Kevin and I ready for our trip to Salzburg



German country side



Sound of Music stairs "do re mi fa so la ti do do ti la so fa mi re do"



Me! With the Castle behind me. :)



Mary statue being crowned by two Angels on the church behind her.



"New" town hall. The old one was actually bombed, but it was rebuilt in the 50s in the old style.



Inside of the Hafbrauhaus. The stage at the other end is where Hitler used to give speeches.




Oktoberfest Museum



Bavarian dinner.



Two 1 Liter beires for me and Kevin at the Hafbrauhaus.



This was the standing wave that people were surfing on.



Olympic Stadium. It's very futuristic for the 70s when it was built...



Old BMW at the BMW museum.

Land of the Lions/What I Learned in Germany

Ok, so maybe the title isn't the best, since in all honesty, I learned so much, there would be no way to tell you what I learned. Having said that... I apologize in advance for the length of this blog post. :)

So Thursday, Kevin and I left Cambridge and headed to the airport to go to Germany! We got there kind of early and gates don't get posted until about 45-60 min before the flight, so we just hung out. I found a World of Whiskey store and made sure to get a pic for dad. :) We got onto our plane (Easyjet) and we were already to go (even got decent seats, minus the 2 annoying kids in front of us) and the pilot came on and told us we had been delayed an hour and a half, and we had to stay on the plane. When we finally did take off, all was smooth until we got almost to Munich. There was a storm going on, so we were put in a circle pattern for a half hour before we could land. As we began descending, lightning was flashing all around us (super scary). And of course the two kids in front of us were like "cool! look, i can see fork lightning!" It's a miracle no one strangled them. When we did get in, we grabbed our bag, and we were exhausted. Unfortunately, we then had to figure out how to use the German underground (U-bahn/S-bahn). When we got our tickets (finally), we got on the train, but that ended up terminating sooner than we needed it to, and so at 11:30 pm we were trying to figure out what to do. We don't speak great german, and no one speaks great English. It was interesting to say the least. We finally got to the Pension, and checked in and crashed.

Day 2 was a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. We had to be at the central train station at 9 am, so we were up at 7 and figuring out how to get there. We got there, and all was good. We only got lost once or twice (lol). :) It was rainy in the morning, and we were hoping it wouldn't rain all day. Anyways, we met w/ our tour group, and hopped on a train to Salzburg. By the time we got there (about 11:30) it had stopped raining, but was still cloudy. We got about an hour and a half tour of the city. We saw Mozart's house, the steps/gardens where the "do re mi" scenes were filmed, and this awesome castle that has never fallen (as in war time fallen, not physically fallen). We had the afternoon to ourselves to grab lunch and explore. It was beautiful. Sunny and about 75 degrees. perfect weather. So we grabbed lunch, and then headed to the castle. We went up the tram and got some 360 views of Salzburg and the Alps. After that we went to this church where there was some good statues and such. After that we went to the market area and got a pretzel. :) We met up w/ our group about 4:30 and headed back to the train station to head back to Munich. As we got on the train, the clouds started creeping up, and about half way back, it started raining again. By the time we got back it was about 7pm so Kevin and I headed back to the pension, and just grabbed dinner in the neighborhood we were staying in. I had my first kebab. It wasn't too bad, but the language barrier made it difficult to get what I was wanting. After that we just headed back to the Pension and chilled. Again, it was a beautiful day all day, and that night it stormed again.

Day 3 was time in Munich. The first half of the day we went on a Third Reich Walking Tour of Munich it started in the town center by the "new" town hall. However, they were finishing setting up for gay pride weekend when we got there so it made things extremely interesting. :) We met up w/ our tour group and headed off. It was really interesting seeing all these famous places and learning about the history.

A few things I learned: 80% of Munich was bombed; many of the taller landmarks were left alone so they could be used as landmarks; The Haufbrahaus was where Hitler began making speeches because beer halls are where everyone hung out and it's a lot easier to persuade people to do stuff when they're drunk; Hitler originally wanted to be a painter, but was turned down by university twice; After WWII, they were originally going to leave bombed out Munich as is and then rebuild about 50 miles away, but they couldn't do that, so they rebuilt, but a lot of the buildings were built w/ new materials in the old style.

