A Little London Update

Hello! I am taking a little break in the Fall Break coverage to bring you a few things that have been happening in London this week. The work/school/fun never seems to end!

First of all, there was a SNOWFALL in London on Tuesday night! This was the first snowfall in October in London in 70 YEARS and is such a rare occurrence that usually everything is shut down during it. (The tube, schools, work, etc.) All of us Americans, however, threw on our closest, warmest clothes and went out and ran and played in the snow! We were yelling so loudly that other people in our flat complex stuck their heads out of their windows and ended up coming down and playing as well!

Here's Erica, me and Kelsey loving the snow!

Second, I went to a traditional English cream tea on Wednesday! We had the cream tea at the Regency Hotel and it was put on by CAPA. All of us either came dressed up from work or dressed up for the experience and had unlimited tea and all sorts of delicious snacks.

Andrea, me and Amy starting off with tea.My spread! Hot tea with milk (the English way), finger sandwiches, crumpets, and a little slice of delicious chocolate cake.

Third, I am officially back to IT Pro, writing and writing and writing some more. Here are links to my latest published stories:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/607689/britons-send-217-million-texts-each-day

http://www.itpro.co.uk/607704/nhs-it-at-a-standstill

http://www.itpro.co.uk/607770/public-sector-roundup-healthcare-advances

And finally, and probably the most fun, we went to Halloween at London Bridge Experience last night (Thursday.) The London Bridge Experience is supposed to be one of London's scariest attractions, and they put on an exhibit called "Fear of the Dark" specifically for Halloween. It was definitely scary - and definitely dark. Only 10 people could go in one group, and we only had 1 light on the first person's head (Mary Kate's) to guide us to know where we were going. Here is our awesome picture from it, though:

Amy, Mary Kate, me and Andrea with all sorts of ghouls and ghosts! I have an original to bring home with me. :)

And us outside of it! Scared out of our minds and a little hoarse from screaming, I think!

More information on my break is going to be posted now until it is covered! I hope everyone is enjoying seeing pictures and everything!

Dublin Day 3 - Guinness Factory!

We all slept in a little bit this Sunday morning. But sleeping in in a hostel, really doesn't mean sleeping in . Everyone else is up and moving, so we all got up and moving, too. We started off the day with a little trip to Trinity College. If I would ever transfer to a school in Ireland, this one has my name ALL over it. It was gorgeous.

Inside the main square.

We then walked to St. Stephen's Green, a park in the centre of Dublin. (I just noticed I keep writing center as centre. It's that dang British English spelling that I am getting used to through IT Pro.)

The park was very beautiful and had both Mallard ducks and swans! Fall in Ireland is wonderful.

Mary Kate and I going to get a closer look at the water.

We stopped to take a quick picture with the legendary Molly Malone. Here is Mary Kate, me, Andrea, Veronica, Banni and Erica. And Molly Malone, of course.

All of this walking was on a mission to take a tour of the Guinness Factory.

Outside of the factory - Veronica, Erica, me, Andrea, Mary Kate.

Inside the factory! Me, Veronica, Mary Kate and Erica. We did a self-guided tour where we had a tasting of the Guinness that was being brewed that day. We also tried some of the barley that is used and saw how the entire brewing process works.

There was an entire wall of these cards where visitors could leave messages! If you can't read it ours says: CAPA London loves Guinness! (and Irish boys!) With our names and schools (UMass Amherst and University of Minnesota) on it! :)

Then, at the very end of the tour you go up to the 7th floor of the building (which used to be the highest in the city) and get your own pint of Guinness free with your admission. I was very nice to the man who was pouring mine and got him to make me a clover in the foam!

Cool, huh?

Mary Kate, Andrea, me and Veronica all ready to try our fresh Guinness. Turns out, I really don't like Guinness. I think Veronica tried to drink what I couldn't, but she couldn't finish it either. This was one of Andrea's favorites, though.

A view of the city and St. Patrick's Cathedral (on the left) from the top of the Guinness Factory.

The famous Temple Bar! There was great live music going on inside this night - just like a scene in P.S. I Love You.

Beautiful Dublin at night. This was our last night in this wonderful city. Next stop - Galway!

Dublin Day 2

On our second day in Dublin (Saturday, Oct 18), we got up really early and went on the Wild Wicklow Tour! It went into the Wicklow Mountains and National Park, just south of Dublin. The tour was SO beautiful. It was a full day into the national park and was one of my favorite things that we did.

The tour started off with a short city tour of Dublin on our way out and then we took a coastal drive past DunLaoghire Harboure. This spot was SO beautiful as you can see, below.

The island in the background is a fisherman's wharf area. I have so many pictures of this entire day, so when I get home I will show so many more!

