My First Thanksgiving...

...away from home. This was the first time I had not celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, eating tons and tons of delicious food either at my grandparents' houses or at my own. But, the British did attempt to make us a Thanksgiving dinner. Even though they kind of failed, the gesture was definitely appreciated!

Me, Sarah, Kelsey and Bernie waiting for food!

Appetizers started off the meal with an assortment of meats, real Caesar salad (which means with sardines), the British version of potato salad, coleslaw and a pasta salad. Then on the main menu was turkey, roasted potatoes (not mashed - a big disappointment for all of us), stuffing balls (which we all thought were meatballs at first), and broccoli. There were also little sausages wrapped in bacon. It was a good attempt.

There was one saving grace: desserts. There was really delicious chocolate cake and actual pumpkin pie. I was very impressed by the pumpkin pie, especially since no one in Britain actually eats it. The apple pie was frozen, though, which was really odd to us. There was also fruit at dessert too!

Sarah was really, really excited for the pumpkin pie, so I had to document her first bite!

Veronica's bowl of desserts was definitely a tribute to how delicious they were. In her own words, they were "fabulous."

So, even though I did get turkey on Thanksgiving, I am hoping to always be home for the next ones. There is nothing better than Thanksgiving food at home!

Berlin!

On the second day in Berlin, we got up early and headed out on the free New Berlin Tour. It was still very cold out so we all got bundled up and it just so happened that the tour start point was right next to a Starbucks! Sometimes everything just works out. :D

Anyways, this free tour was the best tour I have been on since landing in London! I learned so much about Berlin over those three hours, even though I was absolutely freezing the entire time. Our tour guide was originally from Australia and was really knowledgeable. We all had a really great time and definitely experience more of Berlin on that tour than we would have done on our own.

The first picture is of the Berliner Fernsehturm, also known as the television tower.

We started the tour in the Pariser Platz. This is Hotel Adlon, one in which a certain megastar moonwalked to the window and hung his baby outside of it. (For those of you who don't remember this - it was Michael Jackson!) Each room in this hotel is around $12,000+ per night and comes with your own butler. However, breakfast is more.

On the other side of the plaza is the Brandenburg Gate! It was commissioned by a king of Prussia as a symbol of peace.

There was a protest going on through the entire plaza, all the way through the Brandenburg Gate. It started snowing as they were dancing and yelling - very cool scene. I have no idea what they were protesting, but can make out the word "AIDS" on one of the signs.

We then went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial has 2,711 square metre stelae, or concrete slabs. Each are the exact same dimensions, but in varying heights. The ground slopes up and down throughout the exhibit and at some points the slabs are so much taller than you and at others you are walking on them. It is definitely an eerie sight.

Standing within the memorial, the stelae reach far into the sky.

Standing at the outskirts of it you wouldn't think that in the middle they tower over you.

I have never felt so in tune with the history of a city, like I did in Berlin. There were bullet holes in building after building (as shown above.) There was still a sense of division between the people, as it has only been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down.

We all found this pretty odd, until we realized that "Die" in German means something like "The" in English.

One of the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall! There are only three stretches of wall still in tact, with most of it looking similar to this. There actually now has to be a gate around the wall so as to keep people from taking anymore off of it. This is me, Heather, Emily and Amy, all bundled up.

They also had a few sections of the wall that had been painted by artists on display on the street. Also, notice the snow?

Checkpoint Charlie! The image is of Sargeant Harper, one of the last guards at Checkpoint Charlie. This is also the ersatz guard house from what was the American sector.

The Gendarmen-Markt. This is a French cathedral, and there is another twin cathedral on the other side of this square for the Germans.

Within this square, there was a traditional Christmas market! Sadly, it was just being set up and wouldn't open until the week after we were there. But, we saw our first real Christmas tree!

This is kind of hard to see, but underneath the glass are tons of empty rows of bookshelves. This is a commemoration to the book burnings during the Nazi rule.

Humboldt University! They have a pretty great past faculty, including Albert Einstein who taught here for 20 years. They are almost always selling used books in front of the University, which faces the area in which the book burnings occur. They try to have copies of books that were burnt on sale, as well.

The Berlin Cathedral - built to look much older than it actually is.

The Brandenburg Gate at night!

