona were even on our way from our hostel, so we got to see a couple of the Gaudi buildings. REALLY cool! We also stopped in a market on the side of one of the streets and got some fresh fruits and stuff for eating later. :)
Friday 1 - Barcelona
Bike day! We rented bikes for a few hours and rode around Barcelona. So cool!! Oh my gosh. The weather was really great. Funny story, though. Sydney and I both were wearing skorts that day and people kept staring at us as we rode past. Hahaha, Sydney said she felt like we were corrupting the men of Barcelona. lol! I almost stopped at one point to roll up the skirt a bit so you could see the shorts, but oh well. Haha! We really weren't indecent, I promise! It just looked like it. Hahaha. Woops.
The bike ride was really great, tho. We stopped at a supermarket to pick up some stuff for a picnic lunch on the beach. It was so great to be at the beach. On the freaking Mediterannean Sea, too! Sigh. So great!
Oh, and I had a full conversation in Spanish with a guy at the tourist information desk about the bikes. As far as I can tell, I only made one mistake. Woo hoo! It was SO much fun to be able to use Spanish again! I can't believe how much I've missed it! The other three girls keep joking about how I'm going to move to Barcelona after I graduate, and they're gonna come visit me. Haha! How cool would that be! Sigh.
Saturday 1 - Barcelona
We went out for lunch with Eric and Brendan - the two Americans we randomly ran into at our hostel who also go to Queen's. We walked down to the beach to have some paellas at this restaurant there. We really just mosied a lot. We watched some street performers at times. We visited the market again. It was fun! We ate dinner together back at the hostel that night, too.
Sunday 1 - Paris
We left our hostel in Barcelona at 2 in the morning to catch our flight to Paris. We spent the entire day sightseeing. We were all incredibly exhausted. There was way too much walking for me. Haha! I'm such a wimp.
But yeah, let's see. We saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and went in The Louvre. (Apparently under-26ers get in free - woo hoo!!) I'm not a huge art fan, but the other girls were really excited about it. It was fine except for how tired I was, but I suppose now I can say that I've seen the Mona Lisa. (P.S. Everyone always says that it's smaller than they thought, so I was picturing this tiny little painting. In fact, it was bigger than I thought. So there's a first.) Little Nicolas got a picture with the Mona Lisa. Hee hee!
In fact, Paris was really Little Nicolas' town! We saw signs saying "Nicolas" quite often. I took pictures of him in front of them, of course. And, you'll never believe it, but we happened to walk past this billboard-ish sign for.... drum roll.... Le Petit Nicolas!!! Oh man, I could not pass that up! Apparently, it's a famous children's book in French. Haha! It was destiny! ;)
Monday 2 - Paris/Bordeaux
We took a train early in the morning to Bordeaux where Julia would pick us up. The train ride was really long, and rather cold, but most of us slept the whole time because we were all so tired.
Julia met us on the platform when we arrived. It was so great to see her again! She drove us to downtown Bordeaux for some breakfast. We were going to sightsee around Bordeaux but then decided none of us really wanted to and would rather just go back to her house to relax. Haha!
Her house - ahem, chateaux I mean - is about a 45 minuted drive from Bordeaux. It was a great ride through the countryside of southern France. Sigh. Very nice. We arrived at her home at last and, oh my goodness, it was AMAZING! Apparently it's from the 16th century! It was so cool! I took many pictures to prove that I actually went and stayed at a place that cool because sometime I don't even believe it myself!
We met her two dogs - Busco and Ozone. Both huge. Both a little smelly (outside dogs). Both adorable. :) We made lunch in the guest house-thing where the four of us were staying - Julia was sleeping in her bedroom in her house. It was really great! Such good food! We made Hannes Potatoes and everything! (Haha, Hannes Potatoes are just like seasoned french fries, really, but they are delicious. Hannes made them for us before, hence the name).
Then Julia gave us the tour of her house and land. Her parents make wine so we walked around the vineyards. She took us to the place where they store the wine in barrels and showed us around the factory where they bottle and package the wine. It was really cool to see. Her parents' enterprise is about 5 or 6 years old, so it's still rather small compared to some others, I suppose, but it was still really neat. She also took us to this pasture behind her house where her horses are. So great!
Inside the house is so crazy cool. Oh man, I can't even describe it. You'd just have to see it for yourself. But it's amazing! I hope the pictures will do it a bit of justice!
Tuesday 2 - Bordeaux/Paris
This day was mostly spent travelling. We left Julia's house after a nice French breakfast complete with croissants. :) Then she drove us back to the train station in Bordeaux, where we boarded our train back to Paris. The B and B we were going to stay at that night picked us up from the train station in Paris. (We chose to go with a different place for this night because it was closer to the airport and we had a morning flight the next day).
This place was by far the nicest we stayed in, aside from people's houses of course. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. The others were laughing at me, but hey, I wanted to document the wonderful experience. We had some tea downstairs in the kitchen that night and met this one guy - Jan (pronounced "Yawn") - who was staying there, as well. It turns out he semi-lives at this B and B because he's work in Paris during the week (shutting down a factory) and then he drives back home to Belgium for the weekend. He's been doing this for almost a year I think. He was a Dutch-speaking Belgian, though. (All of our Belgian friends are from French-speaking areas). He said that he could understand German and Melissa can understand Dutch but neither can speak the other. We made them have a conversation in their own languages in front of us, and they communicated just fine. Haha! How cool is that!
