home sweet home

After two months of world traveling, I am finally back home in good old Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA.
On Friday morning, my friend Mary Beth and I left Nottingham at 6:30, caught a 7:30 train to St. Pancras station, and arrived at our hotel around 10 with three huge suitcases, two duffel bags, one laptop bag and two purses in tow. Considering our luggage, it wasn't too difficult getting everything on and off the trains and up and down stairs. But it was no piece of cake either.
After checking into the hotel, we then explored London. First, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard and a parade of calvary. Then we went to London Tower and London Tower Bridge.
We also visited Fleet Street in an effort to find where Sweeney Todd made his gruesome living. No such luck. Off to Kensington Palace, which acts sort of like a Central Park in NYC. We sat for a little while by the huge lake in the middle of the park.
Our penultimate stop was at Notting Hill Gate, the site of a sprawling street market, as well as the set for the movie Notting Hill. We got to see the bookshop and house that was used in the movie. Finally, we headed to Madame Tousard's wax museum. The lifelike figures were amazing! They were set up randomly in rooms, so in the crowd I sometimes bumped into what looked like real life celebrities. It was kind of freaky.
The next morning, we headed out at about 9:30 a.m. even though my friend's flight was at 2. Because of our ginormous load of luggage, we wanted to make sure we left enough time to navigate onto the tube and find our concourses. Needless to say, we arrived at 11 and I spent way too many hours sitting in Heathrow Airport.
I boarded my 8-hour flight at 4:30 p.m. I thought I would be able to sleep, but no, it alluded me. So I watched a couple of movies, one of which was Slumdog Millionaire. It is so good; go see it if you haven't!
I arrived in Philly around 9:30. Because of traffic, Dad picked me up at about 11 and I got home an hour later. Everyone was waiting up for me and greeted me with hugs and kisses. I handed out souvenirs and then stayed up talking until 3 a.m. with my mom and sisters. I missed them so much!
The next morning I woke up at 7 because of my jetlag. It's still like that- going to bed late and waking up early. I took Lauren back to the airport with Dad at 12 and then worked at Kohl's the rest of the day. Gotta earn back all that money I spent!

Of beer and buds

Today I visited the local Nottingham Brewery called...no way, Nottingham Brewery. It is on the outskirts of the university, which is actually a few miles from city centre. The brewery is a part of The Plough Inn, a quaint pub with original wood tables and bars; I really liked the atmosphere.
This trip was prompted by my dad, the brewing enthusiast, who e-mailed the proprieter beforehand. I tried both to e-mail and call the same guy, but he never responded. So, I just headed over there myself. The outside of the brewery/pub smelled like the kitchen at home does when Dad is putting together his beer, except at least 10 times more so. I guess that would be the hops.
Once inside, I settled on a pint of the British Championship Beer winner, Nottingham Rock Mild. It was heavy and bitter; I liked it at first but after a while I got sick of it. I'm not much of a beer drinker. But my friend got Nottingham Legend, which was much lighter and almost sweet. I liked that one. Both beers were brewed right behind the inn. Outside were stacked barrels upon barrels, I suppose full of beer.
~
If the university had a campus flower, it would be the daffodil. For the past week or two, buds have been sprouting everywhere! This week they are in full bloom, with yellow beds as far as the eye can see. Even in the fields, there are random patches of gorgeous, golden petals. Purple tulips also seem to be popping up, although not quite in as much profusion as the daffodils. The flowers, along with the upper-50s weather, makes me happy!
Tomorrow is my full day: lectures and seminars from 9-12, a presentation from 1-2, and then a screening from 4-6. But it's the last time I will have to do it. :/

