Italy...the not so good.

After an amazing time in Florence we were apprehensive about Rome. Could it live up to the fun and food we had in Florence? In a nutshell, not at all. We arrived in Rome and immediately noticed all the graffiti and filth that Rome had. We didn't want to judge it too quickly, but so far we were not impressed. I had a terrible headache that lasted all day and could not find any advil because everything had closed by the time we got into Rome. I was hungry, tired, and did not feel well, so bad start for Rome. We managed to find a cute place to eat in town, but our hotel was a little further out of town than we would have liked. It was right next to the metro, but it was a 20 minute ride, and I just wasn't feeling it. But the next day was got even better. We had heard to take a tour of the Vatican city because it lasted 4 hours and they told you things you didn't know. So we were suckered into paying 40 euro and our expectations were high. Well it took an hour for them to give us our headsets, and sort out the money and take us wait to get into the museum and sort out the tickets. Then we began the tour and it started out pretty well, he told us all about the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It was a great story, but that is absolutely all I got out of it. Fifteen minutes later, I got lost in the Vatican City. Now i know you are asking yourself "how did that happen?" Well I'm glad you've asked. There were about 2,093,230,476 people in the Vatican Museum that day, as it was the day before Easter. Our tour guide was about 5'3" and we came to this part in the museum where you had to walk around this large basin. So you followed a stream of people and I had stopped for a second to take a picture. I assumed (never ever assume) my group had moved ahead. So i proceeded to walk quickly though the museum all the while texting Tom where he was. He said "Red marble boxes, my phone is about to run out of money." I had no idea where the red marble boxes were so I assumed they were still ahead of me somewhere. Again, Tom wasn't the best traveler because he had forgotten to top-up his phone. Annelise's phone had died, so needless to say this was going to be a tricky situation. I had realized i passed them. So I sat myself down outside the Sistine Chapel and sat. Ironically enough, I sat right next to the thinker. For 2 hours. I watched him think, as I thought to myself, Rome=fail. Two hours. Then I got a text saying "we're about to go into the cathedral where are you?" To which I replied "I am right by the thinker where I told you I was 2 hours ago. Have you been to the Sistine yet?" Well he texts back with this "Last text, meet us where we started this morning. This is my last text." Um, where we started? We started this thing many places...at the cafe? Where we met our tour guide? Where we started the tour? Which one of the 12 places are you referring to? So I decided to look where we started the tour. I told them (he could receive texts) that i was at the top of the escalators. Half hour later, no luck. The guard told me I had to leave that the museum was closing. So I thought to myself, how can I get money on Tom's phone? So I called Tom's roommate Martin (German guy really nice) and he picked up the phone in such a cheerful way saying "Hi Christine!" To which I almost cried, "Martin, I need help, I'm lost in the Vatican city, Tom has no money on his phone and I am getting kicked out of the museum. Can you pretty pretty please put money on his phone?" He sweetly obliged and I promised I would buy him a beer. I am basically brilliant though because I figured a way out...after I got lost and wasted 4 hours of my life sitting around...but let's skip over that. I finally found Annelise and Tom and we again turned to alcohol to get us through the night. The next day was actually okay, we toured the obvious colosseum, spanish steps and other hot spots. Ate lots of pasta and laughed at how much of a joke Rome had been. Oh and the next day, the day we left, our plane got delayed. Two and a half hours. Thanks Ryanair!

Italy...the good times

So for spring break Annelise and I packed out bags and headed for the sunny sights of ltaly. Annelise and I, along with another guy Tom, headed to Florence to visit my friend Lizzie who was studying there. We flew into Piza and took a train to Florence. Landing in Pisa was a little bit of a cultural shock. It was the first time people didn’t speak English as my the first language, and more importantly, it was hot and sunny. We had a little difficulty figuring out how to get from Pisa to Florence. We were told to take a train from the airport to Florence, but um there was none that we could find. We went up the window and asked the man how to get to Florence. He said sure, two tickets to Firenze. To which we replied no we need to get to Florence. Right, Firenze, 12 euro please. We coughed up the money even though we had no idea what was going on. We asked where to go and he simply pointed to the other side of th airport and said “ok ciao ciao.” I tried to ask what time the train left but he simply said, “ciao, ciao!” and beckoned the next person forward. We eventually made it onto the train and into Florence. Total time of travel: 9 hours. Total time of loving to travel: none. Once into Florence Lizzie met us at the train station. And walked us to her beautiful apartment. Seriously, beautiful. She lived right next to this famous bridge called the Pont de Vecchio. There wasn’t enough room for Tom to stay in Lizzie’s flat so he had to stay at a hostel. Now most people would write down their hostel information…well Tom did not, no number, address or directions…Tom wasn’t the most travel savvy person as Annelise and I learned through out the trip. But we figured it out and all went to bed. Our first day in Florence Lizzie showed us all around. We saw the Duomo, the U’Fitzi, and ate lots and lots of gelato, yum. Italy wins hands down for the best food (and wine…) We walked around and shopped. And shopped. Italy has these really fun markets where they sell everything from clothes and jewelry to disco balls. I know…who buys disco balls in 2009? I ended up falling in love with a leather bag at one stand and bought it as an early birthday present to myself…among lots of other early birthday presents. Annelise and I would often go shopping and invite Tom along, to which he kindly refused and Annelise and I were able to spend quality girl time together. We went to this one café which looked really cute. We couldn’t really understand the menu so I just ordered a lemonade and Annelise ordered a coffee. When we got the bill, we saw the total was 14.50 euro. I kindly told the waiter this wasn’t our bill, but oh yes it was. My lemonade was 6.50, Annelise’s coffee was 4.00 and the chager to sit in? 4 euro. So yep my lemonade was 8.50….that’s like 11 dollars for a lemonade, and it wasn’t even alcoholic! What is that?? Besides that we had few hitches in Florence. When we decided to go to Venice, we bought tickets for 37 euro (one way) and the ticket saleswoman said there was standing room only left. Great. 45 dollars to stand/sit on the floor for 3 hours…sweet. But Venice turned out to be worth it. It was gorgeous with the rivers and boats and little streets. There wasn’t much to see there but it was just a cool place to be. We wandered around, ate pizza and basked in the sun. That night we decided to go to a really cool bar that had a Beatles cover band playing. We had a lot of fun bopping to the music and singing along with our obnoxious American accents. However, we stayed out late and paid for it the next morning when we went to Sienna and did not really feel up to walking the many hills Sienna had to offer. We had this map which showed us cool places to visit. So we followed the recommended roads on sort of a trail and at one point the map told us to go down this hill. When I say hill I mean shear cliff, or so it seemed after 4 hours of sleep and a minor hangover. Annelise turned to me halfway down the hill and said, “I feel like we are going to have to go up this steep incline when we get to the next road.” Little surprise, she was right. Although going up, I swear it was twice as steep. Note to self: do not go down a large incline road, simply say no. When we go to the site it was closed. Of course. It was a church and it was not even that cool. Awesome. After Sienna we only had one more day in Italy, which we spent going to the U’Fitzi. It seemed like a good idea to be all cultured. Now for what reason I thought I would enjoy a museum is lost on me but we decided to give it a try. Well we stood in line for two and a half hours. No joke. And once we got inside we really had no idea what we were looking at. All that seemed to be there was marble statues with lots of male genitalia, and the same religious art over and over again. So Annelise made it through that museum in about 35 minutes. We were laughing the whole way through questioning what in heck we were thinking. Needless to say we grabbed some 1 euro boxed wine on the way home to try to erase the memory of the wasted day. We did love Florence though, it was a very cute town with lots to do (okay mostly shopping) and great food, but it was time to go to Rome. We had been in Florence for about a week, and although we were excited for Rome, we sort of wanted to stay in Florence or go back to Scotland. We were homesick for the land of green!