Wednesday 2 - Paris/Rome
We left for Rome after breakfast at the B and B in Paris. They had an airport shuttle service for a small price, so we accepted. It was really nice!
While in line to check in at the airport, a guy behind us heard us talking and asked where we were from. He was American, too, from LA, and on our same flight. We chatted for a bit then were on our ways.
Later in Rome, we happened to jump on the same subway train as him. He was closest to Jen and told her about this free Ben Harper concert in some square somewhere that night. We were like, Ben Harper? For free? In Rome? Sure! We first went out to dinner, though, and then made our way to the square. It was absolutely PACKED!! I cannot believe how many people there were. I don't know if I've ever actually seen that many people in one place in my entire life. It was crazy! Ben wasn't playing, yet, so we squeezed our way through the packed croud to find a better place to see. We passed the toilets on the way, so Jen stopped in. A guy came up asking if we were waiting in line for the toilets, but he wasn't speaking English. I don't know how it came out, but somehow we figured out that he could speak Spanish, so I spoke with him for a bit. He's from Argentina and doesn't speak very much English. It was so much fun to have that last little flair of Spanish! Oh, it made me so happy! :)
Thursday 2 - Rome
Beach day! Woo hoo! We made no other plans than to go to the beach and chill. It was great! Sydney and I went for a walk down the shore. We all tanned. There were quite a few dogs prancing around and playing. It was great! :)
Friday 2 - Rome
Sightseeing, sightseeing, sightseeing. We decided the best idea was to buy tickets for a hop on/hop off bus tour. Our stops included the Colosseum, Circus Maximus (where they had the chariot races; Ben Hur was partly filmed there), the Mouth of Truth (like in Roman Holiday), and the Vatican. We didn't end up going into the Vatican because we weren't dressed appropriately that day, but oh well. We figured we had time to see it later. And if not, we can always go back, yeah? :)
Oh, Little Nicolas made a pink, fuzzy friend at the Colosseum. His name was Larry. They had a picture taken together. Haha! It was great fun! I guess Larry was having his picture taken everywhere, too. :)
Saturday 2 - Rome
We went to the Catacombs this day. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but I got one of the sign outside. It was really neat to see something of Christian history. We could tell it excited our tour guide to be talking about these things, so that made it all the better!
Sunday 2 - Rome
Our last day of vacation. Although we'd had a wonderful time away, I think all of us were pretty anxious to get home. In fact, I was feeling a little burned out and decided to spend the day by myself. The other girls understood and were completely fine with it, so that's good. I packed all my stuff and carried my backpack with me to the metro, where I grabbed a ride to the Trevy Fountain. I wanted to visit it again because it's just so relaxing and beautiful. Part of my time was spent people-watching and taking pictures for them. At one point there was this really big Hispanic family. They looked like they were having so much fun! And they were so funny! I think it must have been a family reunion of some sort. It was really cool.
After a few hours at the fountain, I decided to head towards the theatre where I would meet up with the rest of my group. I still had 4 hours or so, but I wanted to make sure I knew where it was. Funny thing, as I was walking along, I stepped out into this clearing and sort of stumbled on the Pantheon. Haha! I took tons of pictures there. It was so great. Amazing, really.
I pattered down side streets for a while after that and eventually came out at our meeting place. I still had two hours, so I went into a bookshop on the corner there. After I'd exhausted looking through everything there, I went upstairs to the cafe and got a tea. While I sitting, reading, and sipping, a couple of women came in with a little dog. He was just walking along beside them, no leash or anything, with scrappy hair, a long body, and short, stumpy legs. Lol! So cute!! Oh man, I think I sat there and chuckled at him and his antics for a good 45 minutes. Other people were getting a kick out of my getting a kick out of him. Haha!
I finished my tea after about an hour and a half and decided to just check out the little shops around the square while I waited for the others some more. I was almost done with the rounds when I looked at the broken down ruins in the middle of the square and noticed a cat sitting on one of the walls. What? So, I went over to investigate. There was another cat next to the first, then another, and another, and another... I finally found the sign that explained this phenomenon - The Cat Sanctuary! I took a picture of every cat for a while until I found the inside and realized it was a futile goal. It was great, though!
After I met up with the girls, Sydney and Jen went to see Macbeth at the theatre and Melissa and I went out for some pizza. We sat on the wall around the ruins where all the cats were. It was funny. Practically everyone who went by would just stare at us. I guess it's not a normal thing to do - haha! One guy actually came up to us, though, and asked us where we got the pizza from. He liked our idea.
We reunited with the other two and then made the long journey to the airport via walking/train ride. Our flight was to leave at 11:00pm I think. We got back home around one in the morning. I soaked up my internet for a while because I had been missing it for almost a week!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Spring Break!
Ok, folks, I am off on my spring break European excursion, so I will not be able to write for a while. Don't worry, Mom. I am fine, even if I do not post for a while. ;)
Friday, April 10, 2009
Turning 21... in Freaking Northern Ireland!
So, I had my 21st birthday on Wednesday. :D Here's how it went:
It all started Tuesday night. Jen, Hannes (our new German roommate), and I were all hanging out in our kitchen when someone realized it was past midnight. Yay! Birthday hugs for me!
Jen slept in my room (on the Nest) that night. I woke up the next morning, and she was on her way downstairs to make me breakfast in bed!! How sweet is she! I ordered a peanut butter and banana sandwich with some apples and tea. It was superb!