That afternoon we went back to the train station to meet up w/ Kevin's cousin Jared and Jared's friend Sam who are both stationed up by Nuremberg. That proved difficult b/c they got in late, and we didn't know, and when we did find out, we had already left, so we had to go back and find them. We did, and so after that we literally just walked around Munich aimlessly for an hour and a half. So there was also apparently some sort of convention going on as well as gay pride weekend b/c we saw a lot of people dressed up in Star Wars weekends as we walked around (they could be related, but I don't think so). The good thing about the German S-bahn/U-bahn is that you can buy what are called partner tickets and they cover up to 5 people on ticket. So it was less than 10 euros total for a day ticket for us to ride around on. Also, no one actually checks the tickets. It's basically on the honor system. I don't think I saw one conductor/station person the entire time we used the S-bahn/U-bahn. Anyways, since we had this partner ticket we took Jared and Sam back to our pension for a half hour or so. Then we headed to the fun part of our evening. :)

The beer and food tour!!!!! The four of us had tickets, and so we headed back to the train station (it was literally our second residence while we were in Munich). We met up with our tour. There was about 16 of us total. We had a welcome beer and got a quick run down of what we were going to do, and then it was off to the Oktoberfest Museum. Now, I should mention here that it had been gorgeous all day, and as we went into the Museum, the clouds started rolling in. The plan was for us to be at the Museum until about 8 and then head to Haufbrakeller. We got through our guided tour of the museum, and at the end we got to sample 3 different beers (I definitely like the Weisse biere). They also gave us pretzels to eat, and not just any pretzels, but Bavarian pretzels that are like the size of your hand. Anyways, it had started raining while we were in the museum, so we had to chill a little longer until it stopped, which it eventually did. Then we caught the tram and headed to Haufbrakeller, but we didn't get there until about 8:45/9. Jared and Sam had to duck out by 9:20 in order to catch the tram back to the station. However, they got to eat w/ us first. We were served a traditional Bavarian cold dinner complete w/ different sausages/brautworsts/salamis, cheese, ham, bread, onions, sauerkraut, pretzels, and pickles. It was all really good. And of course, we all had another beer there (When in Rome). When we were all done it was about 9:45/10 and so we headed back out to catch the tram and go to the Haufbrahaus. However, the tram ended up being late, and it had started raining again as we waited. So about 10 of us (some people had left) huddled under the cover trying to stay dry. The tram came and we all hopped on and headed off. Unfortunately, the tram line was being work on and it was terminated about a mile from our destination and the rain really started coming down. So we ducked into a theater lobby to wait it out. As we were discussing what to do, the house manager came up and offered to let us watch the last 15-20 min of this 100 euro dinner show for free while we waited for the rain to stop. About 6 of us accepted, and the other 4 caught taxis to wherever they needed to go. The show was called "Move" and there was no talking, just music. So we saw the end of a Spanish dance, we saw a trapeze act (it was amazing, words cannot describe it), and then we saw the finale which involved jump roping and a pom dance. It was pretty cool. When it was done, we all headed back out, and the rain had let up, but it hadn't quit, so the decision passed to us, so the 6 of us decided to just go through the rain. So we did. Once there, 2 more left for the train. So 4 of us got a quick tour of the Haufbrahaus (it was 11pm) before we were let loose to go get a drink. Last call was at 11, so we found a table and grabbed a biere. Now, after 6pm, this place doesn't serve anything less than 1 liter beers. It was awesome. There was a band, and lots of drunk people to watch, lol. After that, Kevin and I went our separate ways and headed back to the pension.

Day 4 was our last day in Munich. It, also, started off beautiful. We checked out and went and got a luggage locker at the train station for the day. After that we went out and caught the Hop on Hop off tour bus. It took us to a lot of places we had already been, but it was still nice to see it again. So we had tickets to ride that around all day, and we had all day 4-zone tickets (b/c we had to go to the airport later). So after we rode through the whole thing once, we rode around again to the royal gardens, got out, and walked to the english gardens. We walked around the gardens and saw a standing wave where people were surfing (in Munich! go figure) and the Chinese bieregarten. We also saw a lot of people laying out b/c it was so nice, unfortunately for us, it was clothing optional, lol. Anyways. For lunch we went to one of the bieregartens and got some food. Then we hopped on the S-bahn/U-bahn out to Olympic park. It was pretty cool. They had made some improvements since they were competing for the 2018 winter Olympics (they lost to South Korea I believe). We spent a few hours there just chilling. There was also a BMW museum there that we stopped off in. We headed back to the city center so we could watch the glockenspiel go off (we ended up being disappointed, it's broken). So we caught the U-bahn/S-bahn still in and caught the hop on hop off bus around to Marienplatz (city center). It had started raining while we were underground though (go figure). Luckily, I had my umbrella. We got there kind of early so we people watched a little at the gay pride weekend thing and listened to what was going on on stage (I think it was a drag show. I couldn't see or understand what was being said). After we were disappointed, we went back to the train station, got our bags, and headed to the airport (much less adventurous this time around). We grabbed dinner there, and listened to the thunderstorm come through. It cleared off before we took off though, which was nice.