Mummy and Daddy Come to Scotland

Let me preface this blog with the fact that I have an exam Saturday (as in two days) so instead of figuring out why the political value of sport has never been higher, I have decided to procrastinate. Mom and dad: Of course I already know the answer and have a well prepared outline.
Speaking of my mom and dad, I have to say seeing them made me homesick and happy all at once. I forgot how nice it is to eat meals consisting of more than toast and butter noodles, as well as being able to order something besides the cheapest thing off the menu (garlic bread). So it was a like being on even more of a vacation than I already was. My parents stayed at this really pretty old building that used to be a high school but is now a hotel. While it is beautiful, it was also on the way to the castle. Translation= hotel was uphill. Everytime I went to meet my parents I would be huffing by the time I knocked on their room. I looked great I'm sure for seeing them for the first time in 2 months. But they welcomed me in red faced and all and instead of giving me some salad and water, they brought me some kraft mac n' cheese. Of course I was more than happy to have my beloved blue box of good flavor, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps scientists are on to something when they say to eat healthy...who knew? So I took my parents out to dinner (well they took me out, but it was my choice of restaurant...) at a really traditional scottish restaurant. It was really cute and we immediately ordered beer and wine and appetizers. I have to say I have really started to love the soups here. My parents were clearly exhausted and jet lagged so after a quick bite I sent them on the way and trekked down the immense mountain to the bus. Now if you know me, you know I love sleep. However, I know my parents like to get up early so me being the considerate daughter that I am, I called my parents at 10 am. Well, for the first time ever, they were asleep. Apparently jet lag lasts more the 4 hours. Shocking. So I let them get back to bed and I happily followed suit. We had a ton of fun eating, shopping, more eating, my dad drinking while my mom and I went shopping. I took them to the Stirling castle, to which my dad replied, "is there a steak and beer there?" So were not your historical family, whatchya gonna do?
The highlight of the trip was when we decided to go on an 8 hour car trip around Scotland. So we set off in the car, Mom, Dad, Kacey and myself, to see all scotland has to offer. Now, if you do not know the rules of the scotland, you are not alone, neither does my dad...our driver. Just kidding! He did a really good job, besides going the wrong way in a roundabout (almost died), hitting a sharp curb, and not listening to the GPS navigator ("Please exit the roundabout. Exit the roundabout now. EXIT THE ROUNDABOUT!"). But I cannot do better so I cannot complain. I cannot explain the breath-taking mountains, valleys, sheep, streams, and Lochs that we passed on the car ride. It really made me appreciate the views and landscapes. The car ride was exciting, but I feel like it may be a while before I hop back in a car for 8 hours in a foreign country.
For the last night, my parents pulled out all the stops. My dad surprised me by buying an early birthday present since I will not be able to see them on my birthday. He picked out a beautiful necklace with silver flowers that are only found in scotland. I was crying because my dad had picked it out for me, his little girl. I really thought it was beautiful, but I guess my dad didn't know that right before I left, my mom bought me a cross necklace that I love (yeah...we kind of kept that one a secret...) So we decided we would look for a ring together the next morning. I am currently wearing the rings we picked out together and they constantly remind me of my two loves: Scotland and my family. Saying goodbye to my parents was incredibly difficult. I am so happy they got to share Scotland with me and got to see how happy I am here. After entertaining all my friends and family, it was time for me to be entertained...off to Italy for SPRING BREAK!

Girls Week!

