Sunderland Adventures

My last full week in Sunderland was easily one of my favorites. Monday night I led our Bible study, after which I regretfully had to say goodbye to Heather. I spent most of Tuesday with Sheldon: we went charity shopping around town, ate ice cream on the beach, made spaghetti back at her flat, and enjoyed fabulous weather all day. Tuesday night my flat hosted the second movie night, where 14 girls ate junk food and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (while we were watching it I kept picking up on little things they say and think "Whoa! British people really do talk like that!"). Wednesday I hung out with Ash; we bought some half-price Sunderland A.F.C. souvenirs at the Stadium of Light, finally went inside St. Peter's church, and then stopped by the National Glass Centre afterwards. Ash had taken a glass blowing class there, so she gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of glassmaking; she showed me where they blew glass in the furnace, fired it in the kiln, and sanded/cut/buffed glass in the "cold shop." A 2-for-1 deal at Pizza Uno provided us with "tea" while we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When the movie went off around midnight, Ash and I trekked across Sunderland, carrying blankets and pillows and cameras for a sleepover at Sheldon's place. We had a late-night jam session and finally crashed on makeshift couches with the kitchen chairs. Little did I know the following day would be the most memorable of the entire trip.

We knew the sun rose right around 4:30 am (which is why we stayed at Sheldon's the night before: we wanted to get a sunrise picture over Roker Beach. Whereas it would have taken us well over an hour to walk to the beach from Clanny, she lives right at the harbor). Waking up at 3:30 after getting 2 hours of sleep surprisingly wasn't too awful. Sheldon's flatmate Phil joined us on our sunrise adventure as well. While we were out there we took loads of pictures, walked on the pier/jetty leading to Roker lighthouse, and saw a commando ship as it was coming in the harbor (some of the marine guys even waved at us! Yay!). We had brekkie at Sheldon's, then Ash and I ran to the bus stop to go back to Clanny so we could sleep for a couple more hours. Later that night, CU had one last get-together on the beach. We laid out blankets and I led us in a few worship songs while we munched on snacks everyone had brought. There were a few people who stopped to watch us while we sang; one guy even came by and asked if he could take pictures/video our little Jesus session. It's good to know that can God still gets peoples' attention :) After jamming out at Roker for a while, we all packed up and walked down to the next beach, Seaburn, because it was less rocky and better suited to play football (no, not "soccer," football!). Some people picked up some fish and chips from one of the many vendors, and then we played English vs. "foreigners" football for the rest of the night! I had only kicked around a ball once or twice before so I had no idea what I was doing, but I did end up scoring about 1/3 of the points for our foreigners team. Right before we headed home some of the guys went swimming in the North Sea (they later told me it wasn't worth it, but it sure made for a good laugh). I said my final goodbyes to Pottsy (ahem, "Michael"), Sarah, Alan, and Luke. I wish I could have frozen that night in time and made it go on forever, because I have grown to love each and every person in CU. There was just something magical that took place that night that words cannot explain (Storm, Ash, and I ended up having a wee little sob session on my floor once we got home because it was such a bittersweet feeling). Nevertheless, I knew I would remember that night for the rest of my life. I can't thank everyone in CU enough for making this trip the experience of a lifetime.

On Friday I ran into Tapi at CitySpace, where I said my final goodbyes to her as well. Ash and I met Nick and Joanna at the metro station and went to Newcastle; the Hillsong London concert was later that night and we were all getting super stoked for it! We grabbed lunch at a place called Frankie & Benny's. For the first time in a LONG time, a waitress actually came and took our order without us having to go to the bar! I felt like I was back in the States already. Then we grabbed some frappucinos at Starbucks for happy hour and headed to the O2 Academy to queue for the concert. I think we were all expecting there to be a decent crowd by the time we got there, but we ended up sitting on the steps by ourselves for around an hour until anyone else showed up. At least we knew we were going to get great spots! Ben and Tom later met up with us once the doors opened, and I spent my last night in Sunderland singing and praising and dancing my little heart out with Hillsong London and some of my favorite people. On the metro ride back to Sunderland, a guy from CityLife (the worship leader, actually) recognized me, and somehow remembered that I'm from NC AND that I went to Elevation! I hadn't been to CityLife since the beginning of the semester, so I felt super special. We all headed back to our flat and I had to say goodbye to Nick and Joanna, tearing up in the process. I hate goodbyes so much. Thankfully I still have a few more days until I say goodbye to Sheldon & Becky -- I'm off to Harrogate in the morning with Sheldon, then Liverpool and Manchester with Becky!

 

York, part 2

I didn't have a lot of trouble waking up at 5:30 to catch the 7:00 bus to York Sunday morning; when I know I have to be somewhere, my body doesn't fight the early morning sunrises too badly. The National Express bus dropped me off in York right at 9:00. I knew nothing would be open that early on a Sunday. The Golden Arches of McDonald's invited me in, where I people-watched for an hour until the service at York Minster started. I had never been to a Catholic service before so I wasn't entirely sure of what I was getting myself into; it turned out to be a really cool experience! As the choir sang, I couldn't help but tear up. I knew this would be the last time I'll ever be in a cathedral for a reeeeally long time. There's just something about listening to the sounds of the choir bounce off the ceilings and high arches that just gets me. There was an older gentlemen who started off the service and introduced the priest, and surprisingly both of them had a sense of humor (I was definitely not expecting to laugh during a catholic church service in a 1000-year-old cathedral!). After the service we enjoyed free coffee and tea in one of the chamber rooms, and I head out to hit the town for a bit more shopping and exploring.

Although I had been there once before, I remembered that the streets of York are ridiculously complicated to navigate, so I grabbed a map from the tourist information office. I walked around part of the outer city walls and was greeted with some pretty views of York Minster and some gardens. Then I just started wandering all the streets, popping in and out of thrift stores, charity shops, and places to get souvenirs. Munching on some apples and breakfast bars supplemented me throughout the day. While I was in the York City Art Gallery, I ran into a lady from Morgantown, NC who was visiting her daughter in Leeds (yay North Carolinians!). Because I've gotten so used to English accents, American accents stick out like a sore thumb (and to think -- that's what I sound like. Eek!). After perusing the gallery, I walked around the outer walls on the other side of the city.

My friend Allison from back home hadn't texted me or messaged me back since I first talked to her, so I was just really hoping I'd run into her group somewhere. After staying in hostels all throughout Europe I learned just how limited Internet access can be if you don't live there. Much to my astonishment, I stumbled upon the big group from App while they were on the tail-end of a walking tour of the city. They had a group dinner planned afterwards and I didn't want to impose on them, so I said my goodbyes and finished wasting time in the city for a few more hours. As is typical in England, all of the shops closed at 4 or 5, so after grabbing dinner at Subway I just hung out in a few pubs until my bus left at 10. Even though I didn't get to see Allison except for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, it was still really cool to run into so many people from my school 4000 miles away. Tomorrow they're going to Stratford for a few days (which is near London), then they're doing Paris for 6 days, then they're heading back to England until June 4. I know she's definitely going to have a good time! Although I was by myself for a large portion of the day, it was nice to enjoy the city of York without freezing to death or getting snow dumped on me. My next big trip won't be til the week before I leave; I'll be traveling throughout England and staying with a couple girls from CU. It's gonna be great!