Banni, Erica and I decided to be adventurous and climbed down all the way to this rock. I took a nice little spill on our way there and have a really great scrape/bump/bruise combo still on my left leg to show for it.

We then went past the towns of Dalkey and Killiney, home to the rich and famous (Bono, Enya, van Morrison, etc.) and on to Avoca Handweavers. Then we went to my absolute favorite part of the tour - the Lough Tay in Glendalough! Look how beautiful it is:

Erica and I taking it all in. It was misting and incredibly windy, and we only got this picture of us two because we went down the cliff further than anyone else dared too on that day!

The Lough Tay. I wanted to stand there all day just looking out at it. Right to the left of this area is where they filmed the movies Braveheart, Excalibur and, my personal favorite, P.S. I Love You.

We went to a pub for lunch and then went on to Glendalough to see the 6th century monastic setltement, along with a ton of national park area, including 2 more lakes.

This is the main stone at the entrance which is supposed to bring good luck and grant a wish if you touch it. So, of course, I made a wish!

The largest Celtic cross - made out of solid granite.

The round tower in the cemetary, along with another Celtic cross headstone. The round tower always had a light on in the night so people knew where they were going based around this area.

We had 2 hours of free time, so we obviously decided to explore the national park! It was so great - London is an exciting city, but where I live doesn't have any parks or real "green spaces" so it feels so nice to get back into nature every once in a while. Here's Erica and I (Erica is originally from North Dakota and goes to school at the U of M, too.)

I was so happy here, too, that I started climbing fences and informing my Massachusetts roommates that "this is how we do it in South Dakota." I will never live that down.

There was a nice waterfall in the middle of our walk, so Veronica and I decided to climb up and get closer to it!That night, we went on the Dublin Pub Crawl for Backpackers! It was SO fun! We met a ton of other students who are studying abroad and got to help a few out who were going to Sweden the next weekend. There are just so many people who are exploring the world, it's been so fun meeting everyone through our adventures!

Fall Break!

Well hello everyone!

Wow, it really has been an incredibly busy, eventful, and amazingly fun traveling experience lately! Everything that I had put on the itinerary (below) we did! This all started out SUPER early on the morning of Friday, Oct 17. I woke up at about 2:45am after lying down at about midnight. Everyone got ready for the next big 10 days ahead of us and we took 2 buses and a train to get to Heathrow airport (I have now been to 3 of the 4 London airports, and 2 of them multiple times!) Our flight to Dublin left at 7am, and thank God it did. I think all of us were a little antsy/nervous/way too excited for the trip to come that we were going crazy before the plane took off. Thankfully, once we were in the air everyone calmed down and we started off the trip VERY well!

We flew over England, and water, and finally got to Ireland, the greenest place I have ever seen. We landed in Dublin and went straight into the city centre, which is right where our hostel was! We stayed in a 16-person hostel for our time in Dublin, and most of our other occupants were guys - a few from France including one named Fabio. Really. After we checked in/put our luggage down, we went for breakfast at a place called Murphy's around 9:30am and found out that it really can be too early to order an Irish coffee. Who knew? Since we had the whole day ahead of us we made the most of it by seeing all of the sights we could.

We started by making our way to Christ Church's Cathedral - shown above and below.


The girls were so funny on this trip - they all know I keep a blog and have all seen it now, so they were constantly saying "Janae! Do you want a picture for your blog? Can I be on your blog?" And on and on...when really they all are already on here! This is Erica, me and Mary Kate at Christ Church's Cathedral.

And here's Mary Kate and Veronica trying to figure out what way we should go. I love free maps that hostels/hotels give out. They just make life so much easier and always have the things that tourists want to see really BIG on the map. What convenience. We took a tour of Dublin Castle, but there was a little time before the next tour started so we went to the park outside of St. Patricks Cathedral. The Cathedral was getting a facelift, but it was still SO cool. And here I am eating the waterfountain. I told you, 2:45am.

You want me to be your queen? Ok, Ireland.
Inside Dublin Castle in the Throne Room, obviously.

I feel like every city we visit in Europe is connected by bridges! Here is one of the coolest-looking ones in Dublin (in my opinion.) We saw this as we were walking to the National Gallery of Modern Art, and then to Kilmainham Goal (Jail.) I got locked in all alone.This place just beats you up. Now I am in a jail cell.No, this really was an amazing sight. This is the jail in which many Irish heroes were imprisoned. It was not and still is not heated so it was very cold inside, but has been the sight for many movies and TV shows, especially for execution scenes. There are writings and paintings all over the walls of the jail cells from their former inhabitants. It was such a cool yet woeful thing to see.