So Kaytee and Kathryn, two of my best friends from the good ol' champaign urbana, came to visit me for their spring break. One word to sum up our time together, out of control, by one word I meant phrase I guess. Last year Kaytee and I got to visit Kathryn in Belgium for our spring break, so it was only natural to do a repeat. The entire week we did what girls did best, gossiped, shop and drank wine, went through a few too many bottles but when in Scotland...As lovely as my little town of Stirling is, emphasis on the little, we decided to make a few adventures out of a few cities. Our first trip? Glasgow. Shopping center of Scotland. We explored the boutiques of Glasgow and became depressed after we realized we could not afford the things most of the stores sold. Literally it was being like going to Disneyworld and not being able to ride the rides. Very tragic indeed. So what did we do? Drank and ate our feelings. Mostly drank. We went to this really cute restaurant located on the top floor of an indoor, swanky mall. The restaurant was recommended to us and it was apparently the place to go if you want to be "seen." So we indulged in some top class dining, and enjoyed wine by the glass. I cannot tell you what we talked about for three hours, but there never seemed to be a dull moment during that dinner. One minor detail I have forgotten to mention thus far: Kaytee, Kathryn, and I all shared my room, or should I say box. My room is plenty big for me, but for three of us? oh man, we did lots of snuggling. So we woke up the next day and explored around Stirling. Did more shopping, watched a Rugby game (I love Rugby) and saw the Stirling Bridge up close and personal. It's the bridge that William Wallace stopped the English at...you know no big deal. I also showed them the castle on my campus, no big. We laid low that night and taught the boys upstairs how to play our favorite card game...NERTZ! They were also very impressed that we knew how to shuffle. They called the shuffling a trick and demanded we teach them. Now they like to show off. The day after we awoke fresh and ready for Edinburgh. Well I was fresh and rosy, they were tired and jet lagged. But we attacked Edinburgh with enthusiasm. Edinburgh is truly beautiful and I absolutely love it there. So much history and I am a sucker for the souvenir shops. I sent them on the underground city tour, but decided to get a lot of my shopping out of the way for allllll my the people who miss me back home. I told them it wasn't scary and they would enjoy it. Well, I guess I am very brave, they were freaked out. Who knew, I'm unscarable. Note: I refuse to watch scary movies...If i do I need a nightlight and JJ next to me. But we enjoyed our time in Edinburgh and I got to show somebody around for a change, usually I'm the one who is lost and being showed around. Our final adventure of the trip was a visit to St. Andrew's. We wanted to see the coast and touch the North Sea (Did not know we were surrounded by the North Sea.) The bus ride was a little long but we got there and loooved it. St. Andrew's is beautiful. I know I say that pretty much about every city, but this place had a beach, castle ruins, green golf courses and a very cute downtown. The one complaint: the Wind. I seriously could have been knocked over or carried away with the wind. I had to walk backwards in order to breathe. My dad would probably insert here how he golfed in that weather and scored very well. Moving right along, we walked on the beach, proceeded to get sand everywhere that wasn't covered by clothing (in shoes, hair, ears...ickk) and then touched the North Sea! Yay! We walked around, snapped some epic photos, froze our bums off, spent more money, drank some beers, had delicious soup, and then hopped on a bus back to my dear Stirling. Unfortunately, my two loves had to leave really early the next morning, so we stayed in and ate some pizza and had a final Nertz session with the boys. I cannot tell you how much fun we had and how good it was to see KK and KT. It made me a but homesick, but luckily the next day I had more visitors! (Told you I've been busy) My mommy and Daddy came to see me in bonny Scotland! The girls week came to a sad end, but luckily I had family time to look forward to.

London...Part Two!

So after Lizzie had left, it was up to my brothers and I to do what we do best, be tourists and blend with the locals (aka drink.) We started off our day of extreme tourism by going to Abbey Road, where the Beatles wrote many of their songs. We looked around, snapped a few photos, and then tried to recreate the famous album cover from the Abbey Road album. So we propped the camera on a ledge and put it on timer so that all three of us could be in the picture. Well, let me tell you, it’s difficult to try to get the timing down of when no cars, bikes, people and walking right in the middle of the road. We must have looked like complete idiots (tourists) because after attempting the shot about 7 times, a man came up to us and told us he had been watching us for the past twenty minutes. So not only did we feel like dummys, we looked like them and had an audience…super! But we managed to get a decent picture and is in the running for the Dodge 2009 Christmas card (we will send one out this year…hopefully.) side note: sort of weird but “I want to hold your hand” just came on my itunes…freaky. Anyways, after the Beatles excursion, we went to Madame Toussads! Who doesn’t want to pay to pose with their favorite actor? (In my case I got to pose with Prince William, aka my future husband) there were a ton of people there so I felt a little odd going posing with the majority of the wax figures. Everybody sort of watches how you pose with the figures…for example, they had made a Saddam Hussein model and I don’t particularly like that fella so I gave him a piece of my mind. Then a man and woman came around the corner and they appeared to be from the Middle East and immediately turned in the other direction. Oops. But at least Saddam now knows how I feel about him. We managed to find our way through the museum pretty well, but one thing that I thought was hilarious was the torture room/haunted house. They showed many detailed mannequins being tortured (gak) and then you could get in line for this “chamber of torture” (cue creepy music.) I was all for it…but both of my strong, manly brothers somehow didn’t feel up to it. There I said it, Will and Steve were scared! I told them I would protect them from the scary monsters but neither of them were having it. So we skipped the queue and finished the museum unscared. The final excursion of the day was to a pub and back to bed. We had to rest up for our final excursion…St. Paddy’s Day!
St. Patrick’s day was an all day event of fun. (If you are bothered by drinking at noon, probably not your idea of fun.) We decided to do our own “pub paddy’s crawl.” We went to about 8 or 9 pubs through out the entire day and had a few pints. The best thing was this one owner of about 5 pubs was giving out coupons for free Guinness. (You don’t even need to go to the ‘factory’ first!) So we, by we I mean my two brothers, enjoyed some Guinness. Trust me it tastes like tar and coffee that was mixed in a garbage can. No none for me thank you. We ended at our favorite bar called the Three Tons where we had met a bartender, Narie, earlier in the week. After that we were in the mood for McDonald’s where Steve proceeded to speak French to the worker. “Est-ce que je peux…a McChicken, Large Fry, another McChicken, a cheeseburger and a large coke?” Then he proceeded to give a thumbs up to everyone on the street. Oh man, we had too much fun…or alcohol.
It was really hard to say goodbye to my brothers the next day. I really had a lot of fun with them, and it made me a tiny bit homesick to say goodbye. But what made me happy was that the day after, my really good friends, Kaytee and Kathryn, were coming to visit me in Scotland! So we said goodbye, teary eyed (me), and went our separate ways. Me back to Scotland and them to Paris…yes I was worried to leave them by themselves in Paris. I navigated through Heathrow by myself, only having an hour until my plane left (most anxiety filled underground ride I had back to the airport because oh there was an “emergency in the next vehicle” so I had to wait about 30 minutes until they cleared that up.) But I managed, fingernails intensely short, and hopped on the plane back to my love Scotland.

