The Final 2 Weeks: Italy & France

Well it's sure taken me long enough to get to this last entry.  As you can probably tell, things have been pretty busy since I returned.  So after I finished my program, I took the train to London to meet up with Alex and then we proceeded to Heathrow and flew to Rome.  Since I already talked about Rome earlier in my blog, I'm not going to recount everything I did, but rather just discuss the new things.  We stayed in a hotel near Termini Station, which was nice because both of the metro lines met up there and so it was easier to get around (although still not nearly as easy as Paris and London).  Unfortunately it was very hot and so that zapped our energy and made for shorter days (which was OK, it was a little more relaxing =)).  We did pretty much the same things I did with my family, except we also went to the Roman National Museums.  The first two we went to were pretty small and underwhelming, but the last two were very nice.  I particularly liked the frescos and mosaics, while Alex was particularly fond of the coin collection.

We spent about 4 days in Rome and then went to Florence for 2 days.  It was nice getting to go to Florence again, because when we went on my cruise, we only got to stay there for 4 hours and that wasn't nearly enough time.  We visited the Uffizi and Academia museums, which were both very impressive.  The Uffizi was mostly just one floor, but it was HUGE.  From Florence, we took an overnight train to Paris.

Paris was great and I know this sounds stereotypical, but I really love the Eiffel Tower.  On Sunday when we got there, we went to the Catacombs and randomly saw one of our friends there from UCLA (Michael Bright!).  We then went over to the Eiffel Tower and walked up to the 2nd level, which had an amazing view. We stayed there until the evening and saw the magical light show on the Eiffel Tower which happens on the hour for about 5 minutes.  For the rest of our time there we bought a 4 day Paris Museum Pass, which was nice because we got to cut a lot of lines and didn't have to worry about buying tickets in advance.  We went to see Notre Dame and walked up in the towers while I sang "The Bells of Notre Dame" the whole time =).  We also saw St. Chapelle, the Pantheon, and the Pompidou (a modern art museum).  The Pompidou was really neat and I wish we'd had more time to look around.  On Tuesday, we first spent a good amount of time at the Musee d'Orsay.  We also saw Napoleon's tomb, walked around a bit, and sat in front of the Eiffel Tower again (because I liked it so much =)).  On Wednesday we started the day by climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, then walked down the Champs Elysees, then spent the remainder of the day in the Louvre.  On Thursday we went to Versailles, which has amazingly vast gardens that I really enjoyed wandering through.  On Friday, we took the Eurostar to London, spent the rest of the day in London, and flew home the next day.

Overall it was a great trip, but very exhausting.  I jumped into an all day staff meeting for band the next day, followed by 10 days of band camp.  Thankfully things have calmed down a little bit now.  Thanks for reading my blog and make sure to look at my photos (they're mostly on Alex's facebook)!

Album 1: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150333561344508.357768.630119507&type=1&l=1a2ee0987e
Album 2: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150333583709508.357773.630119507&type=1&l=38f39655c7
Album 3: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150342499679508.359577.630119507&type=1&l=1bb56a3218
Album 4: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150342537289508.359581.630119507&type=1&l=6c211b0185
Album 5: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150342756559508.359613.630119507&type=1&l=7e28c04071
Album 6: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150342791624508.359619.630119507&type=1&l=910eaa9bc7

The Final Countdown: Cambridge Week 8!

I can't believe it's already the last week of the program!!!!  Where did all of the time go?  This week was an interesting mix of stressful and extremely fun.  Monday started with Alex still visiting, so it was kind of a touristy day.  We visited the colleges, went shopping around town, and went punting on the River Cam.  I was really excited about trying to punt myself, but it didn't last very long because I was so terrified of falling in the water that I couldn't really go anywhere.  Oh well, instead I got chauffeured around the river by Alex and my two other friends =)  The professional punters make it look so easy, but it's really not!  On Tuesday, Alex went to London and I returned to life as normal, which mostly consisted of studying for my final on Thursday.  I went out to dinner on Wednesday with a couple of friends, but other than that most of my time was consumed by studying, so it's really not that exciting.

I took my final on Thursday and I think it went well.  After I got back, I did a final read through of my paper, submitted it, and then was officially done with classes at Cambridge!!!  In the evening we had our final formal hall at King's.  Although a good number of people had already left to go back to school, there were still a lot of people there and I had a really great time having dinner with my friends.  The PKP program hosted a competition for blogs and photos so that they could use some additional material for marketing next year and my blog won as one of the top 4 blogs!!!  I can now officially say I have an award winning blog! =) hehe.  I won this really nice 800 year anniversary book about Cambridge autographed by the Master of Pembroke College, Richard Dearlove (who was the head of MI6 for a while!).  The only unfortunate part is that it's very large and heavy, so transportation is a bit of a difficulty.  Afterwards there was a BOP in the King's Bar and adjoining room and I had a great time dancing with my friends!  Today (Friday) was spent packing, responding to emails, doing laundry, exploring Cambridge, etc.  Basically I was doing a bunch of things that needed to get done before leaving Cambridge.  It was raining for most of the day, so I didn't really want to do much, so it ended up being more of a relaxing day =).  I very much enjoyed my summer in England and all of the friends I made!

Tomorrow I'm taking the train into London, the tube to Heathrow, and then Alex and I are flying to Rome for a 2 week vacation before band camp starts.  We'll be going to Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Paris, Versailles, and then back to London.  It should be very fun and very exhausting.  I'll have limited internet access, so don't expect a post for a couple weeks.

Here are the pictures from this week: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2291518045985.130469.1190024172&l=0e84b7de35&type=1

Cambridge: Week 7

On Monday, I went to see "Much Ado About Nothing" in the King's College back gardens as part of the summer Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.  PKP purchased tickets for the Shakespeare class and they had some extra, so I was able to go for only 5 pounds when the regular concession price is 11 pounds!  What a deal! =).  It was really nice and thankfully it didn't rain on us.  On Tuesday I went to a British Regional Accents Night where a professor and his actor friend imitated accents from the different regions of the United Kingdom and Ireland.  It was very similar to my Varieties of English class and it was neat hearing other people try out the accents.  One of the funniest parts was when one of the PAs imitated a "California" accent.  I put California in quotations because it was crazy valley girl speech.  It's funny how we're stereotyped like that and in reality sound like normal people =).  On Wednesday there was a formal hall in Pembroke, which was good.