After this tour, we walked to a place called the Black Lion for our dinner. The waitress was literally the coolest person I think we met in Dublin. She talked to us all night and got us everything we wanted, including things we didn't even ask for. And to Banni (who is Sikh and cannot eat meat or drink alcohol because it is against her religion) she said so poetically in her Irish accent: "So, ya don't drenk and ya don't eat meat. And yous came on holiday te Ireland?" She is not the only vegetarian in our group nor the only one who doesn't drink, but it was just so funny how the woman said it that we laughed about it for days afterwards.

Then, we trekked back to our hostel to get all settled in for the night. We went out for about an hour and then decided it was best to get a good night's sleep.

Well, this is only the first day and we already had done and seen SO much. We were all so ready to keep up our pace and I will share all of the other days with you throughout these next few days! So, keep checking back to see everything.

I hope everyone had a great week while I was gone. And, just as another fun fact - if you are in the SD/MN area I am only 5 hours ahead of you for this week and this week only. Daylight Savings Time began this last weekend (we had to change our clocks in Paris!) and for you guys it is not until next weekend. So, we are bridging the gap for a week!

My next adventure is...

Fall Break!

Fall break is going to be a wonderful time. There are going to be 6 girls at all times, but 7 total. The people who will always be traveling with me are: Andrea, Erica, Mary Kate, and Veronica. (Me to make 5.) Then, our friend Banni is going with us to our first stop and heading back to London, and my flat-mate Heather is going to meet up with us right before we head off to the second stop for the rest of the journey.

And here is the 10-day journey:

Friday, October 17: Leave at 4am for airport (we have to take 2 buses and a Heathrow Express to get there!) Arrive in Dublin, Ireland.

Saturday, October 18: Dublin (probably a day tour of Wicklow, where we would also stop at Lough Tay, Glendalough and a few other areas, all while being in Wicklow National Park.)

Sunday, October 19: Dublin (Guinness Tour, perhaps?)

Monday, October 20: Bus to Galway, Ireland.

Tuesday, October 21: Touring around Galway (possible daytrip to Cliffs of Moher)

Wednesday, October 22: Bus back to Dublin, flight to Bordeaux, France

Thursday, October 23: Touring around Bordeaux

Friday, October 24: Eurostar from Bordeaux to Paris

Saturday, October 25: Touring around Paris

Sunday, October 26: Flight from Paris back to London

...and we are going to do all of this while only having 1 carry-on each, under 40 pounds to fit on the plane's we are taking.

Whew. It is going to be an incredibly busy, fun-filled adventure, I think! We are all hoping for a little bit warmer weather than is being forecasted, safe travels, and lots of fun. One downside of all of this is...there will be no blogging during this time. Sorry, just too much to do and too little time to find an internet cafe and record it all online. I am planning on writing a daily journal for this trip, though, so when I get back I will be able to recount everything that went on!

I hope everyone has a great few weeks, and can't wait to share everything when I get back to London!

(One final exciting announcement: today I hit more than 20 stories of mine that have been published! One was even commissioned by another, sister magazine within Dennis Publishing. And by commissioned, I mean put up. Because I am an intern and do not get paid. Either way, it was cool!)

and a final p.s. sorry to all of you who either have had or have birthdays within the last few/next few weeks! I seriously have a stack of cards I have written, but to send cards here you can't just buy a book of stamps like you can in America. You have to get the card weighed, and then they will put stamps on it. Very odd, very different, and very difficult to do as I only know where one post office is (I know there are a ton more I just haven't figured out where yet) and the one that I know of is about 45 minutes away from my flat. Ahhh. So, please be patient! I have been thinking of you, I just haven't been able to send my thoughts! To all of you with birthdays: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you have had or have an absolutely wonderful day!

Midterm Madness

So, along with getting back from Rome at 2am on Monday morning, I have had 3 papers and an entire presentation to work on this week. That is all along with putting in 20 hours at the internship site (IT PRO) and going on a study visit (field trip) for my class on Thursday.

And on top of all of THAT, there are 6 of us leaving for a 10 day adventure starting FRIDAY morning! I just wish I had a little bit more time to sleep and prepare.

Rome was absolutely wonderful, and I am going to give you a few pictures to peer at for the day's post. I still don't know if I will have enough time to actually post full-out blogs on each day in Rome like I have done for my other trips. I just know I won't get back to my flat until about 9:30pm tonight (Wednesday) and then about 7pm Thursday night. Busy busy busy.

I will be posting our break itinerary tomorrow, but for today enjoy a few pictures of beautiful Roma!

Our first day, after our first piece of pizza, we visited the Colosseum!

Arc at the entrance of the Colosseum. I'm really impressed with the fact that we got only me in the picture - there were a ton of people around!

Vespas really are EVERYWHERE.Why hello Trevi Fountain. I tossed a coin in, made a wish, and drank some of the water that came out of a fountain on the side! We said it was the fountain of youth and that the water was supposed to cure people. I have no idea if this is right, but I think I either broke or severely sprained one of my toes the day before we went to Rome - I put some Trevi Fountain water on it - and the next day it magically felt a little better. Coincidence or magic water?