We finally got around to going downtown to the City Centre. We had discussed the night before about having a steak dinner with Hannes, so we had to go grocery shopping. Plus, Jen and I are both incredibly fair-skinned and will assuredly fry when we go to Barcelona next week if we do not have some sort of base tan, so we went to a tanning salon first. It wasn't the best experience of my life, as the lady only gave me a minute to undress and put the sun lotion on and all the rest. By the time I finally set foot in the little tanning compartment (it was a stand-up one as opposed to a bed), I was in there for literally 8-10 seconds before it shut off. I felt like such an idiot. I was so angry with myself for being so foolish, not knowing how to quickly prepare at a simple tanning salon. Let's just say I was not the happiest of campers. I wasn't at all mad at the worker, just myself, for being so unable to adapt to a situation where I'm so out of my element. Ugh! I told Jen about it afterwards, and she kept telling me to go back in; she was sure they'd give me my 3 minutes back. I felt like too much of a fool and was way too embarrassed to go back in there, at least for the time being.
Anywho, we went shoe shopping after that because Jen needed some good walking shoes for our trip. She found these really cute Puma's at this place called Schuh. This is really unimportant and probably uninteresting tidbits, so I will move on... ahem...
We stopped at a grocery store on our way back in search of some steak. Neither of us have any idea what we're doing when it comes to anything beyond lunch meat, really, so I texted Hannes and asked if he knew how to purchase and/or cook steak. He responded in the negative for the buying part but said he'd figure out how to cook it. Haha! So, we just picked out a package of 6 sirloin steaks and thought, "What the hey?"
I got home to a wonderful surprise: Sydney was there to wish me a happy birthday!!! Man, I love that girl! She came up to my room and we talked for quite a while. She told me about her trip around Ireland last weekend (which I was supposed to go on, as well, but had to back out in the end). It sounded phenomenal! I can't wait to see pictures!
She ended up staying for dinner, as well, and Siqi came over, too. We all pitched in to make a wondrous meal of steak, potatoes, and candied carrots - yummm!!!! What a great birthday dinner! (Happy, Mom? I ate well on my b-day!)
Then it was time to watch P.S. I Love You, which I had invited several people to. We girls in Mt. Charles had been talking for a while about how we needed to watch it together, and so I figured why not on my birthday? I had to first run down to the movie store, though, to rent it, and Sydney went with me.
When I got back, I was coming up the stairs and saw that Linda (a German friend of mine) was standing outside my door, talking with people in my room. I was happy to see her and cried out, "Linda!" whilst running up the stairs to tackle her in a hug. She quickly turned around and said, "NO! Wait!!" So, I had to turn around and stand on the stairs alone for a bit until I was allowed to turn back around. I bet you'll never guess what I turned around to! ;) Yeah, it was a birthday cake (of sorts - it was actually this banana-chocolate concoction that Linda had made once before for a common meal, and I had raved over it so much, she made it again for my birthday!! How sweet!!). Everyone came out of the room and sang to me in the stairway, and I made a wish and blew out the candles.
Then, I walked in my room and noticed a present sitting on my shelf. I real, bona-fide, wrapped birthday present! I was told that there were more hidden around the room and then ventured into a frenzy of searching for parcels (with "hot" and "cold" hints from my friends) and opening them. I can't believe how many presents and cards I got! I so wasn't expecting any! These people are so sweet. Even Hannes got me a present!! (He gave me a book to take on vacation with me, so I would have something to read on the plane rides and such. How thoughtful is that!!!! What a great guy!)
After the opening of presents and gushing of thanks, the movie-viewing commenced. It turns out there were a couple of guys who came, even though I said in the invite that I realized it was a rather girly movie and would not be offended if they didn't want to come until later when we went out. Herve (Belgian friend) said he really enjoyed the film. He even put it as his facebook status for a while - haha!
Once the film finished, we went to meet up with some others at a local pub/club called Lavery's. The club scene is really not my thing, but it was alright because that's what people wanted to do. :) We sang happy birthday to Hannes at midnight, which was cool. Daniela (Italian friend) bought me a Magner's Irish Cider, which was very sweet of her. I tried to pay her for it, but she said, "No, it's your birthday!" :) It turns out Linda doesn't really like clubs/dancing-to-techno-music, either, so she and I had a seat together in the back. I got tired pretty soon, tho, so Linda, Baptiste (French friend whom I was not expecting to see for my birthday but who thrilled me by coming), and I left "early," as in, before the others. I think it was around 1 or 2 in the morning.
I came home and had been almost sleeping for nearly a half-hour when my skype phone started ringing on my laptop. It was my family!! I picked up for them to wish me happy birthday. :D (To the three of you: I hope you didn't think I was drunk. I don't think I looked or sounded very lucid, but it was only because I had been sleeping, I promise! I didn't know if you were wondering, it being my 21st birthday and all, but rest assured, you needn't worry in that department! ;)) It was nice to see and hear from them. After that, I went to sleep for real, and so ended my 21st birthday in Northern Ireland. I'm so glad I got to celebrate it here. It made it so much more special, I think. :D
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that I went to concert on Tuesday night - some band called Maximo Park. I had never heard of them, but Clarissa (German friend) had invited me to it a couple of months ago. I saw one of their songs on youtube, liked it, and thought, "Why not?" and bought the ticket. We unintentionally arrived three and a half hours early to the concert, but other than that, it was actually quite good. Maximo Park is very much a punk rock sort of band, so it was a fun concert. The lead singer is a really funny performer! He doesn't play any other instrument but has no trouble finding things to do. He dances and runs around and jumps up on these boxes. It was cool. Plus, he kept making these really weird faces at certain points. It was so funny! I think I have been converted to being a Maximo Park fan, now. I should really look into getting some of their music...