South Shields

I had heard quite a few people talk about South Shields, which is a town just north of Sunderland. Ash and I decided we'd go for a day trip, not having any clue what was there. All in all it turned out to be a really great day! Right before the metro came to a stop we saw a building with a giant green "ASDA" plastered on the side of it. As lame as this sounds, my heart skipped a beat -- ASDA is owned by Wal-Mart. Yay America! As soon as we got off the metro we made our way there. Although ASDA is much smaller than Wal-Mart, both of us almost had an emotional breakdown because it looked so much like home. We perused the store, wandering down each and every aisle with eyes wide with astonishment (looking back, I'm positive we looked like complete idiots, but oh well!). I was leading the Bible study later that night, so I bought some chocolate to introduce the CU girls to Hershey's kisses. After ASDA, we went to the South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, where we found live pythons, an exhibition about weddings, and a small interactive zone about exhibitions in general. I've found that museums and galleries in England have a LOT more interactive/kid-friendly exhibitions compared to ones in the States. It's my strive to share art with everyone -- and that includes children and families. It's definitely something I'll take back with me.

The receptionist at the gallery told us about a public artwork called "Conversation Piece" (or "Weebles" as the locals call them) down by the beach. While we did get lost trying to find them, we stumbled upon the Ocean Beach amusement park, complete with swings and arcades and rides and donut stands! There was also a small skate park where a few kids were showing off their skillz on bikes and scooters. The beach itself reminded me SO much of North Carolina with its dunes and cattails and fences along the coastline (minus the fact it was 40 degrees outside in May). Asking a couple more people for directions to the Weebles, we finally found the group of fat bean-bag-looking sculptures from the postcards in the museum. From where we were, there was a little red Groyne Lighthouse peeking over the dunes. Wandering down to the lighthouse I found a guy fishing for mackerel to no avail. By this time the wind was chilling us down to the bones, so we headed inland and slowly made our way back to the metro station.

We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner at a place called Southern Fried Chicken; Ash's mom back home had just watched an episode of Undercover Boss that featured that specific SFC. The food had my official southern stamp of approval! A cut-through through a park nearby yielded lovely pictures of flowers and some random Japanese arch-looking things. Ash grabbed a brownie at a small cafe once we got back into town, I finished off my Haribo gummies, and we got on the metro back to Sunderland. I must say that South Shields pleasantly surprised me, although I do hate that we had never made it there sooner. Nonetheless it was a good day and our dogs were barking after all was said and done. That night, I tried to go to bed relatively early because I had a 7:00 coach to York the next morning. A friend of mine from App was doing a 3-week Eurotrip and they happened to be stopping in York, so of course I couldn't resist another excuse to visit York and see her! :)

Updates

Since I've gotten back from my Eurotrip, the past few weeks have been pretty uneventful for the most part. I've had a couple of assignments in my classes that I've been working on, but other than that my days have been filled with lots of hanging out and LOTS of Hulu episodes. That being said, here are some updates of my (not-quite-so) exciting adventures in Sunderland:

• Started, completed, and turned in my final assignment for financial reporting. Praise the Lord I'm finally done with that class!
  
• Braved near-freezing, almost-hypothermia-inducing weather walking to church one Sunday.
  
• Made pancakes and watched Lord of the Rings with a few of the Clanny girls.
  
• Washed a massive amount of clothes by hand because the laundry facilities hate me.
  
• Planned on seeing Avengers Assemble with CU, went bowling with them instead because the tickets were sold out.
  
• Still saw the Avengers before it came out in the States. Hot dang. FanTASTIC film!
  
• Took a big group photo of (most of) the international students.
  
• Woke up countless times to the sounds of Germans screaming and singing in the flat next to me until 5:30 am one morning.
  
• Started and finished watching the entire season of The Voice (go Jermaine Paul!).
  
• Started watching the The Voice UK (I love British accents!).
  
• Shot, developed, and printed 5 rolls of film for my final photography project.
  
• Found out that the proposed Amendment One in NC didn't pass.
  
• Had a junk food Harry Potter movie night with a bunch of the study abroad girls.
  
• Dealt with more migraines than I can remember (and one right now -- booo!).
  
• Had my first meal of bangers and mash (it has my seal of approval!).
  
• Photographed some kids doing sweet tricks at a skate park down the road.
  
• Walked to Seasburn beach and discovered a part of Sunderland I never knew existed: the nice part.
  
• Went to a (slightly unimpressive) vintage fair in Newcastle.
  
• Mailed a birthday letter to a friend back home, and wished my mum a happy mother's day!
  

Since I changed my flight to an earlier date, I've been counting down the days until I get home. It's a really weird feeling knowing that I'll be sleeping in my bed in three weeks' time. The closer I get to June 1, the worse and worse homesickness is kicking in. I miss my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my church, my job, my everything. But at the same time, I know as soon as I get home I'll miss everything about England. My time abroad has been fantastic: the people I've met, the places I've gone, and the experiences I've had will stay with me for the rest of my life. Although I can't wait to be back in the States, England will always have a special place in my heart.



And now, for Lessons in British English with Hannah:

• "I can't be bothered" is the English way of saying "I don't feel like it."
  
  • "I fancy some squash juice, but I can't be bothered to walk all the way to the store."
• Geordies often pluralize singular pronouns and say "us" when they're really just referring to themselves, or "yous" when they really just mean you.
  
  • "Are yous going with us to the cinema after tea tonight?"
• When someone is being made fun of in a funny/lighthearted way, he's said to be "taking the mick."
• "I knew he was only taking the mick out of me, so I bought him pint and we all had a laugh."

Rome

The train ride to Rome from Pisa was beautiful, although it took us a bit longer than expected. The hostel was beside the airport (outside of the city), so we had to take another train there once we arrived in Rome. After we dropped our stuff off, there weren't any people at the station beside the hostel and the ticket machine was down. We weren't about to wait around and waste any more time that could be spent exploring the city. The chances of them checking for a €1.30 ticket on a 15-minute ride were slim; checking the platforms, we hopped on the first one headed back towards the city center without paying for a ticket (ooo so rebellious!). Of course karma bit us in the butt as we realized we got on the train headed back to Pisa, so we got off, bought a real ticket from the machine (with the help of a nice Italian girl and my awful charades), and finally got into central Rome around 2:00 pm. Grabbing some double cheeseburgers at McDonald's, we hit the ground running in an attempt to make up our lost time. A girl from the Montmarte tour told us about a secret place in the ruins to buy tickets for the Coliseum which saved us at least an hour in the queue. The Colosseo was AWESOME, plain and simple. I couldn't believe I was standing where thousands of gladiators battled lions and tigers and other gladiators 2000 years ago (also where a scene in Jumper was filmed, but that's not nearly as interesting). The weather was gorgeous, and sunny skies and puffy clouds dominated all my pictures for the rest of day.

