I blame this on the Bull's balls....

So while we were in Milan we came across a mosaic of a bull. Local legend has it that stepping on the bull's balls is good luck. So many people many have done this that there is an indentation in the floor where his balls are. After we all stepped on his balls we proceeded to not be able to see the Last Supper, have horrible bathroom experiences, have a train that didn't actually get us to the center of Rome, have a crazy homeless guy tell us that we were fuckers, and have our hostel in room be nothing but an internet cafe. Stupid bull. But we did finally make it to Rome. Hopefully things will look up from here.

And the Journey Continues...

The rest of Amsterdam was fun. We went to the Van Gogh Museum and got caught in the rain. I found a random bag of weed in my luggage which worried me a little. I am glad I found it before I went to the airport.

Our last days in Bristol were hectic. We had to write papers, finish projects, and go to a surprise party all in the same day. I did finish my paper. It is possibly the worst paper I have ever written, but it should be good enough. With the time crunch and the bad professor, a really good paper was almost impossible.

I am now on my way to Rome. The original plan was to take a bus to London, the Chunnel to Paris, and start our Eurail passes by going to Rome from Paris. We were told back in the states that no reservations were needed for any eurail trains. We got to Paris with no problems. However, the train we needed to go to Rome from Paris was booked solid for the next NINE days. So the guy at the booking office found us an alternate route. We had to take a train to Milan the next day, and then a train to Rome the following day. We would get to Rome Sunday morning instead of Friday morning. We were pissed, but happy that the original " you can not get to Rome at all did not stand. I am traveling with wonderful people. They originally booked all of the Hostels. Catherine has a cell phone and is taking care of moving every single one of our reservations back. This is difficult since she already had to do this once because of a reason that I am not going to go into.

we found a hostel for that night in Paris. The next morning we went to the Eiffel Tower. We did not have time to go up it. Do not worry, We are ending our two weeks in Paris. I plan to go up it then.

I am now in Milan. We are going shopping and to see the Last Supper while we are here. Our train to Rome leaves at 10:50 tonight. Hopefully I will have access to the internet in Rome...wish me luck!

Shazamsterdam

Amsterdam is awesome. Friday afternoon, we found our hostel only to be told that their computers were down and they were unable to check us in. They said they'd hold our luggage, but it was ina room with no lock, so we decided just to carry it. We found a place to have lunch, and just sat with our packs for a while. I wasn't hungry so I just had ice cream. Oh, this hostel was in the middle of the red light district. There are lots of sex shops, sex shows, and girls in windows tapping on the glass at you, no matter what time of day it is. It was amusing at any rate.

I had no idea that Amsterdam was full of canals. Anyway, we found a "coffee shop", well, we actually found the first coffe shop ever in Amsterdam. Some our group ordered off of the "special menu" I didn't. I just had, and still have, no desire to try it. We met up with one of Paul's friends, had dinnerm and hung out at the coffee shop for a while. Jake and I then went in search of souveneirs but found none. Then there was sleep, I think, since the computers were back online.

The next day, we had to check out by 11:00. Then we went on a quest to find our new hostel. Niether hostel was available for our entire stay so we had to move. We went to the wrong hostel at first. There are two "Flying Pig" hostels in Amsterdam. Oh well, it was a nice walk anyway. It reallty is a pretty city, especially with the bridges across the canals everywhere.

After we found the second hostel, the rest of the group went on a bike tour. I decided to go and visit the Anne Frank House. I got slightly lost on the way there, but managed to find it. The line to get in wasn't too bad, maybe 20 min. It was a really moving experience. The bottom floors of the building where the Frank family hid during WWII is now a museum containing many of the object they had in hiding. As you walk through, it tells the entire story though interviews with people that knew the family and Anne's diary entries. Once you walkthrough the secret door behind the book case, you get up to the"secret annex". There is no furniture, but lots of items and information around the walls. The posters and pictures Anne Frank put on the walls to brighten up her bedroom are still there. Postcards the family sent right before going into hiding are displayed. There is a small map on the wall where Otto Frank had listened to the radio and kept track of the movement of the Allied Forces. The space was bigger than I had expected, but still very small. Near the end of the tour, they have her original diaries as well as the story of what happened to everyone that hid in the annex. Of the 8 people who hid there, only Otto Frank survived the Holocaust. Two of the people who helped them hid also died in concentration camps. Anne Frank died 1 month before the concentration camp she was in was liberated. It was a really moving story. They hid for more than two years before being discovered. To this day no one knows who gave the anonymous tip to the SS. I guess it was more powerful than a history book because it was told in the words of a teenager who experienced it. In the last room, they have copies of the diary in the 60 languages it has been tranlated into. It was Otto Frank that decided to publish it.