Well, that is all for now. Melissa arrives back from Japan tomorrow afternoon; I'm really looking forward to seeing her, again! Sunday, I have plans to go to church with Sydney at Fisherwick, then make another steak meal with some people from Mt. Charles. (Hannes decided he didn't do quite a good enough job on the other steaks and said we should make it our goal for the rest of the semester to keep trying until we get them perfect. A-okay by me! I'm good with steaks anytime!!) Then, early Monday morning, we fly to Brussels to meet Nicolas and start our European excursion. Woo hoo!!
I hope you all are well! Lots of love! :)
It all started Tuesday night. Jen, Hannes (our new German roommate), and I were all hanging out in our kitchen when someone realized it was past midnight. Yay! Birthday hugs for me!
Jen slept in my room (on the Nest) that night. I woke up the next morning, and she was on her way downstairs to make me breakfast in bed!! How sweet is she! I ordered a peanut butter and banana sandwich with some apples and tea. It was superb!
We finally got around to going downtown to the City Centre. We had discussed the night before about having a steak dinner with Hannes, so we had to go grocery shopping. Plus, Jen and I are both incredibly fair-skinned and will assuredly fry when we go to Barcelona next week if we do not have some sort of base tan, so we went to a tanning salon first. It wasn't the best experience of my life, as the lady only gave me a minute to undress and put the sun lotion on and all the rest. By the time I finally set foot in the little tanning compartment (it was a stand-up one as opposed to a bed), I was in there for literally 8-10 seconds before it shut off. I felt like such an idiot. I was so angry with myself for being so foolish, not knowing how to quickly prepare at a simple tanning salon. Let's just say I was not the happiest of campers. I wasn't at all mad at the worker, just myself, for being so unable to adapt to a situation where I'm so out of my element. Ugh! I told Jen about it afterwards, and she kept telling me to go back in; she was sure they'd give me my 3 minutes back. I felt like too much of a fool and was way too embarrassed to go back in there, at least for the time being.
Anywho, we went shoe shopping after that because Jen needed some good walking shoes for our trip. She found these really cute Puma's at this place called Schuh. This is really unimportant and probably uninteresting tidbits, so I will move on... ahem...
We stopped at a grocery store on our way back in search of some steak. Neither of us have any idea what we're doing when it comes to anything beyond lunch meat, really, so I texted Hannes and asked if he knew how to purchase and/or cook steak. He responded in the negative for the buying part but said he'd figure out how to cook it. Haha! So, we just picked out a package of 6 sirloin steaks and thought, "What the hey?"
I got home to a wonderful surprise: Sydney was there to wish me a happy birthday!!! Man, I love that girl! She came up to my room and we talked for quite a while. She told me about her trip around Ireland last weekend (which I was supposed to go on, as well, but had to back out in the end). It sounded phenomenal! I can't wait to see pictures!
She ended up staying for dinner, as well, and Siqi came over, too. We all pitched in to make a wondrous meal of steak, potatoes, and candied carrots - yummm!!!! What a great birthday dinner! (Happy, Mom? I ate well on my b-day!)
Then it was time to watch P.S. I Love You, which I had invited several people to. We girls in Mt. Charles had been talking for a while about how we needed to watch it together, and so I figured why not on my birthday? I had to first run down to the movie store, though, to rent it, and Sydney went with me.
When I got back, I was coming up the stairs and saw that Linda (a German friend of mine) was standing outside my door, talking with people in my room. I was happy to see her and cried out, "Linda!" whilst running up the stairs to tackle her in a hug. She quickly turned around and said, "NO! Wait!!" So, I had to turn around and stand on the stairs alone for a bit until I was allowed to turn back around. I bet you'll never guess what I turned around to! ;) Yeah, it was a birthday cake (of sorts - it was actually this banana-chocolate concoction that Linda had made once before for a common meal, and I had raved over it so much, she made it again for my birthday!! How sweet!!). Everyone came out of the room and sang to me in the stairway, and I made a wish and blew out the candles.
Then, I walked in my room and noticed a present sitting on my shelf. I real, bona-fide, wrapped birthday present! I was told that there were more hidden around the room and then ventured into a frenzy of searching for parcels (with "hot" and "cold" hints from my friends) and opening them. I can't believe how many presents and cards I got! I so wasn't expecting any! These people are so sweet. Even Hannes got me a present!! (He gave me a book to take on vacation with me, so I would have something to read on the plane rides and such. How thoughtful is that!!!! What a great guy!)
After the opening of presents and gushing of thanks, the movie-viewing commenced. It turns out there were a couple of guys who came, even though I said in the invite that I realized it was a rather girly movie and would not be offended if they didn't want to come until later when we went out. Herve (Belgian friend) said he really enjoyed the film. He even put it as his facebook status for a while - haha!
Once the film finished, we went to meet up with some others at a local pub/club called Lavery's. The club scene is really not my thing, but it was alright because that's what people wanted to do. :) We sang happy birthday to Hannes at midnight, which was cool. Daniela (Italian friend) bought me a Magner's Irish Cider, which was very sweet of her. I tried to pay her for it, but she said, "No, it's your birthday!" :) It turns out Linda doesn't really like clubs/dancing-to-techno-music, either, so she and I had a seat together in the back. I got tired pretty soon, tho, so Linda, Baptiste (French friend whom I was not expecting to see for my birthday but who thrilled me by coming), and I left "early," as in, before the others. I think it was around 1 or 2 in the morning.