Another must-see in Rome was the Sistine Chapel. I had never been on a metro so packed as the one to Vatican City, but I got up close and personal with some real-life nuns! Sadly, the Sistine Chapel had closed hours before we arrived. I guess I'll have to save The Creation of Adam for a later date. Our trip wasn't completely wasted though, because we still got to go inside the biggest and most beautiful church I had ever visited: the San Pietro di Castello. I felt nothing short of pure awe as I stared up at all the gorgeous domes and intricate carvings and gold trimmings everywhere. That is one thing I will really miss about being over here: churches back home can't even compare to thousands of years of architectural history that European cathedrals have. There's just something about these churches were built as a reflection of just how big and awesome and wonderful God is -- there's no denying that!

After the San Pietro, we headed towards the Pantheon, passing by the lovely Castel Sant'Angelo on the way. Narrow alleyways and grand piazzas with breakdancers and street artists met us at every turn before we arrived at the Pantheon. Of course it was equally cool to see (and equally closed to enter at 8 pm on a Sunday night). After taking a few pictures, we had a nice dinner of proper Italian cuisine (gnocchi and bolognese for myself, lasagna for Katie), and then flipped coins in the Trevi Fountain. Some delicious gelatto topped off our perfect evening, and we made our way back to the train station. Almost back at the station, we stumbled upon the tail-end of the red carpet Avengers premiere -- wait, WHAT?! Turns out, Chris Hemsworth (Thor) Scarlett Johansen (Black Widow), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) had just stopped by to premiere the movie, which was scheduled to come out later that week. We didn't see any celebrities, but we talked to the photographers and saw some guys carrying around Thor's hammer, which was still super awesome. Talk about a PERFECT ending to a perfect trip!

All in all, the 8 days I spent with Katie were nothing short of awesome. The entire trip felt so surreal to me, because I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I was in EUROPE! Sure, we ran into our fair share of obstacles along the way, but that's what makes a regular trip an adventure. Years down the road, we'll look back and laugh at how we hopped the wrong train, got caught in multiple downpours in Paris, made fools of ourselves with severely broken Spanish, and got lost in the Louvre. I had such an amazing time, and I know for sure I'll be coming back sometime. I think it's safe to say I've caught the travel bug :)

Pisa

After a solid 3 hours of sleep, Katie and I snuck out of the hostel at 4:00 am, took the metro to the bus stop, and the bus to the Paris-Beauvais airport. In most places, the main airport is on the outskirts/city limits, but not in Pisa; our hostel (and everything else in Pisa) was just a 15-minute walk from the terminal. Because we still had a few hours until we could officially check in, we put our luggage in the luggage closet. There was another couple doing the same thing as us, but I noticed something very peculiar about them: the girl was carrying a Harris Teeter bag. I knew that Harris Teeters weren't very popular outside of North Carolina, so I asked where they were from. Turns out they're from Charlotte, and they graduated from App in 2010! WHAAAAT a small world! They dropped everything at home and were taking 9 months off to travel the world, hitting up most of Europe and then Hong Kong later in the summer. Because we all had a few hours to waste, Katie and I hung out with them for the rest of the day.

The Piazza dei Miracoli (where the Leaning Tower is located) was just a short walk away, and was also slightly underwhelming -- the Pisa tower really is all there is to see in Pisa. No joke. We had pizza at a little bistro beside the Piazza dei Miracoli (my first authentic Italian meal! So yummy!) then headed back to the hostel to check in. On the way back, a guy blazed past us, with a terrified girl screaming and running after him. He could have only been one thing: a pickpocket. The look in her face was pure terror, and I had a reality check slap me in the face: these things happen all the time in European countries, so I need to keep an extra eye on my belongings. At the train station, we picked up a ticket for the 4-hour ride to Rome in the morning. Our 6-bed room at the hostel had been upgraded to a private 2-bed room for free (we didn't ask questions), and I took advantage of it by taking the longest "nap" in the history of mankind. Six hours later, I woke up to a night sky and saw Katie sound asleep beside me, tried to regain my bearings and realized I just sleep until 9:00 pm. Afterwards I spent a few hours playing pool and discussing business and technology and art with two  guys (one was Swahili, the other from India). Because it was so late, dinner consisted of a bag of crackers from the vending machine downstairs. Pisa was pretty uneventful, but both of us were extremely grateful for the day of rest. A full day in Rome awaited us in the morning!

Paris, part 2

Because it was our last day in Paris, we didn't have time to go to Versailles with Mary and Amira. We stuffed our faces with the free breakfast provided at the hostel (2 each of the following: nutella baguettes, bowl of cereal, and apple juice). The metro dropped us off in front of Notre Dame, and we popped inside. I wasn't suuuuper impressed with the inside -- the interior was beautiful, but I had seen bigger and more elaborate. However, it was still cool to go inside. On the way to the Palais Garnier opera house, we passed by some important-looking building, and we soon found out that it was the other side of the Louvre (I'm telling you, that place is HUUUUGE!). We then had a ham sandwich picnic on the steps of the opera house. I was tempted to feed the pigeons our leftover bread, but a gypsy dressed as a giant chicken kept eyeing our food, and told some other gypsy friends that we had leftovers. Needless to say, we made a speedy exit and headed towards Montmarte, where a 2:00 walking tour awaited us.

Montmarte is the old art district of Paris. Artists like Dalí, Picasso, van Gogh, Monet, and Mondrian used to live and/or work in the district, so I loved seeing all the cool hangout spots of such influential artists.  The tour started at the Moulin Rouge in the red light district. Moulin Rouge is French for "red windmill," so the entire community of Montmarte was scattered with windmills. We passed by La Maison Rose, where van Gogh sent his ear after he cut it off (there was a prostitute who worked there that he fell in love with, but his brother refused to let Vincent marry her. Naturally, sending her an ear was the best way of showing his affection for her... this was after he went crazy). Because Montmarte is situated on a big mound the entire tour was uphill, but the views at the top were totally worth it. The Sacré-Cœur Basilica greeted us as we reached the top. This church was much more impressive than Notre Dame in my opinion. We kept passing by a lot of street art that looked Banksy-inspired, and found out the story behind the artist Miss Tic. Long story short, she had a bad breakup with her boyfriend, and he said something along the lines of "I don't ever want to see you again." To spite him, she decided to plaster images of herself outside of his house, his work, and all over the district. Miss Tic is now probably in her 30s or 40s, but new images still pop up around Montmarte -- I think it's brilliant.