On to happier things. Today we slept in, despite the vacuuming at 10:30. We went to a supermarket and got stuff for a picnic. We spent hours in the park just hanging out. It was quite a lot of fun. We went to a barwhere I had my third alcoholic drink of the trip, a strawnerry colada. It was pretty good, not nine euro good, but pretty good none the less. Then we went to Burger King for dinner, since it was the closest thing.

We watched a street performer with a soccer ball for a good 45 min. He did many amazing tricks with the thing. He even knew where Clemson was. He did a trick where he played with the soccer ball while he had is arm around my shoulder. He then kissed my check and tried to catch the ball but missed. He tried this three more times, but couldn't quite get it.

We then went back to the bar where a Tom Jones wannabe was singing. He was actually pretty good. Then we went back to the hostel where I am now typing this post. Hopefully we will make it to the museums tomorrow.

After intermission...

Sunday night, I went back to the hostle. I ate dinner in the cafeteria, where I ran into Jake. We talked about our respective days. When we tried to get into our rooms, none of our keys worked. The hostle said that some of our guys hadn't paid and since we were all booked under the same name, they locked us all out. They eventually had to watch the security tapes to see that they had paid. A group of us hung out in the bar downstairs. I watched the most boring game of beer pong ever. But other than that it was fun.

Monday, after we dropped our luggage of at the station ( we had to be out of the hostle at 10:00 AM) Jake, Paul and I went to Camden Market. It is this huge flea market type place. They had many amusing teeshirts. I bought shower shoes for the hostles I'll be staying at in Europe. Paul finally found a pair of aviator sunglasses he liked. Jake bought a jacket. I found it funny that the girl in the group was the one NOT clothes shopping. Anyway, we had lunch in this little pub in Camden. I had Brushetta.

The whole group met at the National Science Museum for "class" at 2:00. It was ok. I probably would have liked it more if my feet hadn't been so tired from walking around London for 2.5 days. There was one really cool bit, but we had to pay to see it. It was an exhibit of the Props and sets used in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Jake and I were the only ones willing to pay to see it. The red pod ship in the movie was outside the exhibit. We took pictures of it. But when we got into the exhibit they wouldn't let you take pictures. I was supremely disappointed, especially when they had the Marvin the Paranoid Android suit. I was tempted to take pictures anyway, but I was afraid that they would confiscate my camera. The exhibit was really cool. They had 42 mini computer games you could play, a volgon set up w/ poetry being read, the bridge of the Heart of Gold, the Deep Thought computer, and tons of props and costumes. They even had the planet building room.

That night we went to the globe theatre and saw Pericles. It was so awesome. They had a modern twist to it. They employed gymnasts going rope tricks to simulated "rough seas". The narrator was awesome. They had modern clothing, but spoke the Shakespearean lines. I was glad we had seats undercover when it started to rain. The only problem was that the play ran longer. The boys had to run ahead and get our luggage before the place closed. We made it to the bus on time. This bus was very uncomfortable, very little sleep was attained. We took a taxi back since it was 2:00 in the morning. And that was my London trip in all it's glory.

You mean I have to actually study abroad?

I have a project to finish tonight and a paper to write tomorrow, so the rest of the London bit will have to wait, probably til next wednesday.

London Town

WARNING: This may be a long post. And an incoherent one as well, since we didn't get back until 3:00 this morning.

We got to London on Friday. The bus was very comfortable. Thomas got us all to the hostel. It took forever to check in. They were very disorganized, especially since we had reservations.

After we settled our stuff into our rooms, groups broke off and went exploring. The group I went with just went walking to see what we could find. We walked toward the water, over one of the many bridges and found a play that was being put on outside. We went all the way to the Tower Bridge. It was very pretty at night. I am actually having trouble remembering exactly what we did, which is funny considering I am one of the few not drinking large amounts of beer. Anyway, we walked across the bridge and actually got to see it raised for a ship. We were so far from the hostel at this point that we decided to take a cab back.