I came home and had been almost sleeping for nearly a half-hour when my skype phone started ringing on my laptop. It was my family!! I picked up for them to wish me happy birthday. :D (To the three of you: I hope you didn't think I was drunk. I don't think I looked or sounded very lucid, but it was only because I had been sleeping, I promise! I didn't know if you were wondering, it being my 21st birthday and all, but rest assured, you needn't worry in that department! ;)) It was nice to see and hear from them. After that, I went to sleep for real, and so ended my 21st birthday in Northern Ireland. I'm so glad I got to celebrate it here. It made it so much more special, I think. :D
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that I went to concert on Tuesday night - some band called Maximo Park. I had never heard of them, but Clarissa (German friend) had invited me to it a couple of months ago. I saw one of their songs on youtube, liked it, and thought, "Why not?" and bought the ticket. We unintentionally arrived three and a half hours early to the concert, but other than that, it was actually quite good. Maximo Park is very much a punk rock sort of band, so it was a fun concert. The lead singer is a really funny performer! He doesn't play any other instrument but has no trouble finding things to do. He dances and runs around and jumps up on these boxes. It was cool. Plus, he kept making these really weird faces at certain points. It was so funny! I think I have been converted to being a Maximo Park fan, now. I should really look into getting some of their music...
Well, that is all for now. Melissa arrives back from Japan tomorrow afternoon; I'm really looking forward to seeing her, again! Sunday, I have plans to go to church with Sydney at Fisherwick, then make another steak meal with some people from Mt. Charles. (Hannes decided he didn't do quite a good enough job on the other steaks and said we should make it our goal for the rest of the semester to keep trying until we get them perfect. A-okay by me! I'm good with steaks anytime!!) Then, early Monday morning, we fly to Brussels to meet Nicolas and start our European excursion. Woo hoo!!
I hope you all are well! Lots of love! :)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Birthday Anticipation!!
So today in the mail I received my birthday/Easter package from home. Hooray! :) It came complete with plenty of sweet and five - that's right, five!! - bottles of Dr. Pepper. Hahaha! Mom, I told you that they have them here, didn't I? Either way, it was very thoughtful. Thank you!!!
Also in the package was a HUGE bag of peanut butter m&ms from a gal at my church in Evansville. Thanks so much, Brenda!! And yes, I am saving them for our next meeting of the Nest! You are so great! :D
Today I slept in until 11 am - hallelujah. It was very nice. I don't plan on being so lazy my entire break, but it was nice to be able to do that without feeling guilty for having skipped class. Haha. I didn't get out of bed until almost 2 because I was listening to music and knitting. Sigh. What a great morning!
Rosie and I went to get our hair cut this afternoon. We both desperately needed to get that done. My hair actually curls again. It's great! :)
Hm, backtracking a little, Friday night was Laurent's last night in Belfast, so we hung out with him a bit and gave him plenty of big hugs before he went home. Saturday I ran into a very sick Nicolas on his way to buy some bottles of water. I convinced him to come over and watch Mary Poppins with the rest of the Nesters that were still here. It took a lot of work, but I did succeed. He was worried about getting all of us sick, but I told him that if need be, we could simply quarantine him inside one of the duvets from the nest. We didn't end up needing to do that.
Sunday morning-ish, we went out to brunch as a send-off for Nicolas, who was leaving that afternoon. Our gang consisted of Rosie, me, Jeniffer, Nicolas, and Siqi. We went to this little diner of a place called Maggie May's. It reminded me a lot of the Country Kitchen in Williamston. Or is it the Old Country Kitchen? I can't remember. Anywho, it was really yummy and amazingly priced. I mean, I had a pancake and a couple pieces of toast for 1 pound, 70 pence. (I would have just written it as 1.70, but then I realized I didn't have the pound symbol on my keyboard. Just in case you were wondering...)
After we dropped Nicolas off at his bus (because he had to bus down to Dublin, where he would then fly to Brussels), Rosie and Jen and I walked around downtown a bit and shopped. We went into the wee book store (yes, I said wee. Like my cultural infusion there? ;)) They had a huge stack of books in the back that were just 99p each, so Rosie and I each bought several. I now have add Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights (which Rosie actually bought me for my birthday), Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Anne of Green Gables to my literary collection here. I'm not sure which one(s) I will take with me to travel next week, but for sure I am bringing something.
Last night Siqi, Jen, and I went to Fisherwick church. Siqi and I went last week with Sydney, but she was gone this weekend on an Irish tour around Galway and other parts of the West coast. Anywho, it was a good time. We saw our friend Chris there - the guy we met on the Carrickfergus Castle trip. :)
Melissa is gone to Japan all week visiting a friend. I miss her. :( But, we do have a new German roommate upstairs. His name is Hannes. Did I already mention him? Well, he's cool. He and I went to the market on Saturday and got some scones. His birthday is the day after mine this week, so Wednesday evening we will celebrate me and then at midnight it'll be his turn. It should be good "craic" (another term they use here; it means "fun").
I received an email from my parents about how they found a time capsule at our church. They had a work day this past Saturday. That's when they discovered it. My dad sent me a link of his interview on the news. I guess they opened it in church on Sunday and found an old book. It was too moldy at the time to be able to tell what it was, but they hope it will dry out well enough to produce some sort of explanation of itself. How cool is that!