We finished off our day by going to the museum near the Holocaust Memorial. This was the first thing you saw as you began the museum tour.

Well that is it! Berlin was a really, really great place to visit. I wish it hadn't been so cold, but that is my only complaint. Germany was also special because it is the last country I am visiting during my program! From now on, I am solely in England. (At least until my parents and sister come!)

Gutentag Germany!

Last weekend, four of us ventured to the wonderful land of Germany. I am sure that soon after you hear of the country Germany the words "Holocaust," "Hitler," or maybe "sauerkraut" come to mind. Well, I experienced all of these (not actually eating the sauerkraut but rather only smelling it) and am now going to share!

Once we got to Germany, it started snowing on our train ride into Berlin. I was definitely surprised and really happy, actually. It was like our first real snow fall that was sticking to the ground - just like at home. Soon I realized that I hadn't brought the right shoes for snow, but I made it through anyways!

I have shown you a few pictures of hostels that I have stayed in before, but this was THE hostel. Called the Generator, it could have over 900 guests at any point in time. The round area coming out of it is its own really large bar and there was also a cafeteria and game area.

Once we left our luggage at the hostel, we went into the city centre. We walked around a little bit and found a nice restaurant to have lunch in. We then looked at a few shops and an interesting area that wove in and out but had shops around it as well.

Here is a little garden area within those shops and the Berliner Fernsehturm in the background.

We also visited the Silent Heroes Memorial Center in the city center. It was all about the people who helped those targeted in the Holocaust.

That night we had just planned on chilling in the hostel, meeting people until a few came up to us and asked us to go on the Berlin Pub Crawl! Since we didn't have any plans, we decided why not? and ended up having a very cold, but fun time!

Free shots at the metro station! Emily, Heather, me and Amy.This was the entrance to one of the bars we went into on the pub crawl. It was definitely interesting inside: very crowded, with odd tables that people sat on and these graffiti-ed colored glass windows everywhere.

And last, but not least, there was a Bachelor party on the pub crawl, too! Can you guess which one is the bachelor?He was forced to wear a carrot costume the entire night because his hair is red, otherwise known as a "carrot top." These German boys were very funny to hang out with and to sing American music with!

More sightseeing pictures up next!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all enjoy the Thankgiving Day parade, massive amounts of food and friends and family today! This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, and I am a little sad that I can't celebrate and eat all of the delicious food with my family. However, CAPA is putting on a meal for us tonight that we all have pretty high expectations for. I can only hope it is as good as homes is!

And one last thing: I am thankful for....
*my friends and family who are following me on this journey.
*all of the people who have been emailing or keeping in touch since I've been abroad.
*the chance to live in another country for a few months, and to experience everything I have.
*the opportunity to travel that I have had.
*the wonderful roommates I have and the friends I have made here.
*and my family for coming to visit in a little over 2 weeks!

I know there are so many more things, but I think it is about time we all go and eat! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Day!

Phantom of the Opera

Hello! Sorry for my absence these last few days. I have actually been sick - probably primarily caused by the freezing cold temperatures we experienced this last weekend. It was just like being at home. But, I am back now and am ready to share this last weekend with you!

First, on Thursday Amy, Heather and I went to the musical Phantom of the Opera! It was held at Her Majesty's Theatre, which is beautiful and is set up differently than the other theatres I have been in because the stage is so deep.

The actors voices were amazing, but the best part of the musical was how they used the set. The scenes were so elaborate and changed so frequently, but it was all so put together. I was impressed.

Before it started! Underneath the large cloth in the middle of the stage is the chandelier. The chairs were very steep, all going upwards. We didn't even get there very early, but about 10 minutes before the show started, everyone finally filed into their seats.And here we are! Amy, Heather and I ready to enjoy the production. I think you really know a show is good when you don't even realize how much time has passed and all of a sudden it is intermission. This definitely happened.

*A little fun fact we learned on our tour in the first few days we were in London: when Queen Elizabeth steps down from the crown and William takes over, this theatre will be changed to "His Majesty's Theatre."

The Big 4-0

I have officially hit 40 published stories on IT Pro!