Saturday we went exploring again. We got all-day tube (subway) passes so it wasn't too bad on the feet. We went and saw Big Ben, the Houses-o-Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace was a huge disappointment. It isn't pretty, neat-looking or anything. The statue/ fountain outside of it was pretty neat though. I'll show you all pictures later. Describing it would be a bit difficult. We did, however, get to see the guards in the black feather duster hats play a song and march a bit. We had lunch at a little pub near Big Ben. We went back to Westminster Abbey to go in, but it was closed. It was £8 to get into anyway. Then we went on the London Eye. It was really cool. It is this huge ferris wheel with capsules instead of seats. The capsules hold like 20 people each. At the top, you can see most of London. Other than the floor, the capsules were all clear so you could see everything around you. I think it was worth the £12.50 and the 30 min wait. After that I think we walked down to the Tower bridge again to see it during the day. I have to say, it looked much cooler at night. We had dinner at this little Italianan place; most of us had pizza. I ordered the "FUNGHI" ( that is how it was spelled) . It was mushroom pizza. They charged us for the bread, which we thought wasn't fair since it was out on the table when we got there. Oh well. The rest of the night was pretty boring, so I'll just skip to Sunday.
Sunday I went off by myself because the group I was with was going to shop all day. I did not come to London to go to Ralph Lauren, so I decided to entertain myself. I bought a map at the hostel and had the receptionist mark the hostel location on it so if I got really freakin' lost, I could just show the map to a cab driver. I left the hostel and found a cafe to have breakfast. I looked at my map, which was also a guide book, to see if I could find anything interesting to do. The Britsih Museum wasn't far and it had the Rosetta Stone, so I decided to go there. I am pretty sure I enjoyed the museum, since I spent the next 5 hours there. They had all sorts of ancient culture stuff and an entire wing on the Enlightenment, a portrait gallery with an original Michelangelo cartoon ( 8ft x 10 ft at least), 7000 years of Chinese Jade, Egyptian exhibits, prehistory exhibits, a money though the ages display, and huge pieces of the Parthenon. They had a whole Africa sections. They had an exhibit of the Turning Arms into Tools movement. Mozambeke had a nasty civil war and there were arms all over the country. The program allows people to turn in the arms for things like plows and sewing machines. Then they give the guns to local artists, who turn them into sculpture. It was really cool. Though I found it funny when the tags said things like " a gift from the government of Egypt" Translation: we stole this from you, too bad for you.

After the museum, I went down the the Covent Garden Market ( which has existed in some form for 400 years). It was a bunch of little trendy shops with an open air market in between. There were tons of street performers. After I shopped a little, I bought an ice cream cone, found myself a nice step to sit on, and listened to a guitar player.

This post got really long, so I think I will continue it tomorrow.

Ugh, My Feet

Who knew that the Hostle would have an internet cafe. Anyway, London is awesome. I saw Big Ben and Parliament etc. I spent 5 hours in the British Museum. It had too many cool things to go into at the moment, since I have approx. 6 min of time left on the internet. I'll have a more detailed post of the trip when I get back to Bristol. Tomorrow we go to the Nat'l Science Museum and the Globe Theatre to see a play so I better go rest my feet.

A Quickie

I have a couple minutes while we're waiting for the rest of the group to go to the bus station, so I thought I'd say hi...HI!... Off to London...

Info and whatnot

It never occured to me to give out the phone number and address to the place I am living over here. I guess it slipped my mind because I didn't think anyone would need it. Anyway, here it is:<>

c/o Mrs. Marguax Reidy
22 Lower Redland Road,
Redland, Bristol, BS6 6SU.
<> Tel: 0117 9735897


So, yet again, our "advisor/professor" didn't show up for class. He has changed the schedule so many times that he can't keep up with it. Oh well. We're aren't graded on the material he teaches anyway, just our presentation and paper.


We are getting prepped for London. Thomas booked a Hostel for everyone. It should be like one big sleep over, without the pillow fight. We are leaving tomorrow some time. Tonight our host parents are having a BBQ and are allowing all of the study abroad students to come. It should be fun.

I have noticed that my posts are little more than ramblings. Oh well, they are amusing anyway. Oh, I probably won't have Internet Access tomorrow or this weekend, so expected the next post on tuesday.