London...Part One

Well I have no excuses for not writing in about a month except for the fact that I literally have not had more than one day to myself for the last 3 weeks. I am not even kidding the past few weeks I have entertained, traveled and entertained some more...but I have returned with lost of stories to share about my misadventures in Scotland and beyond.

So about a month ago now...I got to see my brothers and a good friend from home (Lizzie) in London! I took about 5 days off of school, eh hem, I mean none if your name is mom or dad...and flew into london to meet them all. We had decided that Lizzie would meet me at my arrival gate since she arrived first and then together we would find my brothers at their gate. Well here's a shocker, I get off my plane and cannot find Lizzie. So I call her, but surprise it doesn't connect. So I decide to find my brothers and then figure out what to do about finding Lizzie. Now keep in mind Heathrow is perhaps the largest airport in the world and is currently undergoing construction...sweet. I literally am walking in circles trying to find terminal 3. circles. I ask a few of the late night workers (we landed at ten o'clock local time) but none can seem to point me in quite the right direction. Finally I approach a bunch of construction workers, all male between the ages of 20 and 40, where I can find terminal 3...they sort of smirk and tell me to follow the signs to terminal 2, and then just keep walking...a long time. So I figure I have a lot of ground to cover in a little time, like 15 minutes. Now if you have been keeping up with my blogs you will understand that working out is not quite my thing (bleep test. enough said.) But I manage to find my way just as the boys are entering the arrival gate. Then we think to call my dad and have him call lizzie and voila she appears in the elevator in front of us...yay. So all four people are off to our hotel in London. We managed on the underground and found our hotel without a hitch (that's because I'm a genius and decided to print out turn by turn directions to get to our hotel.)
The next day we decided to get up early (like 10 am) and go explore. We stumbled onto Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Eye all within about twenty minutes. It was weird to get off the metro and see all these sights literally right in front of you. It's as if I didn't believe they existed outside of movies, but guess what...Big Ben isn't just from a movie. The parliment building was extremely pretty and perhaps my favorite part of London. Really, the White House does not even come close in comparison. Like honestly who decided to make a white house and have that be the center of politics? There are plenty of white houses in America, but there is only one Parliment building in all the UK that is so cool. Anyway enough of that complaining...We ate a traditional English pub for lunch, I had a bowl of chips (fries) and will and steve had a pint of Stella with some fish n' chips. They clearly have no problem adjusting to the traditional english ways. After lunch we walked around London for a bit and hit up Harrod's. One of the biggest department stores I've ever seen. It is like two city blocks and you literally could get lost in it. It was really cool but the thing I had a problem with was the pricetag of the items. A t-shirt cost around 65 pounds. Uh, thanks my hanes cotton tees from target work just fine thanks. So besides being able to say I went to Harrod's, I didn't think it was all that great. So we went to a pub and called it a night.
The next day again filled with touristy things to do note: I am a great tourist by now. We actually went into the eye and got to see the entire city of london. I kept singing the BBMak song while I was in the eye, "Until you're back here baby..." because it was filmed in the eye. But apparently I was the only one who knew this because nobody seemed to agree with me and I kept getting odd looks. After the eye we decided to go to the tower of London. This is where Anne Boleyn got beheaded. well and other things obviously happened there as well, but that was what I thought was the coolest. There was also a torture museum in the Tower, and I think I am glad we don't use that kind of thing anymore. The things they did were definitely not what I would want to do in my free time. I am already tall enough for a girl so no thank you I do not want to be stretched out. After these two big tourist spots Lizzie and I felt that we needed some girl shop time. So we hit the shops...only to discover that everything was closed. I guess that is a good thing because my bank account is looking a little dismal these days. So instead we went to a cupcake shop and had a double chocolate frosted cupcake. Almost as good as shopping just with a few more calories. Finally we met the boys for dinner and had a few pints before we had to say goodbye to Lizzie. Her flight was at 6 am so she had to get on the bus at 3 am. That was probably not fun. With Lizzie gone, the boys and I had to continue on our adventures.

Dublin Day Two

The next day was well worth the trip to Dublin and the disappointing Guinness tour. We went to this tiny town called Howth that was recommended to us by a fellow hosteller. It was on the Irish coast and only a 20 minute train ride. It was such a cute little town and the views were amazing. We hiked up a cliff and walked around taking in the smell of sea air. It was pretty much a scene from a movie, in that it was picturesque. The sea was a deep blue, the grass was green, flowers were beginning to bloom, and there were sea lions in the water! Yes sea lions. They were too cute. They would surface for a little bit, look at you in case you had some food for them, and when you didn’t throw them any fish they would slowly sink back beneath the water. They pretty much reminded me of my dogs. They would just stare at you, just in case you had food. We continued to walk around the cliffs for a while because it was way better than the actual city of Dublin. I would highly recommend seeing this little town. We were all exhausted so we decided to head back and take what I call the best power nap ever. I didn’t want to get up. Ever. But we dragged ourselves out of bed to grab dinner at a very traditional Irish restaurant. I hade roasted chicken and chips...chips...yummm. When we returned home, we found out that we got new roommates Yay! They were also french, but way cooler than our first roommates. They actually talked to us and later serenaded us with spice girls renditions. The nightlife in Dublin is pretty crazy, the Irish definitely live up to their stereotypes of being really into their drinking. There was a bar on every corner each promising the best ale and whiskey in Ireland. We had a good time socializing with the locals, as were learned they were much friendlier with a little ale in them. The next day came around bright and early when we had to get up at 6 am to make a 10 flight. By the time we were on our way back to Stirling we were all so slap happy that all we had to do was look at one another and burst into fits of laughter. We were all crying at one point or another because of what somebody else said. The group of girls I’ve met here are all so funny and sweet and we always have a great time together. Even at the Guinness factory.