After the tour, Katie and I rested our feet at Starbucks, then grabbed dinner at McDonald's across the street (midway through the trip, we decided we'd eat at a McD's in every country we visited -- we're such Americans!). We then did a little souvenir shopping, picking up the necessary mini-Eiffel Tower models and a beret for myself. Making our way back to the Tower, we prepared ourselves to climb up the who-knows-how-many steps to the top. We counted a total of 680-ish steps as we made the ascent up the the second platform, taking tons of breaks in between. An elevator took us from the second platform to the very top. It was easily 10 degrees colder at the top due to all the wind. However, the views were absolutely breathtaking. I was reminded of when I flew into Paris for a layover back in January: the city is just so beautiful at night, and it's really hard to beat those kinds of views. By this time it was well past 10:00, and we knew we had to wake up pretty early the next morning. The stairs were more forgiving on the way down, but that didn't stop us from crashing from exhaustion on a bench at the bottom. The Eiffel Tower sparkles every hour on the hour once the sun goes down, so we stuck around until 11:00 to see it (totally worth it, too! It was magical!). We finally made our way back to the hostel in a mid-zombie state, well aware of the fact that we only had a couple of hours til a flight in the morning. Although all the walking completely drained our energy, Paris was awesome. Plain and simple. Next stop: Pisa!

- Katie can pass as Irish because of her hair, and I can pass as British because of my clothes. Cool.
- Europeans have no reservations when it comes to PDA.
- Parisians love Nutella just as much as I do.

Paris, part 1

Katie and I dragged ourselves out of bed Tuesday morning to hop on the 5:30 shuttle bus that ran to the airport. Thankfully it only took about 15 minutes to check our bags and through security, and we landed in Paris around 9:00 am. I was finally able to get some money out of the ATM (thank goodness!). A saxophone and clarinet duo entertained us on the metro while we rode to our hostel. I instantly knew I was going to love Paris. Because we couldn't check in until 2, we hung out in the internet cafe and looked up basic French phrases. We had heard that the French are very proud people and they get easily offended if you try to speak English to them. Practicing our best accents with "où sont les toilettes," "parlez-vous anglais," and "merci beaucoup," we jotted down the necessities to cover our bases. After we checked in, we grabbed food at a Japanese place recommended by the receptionist. I completely destroyed my Yakisoba trying to use chopsticks, but it was warm and delicious and I loved it (**note to self: don't try to ask random Japanese people where the Louvre is. You'll butcher the French language and completely embarrass yourself in the process).

The weather had been dreadful all day, but we wanted to make the most out of our time in Paris and decided to brave the elements. Unfortunately, I had worn holes in the bottoms of both of my shoes and they filled up with freezing water very quickly. There was no way I could spend the rest of the trip in soggy socks, so we set out on an adventure to find cheap shoes. I asked the tourism office where I could get some, and the lady recommended I check out the Galleries LaFayette down the street. Upon arrival I realized it was basically a super expensive and super huge Macy's (aka, the cheapest pair of designer sandals started at €150). Katie and I made a quick exit and discovered an H&M next door, where I picked up two cheap new pairs for €17 total. Heading back to the hostel, we picked up some random food to munch on for the next three days (with a final selection of lunch meat, chocolate, Coke, bread, and waffles). When we found out that the hostel didn't have a refrigerator or kitchen for guests to use, we made the best of it and downed an entire pack of ham sammiches. After a game of Tuesday night trivia with two Aussies and a Canadian, we passed out from exhaustion.

A free walking tour at 10:00 am set us up for a great day in the city. The tour guide Naomi was from Edinburgh, which really made me want to go back to Scotland. She took us all over the city, visiting some of the most famous sights in Paris including Notre Dame, the love lock bridge, the Louvre, Champs-Elysées, and the Eiffel Tower from afar. The tour ended with a delicious lunch of roast lamb and potatoes. We met two Canadian girls, Mary and Amira, who were staying at our hostel, and spent the rest of the day re-visiting some of the monuments we had just passed by. It had been raining off an on all day again, but it was worth it because we were in PARIS, baby! We first walked up to La Tour Eiffel, where we were bombarded with dozens of guys trying to sell us little Eiffel Tower keychains on the streets. Then we hit up the Arc du Triomphe and made our way down the giant Champs-Elysées avenue ("one of the most famous streets and most expensive strips of real estate in the world" according to Wikipedia), and finally arrived at the Louvre at the end of the avenue.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cheap €10 entry fee to the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world, and with good reason: it houses thousands and thousands of priceless artwork (fun fact of the day: if you were to look at each artwork in the Louvre for only 7 seconds, you would be there for over 80 years). Even though we had a map of the museum, we found it extremely difficult to navigate. Whoever built it must have liked a challenge getting around. Nonetheless, it was really awesome getting so see all sorts of artwork that I had studied in previous art history classes. Seeing the Mona Lisa was a bit underwhelming, as there were tons of people elbowing their way to the front of the crowd to take a picture of her. I've never understood why that particular da Vinci is so popular, but at least I can say I've seen it now. After a good 3 hours navigating the Louvre, we were all past the point of exhaustion, picking up pizza on the way home before heading to bed.

- A lot of French people speak English too, thankfully.
- I still can't tell any difference between Canadian and American accents.
- Public transportation is the bomb.

Barcelona

After stuffing our purses full of free crackers and bread and biscuits at breakfast Sunday, a scenery-filled train ride dropped us off in Barcelona, right in front of the Gaudi Casa Battló. Apparently there was a massive race right in the city center, so Katie and I had the pleasure of forcing ourselves and our suitcases through thousands of people while we headed to the hostel. In front of the Barcelona Cathedral, a live band was playing (and replaying) some traditional Spanish song while heaps of people danced the Sardana. There was a lovely antique market right beside the cathedral, and for once I was thankful I didn't have any money because it could have easily been blown within a matter of minutes. The main Plaça De Catalunya boasted more pigeons than I had ever seen in one central location, as well as beautiful fountains and roads radiating out from the city center. We also stumbled upon some castellers, or human-tower-builder-people. I had only seen them on TV and the interwebs, so it was really cool to see some in real life. I'm thinking it was some sort of competition between 3 different teams: the Castellers de Sabadell, the Castellers de Barcelona, and the Minyons de Terrassa. The red Barcelona team must have won -- we later passed by them and they were all running around on each other's shoulders and playing music and doing some other traditional Spanish dance. Cool beans.

We failed to find the free walking tour group we were looking for (rather, I think they failed to find us), so we ended up exploring the city on our own. Although it was raining we had to go to la playa (the beach). On the way we passed by the Columbus Monument who, although pointing out to the ocean, in reality was probably aiming for somewhere in Africa. We also spotted a couple towers that were attached to cable car lines. Walking through the Rambla de la Mar, "the gateway to Barcelona's largest leisure area," I spotted a McDonald's and ordered a McPollo (not because I particularly like McD's chicken, but simply because I wanted to order a McPollo). Some French girls asked us where the la playa was, and we attempted to give them our best directions in Spanish. It was really cool to see the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, but yet another ominous looking front forced us to head back early. Dinner consisted of fish and chips at an Irish pub (I know I know, we should have eaten proper Spanish food while we were in Spain... just be patient and keep reading!).