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

So it is still freakin' hot here. The locals are saying how unusual the weather is and that it shouldn't be this hot. Bleh. And don't give me that " it is just as hot here, stop whining" speech because each and every one of you has access to some form of air conditioning. To get it here, you have to look inconspicous in the frozen food aisle: " why yes, this is a good deal on frozen fish sticks. Let me just hold it to my neck to make sure it is the brand I like." It doesn't help that we have lab for 3 hours a day in a room full of computers. Anyway, we went to the Bristol Industrial Museum today and looked at airplane engines. This building had no AC so we were all sweating bullets as we heard about how they switched to a more compact design as well as 18 cylinders for the 1953 model. Bristol, and England as a whole, used to be really big in the aeroplane industry. Anyway, it was mildly amusing. Oh, last night Chris, Cati, Caroline and I played rummy. I won and I got to show off my one-hand card cut. YIPPEE!

We are going to London this weekend. Don't worry, I will be fine. It is probably safer (more safe?) now than before the bombings. Besides, how can I go to England and not see Big Ben? I am excited about going. I think it will be fun.

We have almost finished our first assembly in I-DEAS ( CAD program we are using) I miss AutoCAD. I-DEAS is much more of a pain in the ass.

Anyway, adios for now.

Lazy Daze

We didn't have class yesterday due to the summer grad. ceremony, but I went in to get a little work done anyway. Walking back, it was so freakin' hot that Katie and I stopped at the Ice Cream truck for "99's". Don't ask me why they call it a 99, I have no clue. It was just a sugar cone with vanilla ice cream and your choice of fruit syrup topping. I chose strawberry, which I proceeded to get on my pants. The ice cream had more air in it than US ice cream. It was almost like dense whipped cream. Anyway, it was yummy. I also played checkers with Juliette, the 8 year-old in my house family, the other day. My ego is slightly boosted knowing that I can beat an 8 year-old at checkers, or as they call it, draughts. After dinner, the group went up to the Downs ( insert lame joke here, I don't even know if that is the correct spelling) and played Ultimate Frisbee. Well, they played. I watched, as I have all of the athletic ability of a grapefruit. It was fun. Afterwards we ended up at the fish and chips place again. I swear the guys eat there at least once every two days. I have been in several times, but I only order water because I am generally not hungry at 11:30 at night and I really don't like vinegar on fries.

I changed the time stamp thingy, so the times of your comments should be correct, as long as you are on EST. I'll change the time for my posts to England time, but I can't change the comments, so that is going to stay a bit weird. Oh, and when you all get your postcards, please tell me. I'd like to know how long it takes mail to get there.

I long for a Bungalow....

So, had I posted Friday, the title would have been "Worst Day Ever", but I am over it and on to happier thoughts. We went on a Castles of Wales tour. I was really cool. They were all in ruins though. I wish I could post pics. We saw 3 castles and an Abbey. And sheep, we saw lots of sheep. I actually made it to the top to look around the last castle, which impressed me. I took tons of pictures. They were all from around 1200. I enjoyed it more because I almost didn't get to go. I volunteered to be one of the ones to stay behind in exchange for a guaranteed spot on the Henges tour, but then our advisor got a bigger rent-a-car. I was in the other van though. It was pretty much a rollercoaster ride the whole way. The van was a lovely shade of Smurf Blue. I almost end up in Paul's Lap many times. Luckily I don't suffer form motion sickness. We played a Celebrity game on the way back. I was pretty good at it. I'd explain it, but it really isn't worth it. Other than that is was a pretty lazy weekend. My housemates and I got lucky because our family actually feeds us on the weekends too. Most of the others don't. Last night we went to see Batman Begins as the IMAX theater downtown. It had some very corny lines, but was pretty good as well as pretty much what I expected. The IMAX bit was cool, but since it wasn't a Dome Imax, the impact was lost pretty early on in the movie. Occasionally, you think " wow, Christian Bale has a really big head" but other than that it was just like a regular movie, except for the £5 price tag ($10, and that was with a coupon). This post got really long really quickly, so I'll just mention the postcards and be done with it. I started writing the postcards in the middle of last week. I did not send them until yesterday. So something I wrote may seem outdated. Oh, and Bristol has really crappy postcards. I couldn't find a single one I deemed "really pretty". Sorry.