But, just because that wasn't enough of an adventure... Our flight ended up being delayed about a half hour b/c so many people brought suitcases that it wouldn't all fit in the overhead bins so they had to get some people to come out and stick them below. So Kevin and I got in at 11:10 instead of 10:45 and our bus back to Cambridge left at 11:35. Needless to say, we did not make it. We had to take a tram back to the main terminal, and then get through customs. We were like, crap, I guess we're sleeping in the airport. But, we went to the bus station anyways, just in case they had another bus going that way. Lucky for us, they did!!! Yay!!!! It left at 1am. So we had about an hour to kill, and then we took a 40 minute bus ride back to Cambridge. We got in about 1:45. Monday morning, we were both up for classes, and neither of us fell asleep in class (at least, not for the whole class) ;).

It was definitely a fun weekend, and one that will definitely be remembered. It's always things that don't go according to plan that you remember distinctly for years to come. Pics are up on facebook, but I think i'll post a few on here as well.

TGIT...

One thing I love about my study abroad programs over here: 3-day weekends!!!! :-D

So this week has been pretty good. Monday was the 4th of July and so we all (all 30 of us, or however many there are) went out. We just hung close to "home" and went to The Snug (the pub next door). They gave us a ton of coupons that was like get an American Burger and get a free cocktail. Now the burger = disgusting, but the cocktail was good. :) It was a fun night though. It was so fun there were some people missing in class the next day. Lol.

The next three days were pretty uneventful. Went to class, and then studied. Lol. Last night Jesse and I headed to The Free Press (we've decided this will be our regular Wednesday night hang out) and gossiped a little and chatted w/ the locals.

Today, in fact in about an hour, I'll be heading to the train station to head to London and catch a plane to Germany. We'll be in Munich this weekend. Although Friday we're taking a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. I'm really looking forward to this trip, although I think Kevin is kind of nervous. He's not really used to travelling, but once we're there it'll be good, I'm sure.

Most of our other friends are heading to London for the weekend. Some are leaving in about an hour, and others are going later, or tomorrow. There's about 8 of them who got wristbands to.... get this.... the Harry Potter Premiere in Trafalgar Square tonight. They went right after class yesterday and stood in line to get the last few wristbands! So apparently they have Trafalgar Square fenced off, and this wrist band gets you into the square mile fenced off area where the red carpet is. I'm not sure if they'll get close to see anyone (mainly b/c I don't know how many wristbands they gave out) but someone said the red carpet is a mile long, and so hopefully they'll be able to get some awesome pics. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous right now, and by a little bit, I mean a lot! :)

Anyways, that's all from here. I need to get packing. I'll post again on Monday!

Proof that Subway is better than McDonald's

So this weekend was another good one. However, I kind of consider any weekend with my English family a good one. This one was particularly good though because I also got to go to Harlaxton for a night (can I just go take my law classes there please?).

So Thursday evening I headed off to Harlaxton and got in a little before 9. I spent the first hour or so running around taking pictures, remembering all the awesome places to hang out, and just generally enjoying being home again. I spent a good 15 minutes looking for where I signed my name on a pipe down on the ground floor, but everyone signs the pipes, so there were hundreds of names to look through. Luckily, I had an idea of where I had signed, but that actually only helped a little. That night I vegged, and ordered pizza (really, I can't go to Harlaxton and not order Pizza King). However, I forgot that all the pizzas were buy one get one free, and so I ended up with a lot of food. I was able to pawn some of it off on some summer students though. When I was over there in 2006, the big clock on the tower, didn't work, but they were raising money to have it restored. Well, it has been restored, and it's beautiful, except when it chimes all through the night (1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, etc...). Oh well, it was great to be back.

The next day I headed off to Coventry. I met up with Uncle Stephen and Lynne, and was immediately accosted in order to get some passport photos taken (long story). After that we headed to the post office, sent them off to dad, and then headed into town for dinner with some of their friends. It was fun. They have a friend who's my age, her name is Lillian. She's very sweet, if not odd at some times, but was fun to talk to. For dinner I had two pints of Weston's cider, which I think I've had before, but it was delicious, and a burger and chips. It was really good.