Here is the link for the news:
http://www.14wfie.com/global/category.asp?c=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=15032&topVideoCatNoB=135100&topVideoCatNoC=72953&topVideoCatNoD=129537&topVideoCatNoE=126152&autoStart=true&clipId=3623055&topVideoCatNo=undefined&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv
Alrighty, welp, I guess I'll be on me way nigh. That was pirate-speak mixed with a Northern Irish accent mixed with something else I'm not even sure of. But yes. I will go now. Happy Monday, everyone! :)
Also in the package was a HUGE bag of peanut butter m&ms from a gal at my church in Evansville. Thanks so much, Brenda!! And yes, I am saving them for our next meeting of the Nest! You are so great! :D
Today I slept in until 11 am - hallelujah. It was very nice. I don't plan on being so lazy my entire break, but it was nice to be able to do that without feeling guilty for having skipped class. Haha. I didn't get out of bed until almost 2 because I was listening to music and knitting. Sigh. What a great morning!
Rosie and I went to get our hair cut this afternoon. We both desperately needed to get that done. My hair actually curls again. It's great! :)
Hm, backtracking a little, Friday night was Laurent's last night in Belfast, so we hung out with him a bit and gave him plenty of big hugs before he went home. Saturday I ran into a very sick Nicolas on his way to buy some bottles of water. I convinced him to come over and watch Mary Poppins with the rest of the Nesters that were still here. It took a lot of work, but I did succeed. He was worried about getting all of us sick, but I told him that if need be, we could simply quarantine him inside one of the duvets from the nest. We didn't end up needing to do that.
Sunday morning-ish, we went out to brunch as a send-off for Nicolas, who was leaving that afternoon. Our gang consisted of Rosie, me, Jeniffer, Nicolas, and Siqi. We went to this little diner of a place called Maggie May's. It reminded me a lot of the Country Kitchen in Williamston. Or is it the Old Country Kitchen? I can't remember. Anywho, it was really yummy and amazingly priced. I mean, I had a pancake and a couple pieces of toast for 1 pound, 70 pence. (I would have just written it as 1.70, but then I realized I didn't have the pound symbol on my keyboard. Just in case you were wondering...)
After we dropped Nicolas off at his bus (because he had to bus down to Dublin, where he would then fly to Brussels), Rosie and Jen and I walked around downtown a bit and shopped. We went into the wee book store (yes, I said wee. Like my cultural infusion there? ;)) They had a huge stack of books in the back that were just 99p each, so Rosie and I each bought several. I now have add Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights (which Rosie actually bought me for my birthday), Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Anne of Green Gables to my literary collection here. I'm not sure which one(s) I will take with me to travel next week, but for sure I am bringing something.
Last night Siqi, Jen, and I went to Fisherwick church. Siqi and I went last week with Sydney, but she was gone this weekend on an Irish tour around Galway and other parts of the West coast. Anywho, it was a good time. We saw our friend Chris there - the guy we met on the Carrickfergus Castle trip. :)
Melissa is gone to Japan all week visiting a friend. I miss her. :( But, we do have a new German roommate upstairs. His name is Hannes. Did I already mention him? Well, he's cool. He and I went to the market on Saturday and got some scones. His birthday is the day after mine this week, so Wednesday evening we will celebrate me and then at midnight it'll be his turn. It should be good "craic" (another term they use here; it means "fun").
I received an email from my parents about how they found a time capsule at our church. They had a work day this past Saturday. That's when they discovered it. My dad sent me a link of his interview on the news. I guess they opened it in church on Sunday and found an old book. It was too moldy at the time to be able to tell what it was, but they hope it will dry out well enough to produce some sort of explanation of itself. How cool is that!
Here is the link for the news:
http://www.14wfie.com/global/category.asp?c=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=15032&topVideoCatNoB=135100&topVideoCatNoC=72953&topVideoCatNoD=129537&topVideoCatNoE=126152&autoStart=true&clipId=3623055&topVideoCatNo=undefined&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv
Alrighty, welp, I guess I'll be on me way nigh. That was pirate-speak mixed with a Northern Irish accent mixed with something else I'm not even sure of. But yes. I will go now. Happy Monday, everyone! :)
Friday, April 3, 2009
Holdin' Out for Spring Break
Hello, friends! I know it's been awhile.... again. Nothing too interesting has happened, really, but I will tell you how my last weeks before spring break have gone.
Let's see, after the Cork trip, I just had a lot of school work to do, and that's pretty much it. We still had our weekly Nest, which was great. Ally was pretty busy these past few weeks, so my room has become the new Nest locale. I keep the masses of duvets at the foot of my bed. It's quite a comforting sight, really. :)
I started getting sick with what felt-like a head cold last Tuesday. It turned out to basically be the plague. I exaggerate, of course, but it has lasted forever. In fact, I'm still not fully better. I've been to the pharmacy three times, first for throat lozenges, then for a decongestant, then in search of some sort of Zycam-type medicine to help kick the cold faster (which they have nothing remotely close to here - all they have is stuff to help with the symptoms). I've had so many people tell me different remedies. Last Wednesday night Nicolas, my Belgian friend, said that the trick is to drink hot milk with honey in it before going to bed and then sleep with a scarf around the neck. (It was so funny! He was instructing me on how to fold the scarf up first and then lay it across my neck, rather than wrapping it around, which could cause strangling in the night. HAHAHA!) I did this. No luck. Other people told me tea with honey. I've had various alcohols suggested several times by several people.