Friday was definitely the most fun because I went to my first ever Salsa class!!!  Despite the fact that some guys were not terribly coordinated/thought it was OK to criticize us when they didn't know what they were doing, it was really fun!  We took a class for 2.5 hours and the time flew by because it was so much fun!  I'm definitely going to look into taking a Salsa class at the UCLA gym during the school year.  On Saturday, Bisera and I explored Cambridge.  We saw a lot of the different colleges and I really got a better feel for the city.  The colleges are all really beautiful and unique, yet also similar.  King's has a really different feel than most of the other colleges we visited.  While a lot of the other colleges have enclosed spaces and courtyards, there's not very much enclosed space at King's at all.  The courtyards are gigantic and open.  On Sunday I met up with Alex!!!  It's incredible that it had been 2.5 months since we'd seen each other.  I gave him my phone number so he could call me when he arrived, but it wasn't working.  Thankfully I ran into him on my way to the train station.  It could have been bad if we hadn't been able to find each other, but the crisis was averted.  By the time we got back to King's and settled in, it was around 4/5pm and a lot of things were closed because it was a Sunday and around closing time for stores here (stores here close anywhere from 5-6pm daily, which is really weird since stores usually stay open a lot later at home).  Anyways, Sunday night became a napping night for Alex (because he was still on CA time and hadn't slept a lot on the plane) and a work/catch up on emails evening for me.

Besides all of these fun activities, I attended class daily and spent a good amount of time working on my paper for my Finance class, with the hope of getting it done before Alex arrived (which I mostly succeeded with!).

Cambridge: Week 6

Trivia on Monday evening was fun.  On Tuesday I got to go on a tour of the Wren library in the afternoon.  The Wren library is the library of Trinity College, which is one of the richest and most famous colleges of Cambridge.  There's a lot of construction going on in Trinity this summer, so no visitors are allowed, so getting to go to the library on the campus was an even bigger deal!  The library has the original manuscript of Winnie the Pooh, original copies of Newton's books, and even a lock of Newton's hair (which is kind of weird and creepy if you ask me).  In the evening I watched Monty Python's "Life of Brian," which is the first Monty Python movie I've seen.  Interesting humor, but I'm not sure if it's quite my type.  On Wednesday I went to a plenary lecture in the evening, with the topic being "Is the Internet Dumbing us down?"  I understand now why I have such a hard time concentrating on things for long periods of time =).  Thursday I watched "Submarine" and it was interesting.  On Saturday, three friends and I took the train into Canterbury and spent the day exploring the city.  We went to the Canterbury Cathedral, on a river boat tour, and on a ghost tour in the evening.  Canterbury is a cute little city, but I'm starting to think a lot of the English towns look very similar to each other.  On Sunday we went to Dover, which I found more interesting than Canterbury.  We spent the first part of our day in the Dover Castle, which was really cool!  The castle is absolutely huge and there is soooo much to see.  My favorite part was the secret underground war tunnels, which were used extensively during WWII, especially to bring troops back from France to escape death by Nazis.  In the afternoon we went to see the White Cliffs of Dover, which were very beautiful.  This stop was very relaxing and we could see the coast of France in the distance.  There were no guard rails on the sides, so it was a little bit scary getting towards the edge, as you could fall without too much difficulty and it was a long ways down.  Thankfully no one got hurt and we returned to Cambridge in the evening after a productive and fun weekend.

Here's a link to the album which has Canterbury/Dover pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2247232058863.128614.1190024172&l=0656da4a0a&type=1

Cambridge: Week 5!

The beginning of week 5 was basically an extension of Module 1, as I had a final essay for my Creativity and Business Innovation class due on Wednesday.  However, I was able to squeeze in trivia on Monday night (where we didn't get last place, we actually got somewhere in the middle!) and 2 plenary lectures.  The plenary lecture on Tuesday was one of my favorites so far.  It was about Colonel Gaddafi and was accompanied by a powerpoint presentation with really interesting pictures.  The professor speaking was really funny and gave a very interesting perspective on this issue and history in general.  I learned that Gaddafi had a goat he drank milk from daily and the military was able to find him by tracking the goat.  I also learned that he had plastic surgery later in life, but when he originally started ruling, was considered one of the best looking leaders in the world.  Very interesting stuff!  Anyways, on Wednesday evening I saw The Full Monty, which I hadn't seen before and I liked.  My friend and I were both thankful for our "Varieties of English" class last module, because it helped us to understand more of the dialogue.

Thursday through Sunday I went with friends to London!!  On Thursday we traveled to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, and got a little bit lost and soaked in the process of doing so.  Afterwards, we went to the British Museum and returned home for the evening to plan out the rest of our long weekend.

Friday we started out with Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards.  It was very crowded and we didn't see too much during the ceremony, but it was still cool, especially to see the band march in! =).  The band arched up inside the gates and played some interesting song choices, including "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Sweet Caroline."  We left a little early to go take pictures at the gate nearby and when we were there, the band marched out along the long street leading to Buckingham Palace and practically no one was standing along the street!  That was the best place to see the band and we definitely took pictures and then chased them down the street several times to see them again and take more pictures!  From there we walked through the park and to Parliament.  When I went 2 years ago I was able to go in for free, which is apparently only an option when Parliament is in session.  Because Parliament currently isn't in session, we weren't able to go in for free and didn't want to pay for a tour (plus there were no open spots), so we just admired the outside.  We walked around Westminster Abbey and did the same thing of admiring but not going inside.  (Tip: If you don't want to pay to go into a church but want to see the inside and don't mind investing a little time, go to a service, as they're free to attend.)  From there, we walked to Trafalgar Square and admired the scenery and sat by the fountain for a bit.  We went to the National Gallery for a couple of hours and saw lots of (probably famous) paintings.