This is really uncommon for a journalism internship - the people at my internship are too good to me. I have had numerous meetings with internship advisers (we have to do check-up meetings) and each one of them has said how uncommon it is to get to write so much and to be acknowledged for what you are writing. I feel really lucky to be given

I feel really lucky to be given stories and to have my name as the byline for each one I do. I know that there are so many other things they could have me doing, but they understand that this experience is really invaluable to my future. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

And if you haven't kept up with any of the stories and want to, there are links to all of them on the left hand side bar on this page. Feel free to check out as many or as few as you would like!

Here are my latest stories (just click on them!):

Liberata axed from school grant contract

Public Sector Roundup: Smart tech upgrades

Cyber criminals can make £14,500 per person

Obama to lose his Blackberry?

I-Ball technology to give troops eye on the ground

The last one on I-Ball technology was picked up by Slashdot (a really great website for nerds), and has had over 20,000 hits!

Updates and a story

Why hello!

I really don't have a lot of incredibly cool, important things to say today other than to give you a few little updates on the things I have been doing of late.

Last Thursday on a study visit (field trip) for one of my classes we went to a Krishna Rajaram Temple to learn about the Hindu culture and religion. I found it really interesting as we got to speak with a woman who was from Poland, raised Christian, but has now been studying this religion for 17 years. She answered so many questions and taught us a few new yoga moves, which was really great in my book.

This weekend was really relaxed, which I definitely was grateful for. A few of the girls were in Greece, Heather and her mom (who is visiting!) went to Scotland, and Veronica and I stayed back, hung out and went to Greenwich. (Pictures below.)

This weekend we also went to the Aquarium Bar on Old Street (a short walk away) and apparently it was '70s night. We did not know this so we were dressed way too normal. We did get these great flashing lights to try to fit in a little bit, though!

Yes, we (Kelsey and me) did wear them on our heads all night. I'm not actually sure why, though!

It is so interesting having a mom stay at our flat for a few days. I had forgotten how intuitively mothers end up cleaning. Monday night a few of us were home with Heather and her mom. Her mom started wiping our counters while all of us just kept telling her that "The cleaning ladies come tomorrow! You don't need to do that." I promise you our flat is NOT that dirty, especially considering there are 5 really busy girls sharing this small space. And we always do clean up our things before our flat gets cleaned on Tuesdays, there are just a few crumbs that we don't care about sometimes.......but one thing is constant, and that is the mounds of laundry on racks, couches, chairs, beds, etc drying, as our washer/dryer all in one package doesn't really dry.

One last little story for the day: We have all started to think about our journeys back home and what that will mean and be like. I have just finished a paper for my online U of M class that is concerning this exact topic, so it was all I could think about today. The only instance in my life that I can relate it to is the day I came back from Japan with Sammi. We had gotten people to switch seats with us on 2 of the 3 planes we had to take, and at the end of the last plane we were SOOOO excited to see our families again that we were literally BOUNCING off the walls, eating Oreos and drinking Coke. I remember this especially because we had drank so much Coke that when we got off the plane in Sioux Falls we had to make a little stop at the bathroom before meeting up with our families. Finally, after even the pilot had gone down the escalators, there was Sam and I, happy as could be, just bouncing down to greet our families. It was such a great moment that I really will always remember. (And I couldn't forget the really awesome surprise welcome home party my friends threw me, too! Even after my flight had been delayed multiple times. What great friends!)

Since that story had been on my mind all day I finally went down to the off-license (convenience store) that is in the bottom floor of our apartment building and bought Oreo's and Diet Coke. I am all set for a night of homework!

Hope everyone is doing great!

Greenwich

Saturday, Veronica and I found ourselves alone in London, wondering what to do. We wanted to explore and so got on our computers and searched and searched until we decided to go to Greenwich for the day!

We got ready for the day, got on a bus and headed down to London Bridge. We then took a little walk along the Thames, heading towards Tower Pier.

Veronica and me with Tower Bridge in the background.

It was a little bit of a gloomy day, but much warmer than we expected. We got on a "Thames Clipper" boat that could take us all the way to Greenwich Pier! I had wanted to go on a river boat since I've been here, so it was so cool that we got to.

Once we boarded the boat it took off, going underneath Tower Bridge right away.Tower Bridge from the water!We were both really excited to be able to see all of the beautiful houses and buildings along the Thames. It definitely made both of us want to make a lot of money and move there!