Manchester

In a week, I will be home. No more England, no more Nottingham or traveling.
Yesterday was my last day trip in England. I had wanted to go to Bath and Stonehenge, but getting there would have been way too complicated. I would have had to take a train to one station, get on another train and then take a bus. It's confusing and expensive. Besides, I've seen original Roman baths in Rome and I'm not that crazy about seeing a bunch of rocks in a circle...wow.
So I went to Manchester, once the cotton capital of England because of all the cotton shipped there from Liverpool. It was processed in the factories there during the Industrial Revolution. By coach, Manchester is about 2 hours northwest of Nottingham and Liverpool is about another hour from Manchester in the same direction.
I think my favorite cathedral out of all the ones I've seen on my travels is Manchester Cathedral. It's simple, clean-cut and has beautiful stained glass windows.
Town Hall is pretty impressive, too. For about a week before and after the Saturday I went, there is an Irish festival right in front of Town Hall in honor of St. Patrick's Day. There was Irish food, music and merchandise.
Another one of Manchester's claims to fame is that two famous scientists were born and went to school there. One was James Prescott Joule, who discovered that heat is a form of energy and created a measurement for it called the Joule. I remember learning about that in chemistry class way back when.
The other scientist was Ernest Rutherford, who split the atom. Sweet!
I went to Manchester with my two friends Mary Beth and Lim. We spent most of the day inside a huge, hands-on museum called the Museum of Science and Industry. It had a huge building housing all kinds of early aircraft. Another warehouse was full of trains. Then there were quite a few exhibits on the city itself. It was a lot of fun!
We were all pretty pooped by the late afternoon since we had been up at 6 in order to catch our coach. In fact, every time we sat down to take a rest, Lim would pass out. We kept having to shake her awake! Manchester was pretty cool, though.
I woke up this morning to a sunny sky; it was great. My foot has been feeling pretty good, even after the miles I walked yesterday. So I went for a run at the nearby park. I am happy to say my foot is completely healed since I didn't experience any pain while running or afterwards. yay!
I am upset, though, that there is no hot water. I don't know what's going on, but when I went to take a shower this morning, the water wouldn't get hot. The water was so cold it actually gave me a headache when I was washing out my shampoo. And the hot water in my sink won't work either. I really hope this gets fixed soon!

See Paris!

Follow the link for pictures of the City of Love:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsugi20/Paris#

Paris Finale: Part Trois

I woke up refreshed and ready to take Paris by force on Friday. Sandrine fed us a breakfast of toast and unsweetened yogurt (not the tastiest). Since Sandrine wouldn't be coming back to her apartment at all that day and we were sleeping at the airport, we said farewell in the morning and carried our duffle bags with us all day. It was a little bit of a pain, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Since we had done a lot on Thursday, we decided to take it easy on Friday. Thank goodness we did, because I soon learned that I had sprained my left foot. The side and part of the bottom hurt like crazy! But I survived.
We went to one of the highest points in the city called the Sacra Coeur (Sacred Heart) Cathedral. Lots and lots of steps, but it was worth it for the view. And the church itself was beauitful.
We then metroed down to the monument built for the World's Fair and the Hotel d'Invalides. This hospital was built during one of the Louis' reigns to house wounded soliders. It still does this, while also housing a couple of war museums.
We went back to the Eiffel Tower to walk around the mall in front of it and then crossed the bridge to another mounment that boasted incredible fountains. After that, we did some souvenir shopping near Notre Dame. After chowing down on some fresh, yummy bread, we headed to the Louvre.
By six, we were about dead. We had been going for two days straight and my foot hurt so bad! But this was the Louvre, the most famous museum ever! So, I sucked it up, ignored the pain, and cruised through three floors of paintings and atifacts. I saw the Mona Lisa, of course. It's small and unexciting...overrated, if you ask me. I did get to see works by Fra Angelico, though, and Peter Paul Rubens. And the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian artifacts were sweet!
We finished at nine and took a breather before regrouping and heading to the airport. We had to use three metro lines to get there. On the last line, we missed the stop where we had to get off and switch train lines. It gave us quite a scare because we thought that it meant that that line just wasn't running. But we eventually got back to Charles de Gaul Aeroport at 11 after about an hour-and -a-half of metro traveling.
We found some seats and tried to sleep- our flight wasn't until ten the next morning. But I was miserable; cold, tired, uncomfortable and in pain. But it was all good. I got some hot chocolate at about 6, went to the gate without a hitch, and flew back to jolly ole' England. I even got to sit in the very first row of the plane and stretch out my legs!
I arrived back at the dorm around 12 pm, ate lunch, took a shower, and then slept. I am so tired and my foot still hurts. I don't know how I sprained it, but I am hoping that if I rest it this weekend, it will heal up.
Altogether, it was a great trip and I loved my time in Paris.