Dublin Day One

Well hello all. After a long hiatus I have finally returned to you. I’m sure you have all been at the edge of your seats wondering, “What is the latest adventure/embarrassing act Christine has faced?” So, never fear I am here to fill you in on all my mishaps.
Last weekend (March 5-7) I ventured to Dublin to discover what it means to be Irish. I found that it means you are very social…only when drunk. I was surprised to find that the Irish people were not as friendly as the Scots that I have come to love. To be fair, I was in Dublin, the most touristy city I have been to yet. But still, I was saddened to find that the Irish aren’t as jolly as I thought they would be. I still had a great time though. The hostel we stayed at was pretty much a hotel. It was very spacious, had a nice kitchen, and was very safe. Most of the hostels (okay all two) that I have stayed in are very nice. So since we got there late on Thursday, we went pretty much right to bed. We shared the room with six other very loud and obnoxious French people. Note to those traveling: ear plugs = best packed item. The next day we woke up really early in order to go on a walking tour of Dublin. I’m not quite sure why this city is so popular. There wasn’t too much to see and the walking tour consisted of history which to me is a lullaby. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you my pathetic knowledge of history. I swear it is not my fault. I would always try to pay attention in Western Civ. my first year in high school but to this day it my only D on a final. Ooops. My brain literally turns off at the mention of historical facts/figures/dates. I know this isn’t a good quality, but ask me anything about the inverted U hypothesis of stress and sport performance and I will rock it. Anyways, that was extremely off topic, but I wanted to forewarn you because I would tell you about what I learned on the walking tour, but um, I don’t remember. Pretty much the theme of the walking tour was that the English are absolutes arses. The Irish and the Scottish both seem to dislike the English. Lucky for me, I’m not English. The walking tour ended around 2, so being in Ireland, we did as the Irish do, grabbed a pint. Then to be considered proper tourists we visited the Guinness Factory. I was really excited to see the factory and find out how this magical potion is made. Well, I was sort of disappointed to find out that surprise…they don’t take you on a tour of the factory. Instead, they set up this huge warehouse as sort of a show. You walk around on your own and discover how the product is made. It is very impersonal and not as cool as the Anheiser Busche tour…hello they have Clydesdales. But I was able to forgive the Guinness company a little when I got a free drink at the end of the “tour.” And by free I mean I paid 11 pounds to see the nonexistent factory, and by drink I mean syrupy, nasty, foul tasting, couldn’t be a worse brew drink. So if you are going to Dublin anytime soon, skip the Guinness factory and instead tour the Jamison whiskey factory. I didn’t get to do that but it couldn’t be worse than the Guinness factory. Then we went to Tesco to buy some cheap groceries for dinner (after that Guinness tour my wallet was pretty bare.) Well, we sort of overestimated our hunger and how many of us there were. There were six of us, but we probably could have fed half of Zambia. We bought three packages of pasta…nevermind that meant that each of us would eat half of a package…and two loaves of garlic bread. Needless to say, we had a good portion leftover. We tried to give the cooked pasta to the others around us, but they looked at us like were offering them something dirt or Guinness. We went to a local pub where we talked to some pretty funny Englishmen. They were all mid forties, married, and making fun of us for being American. One asked what I was studying and when I replied sport psychology he said, “how are you supposed to tell people how to do better in their sport when you don’t even know what a proper sport is?’ I didn’t have a quick comeback, so I just laughed. Har har.

My Life at Uni

So in between all the traveling I have decided to join a few groups.  The kayaking club is one of them...although I haven't gone back yet after seeing that monkfish.  I have also joined the International Student Society, so far we've gone on a pub crawl and went to a Cailidh (pronounced kailey.)  A Cailidh is basically as Scottish as you can get.  It's a party where people wear kilts and there's a band that plays traditional scottish songs.  They teach you how to dance and how to look pretty much like a fool.  I went with my American friends (Annelise, Kacey, Lauren, Emily and Cailine) and we danced the night away.  You were supposed to try to pair up with a boy but for some strange reason there were way more girls than boys. Go figure.  So needless to say my girls and I took turns being the Scottish gentleman.  I learned a couple of fun dances that I'll be sure to pull out next time I'm at the fine drinking establishments of Champaign-Urbana.  

I've also joined this club called UrbanDance, which is basically a hip-hop/break dancing club.  I joined it with my friend Cailine who was in a ballet company for majority of her life.  We always have a good time because we generally look pretty goofy doing the moves that others can easily pull off.   One guy in the club taught us how to sort of break dance.  One move called a freeze, is where you basically use your arms and head to hold the rest of your body up.  And by head I mean side of your face.  Well this seemed easy enough to me, being the amazing gymnast that I was.  So I attempt to do a freeze and basically end up sliding on my face across the floor.  Wooden floor + face = painful.  So, my break dancing career might not work out after all.  I'm still doing the hip-hop club, just sort of keeping my face off the floor.  

My classes, or so they call them, are pretty much a joke.  I have three lectures a week (which most students "can't be bothered" to go to, not me of course though mom and dad...) and each lecture meets once a week for two hours.  Then about every other week I have a seminar for each class which lasts about 50 minutes.  So basically I have a maximum of 8 hours of class a week.  I just finished one essay for a class that is worth 50% of my grade.  But don't worry, the professor gave us an outline of what our paper should be.  So that was not the most difficult either.  