Saturday was probably the fullest day of the trip!  First, we went to the Natural History Museum and explored there for a couple of hours.  There was a dinosaur exhibit among other cool things.  The afternoon was reserved for the Tower of London!  (Tip: If you want a cheaper ticket, ask for it without the voluntary donation.  The prices listed are with the voluntary donation and I saved about GBP 1.55 by doing this!)  There are free tours offered at intervals throughout the day and we weren't planning on doing one because we knew it would be crowded, but we literally walked in just as it was starting, so we decided to give it a chance.  The tour guide ended up being really funny and informative, so we stayed for the whole 1 hour tour and explored for the next 2 hours until we were kicked out at closing time.  We definitely could have spent more time there, but I guess that just leaves more to see for next time.  We saw the crown jewels and some torture equipment, among other things.  An interesting fact is that all of the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters) that work there actually live in the Tower of London and are required to serve in the military for a minimum of 22 years.  And the guards that work there and wear the funny, tall hats are actual soldiers in the British military and this is one of their rotations.  So the soldiers that are there currently were in Afghanistan 4 months ago.  Pretty crazy, huh?!  Such wildly different jobs!  After that I met up with AMANDA MICHAEL and it was glorious to see her!!!  With her and my other friend, Jess, from the PKP program, we had dinner and then went to the Tate Modern museum, which is a modern/contemporary art museum located next to the Globe.  Out of all of the museums, I think this was one of my favorites, because there are so many different mediums and different styles.  For me, modern art museums really spark conversation about the meaning behind it, what art is, and what gives it value or makes it "good."

On Sunday, I went to the Science Museum in the morning and there was a really neat space exhibit.  I went to Notting Hill for lunch and was going to walk around afterwards, but it was pouring down rain, so I decided to do something else.  I was waiting for Amanda to finish a play at the Globe and the Tate Modern was right next to it, so I decided to go back and wait for her there, as we only got to spend a little over an hour there the night before.  Afterwards, I went back to the university accommodation to get my stuff and Amanda and I met up and were going to have dinner, but because of little time and few open/available food options near her hotel, I decided to go to King's Cross and eat on the train.  We made the train we wanted to and got back to King's College in Cambridge by about 9:30pm.  It was definitely a really fun trip, but I was glad to be back, as I had things to catch up on and walking/standing all day for 4 straight days had left my muscles pretty sore.

Here's the link to my pictures from this long weekend, plus some other punting pictures from Cambridge, which will  be discussed in the Week 6 post: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2247232058863.128614.1190024172&l=0656da4a0a&type=1

Pictures from the last 2 months!

So this weekend I finally decided to upload my pictures to Facebook, which pretty much took the entire day!  If you're friends with me on Facebook, you can view the pictures directly on there.  If you are not, however, below are the links to all of the albums.  These pictures are from my vacation with my family before my study abroad program go through the first four weeks of my Cambridge program.  Enjoy!

Album 1: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227018393534.127652.1190024172&l=c026fdd828&type=1

Album 2: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227085635215.127655.1190024172&l=feaaddd66d&type=1

Album 3: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227178557538.127659.1190024172&l=d54076316a&type=1

Album 4: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227310080826.127665.1190024172&l=3d109c5f58&type=1

Album 5: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227399643065.127673.1190024172&l=d0a13d103b&type=1

Album 6: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227561527112.127685.1190024172&l=5231854d8d&type=1

Album 7: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227639449060.127689.1190024172&l=ae4b29772b&type=1

Album 8: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2227795692966.127701.1190024172&l=8015433bb0&type=1

Cambridge: Week 4

Week 4:

Week 4 was definitely the most stressful to date because of finals.  I had a final paper due on Friday, along with 2 final exams on Friday.  Yay...Unfortunately the week days were rather uneventful because I was studying a ton (and taking breaks to watch Arrested Development =D).  On Tuesday night I went to a formal hall at Pembroke College and we ate dinner in the Old Library, so that was neat.  For our last Varieties of English lecture, it was really neat because we had our lecture in the evening on the bank of the River Cam (which our professor called King's Beach).  It was a beautiful view, with the river right in front of us and King's College directly behind it.  There's a cow pasture right behind the college and our professor and the guest speaker were lecturing from inside the pasture and would look back occasionally to make sure the cows weren't getting to close, so that was pretty funny!  On Friday after exams, PKP planned a Bop, which is the British term for a dance.  The dress code was "fancy dress," which is what Brits call a costume party, with the theme being "Cool Britannica."  Unfortunately I was cheap and lame and didn't dress up, but still had a fun time even though we got very lost trying to find the location (it was called "Hidden Rooms," and it was mostly because no one looked at the map before we left, not that it was really that hidden).

On Saturday I went with friends to Oxford and that was really fun.  One of the girls in the group studied abroad for a whole year at Oxford, so it was nice having someone knowledgeable in our group and I learned a lot of cool facts.  Did you know they have a whole college building just for taking exams?  Crazy, I think!  Unfortunately we couldn't really go into any of the colleges because they were all having graduation that day (poor timing, but who knew?).  Sunday was a relaxation/do my final essay for my Business class day (which isn't really all that relaxing).  Thankfully, it's almost done as of now, so I'm very happy about that.