The Colosseum at night is so gorgeous.

Vatican City! The Basilica in St. Peter's Square is beautiful, along with the entire area. It was amazing to see.

The Pantheon!Heather and I inside the Pantheon - it is beautiful and intricate. Sunday before we had to head back to London, Heather and I just chilled on the Spanish Steps. It was around 80 degrees in Rome the entire time we were there, and there was sun the entire time - no rain! It was wonderful.

The entire weekend we walked across Rome - only taking the metro to the Vatican City, as it really was the exact opposite side as our hostel was. For anyone who is going Rome soon and needs a hostel, we stayed at Alessandro Downtown and it was wonderful - free pasta on weekday nights (so we got it on Friday) and free breakfast. Granted, the breakfast is cereal and bread with jam, but it was definitely better than nothing.

I also want to give a big shout out to Marie - thank you so much for the e-mail with all of the wonderful advice on other countries! We really did need to step out into the street to cross - just like you said. It was really nice to know beforehand, though, and I am very grateful that you took the time to write out everything for me! Thanks again!

Well, now back to work! If you want to keep up with what I am writing, I update my IT PRO stories every day a new one is published. I hope everyone is well!

Family Dinner!

Last Sunday, as an idea from Mary Kate, we all got together and had a family dinner! One of our roommates, Amy, was gone enjoying herself at Oktoberfest, but Mary Kate (our adopted flatmate) filled in her space! We had gone to a French market that morning and gotten a few of the ingredients (like fresh smoked sausage,) and most of the other stuff we all had ourselves, we just needed to combine it all.
On the menu was penne pasta and ravioli, sausage, our own fresh-made sauce made from garlic, onions, tomatoes and a little olive oil, roasted potatoes with fresh onion and garlic, freshly made garlic-cheese bread, and broccoli. MmmMMmmm delicious. (Pictured is me, Heather, Veronica, Andrea and Mary Kate.)

None of us had really eaten very many healthy, home-cooked meals, so it was definitely a welcome change. I love my London family (including Erica, who took the pictures but sadly had already eaten.)

This was also kind of a one-month celebration! We have officially been here for five weeks...who knew that time could go by so fast? It is almost getting to our halfway point, in which we have a week-long break! News on where we are going will all come up in posts shortly. But, for now I will let you in on a secret: I am in Rome, Italy! We left really early this Friday morning and won't get back until late Sunday night. So, we have maximized our entire weekend to have three almost full days in Rome. I can't wait for the gelato, the pizza and pasta, and the sites!

Windsor!

A few of the girls and I took a day trip to Windsor on Saturday, October 7. We had to take the tube to the train, and then the train there, but the trip actually went really quickly!

Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world. The Queen lives here for a few months out of the year, and then goes back to Buckingham Palace for the other months. She is back in Buckingham Palace now, but when we got to London she actually was still in Windsor. Since she is not there, we got to see a few extra rooms that they re-open when the Queen is not inhabiting the castle.

All of the rooms were exquisite and incredibly designed. My absolute favorite part of them were the ceilings. Each ceiling was so different, but really amazing in it's own right. I wish we could have elaborate ceilings like that in every building I go into. It would be amazing.

On to other things - we saw many guards outside of the castle - and the first picture is of two who walked by while we were standing in line to see Queen Mary's Dollhouse.

A little snapshot of one of the towers as we were doing our audio tour. They just love those things in Europe.

Here we all are, looking a little chilly! Me, Veronica, Erica, Mary Kate and Andrea, and Windsor Castle. The castle is SO big, this is maybe showing about 1/15 of it?

See the opening behind me? There are a ton of these all along the outskirts of the castle. They were made so guards could shoot bows and arrows through them, but also be protected. They were made large enough so they could shoot the arrows up, increasing the longevity of them.

The grounds are all kept up really beautifully.

St. George's Chapel! This is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in. The entire inside is SO intricate, I can't even describe it. If you haven't been and are near London, though, you should definitely check it out. You will not be disappointed. (I would have taken pictures but they were not allowed!)

Messing with the guards is NOT allowed. Mary Kate and I thought this was pretty funny since right before we took our picture, Erica was yelling at the guard "HEY! You blinked! Can you blink? I don't think you are supposed to blink...you moved your eyes!!!"

A courtyard. We watched the guard on the left stroll all the way to us and back before we finished our self-guided tour.
And Erica and I in front of the gate, keeping us out of the courtyard and away from the guard!

That is it! I swear it is even more beautiful that pictures can show - it was quite a cloudy/gloomy day, and started raining and getting really windy just as we were finishing, (notice Erica and my hair in the last picture)so we were all happy to get back on the train to go home.