The next morning, we walked to La Sagrada Familia, passing by the old bullring and Barcelona's Arc de Triomf on the way. The line for La Sagrada wrapped all the way around the church and we didn't have hours to wait in line, so we just admired the massively lovely Gaudi architecture from the outside (trying to ignore all the construction cranes surrounding the spires). We then took the metro to the other side of town, where we knew the cable cars started. We had no idea where they went, we just knew we wanted to ride in one. And it was definitely worth the €9 ticket! A little old lady from Norway joined us in our car and we all took in the beautiful aerial views of the city. Free entry to the Castell de Montjuic greeted us at the top of the mountain, which none of us were expecting. The ocean-front views were gorgeous; it was a near-perfect day weather-wise, and the sea looked like it met the sky at infinity. Some music meeting (maybe an awards ceremony?) was going on in the courtyard, and a few really talented archers were practicing their archery on the castle grounds. Afterwards we headed back to Girona. Dinner this time consisted of proper Spanish cuisine: tapas, which are basically teeny tiny appetizers. We had cod croquettes, patatas bravas, Siberian ham, Spanish cheese, chicken wings, and bread. Yummyyy. Back at the hostel, we hung out in the common room and watched hours (literally) of music videos on whatever channel the TV was on, then headed to bed. Flying to Paris in the morning!

- I want to find a cable car somewhere once I get back home, because they're fun to ride in.
- Water fountains are everywhere outside, but they're exponentially cooler looking than the ones back home.
- Thankfully, a LOT of Spaniards speak English. While I still surprisingly remember a lot from the two Spanish classes I had in high school, charades can only go so far.

Girona

Packing for an 8-day trip around Europe proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected, especially with Ryanair's strict size/weight limits for carry-ons. This was the first trip I had ever been on where overpacking simply wasn't an option, unless I wanted to pay £60 at the airport to check a bag. Needless to say I managed to fit everything into a suitcase that was half the size (and a third of the weight) of my original carry on. I was so proud of myself. The flights are incredibly cheap, but it's a very no-frills airline company -- your purse and camera and everything else has to fit in a small carry-on, and there aren't any reserved seats so you have to queue at the gate to get a good seat. As soon as we flew over the channel I knew I was going to like Spain -- I saw real, snow-capped mountains for the first time in months! Katie met me at the Barcelona-Girona airport, which was just fabulous seeing her wonderful self! However, getting some euros out of the ATM machine was not-so-fabulous; none of my cards would work for whatever reason. After a 9-minute, £15 phone call with my bank, I learned that Spain was off-limits because of a high traffic of fraud in the country, and I would have to wait until I got to France and Italy before I could have any money. Luckily I was able to keep a running tab with Katie while in Spain. Brilliant.

Aside from completely stressing out about that wee little euro problem, Girona was absolutely beautiful. It felt like a quaint little Spanish town. We took a bus from the airport to the Girona city center and dropped the luggage off at the hostel before exploring the city. There was a giant wall with great views that wrapped around the city according to the hostel receptionist, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! Spanish architecture is radically different from everything I had seen in England. Every balcony and terrace had a clothes line with laundry blowing in the breeze. Gorgeous wisteria and other vines grew up and down and around the buildings. The tall, skinny trees looked like they belonged in a Dr. Suess book, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The Girona Cathedral ended our wall walk, and we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner of margherita pizza (not alcoholic, just cheesy) before being chased inside by the looming storm front. A few Wii games and 20 minutes of free Internet later, we met our Australian roommate and headed to bed. 

London, part 2

Waking up at the crack of dawn on Sunday wasn't all that difficult for me, because I was really excited for the first boot sale of the season in Bromley. The boot sale, as it was explained to me, is kind of like a flea market, except vendors sell stuff out of their car's trunks (or "boots," as the name explains). Kez, Ryan, Chris, and I headed out shortly after 7:00 am, only to find out that the boot sale wasn't until Monday. I was thankful for the extra couple hours of sleep. After attending church with Ryan and Kez, we all came back to the house to decorate Easter eggs. One of the traditions Kez's family does is the egg race; you decorate hard-boiled eggs & roll them down a hill, and whoever's cracks last wins. We all hopped in the family car and drove to Dulwich park, where we rented banana bikes (or "recumbent" bikes for you proper folks) and rode them around for an hour. Dulwich didn't have any big hills for us to roll the eggs down, so we went to Greenwich park instead. The park was situated on top of a hill that had a beautiful view of the city of London. Bethany and I tied the egg race after about 5 attempts at rolling my egg down the hill and no signs of cracking. The prime meridian runs right through the middle of the Royal Observatory beside the park; I stood in the eastern and western hemispheres at the same time! The rest of the evening was pretty relaxing, filled with pizza, photo editing, and TV.

Waking up early for the boot sale Monday proved futile once again, as the entire field had been waterlogged and the sale was cancelled upon arrival. I took the train into London, determined to do some more sightseeing and exploring. My journey was a lot easier because all of the places I wanted to visit were right on the River Thames (so no getting lost this time!). I passed by the OXO Tower and went in one small art gallery there, disappointed by the fact that all the other galleries/shops were closed on holiday. Luckily the Tate Modern was still open, but unluckily everyone and their mom was queuing for tickets to the Damien Hirst exhibition that had just opened. Although I waited in line for over an hour, I was thankful that my ticket was free (thanks Rosie!). I had a few hours to kill before my time slot for the exhibit. Walking to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge was surprisingly pleasant despite the annoying mist/rain that hung around all day. As much as I wanted to go inside the Tower of London (as well as St. Paul's and Westminster and the London Eye), I couldn't bring myself to spend nearly £20 (or about $30) for entrance to each. I grabbed lunch at a KFC beside the Tower of London that looked a lot like a dungeon inside, got another random tourist to take my picture in front of Tower Bridge, and caught the tail end of a tour at Shakespeare's Globe Theater before making my way back to the Tate Modern. One of the main exhibitions was on Surrealism, which was really cool because I got to see a lot of the artists that I wrote about in a big art history research paper last year. The Damien Hirst exhibition was superb, and I definitely would have paid the full ticket price if I had to. Once I got back to Bromley, I played a game of Harry Potter Cluedo with Kez's folks (and somehow won!) and packed my things to head back to Sunderland in the morning.

My trip to London was perfect in every way, shape, and form. I saw more art and more street performers than my brain could handle, rode the tube, visited all the typical touristy sites, and stumbled upon a lot of cute little surprises in the process (like a mini-pirate ship hanging out in an alley, a prison-turned-museum, chocolate muffins at West Kennet Long Barrow, a completely graffiti-ed skate park, a massive inflatable purple cow at Magner's Pasture, etc). Being in London reminded me of why I wanted to open up an art gallery there someday. Part of me does wish everything with Kingston University would have worked out because I would have lived just a few minutes outside of the London; Sunderland isn't exactly a thriving hub for the arts (or a thriving hub for anything for that matter). Nevertheless, there is a reason for everything and I'm incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to study abroad in England. This weekend, I'll be leaving for an 8-day Eurotrip with Katie and I am beyond stoked for it! Packing won't be any fun, but I did manage to borrow a luggage scale to make sure my carry-on fits Ryanair's restrictions. Tomorrow will consist of doing laundry, printing off boarding passes, packing up, and any other last-minute things I can think of before we leave Saturday. This might be the last post for a while (unless I can find extended internet access while we're travelling, which is unlikely... but still keep a keen eye out for any updates that might follow). Hasta la vista, amigos -- next stop: Spain!