On Saturday we got up and headed to Birmingham. In Birmingham, I kid you not, there are Subways on every corner. The Subways there are like Starbucks in America. There's always one near by. Turns out, Subway is now the leading fast food chain in the world. That's right, they surpassed McDonald's. We hit up a museum first, and that was pretty interesting. Next we went to Subway (well, it had been on my mind since we passed 3 of them in the mile to the museum) for lunch. Oh and the Subways over here, actually have ranch. Not salad cream, but actual ranch. If I need a fix, I know where to go. :)

That afternoon we went to a Back to Backs tour. It was basically a tour of how housing used to be in Birmingham, and it too was really interesting. I really enjoyed that. A back to back is literally, two houses, back-to-back. Instead of the front house having a back door or windows on the back, it has a brick wall and a house built on the other side, so the house on the back has an address that says back of number 24 Abbey Rd. Each house had 3 floors, but they were tiny houses, and the beds were extremely uncomfortable. Although I couldn't get any pics, I was allowed to touch everything, go figure. By the way, in the mile or two from the museum to the back to backs there were 3 Subways. After that I was let loose to go shopping for an hour, and spent some of my birthday money from Uncle David on a new dress. It's really pretty. :-D

That night we went to go see a play, "Dunsinane". It is the sequel to Macbeth. It was really good, there were some really funny parts to it. :) Before the play, we went to a fish and chip shop and got some dinner. In Stratford they were having a river festival, so across the river from the theater there was a bunch of long boats docked, and there was a stage, carnival booths and food, and a few basic rides (nothing mechanical). It was fun to watch. After the play we went to the pub and I had a glass of wine (I should really not drink wine, it makes me so sleepy). As we were having our drink, the river festival set off some fireworks, so I did get a little bit of a Fourth of July celebration this weekend. :)

The next day we had a lazy morning, and then they took me to the train station, and I headed back to Cambridge. My entire goal in getting back was to get back early enough so I could get my laundry started before everyone else got back (success). It was a pretty easy rest of the evening, because one good thing about train rides, is their excellent time to get work done. :)

Not much going on this week, just class, but next weekend is Munich and Salzburg. :-D

Oh, and Happy Independence Day!!! (first one I've ever missed I think).

Still waiting on the dryer....

So I'm trying to get some laundry done before I head to Coventry (I'm not sure I will actually finish before I have to leave), and while I wait, I figured I'd update my blog. :)

So while I get to do free laundry here, because the house I live in has it's own washer/dryer in the kitchen. Here's the thing. My building is one of the two that actually have free laundry, and there are students in 5 or 6 houses. So everyone comes here to do laundry. I have a feeling that in the future I'll either be doing my laundry in the middle of the night or during class. Either way, it could be interesting. And of course, both washer and dryer are small (which is what I was expecting) so you have to do laundry like every 3-4 days. And the dryer... well let's just say it sucks. Lol. Oh well. I'm leaving for the weekend, if all else fails I'll just hang clothes around my room.

So I'm finally getting into the swing of things around here (just in time for the weekend, lol). I think the jet lag I had this time around was by far the worse I've ever experienced. I have since learned that when I come over, I need to get on a schedule asap, so my body can adjust quicker. Classes are definitely becoming more interesting, so that's good, and the teachers aren't half bad either. :) The guy from UTK is awesome. I really wish he taught at Ole Miss! And of course my British professor, John Hopkins is a character for sure. One of his favorite things to say is "what's the point in having prejudices if you don't air them?" Check his Wiki page out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopkins_(lawyer)

Last night I grabbed my friend Jesse and took her to a less touristy English pub. It still wasn't as traditional as I'm used to, but I think since Cambridge is so touristy I'll be hard pressed to find what I'm used to. However, the place we went last night wasn't too bad. It was called The Free Press. While there we met several locals, and we'll definitely be back. It's only about a 10 min walk.

This weekend I'm heading to Coventry to visit Uncle Stephen and Lynne. I'm looking forward to seeing them. First though, I'm heading to Harlaxton. I'll be there tonight and tomorrow before heading to Coventry. I am soooooooooooo excited!!! :-D

Anyways, that's all from here. I've been snapping lots of pics, and I'll upload them as soon as I get a chance. Have a good weekend (I know I will)! :)

Strangeness...

So, today was the first day of class. I'm taking 3 classes: International/Comparative Family Law - not gonna lie, the professor is pretty dry, and I most definitely almost fell asleep listening to him this morning (not a good thing since there's only 14 of us in there), but maybe it's just b/c it was the first day; International Law - we have a 75 year old professor who is very British and says some very random things ("Paris is great, but there's one drawback - the Parisians"); and Comparative Law - my professor for this class is from UTK and he seems pretty cool, and the class seems fairly interesting as well.