Bombs in London

There were bombings in the subway system in London this morning. No one in Bristol is worried, we are pretty far away. We are still taking the train to Bath this afternoon. We haven't decided if we are still going to London next weekend ( NOT the day after tomorrow), even if they do reopen the railway in London. Don't worry, I won't do anyway silly or careless.

Disorganized

This program is completely diorganized. We were told before we left that there would be day trips that we could all go on. They weren't scheduled til yesterday and the trips are limited to 10 people. The group has 17 people. I am annoyed. On a brighter note, I think I found people willing to travel with me. It should be interesting. I don't have much to say today. Class was cancelled, sort of. It goes back to the disorganization. There are 3 or 4 professors teaching us and they do not communicate with each other very well. Oh, last night, everyone came over to our house and we watched The Incredibles with the children in my host family. It was pretty cool. Anyway, adios for now.

And I thought people were going to read this thing...

Oh well, at least I'll have a record for myself. The 4th was fun. We did end up at Hard Rock, but only because the Jazz club was packed. Hard Rock gave a free bottle of Budweiser to anyone who could prove they were American ( ID not accent). I gave mine to Paul and ordered a Strawberry Daquiri. The band played a Tenacious D song for us since they didn't know Free Bird. The 45 min. Walk home was uneventful. I am impressed with myself though. I didn't pass out walking back up that !"$£"$ long steep hill. One of the girls in the group has a GSP watch and we clocked the distance from the house the school this morning: 1.3 miles. So if all I did was walk to school and back, I'd walk over two miles a day. As it stands now, I walk 6-7 miles a day and I have the blisters to prove it. I hope I get used to this some point in the near future. Anyway, for some reason, it won't let me post pictures. Maybe I can get the Comp. E. to help me. Ta Ta for now.

Happy Bristol

It is about a minute since I posted Bristol. I decided to write the happy one now. The food is good. The city is pretty. I am tired but mostly happy. The sun comes up around 5:00 AM and doesn't set til after 10:00. It is a bit hard to sleep with both the sun beating in your window and a three year old screaming. I may have to invest in some ear plugs. Other than the physical pain, which should go away as I get use to walking a lot, my only other complaint is the cost of everything. Something that costs $3.00 in the US costs around £3.00 in England. The problem is that £3.00 is roughly equivalent to $6.00. I guess it will just require a bit more budgeting. The day trips they have planned for us sound exciting. We are going to Bath on Thursday, which is a city, FYI. The original city is 2,000 years old. It sank and another city was eventually built 18ft above it. Bits of it are excavated, so it should be interesting. We are going to see "the henges" at some point and there is even a castles tour. So even though I may have no one to travel with at the end, at least I'll see some cool stuff while I am in England. I am one of the lucky Clemson people though. The MSU students were stuck on a runway, missed the connecting flight to England, arrived a day late, and the airline claims they have no knowledge of their luggage ever being checked. I think we are all going to the "Hard Rock Bar" tonight because they were actually advertising a 4th of July celebration. I thought about bringing sparklers, but I figured bringing them on a plane would get me an FBI file and jail time. I don't know how often I'll have interent access, but I will try and update as much as possible. I will also add more detail as to what we are doing in Bristol.

Cheers!

Bristol

Well, I made it to Bristol in one piece. However, after two and a half days of walking everywhere, I now understand why I am the only fat person in Bristol. It is very hilly. My knees hurt. My feet have blisters. The arch of my left foot is protesting quite loudly. The group I am traveling with is great, however, I am the only dork of the bunch, so it is more of a "They tolerate me" thing than a "We'll become friends thing". My host family is nice, though they have a three year old in need of some serious discipline. There are two other students living in my host home. They are nice. Bristol is a pretty city. When I remember to bring my download cord, I'll post pictures. We've walked quite a bit of the city, but there is still much more to see. We even took a ferry around the water front. Again, I'll post pictures later. We started class today. It may or may not be interesting. All and all this trip isn't what I expected it to be, but I will make the best of it. I am just worried that I won't have anyone to travel with at the end. But for now, I am having fun, though I am quite tired. I really am having a good time. I'll write a happy post later.

P.S. Stonehenge is NOT one of the biggest henges in the world.