The cold was still going pretty strong on Tuesday of this week when friends of Jen and me - Nathan and Chris, local guys we've met through the International Friends Association, who put on our welcome weekend and the Carrickfergus castle trip and the Ceilidh, etc. - came over to cook for us. I asked them what remedies they had. Nathan said he once had a cold for about a month. He'd tried everything to get rid of it and finally went to his doctor, begging for some sort of insight. He swears his doctor told him the way to get rid of a pesky cold like that is to freeze it out. So, Nathan says that every time he has a cold now, he makes sure to walk around outside without a coat and stuff, bearing the chill, and BAM! Cold gone in three days. Every time. Or so he claims. Haha! I thought I'd give it a try, but the weather has been so abnormally pleasant the past few days - sunshine and all!!! - that I haven't had a chance. Thankfully, though, I don't think I'll need to now, as it is finally showing signs of abating. Sigh. Hooray. Goodbye Cold, oh bane of my existence! ;)
Tuesday night after dinner, I got together with Clarissa - German girl - and Nicolas to exchange some music. I have so much new music, now. It's great! There's this one song in particular about this girl whose stuffed animals come alive to cheer her up when she's down. It's so me!! Haha!
After that we were supposed to meet up with everybody else to go to this club called the Limelight. Apparently, we were really late or something because no one was there. We ran into a couple of other people on Mt. Charles, tho, so we decided to do our own thing and go to this pub called the Empire that was having live jazz music. It was so relaxing and great! I'm really glad because I wasn't really in a "club mood" (not that I ever am, really, but I wanted to hang out with my friends since we'll all be off on our vacations for three weeks after this). Then we came back to my room in an attempt to watch Mary Poppins. It took too long to load from the internet, tho, so we rescheduled for some other time.
Wednesday I actually went to the science library (one of the most depressing buildings I've ever been in, btw) to do some more research on my big math project that is due today. I was there for a few hours before coming back to Mt Charles for a scheduled bbq with everyone. I found out, tho, that people decided to wait for another time for the bbq and we went to this Mexican restaurant called Boojum instead. It's basically Belfast's version of Chipotle. Seriously, it's almost exactly the same!
After that, the original Nesters came to my room for one last meeting of the Nest before we all left for Easter vacation. We ended up just watching episodes of Friends for a few hours. It was so chill and great! An excellent Nest for the road, to tide us over until we're all back again!
Oh! We have a new house mate. His name is Hannes; he is from Germany. His room is the one right above mine. Melissa actually knew he was coming because she received his email address from the head of their department (they're both studying in the mechanical engineering field... ish), so she and he have been emailing back and forth for a while now. Benni, another German friend, has been also, and he went up to say hi during our Nest. Hannes is very nice and friendly! And now we are no longer an all-girls house, but that is alright. :)
Wednesday night Jen was preparing for a huge presentation the next day, so I said I'd stay up with her and work on my math project. I only made it until 4 am before I finally conked out and went to bed. She stayed up all night and didn't come back for a nap until sometime in the evening. She said it went really, though. I know she's relieved to have it over and done with, and I know she did a phenomenal job, so I'm glad for her! She came into to my room to see me and ended up napping in my bed while I hacked away at my math project some more. (Oh, I slept until 12:15, went to the free student lunch at Fisherwick church, then came back and worked all afternoon until I finally finished around 6 or so).
At nine, I was downstairs in the kitchen with my housemate Rosie. I wanted to celebrate my being done with my last project for that math class, so we decided to have a girls night in, eating popcorn and chocolate, drinking diet coke, and watching a chick flick. :D We went down to the convenient store to purchase the goods for the evening and ran into Daniela, the Italian girl, who agreed to join us - hooray! I'm glad there were others who wanted a chill night like me. Most of the other international students were planning some huge evening, one last hoorah with everyone. I believe the main focus of the night was to drink as much as possible, so I passed. I'm not a huge fan of drunk people. What can I say? We had a really good night, tho! Later, Siqi, Nicolas, and Laurent joined us. It was good fun and community! :D
Today I had my last Number Theory class before break at 9. Now all I have left to do is print out my Investigations report to hand in before 3, and I'm DONEEE!!!! Well, for now, anyway. Then I've got some work to do over break, but that's no big. :D I'm meeting up with several people at 1 today to go to another free student lunch at a different church - St. Thomas Parish. I believe tonight is our planned rain check of watching Mary Poppins. I guess there's some concert in the SU that people are going to first, but after that they'll come back to watch the beloved film! :D
It is such a relief to be on a break! I am SOOO ready for it! Sigh. A week from next Monday is when Jen, Melissa, Sydney, and I leave for Brussels and the rest of our European excursion. YAY!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
Alright, I think I'm gonna go take a shower now, seeing as how I didn't get to it yesterday, what with all the report writing. ;)
Happy Friday everyone! =)
Let's see, after the Cork trip, I just had a lot of school work to do, and that's pretty much it. We still had our weekly Nest, which was great. Ally was pretty busy these past few weeks, so my room has become the new Nest locale. I keep the masses of duvets at the foot of my bed. It's quite a comforting sight, really. :)
I started getting sick with what felt-like a head cold last Tuesday. It turned out to basically be the plague. I exaggerate, of course, but it has lasted forever. In fact, I'm still not fully better. I've been to the pharmacy three times, first for throat lozenges, then for a decongestant, then in search of some sort of Zycam-type medicine to help kick the cold faster (which they have nothing remotely close to here - all they have is stuff to help with the symptoms). I've had so many people tell me different remedies. Last Wednesday night Nicolas, my Belgian friend, said that the trick is to drink hot milk with honey in it before going to bed and then sleep with a scarf around the neck. (It was so funny! He was instructing me on how to fold the scarf up first and then lay it across my neck, rather than wrapping it around, which could cause strangling in the night. HAHAHA!) I did this. No luck. Other people told me tea with honey. I've had various alcohols suggested several times by several people.