The meals are really good here. Typical English breakfast (complete w/ fry bread, which I didn't realize until about half way through eating a piece while trying to figure out why it tasted so weird). We also get and English dinner (not lunch) and it is like dinner. Today was stuffed Guinea or some sort of fish, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and some other sides as well. They also have a fruit/salad bar, but apparently we're only supposed to get hot or cold, not both, and then we get dessert.

After lunch, we had a meeting where the important people at the college gave us the low down, and we got our internet passwords (which I actually don't need where I am). After that, Jesse, Kevin and I headed into town. We went to a dept. store first. I got a pillow and a fan (yay air). Then we went to the Sainsbury local (mini grocery store). I got some bottled water and some orange juice. Next stop (after dropping off what we had bought already) was to the book store to get our British texts, but they didn't have them, and so they're on order. After that we headed back to the college. Along the way we stopped at Starbuck's and then at a phone store. I got an English phone. I wasn't going to get one, but apparently, it's not like Harlaxton where only like one guy had a phone, pretty much everyone here has a phone, and so we're all communicating that way. So I used some of my birthday money that I got from Uncle David to get that. I can only call British Mobile phones, but I think that's all I'll need (unless I need to call the Porter's office). Anybody can call me though, and I'm almost positive it doesn't count towards my balance, so if you want the number, email/msg me.

This evening a bunch of us went to this Asian place to eat, but I wasn't all that hungry, so I just got something small. And now, at 9:30 pm, I'm finally getting around to doing my reading for tomorrow. This type of schedule is not going to fly for very much longer, that's for sure.

All is going well here, but at the same time, I feel like something's wrong. I'm not sure what, not even a little bit. But you know those feelings you get when you know something is not right? It's one of those. Usually, I come over here and I feel right at home, and when I was in Barrow I was, but something's different here. I dunno, maybe I'm imagining things, I just wish this feeling would go away.

Anyways, that's all from here, I really need to get some work done. I'll post some pics soon.

What a crazy day...

Wow. What a whirlwind day (to say the least). I am exhausted!

So this morning, I got up and Uncle David came and got me and offered to take me all the way to Preston instead of Lancaster, so I didn't have to change as much. When I got to Preston, I got my ticket, and it said I would get into Cambridge at 14:54, and would make two stops. One at London Euston, and one at Finsbury Park. So I got on the train and headed to London. All was going well, when all of sudden we got stopped. Apparently, someone had stolen 5 miles of signaling cable/equipment, and they were debating on whether to terminate our ride in Rugby, UK or go ahead and make our way through. After about 20 min of being stopped, they decided to go on through, BUT there was 2 trains in front of us that needed to go through as well. So when we got into Euston (finally) we were about an hour late.

I decided on the train that I would forgo the Finsbury stop (which only gave me 20 min to get there) and get the Kings Cross so I had about 45 minutes (plus Kings Cross was only one stop away). It's a good thing I decided to do Kings Cross, b/c as I found out later, Finsbury Park was closed, and the Victoria line was closed as well. Luckily, Kings Cross was on the Northern line, but it still took me a good 5 minutes to figure out what platform to go to. Once I got to Kings Cross underground, I then had to find the actual train station, which also proved difficult. Luckily, I found it in time to catch the Cambridge train. So I got to Cambridge, and as I was getting off the train, I saw a friend who was doing this program as well, and we grabbed a taxi together to the college.

When I got here, we had trouble finding the porter's lodge, and ended up needlessly dragging our luggage through gravel for about a block. Once we got here, they gave us our keys and showed us where to go. However, my door was broken, and I couldn't get in. So they put me in a different building, and let me choose the room, but the room I chose first was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too hot, and the ethernet connection was messed up, so I went to the Porter's and asked to change rooms.

Now this house/building I'm in now has a laundry room (yay free laundry), a kitchen, and my bedroom has my own personal bathroom (shower and all). Unfortunately/ Fortunately, we are right next to a pub. Literally. I can hear the conversations happening on the patio outside the pub. However, there are a bunch of us over here. They said once they get my room fixed I can take a look at it, and then decide where I want to stay. Right now my options are amenities vs. quiet. I'm not sure which is better. It's not like I'm going to be here on weekends (when I assume it's rowdiest), but I'm curious how late they chill outside, b/c if it's too late, I might bail on this room (and the amenities:-/).

Anyways, I made it and all is well. After an adventurous day I'm exhausted. I plan to grab a shower and hit the hay. G'night all!!!