London, part 1

I hopped on a bus early Thursday morning, due to arrive at the Victoria Coach Station in London at 2:00 pm. My dad's friend Rosie met me at the station and she took me on a crash course of the art scene in the city. Most of our afternoon together was spent gallery-hopping on Cork Street, which literally was made up of gallery-after-gallery-after-gallery. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both old masters and contemporary artists all in one central location. Some of the contemporary galleries we visited really made me question what art was, but not in a good/philosophical way (Case and point: one of the "pieces" by an artist literally consisted of a Styrofoam that had been slightly torn / mashed. It was called "Ripped Cup" -- how appropriate -- and was selling for £1000. It's artists like that who, in my opinion, give art a bad name. Art is about expression and feeling and reacting to the environment around you, not just stacking some cups on top of each other or breaking a ceramic pot and calling it "art." It's no wonder why people don't care about the art world; I know I certainly could care less about that sort of stuff. Ugh. End rant. I'm getting off my soapbox now). After 4 hours of walking around (and lugging my suitcase with me) on top of a 6 hour bus ride, I was completely exhausted. Rosie gave me an old Oyster travel card which I topped up at the station and used to catch the train to Bromley, which is where Kez and her family live (and also where I would be staying the next 5 nights). I played a game called Go For Broke with Kez, Ryan, and Kez's brother Chris, and hopped in bed a little after midnight.

On Friday, I went with Kez and Ryan to Stonehenge. The countryside was absolutely beautiful, but being Easter weekend there was a TON of traffic. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant called Harvester (an endless salad bar, free refills, and a delicious chicken & chips dish -- soooo good) in Amesbury, then headed into Stonehenge. I did a presentation on the mysteries surrounding Stonehenge back in 9th or 10th grade, but the only thing I remember was the fact that, after loads of research, I still have no idea how those bluestones got there. Stonehenge was just as impressive and mysterious and cool as I remember it, but there's really only so many pictures you can take of some giant rocks in a circle.After Stonehenge we drove to a smaller, less popular henge a few miles away (henge meaning "a roughly circular or oval-shaped flat area enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork") called Woodhenge. Woodhenge had a similar setup to Stonehenge, and was set up around 2000 BC during the Bronze age for ceremonial use. We then drove a little ways away to a West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill, which are a Neolithic burial tomb and the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe, respectively. There was a group of hippies walking up to West Kennet Long Barrow just as we were leaving, armed with bongos and bandanas and blankets and the whole nine yards. We think they were going to do some sort of sunset ceremonial dance thing up at the burial site, but we didn't stick around for it. We then drove to see the largest stone circle in Europe: Avebury. The henge surrounded the entire city of Avebury, so we walked around and took in a gorgeous sunset before heading back home to Bromley.


I took a train into London on Saturday morning, bought a map, and spent the entire day sightseeing and exploring. Again, being Easter weekend there were heaps of people at all the popular tourist attractions; Buckinham Palace was certainly no different. Pushing through the mass of bodies, I spotted some of the Queen's guard patrolling the front entrance to the Palace. Walking through St. James' Park, I saw a lot of pigeons and ducks snatching up any food that people threw to them. There was a bagpipe player in Trafalgar Square, but he was really awful compared to the ones in Scotland. The National Gallery of London housed an impressive collection of art by Titian, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Cézanne, Monet, Rembrandt, and tons of other artists I learned all about in art history. Covent Garden was a popular site for street performers, as well as the Jubilee Market. Rosie had told me about the 200-something giant eggs painted by different artists, which I learned were being auctioned off to raise money for charities. In the British Museum, I found the Rosetta stone, Assyrian sculptures, and friezes from the Greek Parthenon. When I found out the British Museum also owned Hokusai's Great Wave in their collections, I had a mini-heart attack and got really excited, only to find that it wasn't on display at the moment. Super sad. I took the tube with Kez and Ryan to the London Eye/Parliament/Big Ben, and then stopped at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station before heading back to Bromley for a family fondue dinner with the Prices. One horribly lost game of British Trivial Pursuit later (sorry, Chris!), it was time for bed -- we had a boot sale in Bromley to go to in the morning!

And Breathe.

My life in the past week can be summed up in one word: hectic. I had a doctor's appointment Monday morning, and have been going non-stop since then. As always, professors here really seem to enjoy stacking due dates on top of each other, and loading us up with work right before the Easter holidays. Outside of classes, Monday - Wednesday was spent in the studio and the darkroom finishing up the portraiture project in photography, and Thursday was spent writing an entire assignment for financial reporting. What surprised me most was the lack of stress I had -- usually when I let things pile up at the last minute, I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But this time was different. Even though I had a huge workload ahead of me, I wasn't really worried about it at all. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I need only pass these classes for them to transfer back home, so I won't freak out if I don't get an A+ on my assignments.

I'm telling you, I feel like these English students have it sooo easy. First off, they only have a couple of assignments per class, so they don't have to worry about weekly assessments and projects to turn in. While I'm in class, I'm taking notes and writing down as much as I can -- I glance around and notice that 90% of the other students are just sitting there, eyes slightly glazed over, and only picking up a pencil to sign their name on the register for attendance. Professors put all of their lecture slides online, with notes already included (some of them even print them off to give to every student in the class). So if you have a really awful professor (as is the case with 2/3 of my classes), you don't have to show up at all. Simply check online for the assignment due dates and powerpoint slides, and never step foot in the classroom. Pop quizzes simply don't exist. The English schooling system sets it up so that students only go to uni for three years, as opposed to our four-year colleges at home. And, to top it all off, the first year doesn't even matter; only the grades from the last two years of uni will go on their CV as I understand it. It'll definitely be interesting getting re-adjusted once I get back to App.

