Dublin, Ireland!

MY trip to Dublin was the first trip I planned when I arrived here in London. It has been marked in my calendar for almost two months now, so I was looking forward to Ireland for a while now.
We arrived at our hostel late Thursday night, I was still recovering from being sick and my roommate was sick as well so the four of us girls just stayed in and went to bed.
On Friday, we went on a 4 hour bus tour of the south east coast of Ireland and then ended up in the Powerscourt Gardens. The country side was BEAUTIFUL! It was everything you see in the movies (PS I love you). It is definitely beginning to feel like Christmas here, the weather was so cold!
One of my friends, Haley, that I go to TLU with is currently studying in Northern Ireland so she came down Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the trip with us! It was so nice to see a familiar face from home! Later that night we went out to this dinner and Irish Dancing show. The dancing was like River Dance... they moved their feet so fast I could hardly keep up just watching them! It was great fun and we also got to hear a little bit of Irish music after the show.
Afterwards we made our way down to Temple Bar, it is the most famous bar in Dublin they even named an area of the city after it (kind of like Austin's 6th street). Of course, I got a Guinness.
On Saturday we headed out to the Guinness Storehouse. We took a tour of the brewery and learned the process of how the beer is made. And at the top, we got a free pint of Guinness! It was the best Guinness I have ever had! Not that I had much to compare it to, but still... lol
The city was very expensive, but the people in Ireland were so friendly and welcoming. There was just this relaxing feeling the city gave off, kind of like being at home while we were there. The country was so beautiful, I definitely want to go back and spend more time and see more of the island someday.
I will post pics soon!

Neuschwanstein Castle

This past weekend I spent in Germany with Charles. He kept his promise and we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle. It is what Cinderella's Castle was created from. Since this castle is in the mountains I got to see a little snow!

The castle is in a small town in Bavaria about 3 hours from where Charles lives, Fussen. The town was so cute, one of the picturesque towns with old buildings and cobblestone roads everywhere.

We headed up to the castle early Saturday morning to get a head start on the day. We took a bus up the mountain and first went to a bridge that is supposed to look onto the castle. Well, we got there so early that we were the first ones on the bridge and at first there was too much fog to see anything! But after only a minute or two it cleared up enough to get a glimpse of the castle.
(Charles, the first one on the bridge in all of the fog)

We went on to tour inside the castle. It was like a fairytale castle! All of the walls were painted with Biblical scenes of landscapes. There were Swans all over the place, apparently it was King Ludwig's favorite animal. But I was disappointed by not seeing very much gold or very many jewels in the castle.

Being back in Germany was a nice little break again from all of the people in Vandon House. It was really nice to stay in a quiet place again and have access to American foods too! I like to think that going to the base in Germany is like visiting a mini-America... such a luxury!
By the time I got back to London on Sunday afternoon I was as sick as a dog. I somehow managed to make my way from Heathrow Airport back to Vandon House via the tube with out any energy. And then spent the rest of the night in bed.
By Tuesday I was still feeling terribly and I decided it was time to see a doctor. Luckily UK has a National Health care system so I was able to walk down to the National Health Services, only a block away, and see a doctor (for free might I add!). I am currently taking some medication the doctor prescribed for me, so I am hoping this clears up pretty soon!

Me and Charles by the castle, we aren't very good at self portraits with my camera... its a work in progress :)
On a side note: I will be home one month from today... this semester has gone by so fast!

Parliament and fireworks

IT is beginning to look a lot like Christmas... I love it! Two nights ago, London had a big lighting ceremony on Regents Street in front of Hamleys, the well know London toy store. It is hard to believe that I only have 6 weeks left here. They had the band McFly turn the lights on, so it was neat seeing them.

Yesterday after a huge Indian lunch that our program had for us, we went on a tour of Parliament! It was really neat being able to walk through the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We got to see where the Queen will be on Dec 3 for the opening day of Parliament. We also got to see where Winston Churchill would stand as the Prime Minister and argue with other members of Parliament and got to feel where he would bang his fist down on the table to get his point across. It was kinda weird though... our tour was at 4:00pm and it was bright and sunny (an unusual occurrence for London) but by 5:30 (the time our tours was over) it was completely dark outside!
after...

This weekend is the celebration of Guy Fawks day and the UK's version of Memorial day. Lots of fireworks have been going off and will be until Sunday. But I will have to admit, I haven't seen any as good as the ones back home. I went with friend down to Millennium Bridge to see the fireworks over the Thames river. IT was cold and wet, but it was fun!

Election Day 2008

As we all know, the 2008 elections made history. To be honest, I am just glad they are over with.
Since I have been in London, I have seen and heard more news coverage about the US elections than I would have back home. I am not saying that there is more media here than back home about our presidential election… it is just easier to escape it back home.
The labor party is in power right now in the UK which means that most of the people living in London are liberal. So when people ask me where I am from in the US, they hear Texas and automatically assume I am conservative and then want to start a conversation about politics (mainly Bush, McCain and Obama). They then usually let me know that they are Obama lovers and how aweful McCain is.
I couldn’t even count how many times people would ask me who I was going to vote for (like it was any of their business anyways!). This happened all the time and now I am hoping that people won’t be so interested in it now that the elections are over.
On Election Day, everything went on as usual until about 10:00 pm. Everyone in the house/hotel became glued to the TV. I, on the other hand, had a test the next morning. So being the studious person I am (haha), I was off studying in my room. This became a mixed blessing for me. Instead of being increasingly frustrated about other people’s comments on the results of the election, I was able to concentrate on something else and not even hear who won until the next day!
Here’s to the next four years!

Germany :)

Being able to spend a few days in Germany was great. Charles picked me up from the airport in Nuremburg late Thursday and we headed back to his house in Amberg about 40 miles away. It was so nice to stay at a normal house again with out 40 other people running around the place. I had my own room and I only had to share a bathroom and kitchen with one other person! It was amazing!
Halloween just didn’t feel the same in Germany. We went to the base that day to go grocery shopping. I was so excited to see all of the American brands that we have back home. I know it probably sounds silly but I even bought a bottle of Ranch Dressing and Skip peanut butter to take back to London with me!

The base that Charles is stationed at used to be a German base before WWII. There was this old German style tower there and I think Charles was telling me that it was where Hitler used to go over his orders/diaries... I thought it was interesting.

We went out Halloween night (no costumes for us this year) and it seemed like most of the people who were dressed up were the Americans. On Saturday (Nov 1st) we went into town to go shopping but everything was closed. We didn’t realize why until we got back to his place… it was All Saint’s Day. Apparently it’s a big holiday in Germany, but we had no clue.
It was a quick and relaxing weekend. I know that all of my other trips are filled with things that I did and saw but Nuremburg isn’t really a town with a lot of exciting things to do. And that really wasn’t what I was planning on doing. But, I think next time I go back we are going to go see Cinderella’s Castle!

See, he lives by farms... and I found out the hard way that if you roll down the window... it smells really bad!