Cambridge: Week 3

Week 3:


Academically, week 3 was mostly spent writing my final paper for my Varieties of English class.  I chose the task of determining my own idiolect, which is basically the way I speak (vocab, pronunciation, grammar, etc.).  It was actually pretty interesting and I got to interview my family members to try and figure out what features I share with which person.  On Wednesday I played Badminton, and that was really fun!  Unfortunately my wrist and forearm were a bit sore the next day, but it was totally worth it.  On Thursday I went on a tour of the Classical Archaeological Museum.  This museum is the upper floor of the Cambridge faculty building for Classics.  It's basically a collection of casts of famous sculptures from around the world, to aid Classics students in their learning.  Admission is free (which always makes things better!) and not many tourists know about it, so there were very few people there!  On Sunday, I went to London through my program (called PKP for Pembroke-King's Programme).  My friend and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was really fun!  It's not as popular as other museums in London, so it was very crowded, which was fantastic!  It had a wide collection of exhibits, including a very large glass one, and was HUGE.  We spent only a couple of hours there and I feel like we barely scratched the surface.  After that we met up with some other friends and explored Harrods for a bit and saw tons of things that are WAY out of my price range.  Did you know they even sell puppies there?  In the evening, we met back up with the program to see "All's Well That Ends Well" at the Globe.  Little did we know that the program provided us with standing tickets.  There are pros and cons to standing tickets.  The pro is that you have the best "seat" in the house, as we were very close to the actors and had a great view.  The slightly larger con is the pain from standing for 3 hours.  Also, standing tickets are only 5 pounds!  So if you're interested in seeing a cheap play at the Globe, opt for the standing tickets.  Although it was a very authentic experience, I think if I returned I'd pay a little more for a seat.  It was definitely a fun day though and I enjoyed the little piece of London I got to see!  It is also worth noting that this is the week I got hooked on Arrested Development and watched an unmentionable amount of episodes (another reason it took me so long to write these blog entries...=D).  

Cambridge: Week 2

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for taking so long to update my blog!  As you'll see in my upcoming Week 4 post, I've been busy with finals recently and other such fun things.  But alas, here is what you've been waiting for =).

Week 2:

This week I was finally able to settle in to life at Cambridge!  After a long weekend away in Scotland, I still had some catching up to do with reading, but was finally able to do it.  I had a midterm essay assigned for my Business class which went well and was relatively painless.  On Thursday night, I went to Harry Potter Trivia at the Union Society (in which we got last place =D...haha) and then we watched Book 7, Part 1 in preparation for the premiere of Part 2.  It was fun to watch it with a group of college kids and even though I saw it relatively recently, it was still a good reminder, as I forgot some things.  On Friday I went to a formal hall at King's College, which was awesome because we got to go on the Back Lawn for drinks beforehand!  Going on the grass here is a VERY big deal, because there are very strict rules against it and only senior members of the University are allowed to walk on it, so if someone is walking across the grass, you know they're pretty important!  On Saturday I went to see the premiere of Harry Potter with friends, so that was really cool!  Seeing the last movie in England was neat, but to be honest, it wasn't really all that different from seeing it in the U.S.  The biggest difference was that most of the commercials beforehand had British accents and were also quite odd.  Here's my favorite one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CcxJQq1x8.  I laughed quite a bit, so you should totally check it out =).  I was hoping to explore Cambridge more during the weekend, but unfortunately it rains all the time here, so my plans were thwarted.  Oh well, plenty of time to do that =)

Scotland Trip!

                Included in our program fees was a 4 day trip to Scotland (granted, 2 of the days were spent driving, so it was really only 2 days we spent in Edinburgh [pronounced Ed-in-bura]).  On the way there, we travelled through the city of Richmond and had a 2 hour lunch break there, so we got a chance to explore the Richmond Castle.  We stayed at the University of Edinburgh, Pollack Hills, which is just outside the city center of Edinburgh.  After arriving the first evening and settling into my room, I walked into and around town with 3 other girls, just to explore and get a feel for the city.

                On Friday I started the day with a walk/hike up to Arthur’s Seat, which is a large hill that overlooks the city and the ocean.  Thankfully it decided to start raining when we got back to the bottom.  We arrived at the Scottish Parliament and I walked around with 3 others and explored the public areas.  This was a very interesting building architecturally, because it’s very modern artsy and not what you would expect from a Parliament building in Great Britain.  In the debating chamber, the backs of the gallery chairs were in the shape of Scotland! 

                After eating lunch, we went to the National Museum of Scotland where a fellow from Cambridge specializing in Medieval Scotland showed us around and told us the meaning behind some of the medieval artifacts.  It was a neat museum, which detailed the chronology of Scotland, starting with the oldest at the bottom and the most recent at the top.  I preferred the top half of the museum to the bottom half and especially liked watching a short documentary where Scottish individuals were interviewed about various topics.  There was also a very neat glass exhibit, with beautiful works of art constructed entirely from glass! 

                We ate dinner, looked at the front of the Edinburgh castle, and walked back to Pollack Halls.  That evening, the Cambridge staff had arranged a Scottish dance for us, called a Ceilidh, which was akin to Scottish line dancing.  There was a very good band dressed in kilts, comprised of 3 people, one on drums, one on fiddle, and one on guitar.  They instructed us on how to do the dances and played some excellent music.  Although it got a little hot in the room after some epically long dances, it was really really fun and I’m so glad I got a chance to experience Scottish dancing!

                On Saturday I signed up for a hike in the Trossachs, which they called the Scottish Highlands in miniature.  This hike took a while, but was totally worth it because of the absolutely beautiful scenery!  It was definitely an adventure, as many times it seemed the only path there was was from people ahead of me in the group.  My shoes got very muddy and wet (I put them in the washer when I got home from Cambridge…I didn’t realize you could wash shoes!) and it was a very taxing experience, but I really feel like I accomplished something and had a great time getting to know people better on the hike and challenging myself physically.  They warned us heavily before the hike about bringing a waterproof top because it usually rains, but we got extremely lucky and it didn’t rain on us once! 

                After returning and showering, I went with some friends to a restaurant called The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote some of her early Harry Potter novels.  Our table had an excellent view of Edinburgh Castle and it was a fun experience, especially going into the bathroom, which was covered with Harry Potter graffiti. 

                On Sunday we drove back to Cambridge, by way of Fountain’s Abbey.  We had another 2 hour lunch break here and we got to see the ruins of Fountain’s Abbey, which were very nice.  Overall, it was a really fun trip to Scotland!   