As for now, it is officially spring break and I am loving it! I've done absolutely nothing for the past few days and it's SO nice to just be able to breathe. We have a three-week Easter holiday, which I can already tell will definitely spoil me. I still have one more assignment to get done before Thursday, but again I'm not worried about it at all. The rest of my break will be filled with lots of traveling and taking pictures: I'm headed down to London for 5 days later this week, and then I'm meeting up with Katie to do a quick Euro-trip the second half of the break. We'll be hitting up Barcelona/Girona in Spain, Paris in France, and Pisa/Rome in Italy in an 8-day span. I'M SO EXCITED! The only thing that won't be fun is fitting 8 days worth of stuff into a carry-on that's only slightly larger than my bookbag. We'll make it work though! I am so so blessed to be here, and I am so looking forward to the rest of my travels. Thursday can't get here soon enough :)

The Scottish Highlands

Now for Sunday funday! We hopped on the bus at 8 and set off for Loch Ness. The fog hadn't really lifted since the day before, so I was really worried that the entire day would be a bust. The first two hours were as expected, and because the fog was so heavy we couldn't see Doune Castle as we passed it. I was really disappointed, because this is where most of the castle scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed. Sad day. Our first stop was at Trossachs Woolen Mill in Stirling, where we met Hamish the famous Highland cow. The next stop was at Black Mount Estate, which reminded me of an overlook at the Blue Ridge Parkway, sans the Blue Ridge Mountains and add a bagpipe player and some fog. As we drove farther north, the fog began to clear and we were granted with beautiful weather for the rest of the day. Things were looking up.

The Lowlands make up the bottom 1/3 of Scotland, but about 90% of the population live in a little strip in the narrowest part of the Lowlands. The other 2/3 of Scotland are the Higlands, which boasts some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. While we drove through the Highlands and took in the deserted mountain scenery, our tour guide Nic played some traditional Gaelic music and told us some stories of the battles between old Scottish clans that used to live there. Scotland has a really dark history and it was really interesting to hear all about. We passed quite a few lochs (lakes) and snow-capped mountains (yay snow!) until finally arriving at Loch Ness.

For those of you who don't believe in a monster that lives in a lake in the middle of Scotland, let me give you a few reasons to open your mind: 1) The lake is big. Loch Ness is over 23 miles long, and at some points over 900 feet deep. If you were to drain Loch Ness and fill it with all the water in all the lakes in England AND Wales combined, it wouldn't even fill half of the basin. This is a huge loch we're talking about. It also has a very shallow euphotic depth, meaning that light doesn't penetrate deeper than 10 or 15 meters below the surface. 2) The fish are big. The boat we rode on had a sonar hooked up so that we could see all the fishies swimming around beneath us, as well as how deep it was. Massive eels and pike have been caught before. Sonar images show that there are some seriously huge animals swimming around down there. 3) The ocean is big. Loch Ness feeds into the North Sea, so fish are free to swim in and out of the Loch to feed/mate as they see fit. This family of creatures that Nessie belongs to could swim anywhere they wanted in the North Sea, and simply come to Loch Ness when they got hungry (yes, Nessie does have a family -- you don't think she'd still be alive and kicking after the first sighting in the 6th century, do you? It would make more sense for it to be a family of creatures that have been lasting from generation to generation). Unfortunately there were no Nessie sightings while were on our hour boat tour, but I'm still convinced that there's some sort of giant underwater creature who lives in Loch Ness :)

The ride back to Edinburgh was relaxing. The scenery was just as beautiful as the sweeping mountains of the Highlands, but it just wasn't as dramatic. We stopped at the Commando Memorial and saw the biggest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis standing at 4,400 feet tall. It was pretty, but I laughed at the fact that I go to school at 3,333 feet elevation back home -- what's another 1,000 feet, especially when I've skied on the 14,000 feet-tall Grand Tetons in Wyoming? However I do consider myself lucky, because Nic told us that you can only see the peak 50 days out of the year due to low clouds, so we picked a really good day. The Scottish Highlands are unbelievably beautiful, and I would love to live out in the middle of nowhere like that. Being surrounded by such beautiful natural scenery definitely made me miss Boone.

We drove past the Dalwhinnie whiskey distillery, as well as the engineering marvel Forth Bridge. Our last stop was in a little town called Pitlochry, where we grabbed some chips (fries) to hold us over until we arrived back in Edinburgh. It was a tiny little town that had a lot of cute shops, but unfortunately none of them were open at 7 pm on a Sunday evening. One of the stores was a year-round Christmas shop that was counting down the days until Christmas (276 as of yesterday), which reminded me so much of my mom. We got back on the road and arrived in Edinburgh right at 8:00. Our bus back home didn't leave until 10:30, so Lily, Ash, and I got dinner at a TGI Fridays we found (definitely didn't know Fridays was an international chain). I must have slept a good bit on the 3-hour bus ride back to Newcastle because I don't remember much of it. A taxi from Newcastle finally put us back in Sunderland at 1:30 am. I unpacked my suitcase and crashed on my bed, while visions of bagpipes and mountains danced in my head. I officially love Scotland.

Edinburgh

Last week was uneventful for the most part, simply filled with shooting/developing/printing some portraits for my photography project that's due later this week. I also got all caught up on America's Next Top Model: British Invasion. This cycle, half of the girls are from the states and half of them are from the UK. I thing it's super cool and super ironic that I'm over here while it's on! Other than that there really wasn't anything too exciting during the week. This past weekend is definitely worth writing down though: my trip to Scotland.

I caught the metro to Newcastle, then the bus to Edinburgh after my workshop on Friday. Lily and Ash also had Friday classes, so we all rode up there together. The bus ride was long and slightly annoying, because there was a guy sitting beside me who insisted on telling me all about the different species of squirrels in Scotland, as well as the feeding habits of vultures and other useless bits of info (ex: the excrement from pigeons actually has a high enough acid concentration to burn through your clothes if you don't wash them soon). Needless to say, I was very thankful once we arrived in Edinburgh. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and grabbed dinner at an American-style pub called The Filling Station. By this time it was pretty late and we were all tired from the ride up there, so we took it easy Friday night in the hostel.

Saturday was spent exploring the city. We met up with the rest of our flatmates who were staying in a hostel down the street, and set off with absolutely no plan other than to explore. With a map in hand, we made our way up a big hill to the Edinburgh Castle, where we discovered an unattractive admission rate of £14. Although some other folks had recommended checking it out, none of our wallets felt like dishing out the quid just to go inside, so we moved on. In case you've never been to Scotland before, it really is filled with kilt wearers and bagpipe players. Everywhere. Edinburgh is a very touristy town so it would make sense that it was stereotypically Scottish, but I saw tons of other bagpipe players well outside of the city. These people take their heritage very seriously.

After checking out a few souvenir shops along the main road, we grabbed a cuppa at The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the majority of her later Harry Potter books. I had talked to my art professors at App before I left and they all said that Edinburgh had a really great art scene, so I drug a few of my friends to the National Gallery. It housed a very impressive collection of Renaissance work, but I really don't care for the Renaissance that much. Of course I respect the talent of the artists, but all the paintings just look the same to me. I was more interested in the tiny Impressionist collection, which had a few paintings by Monet and Seurat. I hated how quiet the entire place was though -- my phone went off for about half a ring, and before I knew it one of the curators was headed towards me telling me to turn it off. No one spoke above a whisper, and it just wasn't a welcoming environment at all. Exit stage right.