Paris: Part Deux

In the morning, we took showers and planned out our day. As a couchsurfer, you're not allowed to be in your host's apartment when they are not there. Sandrine gave us three times to meet her: either at 7 pm at her place, 11 pm at a bar where she would be, or between midnight and 1 am at her place. We had until five to decide and then we would have to let her know what our plans were.
We bought tickets for the metro, which ended up being a major lifesaver because it took us everywhere so quickly. Everything in Paris is quite spread out.
We started out by heading to the Grand Opera, a huge structure with beautiful sculptures decorating it. The Grand Satircase inside is the site of one of my favorite Dsiney scenes from the movie Anastasia.
We then visited Notre Dame. It's actually on an island in the middle of the Seine. It was beautiful. Ever since I read The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, I've wanted to see this cathedral.
We then visited La Place de Bastille, where the famous prison used to stand. Not until I got there did I know that it was torn down. But there is a monument where it used to be. I kept remembering the story of Les Miserables and The Scarlet Pimpernel, and everything I had learned about the French Revolution.
Next was the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe, which is huge. Here we saw the gaint Cartier store and went into Louis Vuitton. Wow!
At this point, we called Sandrine and told her we would meet her at the restaurant around 11 because we were planning to see the Louvre at night.
But before that museum, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was between 5 and 6 when we rode the elevator to the top. It is high up! But it was definitely worth the trip. The views, as you can imagine, are specacular, especially since we went right at sunset. On the way up to the very top, two ladies from Boston attached themselves to Mary Beth and I because they were scared to death. It was funny.
Although we were pretty tired, we took the metro to the Louvre. Unfortunately, it closed right before we got there. But we learned that the next night was free admission for all those under 26.
So we went to the Musee D'Orsay instead, right across the river. This museum houses many impressionist works by Monet, Manet, Degas and Van Gogh, to name a few. I really enjoyed this because impressionism is my favorite style of painting. I can't say enough about how wonderful this museum was.
We finished around nine and headed towards the restaurant where we were supposed to meet Sandrine. We ate some yummy Japanese food and then met up with her at about quarter after 11. We stayed at the restaurant and then Sandrine's friend took us home.
It was such a full day and I was completely exhausted. I sacked out on the couch and slept like a log.

Paris: Part Un

I have been planning to go to Paris since the first week of school and on Wednesday, March 4 at 1 in the afternoon, I left the University of Nottingham for a holiday in the City of Love. I went with my friend Mary Beth; it's better to travel in pairs.
We flew from East Midlands Airport to Charles de Gaul Aeroport in the north of Paris, arriving at 7:30 at night.
A lady named Sandrine Frovnal picked us up. She is a part of a network called Couchsurfers who host people traveling in their home cities. Sandrine lives in the south part of Paris called La Kremlin-Bicetre. It was great that she picked us up with her car so that we didn't have to figure out the metro at night.
It was also wonderful because she gave us a tour of Paris by night!
I saw Moulin Rouge all lit up, as well as the area where Amelie was filmed. We drove by the Grand Opera, up the Champs Elysee and around the Arc de Triomphe, through the Louvre and across the Pont Neuf.
Sandrine said she had a surprise for us and after counting down from ten, we turned into a side alley and there was...the Eiffel Tower! It was all lit up and in five minutes started twinkling everywhere. It was a gorgeous sight.
Sandrine gave us couches to sleep on in her apartment. Despite the overwhelming smell of smoke (everyone in Paris smokes cigarettes)and the thin blanket that did nothing against the cold, I was grateful for a comfortable, free place to sleep.

Oxford pictures

Here is the link for the pictures from Oxford:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsugi20/Oxford#

Oxford

Happy March!
Yesterday I took another trip gratis the school to Oxford, home of one of England's oldest and finest universities. It is about two-and-a-half hours south of Nottingham by coach. I am learning that no matter what part of England you go to, there is so much history waiting to be discovered. The town got its name because it was a perfect place to herd animals across the otherwise deep Thames River. Thus, "ox" + "ford"....Oxford.
There are 37 colleges that make up Oxford University. This just means that there are 37 different residences/study halls. The most famous and largest of the colleges is Christ Church. The Great Hall here also doubles as the dining hall in all the Harry Potter movies. Christ Church is also the supposed site of where St. Friedswine, patron saint of Oxford, established her priory.
Oxford is also the place where many early Reformers were martyred. St. Mary's Church, in fact, has a list of names of men who were sentenced to death in that church for holding to the doctrines of the Reformation. Also, there is a spot at the end of High Street marking where many of these same men were burned at the stake.
There were so many buildings to see, some of them designed by famed architect Christopher Wren. These include the Sheldonian Theater, the Radcliffe Camera and the Boudelain Library. I would definitely go back to Oxford if given the chance; however, I'd probably go when it is warmer. It was awful walking around in the bitter English cold!
I can't believe it is already the beginning of March and I will be returning to the states in three weeks. Actually, there is some question about this right now. My advisor from Piedmont contacted me and, through a serious of mistakes she made, has discovered that I need to stay until the end of May.
However, I don't have the financial means to stay. Also, I have already made committments for the month of April. Moreover, she cannot confirm one return date with me months ago and then expect me to simply drop everything and return on another date. To me, this is completely unethical and unfair.
I am in the process of solving this problem and have every intention of returning to the states in late March as originally planned. If you could keep this issue in your prayers, I would be so appreciative!