Cambridge at Last!

7-3-11

                Last night we flew into Heathrow from Italy and finally got to the hotel around 12:30am, after the most expensive cab ride of my life.  It turned out that a glitch in the hotel’s computer system caused the hotel to overbook by 38 rooms and after much discussion with my dad and the hotel staff, we were moved to a different hotel, which they comped.  This hotel turned out to be this fabulous 5 star hotel and I wish it wasn’t 2am when I got there, so I could have enjoyed/explored it a little more. 

                After we woke up, we took a cab to the hotel my parents and brother were staying in in London near King’s Cross station.  We ate lunch and then got on the train to Cambridge to start my adventure!  My dad got tickets on the fast train to Cambridge, so the ride was only 45 (no stops!) and it went really quickly because we talked to this very nice woman from England the whole ride.  We took a cab to King’s College, where my check in was for the program.  My parents helped me bring my bags up to my room, which was great because there is no elevator in my building.

                So my dorm room is actually on the King’s College campus and I can see the River Cam from my window!  All of the rooms are singles and include a sink and have a shared bathroom and shared mini-kitchen.  My room is huge!  It also provides great exercise because it’s on the top floor of a tall and narrow spiral staircase, making it feel very medieval.  My parents and I parted ways and I went on a short city tour with one of the PA’s (Program Assistants, kind of like RA’s).  I met more people at dinner that evening and spent the remainder of the evening unpacking and settling in.

Week 1: Cambridge

                This week was definitely very busy!  I’m taking two classes this module (4 week period – there are 2 of them in my program), “Varieties of English” and “Creativity and Business Innovation.”  I like both of my classes, but the Creativity and Business Innovation fellow (what they call professors) expected us to have quite a bit of reading done those first couple days and I really just didn’t have time to do it and so I felt a little lost in some of the lectures/seminars (the equivalent of a discussion).  We had a formal hall on Monday evening which is a formal dinner where everyone sits at long tables and is kind of Harry Potterish.  Tuesday evening held a Plenary Lecture, which is a lecture by a particular person on a given topic.  The topic of this lecture was “Why is Cambridge Unique?” and it was interesting to listen to because I learned some additional history about Cambridge.  On Wednesday afternoon I went on a historical tour of Cambridge, which focused on a handful of colleges.  Cambridge University is composed of 32 (I think) colleges, such as King’s College, Trinity College, St. John’s College, etc. 

                On top of all of these evening events and class, I had laundry to do, a room to fully unpack, food to buy, articles to read, etc.  Needless to say, those first three days were very busy and a little overwhelming, especially because I was trying to meet people and make friends on top of all of this. 

More on our 4 day Scotland trip coming soon! 

Roma!

6-30-11: Roma, Italia

          We got off the cruise in the morning and took a taxi to our hotel in Rome.  It's called Hotel Emona and is in the southwest corner of Central Rome.  After putting our luggage away, we went to the mini mart and bought bus tickets and took the #3 bus to the Coliseum.  My dad bought tickets in advance, which I highly recommend if you go, because you skip the whole line.  The Coliseum was definitely a very neat place to visit and I really enjoyed soaking up the history and imagining Gladiator fights!  There was a Nero exhibit and altogether was a very neat stop.  

          We walked by the Roman Forum and observed from the street, but didn't go in.  We ended up in the Piazza Venezia, which had a very cool and huge building.  I'm still not quite sure what it's for, but it was still a cool building.  We stopped just above the piazza for some gelato and bottled water.  This was the largest and most expensive ice cream/gelato I've ever had in my life, but it taught me a valuable lesson: always ask about prices and sizes before ordering.  

          We then proceeded to the Pantheon, which is not all what I expected it to look like.  I was expecting some sort of large white building with many columns, but it's an old brown building with a giant dome.  Alex tells me that building a dome in those times is very hard and that's why it was so impressive, and I'm sure he's correct.  

          Next was the Piazza Navona, which was also huge and very impressive (are you getting the theme here?...things in Rome are huge and impressive).  There was a beautiful fountain in the middle and the whole middle walkway was lined with artists and very nice paintings.  The large domed structure is a church (not surprising - many of the large and fancy buildings here are churches, so it's generally a good guess if you don't know what something is).  It was very ornate, like most of the churches are here.  

         Finally we went to the Trevi Fountain, which is not at all what I was expecting.  I was expecting a circular fountain that was large and nice, but ordinary.  This fountain was gigantic and more rectangular.  The statues took up most of a wall and besides being crowded, it was very nice and peaceful.  I threw a penny into the fountain and made a wish so that was neat.  I saw other people standing backwards and throw the coin over their shoulders, so I just did it to.  I'm not sure if that's what you're supposed to do - it's possible that one person decided to do that and everyone else just thought that was the right thing to do, so who knows.  

          We returned to the hotel to learn that the free wifi worked (it didn't earlier in the day), so that was pretty awesome, because I hadn't really been able to do much in terms of internet usage on the cruise and I was getting pretty behind on things.  We went to dinner at a cafe and it was very yummy.  I had some pasta and a soda.  It's amazing how common pizza and gelato are here!  You'd think people would get tired of eating that all the time, but I guess not.  

          Looking back at the day, we were very impressed with how much we saw in one day!  We were worried that 3 days in Rome wouldn't be enough, but we hit a lot of the main sights in one day!

7-1-11

          Today we started out at the Spanish Steps, and they were very anticlimactic.  In pictures, they had flowers dividing the stairs into 3 sections, but there were no such flowers to be seen and they just looked like ordinary stairs to me.  We went to the top and enjoyed the nice view.  We proceeded to walk through some nice gardens.  We had lunch (pizza again...surprise!) and then went to a Leonardo Di Vinci museum that showed his inventions.  