The cold was still going pretty strong on Tuesday of this week when friends of Jen and me - Nathan and Chris, local guys we've met through the International Friends Association, who put on our welcome weekend and the Carrickfergus castle trip and the Ceilidh, etc. - came over to cook for us. I asked them what remedies they had. Nathan said he once had a cold for about a month. He'd tried everything to get rid of it and finally went to his doctor, begging for some sort of insight. He swears his doctor told him the way to get rid of a pesky cold like that is to freeze it out. So, Nathan says that every time he has a cold now, he makes sure to walk around outside without a coat and stuff, bearing the chill, and BAM! Cold gone in three days. Every time. Or so he claims. Haha! I thought I'd give it a try, but the weather has been so abnormally pleasant the past few days - sunshine and all!!! - that I haven't had a chance. Thankfully, though, I don't think I'll need to now, as it is finally showing signs of abating. Sigh. Hooray. Goodbye Cold, oh bane of my existence! ;)
Tuesday night after dinner, I got together with Clarissa - German girl - and Nicolas to exchange some music. I have so much new music, now. It's great! There's this one song in particular about this girl whose stuffed animals come alive to cheer her up when she's down. It's so me!! Haha!
After that we were supposed to meet up with everybody else to go to this club called the Limelight. Apparently, we were really late or something because no one was there. We ran into a couple of other people on Mt. Charles, tho, so we decided to do our own thing and go to this pub called the Empire that was having live jazz music. It was so relaxing and great! I'm really glad because I wasn't really in a "club mood" (not that I ever am, really, but I wanted to hang out with my friends since we'll all be off on our vacations for three weeks after this). Then we came back to my room in an attempt to watch Mary Poppins. It took too long to load from the internet, tho, so we rescheduled for some other time.
Wednesday I actually went to the science library (one of the most depressing buildings I've ever been in, btw) to do some more research on my big math project that is due today. I was there for a few hours before coming back to Mt Charles for a scheduled bbq with everyone. I found out, tho, that people decided to wait for another time for the bbq and we went to this Mexican restaurant called Boojum instead. It's basically Belfast's version of Chipotle. Seriously, it's almost exactly the same!
After that, the original Nesters came to my room for one last meeting of the Nest before we all left for Easter vacation. We ended up just watching episodes of Friends for a few hours. It was so chill and great! An excellent Nest for the road, to tide us over until we're all back again!
Oh! We have a new house mate. His name is Hannes; he is from Germany. His room is the one right above mine. Melissa actually knew he was coming because she received his email address from the head of their department (they're both studying in the mechanical engineering field... ish), so she and he have been emailing back and forth for a while now. Benni, another German friend, has been also, and he went up to say hi during our Nest. Hannes is very nice and friendly! And now we are no longer an all-girls house, but that is alright. :)
Wednesday night Jen was preparing for a huge presentation the next day, so I said I'd stay up with her and work on my math project. I only made it until 4 am before I finally conked out and went to bed. She stayed up all night and didn't come back for a nap until sometime in the evening. She said it went really, though. I know she's relieved to have it over and done with, and I know she did a phenomenal job, so I'm glad for her! She came into to my room to see me and ended up napping in my bed while I hacked away at my math project some more. (Oh, I slept until 12:15, went to the free student lunch at Fisherwick church, then came back and worked all afternoon until I finally finished around 6 or so).
At nine, I was downstairs in the kitchen with my housemate Rosie. I wanted to celebrate my being done with my last project for that math class, so we decided to have a girls night in, eating popcorn and chocolate, drinking diet coke, and watching a chick flick. :D We went down to the convenient store to purchase the goods for the evening and ran into Daniela, the Italian girl, who agreed to join us - hooray! I'm glad there were others who wanted a chill night like me. Most of the other international students were planning some huge evening, one last hoorah with everyone. I believe the main focus of the night was to drink as much as possible, so I passed. I'm not a huge fan of drunk people. What can I say? We had a really good night, tho! Later, Siqi, Nicolas, and Laurent joined us. It was good fun and community! :D
Today I had my last Number Theory class before break at 9. Now all I have left to do is print out my Investigations report to hand in before 3, and I'm DONEEE!!!! Well, for now, anyway. Then I've got some work to do over break, but that's no big. :D I'm meeting up with several people at 1 today to go to another free student lunch at a different church - St. Thomas Parish. I believe tonight is our planned rain check of watching Mary Poppins. I guess there's some concert in the SU that people are going to first, but after that they'll come back to watch the beloved film! :D
It is such a relief to be on a break! I am SOOO ready for it! Sigh. A week from next Monday is when Jen, Melissa, Sydney, and I leave for Brussels and the rest of our European excursion. YAY!!!!!!!! :D :D :D
Alright, I think I'm gonna go take a shower now, seeing as how I didn't get to it yesterday, what with all the report writing. ;)
Happy Friday everyone! =)
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