One thing that was difficult however, was my practical for one of my classes.  Since all of my classes revolve around sports and exercise, they thought it would be a "fun" idea to have the entire class participate in a fitness test.  oh joy.  Now I like being active, like you know hiking, walking to McDonald's, break-dancing, ect. but I absolutely hate running.  I am a pathetic runner so thank goodness my metabolism has not slowed down quite yet.  So this fun test was called the bleep test.  Apparently it's a pretty big thing here in Scotland.  Basically there are two lines separated by about about 20 meters.  You start on one line and then you hear a beep and you have to run to the other side before you hear the other beep.  Once you've reached the other side, you wait until you hear the beep and then you get to run back to the other side. Yay! The beeps get separated by less and less time as the test goes on.  So on my way to this joyous experience I asked my friends in my class what level people typically get to.  He says usually girls get around level 7 or 8.  So my goal was 7.  So I line up, get ready to go and then I hear the beep and start to run...but I guess I had missed the directions before that beep because apparently that was just a "test beep."  The Scottish accent is still a little difficult to understand.  So I realize nobody else was running next to me so I turn around and my friend shakes his head and tells me to come back to the line.  Sweet.  The American looks like a dummy. again.  So I skip back to the line wearing my t-shirt that says "Iowa Hockey" aka "look at me I'm American!"  and stand next to my friend James again.  He tells me to go on the next beep.  So I get ready, stretch a little bit (intimidation duh) and rethink my plan.  I visualize myself completely through level 7 and think positively (sports psychology here people.)  I hear a beep, wait about a fraction of a second to make sure everybody else is running too, and then start at a nice jog pace.  I get to the other line with a second or two to spare before I hear the next beep.  This continues until the fourth beep when I turn to my friend and say "oh this isn't bad at all, we're already on level 4!" to which he responds "no, we're on level 0.4"  ummm come again?  He explains that each level has 10 sublevels, so we have yet to finish level 1.  Oh bugger. I curse under my breath and continue along as if I could do this forever.  Around level 3.8 I start to wonder if it would be really embarrassing to drop out first.  On level 4.5 I'm sweating breathing hard and in need of water.  I push myself until level 6.1 where I become the third person to drop out.  I blame it on the fact that I had just climbed up the volcano in Edinburgh.  I totally could have gone to at least level 6.3 if I had not just died hiking a volcano.  But alas, I have come to the realization that perhaps McDonald's three times a week does take its toll (But I have only had McDonald's ONE time so far. A record.)  I am seeing a pattern here that I might need to work out a tad bit more.  So as I sit down sweaty and smelly and completely red in the face, my professor wanders over to me and says, "how did you do?" to which I respond "about a as good as you would expect from your average American...poor."  He laughs and tells me at least I can laugh at myself and my nationality...that's half the battle.  He did the bleep test in the second round and got 12.7.  He is pushing 60.  I can't help but to laugh and embrace it. Thank goodness for those Donewald genes.  Well I'm off to Dublin tonight so I will make sure to try to connect with my great ancestors.  I'll probably find them in a pub, where I can find any family member of mine. 

Cheers! 

Edinburgh

So this past Wednesday and Thursday I went to Edinburgh to meet up with Kelley  and two of her friends to explore this historic and beautiful city.  So I hopped on a train around 9:30, got into Edinburgh at 10:30 and found the way to the hostel all by myself!  I was very impressed with my navigation skills. After I found Kelley at the hostel we walked about 2.5 minutes to the castle.  Yes, our hostel was pretty much right next door to it.   We got there and went on a tour so that we would have an idea of what exactly we were looking at, because honestly my history of Scotland is about as good as my Scottish accent- not very good (although my English accent is pretty spot on "pip pip cheerio!" eh eh?)  I was fascinated to learn that the castle had been built and destroyed many times.  My favorite story is that when the English were trying to capture Scotland again (after they won freedom from them) the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, decided to destroy many castles so they would not fall into the hands of the English.  The only building Robert the Bruce said not to destroy that was part of this castle was a tiny little church.  It is 900 years old and the oldest building on sight.  It is said that he ordered it to be saved because it was built in memory of another kings mother.  I have decided that I will get married in this little church, after I meet Prince William, or Harry of course.  

After the castle we toured this underground city.  It's called Mary King's Close, which means it was a street called Mary King.  Basically a long time ago there was this a town with a few streets where the bubonic and black plague hit really bad.  Then in 1920, the city of Edinburgh decided to pretty much put a slab of concrete over most of the town and put a building right on top of it.   So today they offer tours where you can see how people used to live and what the houses were like.  They also told us a few ghosts stories and said they've had paranormal detectives down ther

e and confirmed that there is in fact paranormal activity.  Needless to say my night of sleep was not the best.

The next day we climbed up this volcano called Arthur's Seat.  It was a little steep, and by a little I mean pra

ctically vertical.  I was stopping every 3 minutes or so to snap a few pictures, but that of course h

ad absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I needed a rest or was out of breath.   About three minutes into the hike, a man passes us who is probably in his upper 60s...jogging. Well, okay he's probably really into running or something right? I mean we don't have volcan

os in the middle of Illinois. So we sort of laughed about it.  About 7 minutes later, weare half way up, and he is jogging down the volcano.  Well, what goes up must come down...and then apparently back up when he passes us a third time. needless to say I felt like a complete failure. When we got to the top, I pretty much died (from the breath taking views of course...) but the hike up was well worth it.  It was absolutely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  The way the volcano was, you walked to the back side of it, and there was a sort of a basin with many paths to choose to walk on.  We were initially feeling energetic so we started to climb this one path that had stones that sort of mad a foot path, and was probably the steepest path we could have chosen.  Exactly 4 minutes on this path I decide this was a horrible oversight and overestimation on my part.  We all look at each other and decide perhaps a path a little flatter would be a better choice.  (I'm not even going to pretend I wasn't embarrassed when another man, even OLDER, was about 50 paces behind us when we started on this path and within two minutes he passes us and says "Oh come girls I was expected better from you" he chuckles, I mumble some excuse about never having climbed a volcano before.)  Anyways on the flatter path we notice from a distance some old ruins, so we decide to be tourists and check it out.  It was this really old (1000 years old) church and only one wall remains of it.  It's just so cool to be able to touch something and be around something so old.  So needless to say, the volcano was my favorite part of Edinburgh.  Let's just hope my thighs and bum will return to their normal non sore state soon!