          Next, we meandered our way to the Vatican, passing over the Tevere River.  We went into St. Peter's Basilica, which is probably the largest building I've ever seen in my life!  It was very ornate and impressive.  Make sure you wear clothing that covers your shoulders and knees (at least not shorts) so you can get in.  My dad had arranged a nighttime tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel and so went over to meet up for that.  Again, this is a good place to buy tickets in advance (just for the Vatican Museums, not necessarily a tour).  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and I really enjoyed hearing commentary about the Vatican.  Because I don't know very much about religion, I think taking a tour helped me get a lot more out of what I was seeing.  The rooms of the Vatican Museums were again huge and impressive.  They just kept going and going and going....The Sistine Chapel was very nice, but started to hurt my neck a little bit from looking up at the ceiling for so long.  The guide told us the Sistine Chapel was the first painting Michelangelo had ever done and before that he was just a sculptor, so that's pretty amazing.  I'm amazed at how all the buildings are so big and grand for such a small countries (the smallest in the world).  I can now say I've been to the 2 smallest countries in the world (Vatican City and Monaco), so that's pretty neat.

7-2-11

          Today we didn't really have anything specific planned, so we did a little bit of wandering.  We took a bus from our hotel to Termini Station and went from there.  We looked around Termini Station, looked at the Piazza della Repubblica, and saw other neat things.  The neat thing about Rome is you can just wander and stumble upon something magnificent.  We saw some more churches, which were again all huge and ornate.  I feel like all of the churches were competing with each other to see who could build the biggest and grandest church.  I'm now sitting in the hotel lobby writing this and a taxi will be here at 6pm to pick us up and take us to the airport.  Our flight to London leaves around 9pm and then we'll stay there overnight and train in Cambridge tomorrow!

The Last Day of the Cruise: Naples, Italy

6-29-11: Naples (Napoli), Italy

In Naples, there was a little debate about what we were going to do.  One idea was to go to Pompeii and Sorrento and we were about to agree to a price with a taxi driver when another taxi driver we had been talking to earlier about a similar idea came over and got really angry at us and started yelling at the taxi driver we were talking to in Italian and it looked like they were about to get into a fist fight.  Needless to say, we abandoned that option and went with a different taxi driver on a panoramic drive of the coast and then he dropped us off at the Archaeological Museum.  The drive was a little bit crazy, to say the least, but beautiful nonetheless.  We saw some breathtaking views and thankfully didn't fall of the side of the cliff.  Our taxi driver drove down some pretty narrow streets and my favorite was the tiny street vendor area he drove down where there were basically people standing against both sides of the car.  

The Archaeological Museum was very nice and held ruins from Pompeii, so we still got to see a glimpse of it. I believe a lot of the ruins were reconstructions, but I'm not completely sure.  Most of these statues had their heads on, which is refreshing, as many of the ruins you see are headless statues.  

Mediterranean Cruise

Hello Everyone!

It's so exciting to have a travel blog!  I'll try to keep it updated and I hope you all enjoy hearing about all of my adventures this summer!  This first post will be a long one because I've been keeping track of my cruise in a Word document which I'll paste in below.  Enjoy!

6-9-11 

¡Ciao y bienventro a Italia!  I know some of this is Italian, but you’ll have to excuse me as I filled in the words I didn’t know with Spanish. 

Today has been a very long day.  We flew from LAX to Heathrow and then from Heathrow to Fiumicino (Rome).  I watched Just Go With It, The Adjustment Bureau, and Rango on the flight.  Despite the fact that I’m running on very little sleep, it’s still neat to be in Italy for the first time.  I’m trying to pronounce the words I see on signs, but am probably not doing the best job.  The driver that took us from the airport to our hotel (near the cruise ship terminal) taught us a little Italian on the way over, so that was really cool!  When we went to check into our hotel it turns out that some ill guests needed to stay some extra nights and so they moved us to a nearby hotel.  My dad was a little disappointed because it was supposed to be the best hotel in this city, but the one we are in is just fine and I’m so tired I think I’ll probably just pass out soon anyways.  We are 9 hours ahead now, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge adjusting to the time change.

                We went to a pizzeria for dinner and it’s neat to say that I’ve eaten pizza in Italy!  I also had Coke Zero with it from a very skinny and tall can.

6-10-11

                Wow!  I don’t think I’ve ever slept for 11.5 hours!  My body still doesn’t know exactly what time it is, but I’m definitely getting better adjusted.  I want to watch the Italian part of Eat, Pray, Love and try to learn some Italian words and my mom wants to watch Under the Tuscan Sun.

6-11-11

                Tomorrow we’re going to Dubrovnik, Croatia!  I never thought I’d go to Croatia.  It’s funny because for some reason or another I called it Dovorjak yesterday (I have no idea where I got that name from) and now my brother called it that as well.  Today was a sea day, so I got the chance to relax, go in the Jacuzzi, read a book, and eat lots of food =). 

6-12-11

                Today we visited Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I never thought I’d come to Croatia, or even necessarily Eastern Europe.  France, Spain, and Italy were on my must see list, but I hadn’t really planned past that.  I didn’t really know what to expect from Croatia, but what I saw was not it.  Off the ship were beautiful houses and a sparkling ocean.  We explored the Old City, a pedestrian only area surrounded by a tall stone wall.  It was a quaint little area and I had a lot of fun.  I went to an internet café to check my email and was surprised by the different keyboard.  Namely, the y and z keys were reversed.  I never realized how frequently I used the “y” key until I sent emails on that computer today.  I was also never able to find the apostrophe on the keyboard, and in its place was a Croatian “c” with some sort of symbol above it.

                It’s interesting to me how there are so many people in the world and I am just a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things.  It’s weird that there are so many countries, languages, cultures, and lives going on and I can travel to another country and get a glimpse into life somewhere else.  Their lives have gone on before and will continue long after I leave.  You might not understand exactly what I’m saying, but it’s just weird to think there are so many things occurring simultaneously that you are not a part of. 