There had been a heavy blanket of fog over the city since the morning, and it was just getting thicker and thicker as the hours passed. Some more walking led us to St. John's Episcopal Church. There wasn't anything too fancy about this church, but the fog made the graveyard surrounding the church particularly eerie. We then checked out the National Museum of Scotland, which was exponentially better than the Gallery in my opinion. The layout of the museum was a little confusing and maze-like, but I thought that it made exploring the museum even more enjoyable. There was an entire section dedicated to the evolution of communication, from light signals to Morse code to rotary phones and every other type of phone you could imagine. Another display case had a lot of models of old Scottish ships, so I snapped some photos to send to my padre (attn padre: maybe you can find a Bryce model of one somewhere, and then make another ocean scene based off old Scotland!). There were tons and tons of other interactive exhibitions and it was just a really fun place to be in. I could have easily spent the entire day there.

For dinner we ate at Frankenstein's, which was by far the coolest pub I've visited since I've been here. At the stroke of six oclock, all the lights went down and thunder/maniacal laughter filled the pub, and a mechanized Frankenstein emerged out of the wall lying down on a table. He sat up, looked around for a bit and, laid back down, and went back to his hole in the wall as the lights went back up. A Harry Potter tour after dinner wrapped up the evening. Because I'm not a Harry Potter fanatic, I had no idea that JK Rowling had written the entire series in Edinburgh. The tour guide took us to a few places of inspiration for Rowling, including the gravesite of Thomas Riddell and William McGonagall, as well as where Rowling's handprints in the cement marked her receipt of the Edinburgh Award in 2008. We knew we'd have to wake up super early for our bus tour the next morning (plus we lost an hour of sleep due to daylight saving's time), so we tried to get in bed at a decent hour.

Steven!!

Time is passing by so quickly. Now that I've gotten in the swing of classes, the days and weeks are flying by; this past week was no different. Words cannot express how happy I was to see Steven at the airport on Saturday evening. Although there were tons of other people waiting with me at the arrivals gate, I couldn't hold back the tears of bliss that kept streaming down my face as I felt the warmth, familiarity, and comfort of his embrace. We grabbed some coffee from Starbucks at the airport, he called home to let his family know he arrived safely, and we hopped on the metro back to Sunderland. And from that point, time was put on fast-forward until he flew back home.

On Sunday, we explored the city and did a LOT of walking. Throughout the entire week, the weather was near-perfect; it was by far the best weather we've had since I got here. Sunderland must have known Steven was coming, because it was in the mid 50s and 60s all week (thanks, God!). We went to the beach and Steven saw the North Sea for the first time. Swimming east for 400 miles would have put us in Denmark, or swimming northeast we'd land in Norway. We stayed in Sunderland, haha. There were a lot of people out on the beach enjoying the nice weather, and there was a cute little arcade where we found a couple 2-pence pieces in the payout slots of some machines. The jetty to was also open to the public so we were able to walk to the Roker Lighthouse and see it up close. By this time we had worked up a powerful appetite and we grabbed some lunch (or "dinner," as they call it) at Gregg's, which is a sandwich shop that practically has a store on every street corner. After approximately 6 miles of walking around town, I had a blister on my foot and Steven's back was hurting, so we went home and relaxed for a bit. For dinner (or "tea"), we grabbed some Chinese take away from Tak Yee down the street. Steven had transferred a lot of movies and shows to his laptop before he left, so we watched the second Jurassic Park movie before hitting the hay.

On Monday, we slept late and took it easy while our bodies healed up (it sounds like we're really lazy, but all that walking really takes it out of you!). I had bought a "mum's day" card for my madre (they celebrate Mother's Day on March 18) and Steven had just bought a birthday card for his mom, so we picked up some stamps from the office in town. The Museum and Winter Gardens were right down the street. The winter gardens are basically a giant greenhouse/rainforest thing in the middle of the city, and the museum highlighted a lot of local Sunderland history. We had a proper English tea at a pub called Yates, which consisted of fish and chips for Steven, and scampi and chips for myself.

Much to my surprise, Steven accompanied me to my classes on Tuesday (and by accompany, I mean hang out in the library for three hours while I sat through a couple lectures). Because we started portraiture in my photo class, I set up some flash units in the studio had Steven model for me (and by model, I mean sit there for two hours while I scratched my head and pushed some buttons on the flash units... he is SUCH a patient and loving boyfriend, I couldn't ask for more!). By the end of the photo shoot, I was frustrated and starting to get really hungry, so we had some burgers at the Cooper Rose, which is a pub in town. After watching some Mythbusters we went to sleep.

We woke up at a decent hour on Wednesday, so I cooked breakfast and we headed to Newcastle for the day. Because I had been to Newcastle once before, I had a pretty good idea of where to go and what to do in the city. We walked around the huuuuge shopping center Eldon Square at first, then we checked out St. Nicholas Cathedral. I had never been inside the Cathedral before, and this was the first one I had been in that allowed photography, so I was a happy camper. I then took Steven to the Castle Keep, where we were blessed with a great view and more great weather at the very top. We then walked across one of the many bridges that crosses the River Tyne to Gateshead, walked right back, and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Pizza Hut. Our legs were getting tired again by this point; it felt great to rest them on the metro ride back home. We had a date night at the Italian restaurant Roma (dressing up and eating by candlelight and all that cute stuff!), then came home and watched Jumper before calling it a night.

I developed the film from Tuesday first thing on Thursday, and it came out a lot better than I expected! Steven came with me to Ashburne again, so after class we caught the bus and hung out at St. Peters for a few hours until my next class. I cooked spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, but I was really looking forward to that night: we had a triple-date planned to go bowling with a couple girls and their boyfriends from my photo class. With an average score of 80 or 90 per game, I don't consider myself a good bowler by any means. But somehow Steven and I managed to beat all of them (they joked that we weren't allowed to go bowling with them ever again, and the next time they invited us anywhere it would be to play an English game like cricket, haha). After the evening's festivities, we came back home, and Steven packed up his bags to catch a flight back home the next morning.

Friday came all too soon. I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to go to the airport, I didn't want to see him go. But of course it had to happen, because Steven's spring break was drawing to a close and he had to go back to school. While I thought I had set my alarm early enough to give us plenty of time to get to the airport, we ended up being pretty rushed to check in, drop off his luggage, get his boarding passes, and get through security in time to board the plane. We said our goodbyes and I watched as he got lost in the crowd at security. I think the goodbyes were a little bit easier this time, but that could have been because it was so rushed. It didn't really hit me until the metro ride home that I wouldn't see him again for months. But if time keeps picking up speed and passing by like it has been, summer will be here soon enough and I'll be home.

- I realize why bikers wear leather: it's sooo windproof! It's been incredibly windy lately, but my leather jacket has held its own and kept me warm.
- Bacon here looks and tastes more like country ham, and the closet bacon-equivalent I've found are called rashers.

- Because English people spell some words differently, I have to change the language in Microsoft Word to British English when I write papers so that words like "labour" and "organisation" don't pop up with red squiggles.
- Orange juice is made out of oranges and apple juice is made out of apples; it would be natural to think that squash juice is made out of squashes. In reality, squash juice is actually a term for any fruit-flavored juice. I can't tell you how confused I was when I found this out.