Cheers!

Kayaking, Glasgow and Edinburgh...oh my!

So I realize I have not written in a while, but would you want to be typing on your computer, indoors, in an 8 x 5 foot cell while beautiful Scotland is right outside your window?  Obvious answer: bloody "heck" no!  I am very sorry to keep you all waiting but I've got some good stuff now to entertain you.  

So I have joined kayaking club.  Yes, kayaking.  You might think to yourself "Christine, you do not go into an ocean or any other body of water that you cannot see the bottom of because you are afraid to get eaten."  While this is true, I have yet to actually kayak in anything besides the pool. Thus, I have not yet dealt with that fear.   I do imagine it will arise when say we kayak on the loch next Wednesday, but I have faith that my incredible balance and practice of gymnastics gracefulness will keep my kayak steady. (Note: first practice I tipped my kayak 6 times, and my kayak ended up with too much water in it for me to tip it back over.  My Kayak proceeded to sink to the bottom of the pool.)  But all that aside, I am very excited to say I kayaked in Scotland...if only in a pool. 

Also, I went to Glasgow this past weekend and thought it was pretty cool.  I'm not going to lie, I like Stirling better.  Stirling is a little more quaint and historical.  Glasgow is more of a business area...but it had a ton of shopping!  Being the tourists we are though, we decided the first time we were there we had to see all the sites and monuments.  We went to the National Piping Center (very cool to hear bagpipes!) and the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis.  The Cathedral was amazing with all the stained glass and old architecture.  Again, I was in awe of how old the Cathedral was.  The tomb of St. Mungo was constructed in 607 AD.  That still seems unreal to me.  The fact that I had walked in the same place as people did hundreds of years ago is very very cool.   But what I loved more than the Cathedral was the Glasgow Necropolis (yes another cemetery, and no I do not have a weird obsession with them.)  At home, I thought graveyards were sort of creepy and haunted, but here they are just peaceful and reiterate the idea that there such little time to leave an impact on this earth (so keep it clean and go green please).  I can't explain the feeling too well, but I do know that there is just so much to do and so little time to do it. After the cemetery, we walked (I navigated!) to the museum of modern art.  blah.  I seriously do not get modern art.  I wish I could have taken a picture of some of the exhibits, but no that would take away from the artistic beauty of it...so let me paint you a picture (haha so funny) of what one of the exhibits was.  You walked into a room with white walls and white floors.  In the room there were fluorescent  light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, in two clumps of three in sort of a shape of a tree?  In the middle of the room was a black wire cot.  That is it.  If anybody has a good idea as to what this is, please enLIGHTen me (oh I am just so clever today.) After viewing what they call "art," we went to a cute fish/seafood restaurant called the Grand Fish and Chip Co.  Right outside the door they had a sample of the fish they serve on ice on display.  Oh Dear Lord. Seeing that fish was totally not a good for my kayaking career.  One word: monkfish.  Those teeth, eyes,  and entire being is the freakiest thing and pretty much what I imagine being at the bottom of our Loch.  But the best part of this story is that I tried: Calamari (not bad...actually quite good besides the fact that it's a poor baby squid) Sweet corn and potato soup (really really good) and I had a hamburger for dinner (for those of you who don't know this, I don't eat hamburgers.  Hot dogs only thank you.)  

Tomorrow I leave for Edinburgh where I'm going to meet my friend Kelley who is studying in Spain but has a week off.  I'm really excited to see Edinburgh as I have heard great things, and I'm excited to see a little piece of home.  

So as you can see, I've been trying new things, pushing myself and really really trying to keep an open mind (Haggis is still not something I'm looking forward to trying any time soon).  But Scotland is amazing and I know this was a great choice for me.  

...now I have to get back to Glasgow and shop... CHEERS!

Dear Stirling, I love you.

Well, I didn't think it was possible to fall in love so fast, but I have.  Stirling is absolutely amazing.  The people, food (yes I do like the food), places, sights, culture, and night life are just perfect.  The only thing I have to complain about is the music (which is all american pop songs) and the weather (yet another cloudy 40 degree day in Stirling.)  But I can get around those minor setbacks when I get to do things like oh I don't know...tour a castle?  We visited the Stirling castle this week and it was beyond what I expected.  The architecture is beautiful, the green moss and stone everywhere is right from a post card.  My favorite part of the castle was this hidden garden. It had really cool looking trees and green plants growing everywhere.  I think I'm going to purchase that castle one day, no big.  You are all welcome to come.   

On the way tothe castle we passed this really cool looking graveyard (huge and old) and got a little sidetracked.  Not until we entered the graveyard did any of us realize it was Friday the 13th (cue scary music and wait for dramatic pause.)  But it was actually really peaceful and I was in awe that I could be around something so old.  Some of the tombstones were put there in the 1500s.  It made me feel pretty small (I see your eye roll those of you thinking "you can't get sma

ller") and humbled.  The best part of the cemetery was this cliff thing that you could walk up and get a great picture of Stirling.  I 

swear that view never gets old.  

After the castle, we were all very numb and decided hot chocolate was the best way to warm up (it was only 4 o'clock so we felt that alcohol was probably best avoided.)  We wandered into a cute cafe and I had the best hot chocolate I can remember, or maybe I just wanted it to be better because I'm in Scotland...there's my psychology degree paying off!  Lastly, to get to the bus stop we had to cross through a mall (tragic I know.)  Annelise and I saw a shoe store that said "buy one pair get the second for a $" well a pound but I don't have that key on my laptop. So we just had to go in and make sure they weren't lying to us.  Well, they weren't and 15 minutes later I had a cute pair of brown boots for 13 pounds  (Annelise got a pair too so we split the 26 pounds it cost for both pairs.)  I love them just like everything else in Scotland. Now I can give those Scottish and English girls a run for their money.  Seriously, they get more dressed up for class than I get dressed up to go out!  We're talking Stilettos people! Well, I better go do some reading, or maybe just go socialize...I haven't decided yet.  Until next time, Cheers!