                And Keli, I thought of you because your grandma speaks Croatian, if I remember correctly. =)

6-13-11

                Today we were in Corfu, Greece.  We visited the Old City and the Old Fortress, among other things.  We hiked to the top of the Old Fortress, which was quite a climb and I felt very accomplished getting all the way to the top.  We had homemade ice cream from a shop and that was quite delicious!

                The interesting thing I’m finding is that things really aren’t that different here than they are at home.  I guess I expected vastly different living standards or styles of life.  I’m probably not getting the most accurate picture because we’re visiting the touristy areas, but it is just striking to me that life is pretty similar over here to how it is at home.

6-14-11

                Today we docked Katakolon, Greece, gateway city to Olympia.  If you couldn’t guess by the name, Olympia is where the 1^st Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. (at least that’s the date I think they said).  We drove to Ancient Olympia and visited the Ancient Olympian ruins and the accompanying museum.  Among other things, we saw the field/stadium where the 1^st Olympic Games were held and the remains of the Temple of Zeus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  It was very neat seeing all of the ruins, but it was hard to stand there and imagine all the history that had taken place where I was standing.  It’s interesting how I can know what happened there, but it’s still hard to fully wrap my head around it, and for the importance to really seep in and hit home.

6-15-11

                Today we went to Santorini, Greece.  When you see postcards/pictures of Greece with white buildings and blue domes, that’s Santorini.  The day started out with quite a hike.  When you tender into Santorini, the actual city is on top of a hill and you have to take the cable car or the pathway up, either by walking or riding on a donkey.  I decided to walk, which was quite an adventure.  There were 588 steps, which is a very deceiving count, because you had to take about 3 steps in between steps.  There were also donkeys sharing the walkways that you had to avoid, especially the ones running down the hill with no people on them.  Thankfully they had bells and they generally avoided people, but it was still a little bit scary.  At one point I sat up on a ledge to avoid being trampled and after a passing tour guide laughed at me, she told me you just had to push the donkeys…haha.

                Once we got to the top there were cute shops and breathtaking views.  We took a cab to Oia (pronounced e-ya in Greek) which is where we saw the white building with the blue domed roof. 

6-16-11

                Today was Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway city to Ephesus.  We saw the ancient ruins at Euphesus which were very neat.  We had a really great tour guide who very knowledgeable and knowing the significance of the ruins really added to the experience.  After the ruins, we went to a tile store where they hand make their ceramics.  I got a chance to try making a sugar bowl and found out that I’m pretty bad at ceramics and that it is a lot harder than it looks.  We also went to a Turkish rug store where a man showed us how rugs are made, from harvesting the silk from the silk worm cocoons to the women who weave the rugs.  After lunch, my dad and I stopped by a Turkish bazaar.  The bazaar was a little overwhelming because all the people were hounding you to buy their things and were very pushy, but it’s neat to say I’ve been to an authentic bazaar. 

6-17-11

                Athens was definitely a different experience than the other cities so far just because of how massive it is.  There are buildings/houses everywhere and not much open space or grass.  On our taxi drive from the cruise ship port to Athens, we got to see some of the buildings built for the Olympics.  Once we arrived at the Acropolis, we went in and got to see the Parthenon!  It was very neat to see the Parthenon, but it was very hot and there were ungodly numbers of people.  We also visited the new Acropolis museum, which was neat to see.  All-in-all though, Athens was a little too compact and crowded for me.

6-21-11: Florence/Pisa, Italy

                We docked in the port of Livorno for these two locations and drove into Florence, which takes about an hour each direction.  We drove through Tuscan countryside to get there and I saw some of it, but I also slept for a good portion of the drive.  There’s something about cars that just lulls me to sleep.  Once we got there we had only 4 hours to look around, which is definitely not enough for Florence.  From what I read, the big things to do there are see all of the museums, but because it would have taken time to wait in line and then walk around the museums, we weren’t able to go into any of them.  We were dropped off at this giant cathedral which was very amazing on the outside.  We eventually went in, but it was pretty disappointing on the inside and not nearly as grand.  We strolled along the shops, over a beautiful bridge, and overall just enjoyed taking in the façade of the city.  We ate lunch at this little café that overlooked a marble replica of the David statue.  On our way to Pisa, our tour guide took us to a location that overlooked the entire town and it was really cool getting that additional perspective.  The huge cathedral we looked at previously looked even bigger when compared to the rest of the buildings in the city.  At this location, we also got the chance to see a bronze replica of the statue David.  According to our tour guide there are 2 replicas of David (both of which we saw) and the original one is in a museum. 

                When we went to Pisa, I was expecting a tour where we’d just see it, take a few pics, and be done.  Basically, I was expecting to be very underwhelmed with it, but I actually really enjoyed this stop.  Upon first approaching the statue, it didn’t look like it was leaning at all, but once you turned the corner and got a different perspective, it was obvious just how much it leaned.  As we went to different locations on the site, I kept taking new pictures that tried to capture how much it leaned, but the pictures just couldn’t quite capture what I saw in person.  I think that extra dimension from actually seeing it really made all the difference and I think it’s interesting how my camera wasn’t able to fully capture what I was staring at. 

                When visiting Florence, you definitely need more than 4 hours (and more than a day) and it’s probably best not to see it from the cruise, as it’s a long distance to drive there.

6-22-11: Monte Carlo, Monaco

                Monaco is a very nice and upscale place, but I’m very glad we visited it through a cruise ship because supposedly hotel rooms here cost $700 and upwards a night.  We took the hop-on hop-off bus around town, but only got off at the royal palace.  We couldn’t go in and there was no changing of the guards because of Prince Albert’s wedding coming up soon.  I haven’t researched the details of it yet because of sparse internet time, but by the looks of the flags, it appears that Prince Albert is marrying a woman from South Africa.  Near the palace is a beautiful cathedral where Prince Reiner and Princess Grace (Kelly) were married and buried.  Monte Carlo is where the Grand Casino is, shown in movies such as James Bond and such.  The dress code is formal and I didn’t go in, but I’m sure it’s nice.  Every May there is a Grand Prix held, which is apparently very popular, although I hadn’t heard of it previously.  They speak French/Italian and are the second smallest country in Europe, after the Vatican.  Basically Monaco is a little piece at the bottom of France carved out along the French Riviera.  While on the ship, I also saw a yacht will a hot tub on the top…pretty fancy if you ask me.  Overall, it was a nice and clean place (apparently one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t have graffiti), but I didn’t find there was a whole lot to do there.