After a few stops we made it!The boat ride was only about a half an hour as Greenwich (in Greater London) is not very far from Central London.Veronica and I on the pier!

We decided to go exploring the entire day. Greenwich is so beautiful and is an old maritime area. There is a Royal Naval College, another university, maritime museum, Queen's House, and where we spent most of our time was in Greenwich Park.I'm guarding this area.Royal Naval College in Autumn is so beautiful.How cool is this? It is gorgeous!

Then, we climbed up to the Royal Observatory and what do you know? There is the Prime Meridian of the World!Standing on both the Eastern and Western Hemisphere's at the exact same time! Being two places at once - check!New York and Chicago were on here - the 2 closest big cities to home for Veronica and I! Still straddling the Prime Meridian.These buildings were designed so you could see all the way to the river from the top of the hill. It was a big trek up to the top, but so worth it.On our way back around, we stopped and played in the grass! It was SO nice to be out of the center of the city for a little while. It actually smelt like Fall here - just like at home!

We ended up making our way to the city centre and went to the huge lot of Greenwich Markets. They start off with all sorts of food from an incredible amount of countries and then there are all hand-made crafts being sold.And here is a nice view of the city centre at night!We then went back to Central London by the same boat! The view was incredible at night - sadly my camera doesn't take the best pictures at night, especially while moving. But I promise you that if you are ever in London and decide to use this same boat to get around, you will not be disappointed!

Mas Barcelona!

Friday night we ended up going out, Spanish style. This means going out really, really late and staying out until the wee hours of the morning. It was definitely an original experience, since that is not the custom at all in London. Andrea and I lasted until about 6:30am and the other two girls who went out with us lasted all the way until 9 or 10am. I have no idea how they did it.

People on the street were handing out coupons galore to get into clubs free or at discounted rates. The club we ended up at was Fellini and we had discounted tickets that included a free drink. It turns out that the drink we got for free was almost 10 euro, which is 12-13 US dollars. (I love the euro-us dollar exchange rate.)

There was one thing missing in Barcelona. Girls. See? All boys.

The next morning we got up and went to a cafe for lunch. We then decided we were going to go exploring around a different part of the city so we walked and walked and saw so much on our way. Walking is such a great way to experience things.The Arc de Triumph (as they spell it in Spain.) The original in Paris was much cooler.

A memorial to Bartomeu Robert, complete with fountains.Churches have the best architecture.

We then decided to test our luck and skills by using the bus system to get back towards the water. We wanted to keep exploring that area a little more and wanted to do a boat tour. Sadly, the boat tour had ended by the time we got there, but we still found many things to do....

....like this next picture! Mary Kate and I wanted a picture inside this. It was right outside of the aquarium. I had just finished taking her picture and was switching places with her when this little child ran into it! I kept asking the child if she wanted to take the picture with me (in Spanish) and she just kind of curled up to the side of it! Her parents were watching and I told them I think I scared her (in Spanish again!) and after a while, the father asked me if I wanted HIM to be in the picture with me! So, of course I said "Si." and there you go. What odd situations I can get into. Notice a little bit of the kid's body in the right-hand side?
The water is so beautiful. There were TONS of sail boats all around this area. Veronica (who is the only one of us who knows how to sail and actually works at a camp during the summer sailing and life guarding) was in heaven. She wanted to go sailing SO bad!

We ended up walking back up through Las Ramblas, which was MUCH busier on Saturday than it was on Friday. Swarms of people checking out the markets! We then went around shopping and experiencing life in crazy Barcelona. We had split up during this time but we all met up again later that night for our last big meal in Spain! I think by the end of the trip we had all tried Paella, a traditional Spanish dish I learned more about during my summer Spanish class. I thought it was really delicious.And this was taken on our walk back to our hostel. I LOVE the grafitti everywhere. Each country has such a different style but they are all so wonderful. I think Rome had the absolute best grafitti, probably just because it had the most, which I don't think anyone really expects when they go to Rome. But this door was so colorful and intricate, I couldn't pass it up!

We had a very early morning flight back to London Sunday morning, so this was the end of Spain. It was a great trip because we took everything at a much more relaxed pace than we had been doing. It was a good break from the everyday but we still got to experience so much. I think we were all happy to be home earlier on Sunday so we could catch up on sleep, too!