Oh yeah...I do have to go to school...

After having 8 weeks of school off (winter break and then starting late here) I sort of got comfortable with the idea that I didn't have homework or studying to do.  Now, I'm finding that Scotland is not all fun and games (about 65% fun, 30% games) but it also requires work (about 3%, the other 2% is sleeping.)  I had my first class this morning and it was a little tough to get up for since I'm still sort of on Chicago time and since I'm your average college student who loves to sleep.  So I got up at 9, which is 3 am back home, and made some breakfast (toast...again...)  Luckily I had my class with my roommate Louise so I didn't have to leave quite so early to find my class.  Seriously the building is meant to make you feel like a foreigner.   My first class was fine, should be fairly easy with the brains I've got (or the fact that I'm taking all my classes pass fail.)  My next class is Friday, it's an introduction week so it's fairly light.  

Yesterday was probably the most fun I've had here so far.  We (Kacey, Annelise (from Ohio) and Lauren (from Wyoming)) went into Stirling to buy some things that were essiential to comfortable living here.  I finally got a cell phone!  It's a really high tech Nokia with sweet monotone rings, color background and a keypad lock.   I also bought a clothes rack for over the door, some kitchen utensils, a shirt and most importantly a pillow to replace the sheet of paper that they called a pillow.  We ate lunch at this really cute restaurant/bar in town and people watched.  Then we found a pub that we stumbled upon towards the outskirts of town.  It seemed really cute and off the beaten track.  When we came home we told some locals where we went and told them about the cute pub only to discover that the pub we went to was a old folks pub.  Ohhh so that's why we were the youngest people in there by a good 40 years...and I thought the young people just didn't drink before 5.  Clearly we have a little bit to learn.  So all and all, the adventures in Stirling were a success.  I really love it here and cannot wait to explore more.

Cheers!

I HAVE INTERNET!!  this is from yesterday but I didn't have my internet set up so yet...now that I finally do I'll keep you all informed on my adventures!! yay!

Let me preface this with saying that I was awake yesterday for 35 hours.  Absolutely no sleep.  So, if, this seems a little rough, it's because my already poor skills ae being coupled with an extreme lack of sleep.  Anyways, enough whining, I absolutely love Scotland!  It's the most beautiful place I've ever been to (in my opinion.) This is because there are no sandy beaches with shark/stingray/jellyfish/crazy fish with teeth that will attack you without warning (it does happen).  Also, there are tons of trees here, yea for being and going green!  I've seen a lot of sheep, rabbits, squirrels, swans, ducks, lots of crows and even a fox.  Jealous? I thought so.  I'm surrounded by mountains, and lots of friendly people.  My flatmates are really sweet and fun.  Three of them go to school here year round and are locals.  Emily is from England and is the most outgoing.  The other one (Louise) is from Scotland.  I haven't met Louise yet, but Kerry is also really nice and from England as well. So, we (a bunch of americans) went into the city of Stirling which is about a 5 min bus ride away, to buy an ethernet cord as well as a cell phone.  But I had no luck because everything was pretty much closed.  I did manage to buy some food though (pasta, a lot of it, bread, butter, sauces, and ham and cheese) so I'm not wasting away.  In fact, many of you may be happy to know that the first night we got here we went to and Indian restaurant and I ordered the chicken rogan josh meal.  It was pretty good actually...not quite as good as my McDonald's.  Haven't had that yet...I'm surrounded by mountains and trees and hills and green.  It's gorgeous.  My room is sort of small, but I have my own and there's even a sink in it!  There are two bathrooms, a common area, and a kitchen.  All the people (boys and girls) in my building that I've met so far are very kind and helpful. Okay well there is so much more to write about but right now I have to catch up on my sleep (we all know I sleep a ton) so until tomorrow I'll say Cheers! Which is the way they say goodbye or thanks.

Pre-depature

So, I'm officially not packed, have no idea who I'm living with, don't know when my classes are or how many I'm taking...and I leave for Scotland in 1 day.  

My thoughts on packing have so far gone like this: 

       - "I have so much room! Two suitcases? That's going to be way more than I need." 

       - "Yeah mom, I'm totally going to have enough room...who needs more than one pair of jeans?"

       - "Okay so both these shirts are really cute, but they don't go with the same shoes or jeans, looks like I'll be packing a little more than I thought..."

       - "hmm, who would have guessed my toiletries take up a whole suitcase?" 

       - "yeah...two suitcases for four months is definitely not going to be enough... dad how much does shipping cost?"

       -"crap."

So I have had to pack and repack many times and I'm still over that 50 lb per bag limit...sweet.

As far as my rooming situation goes, your guess is as good as mine.  The absolute only thing I know about them is that they are 4 female non-smokers.  Knowing that I checked the box labeled "prefer to live with non-smokers" as well as "same- sex accommodation"  I was kind of assuming as much.   I hope I get to live with some Scottish locals, then I could perhaps pick up the lingo quickly and have a few friends to grab a pint with, but I'm going into this with an open mind...bring on the roomies!

I have no idea about the whole roommate thing, and I also don't have the slightest clue when my classes are.  I know which classes I am registered for, but they don't quite do it the American way.  They basically let you pick your classes and then they send out this really complicated table with a bunch of serial numbers and times and your supposed to be able to figure it out and pick which time slots you want. yeah. right.  I tried to decipher that for 45 minutes until I gave up and decided to ask my advisor about it.  He told me I would figure it out when I get there...super.  

Finally, unlike Americans, Scots take only 2-4 classes a semester...and apparently you can take a half a course (module is what they call them.)  I am currently signed up for 3 classes but my advisor told me that's like taking 15 hours, which I don't need to be.  I would rather travel and "socialize" than really stress over school, so he told me to look into a half course...hmm we'll see about that one.

So all in all, I'm incredibly excited, nervous, anxious, stressed, in denial that I'm actually going to Scotland, and most importantly confused on how I'm supposed to fit my entire life (most of it) into two suitcases.  And yes, I've already used those space saving vacuum bags.