6-23-11: Barcelona, España

                We got to spend 2 days in Barcelona, which is great because there is so much to see in this city!  We purchased a 2 day hop-on hop-off bus ticket and took the red route to start out with.  There were 2 other routes as well.  Although the bus information said the route would take 2 hours, it took at least 2.5 hours and felt like a day.  I think the contributing factor is that there was a good deal of traffic and we were sitting on the top of a double decker bus, so the sun was zapping our energy.  Barcelona is a beautiful city though, and this bus route allowed me to get a general overview of the city and its amazing architecture.  Gaudi has a strong influence on many buildings in Barcelona and his architecture/art is now a favorite of mine.  After getting off the bus, I fully understood how large Barcelona is and didn’t think 2 days could possibly see the city justice.  We walked down a picturesque and bustling street and from there explored alleyways filled with shops, the occasional cathedral, etc.  After this walk, I felt that I had a better idea of Barcelona.

                From my high school Spanish class, I knew that they spoke Castellano in some parts of Spain, but what I didn’t realize is that they speak a completely different language called Catalan in Barcelona!  I was expecting to be able to understand a lot of what was being said and read a lot of the signs, but I didn’t realize Spanish wasn’t as common in Barcelona.  For example, I was asking a security guide for the restrooms and asked for “baños” and he looked at me like I was crazy!  That was a very odd experience for me and it taught how different these languages truly are.

6-24-11: Barcelona, España

                The main attraction of our second day in Barcelona was la Sagrada Familia, a cathedral by Gaudi that is still under construction.  We purchased tickets online in advance to visit here, which I highly recommend if you ever go, because this is a very popular destination and we completely avoided the long line!  La Sagrada Familia is the coolest cathedral I’ve ever seen and probably will ever see.  First of all, it’s HUGE and is something I can’t adequately describe with words, even though I’ll try a little bit.  I definitely recommend you look at pictures for this cathedral.  The outside was intricately constructed with many scenes, but the inside is what surprised me the most.  The tall columns supporting the roof were artsy and hard to describe.  In each of the four corners there were tall spiral staircases that went from the floor the ceiling.  My favorite part though, was the stained glass windows.  Unlike most churches, la Sagrada Familia didn’t have stained glass windows depicting a religious scene.  All of the glass fragments were colors, many of them bold and full of life.  My favorite of the windows is the one where the colors start with reds/oranges/yellows at the bottom and end in blue/purples, approximately simulating the rainbow (as my mom pointed out).  What I’m saying probably doesn’t do justice to this cathedral, but I highly recommend you look at the pictures and visit if you ever have a chance to visit Barcelona. 

                On the way back from the Cathedral we took a different hop-on hop-off bus route that took us by a former palace, a university, and the stadium the Barcelona Football Club plays in (referred to as Barça), among other things.  We also learned that public restrooms don’t really exist here.  The architecture really was amazing and I’m glad we got 2 days to explore Barcelona, although you could probably spend a week there and not see everything there is to see.

6-25-11: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

                This was another more relaxed day.  It was nice because Spanish was more popular instead of Catalan, so I could understand a little bit more.  We started off by seeing a cathedral where Gaudi worked on some of the inside and then wandered around the city for a little bit and looked at the shops.  Apparently the beach is a popular thing to do here, but we didn’t go there, so I can’t exactly comment on that.  Overall, it was a more relaxed day and there definitely wasn’t as much history and as much to see and do as Barcelona. 

6-27-11: Tunisia

                I first must say that it’s exciting to say I’ve now been to Africa!  Tunisia is definitely not what I was expecting Africa to be like and it strikes me much more as a Middle Eastern country than an Africa country.  They speak Arabic here and it was required that we wear clothing that covered our knees and shoulders.  Although it was pretty warm today, our guide told us that it gets up to 50 degrees Celsius or even higher in the upcoming months!  On top of that, everyone wore clothes that covered a lot of their skin, with women covering everything except their face and hands.  The majority of the people are Muslim I think, and have the skin coloring I associate more with the Middle East, rather than the darker coloring I associate with Africa. 

                We first saw 3 locations of Carthage ruins, with a Roman bath being the best preserved.  A lot of the ruins are really started to blend together and look the same, especially the ruins that aren’t very well preserved and are basically just pieces of stone, marble, column heads, etc. 

                We then went to the city of Sidi Bou Said for an hour, which was just a collection of shops with some very aggressive salesmen.  Some of the reading I did on Tunisia said that their culture is very different and what we consider “aggressive” or “pushy” in our culture is normal and accepted in theirs.  I suppose that explains the attitudes of the salesmen.  My favorite line was “My shop is your home.” 

                When we came back to the ship there were camels and for a small fee you could ride the camel.  After my dad and my brother, I decided to give it a try and I’m very glad I can now say I’ve ridden a camel in Tunisia!  Haha…Getting off the camel was definitely the scariest, because their front legs would bend and collapse before the back, so you would be lurched forward…definitely a unique experience.  I thought the donkey’s fur would be a lot softer, but it was pretty tough.  At some of the sites we saw cats and 2 kittens!  The kittens were so cute and one was climbing a tree. 

                I’m the first to admit that I’m not very informed about the recent political struggles in Tunisia, but from what our guide was telling us, it seems like the ex-president was a pretty powerful dictator.  All these buildings he mentioned belonged to the ex-president and people couldn’t even take pictures at one of the ruin sites because the president’s palace bordered the ruins.  Guarding the former palace of the president (which now houses the prime minister, or something of the sorts) were these two guards with black uniforms and long tan capes…it was pretty cool looking.

6-28-11: Palermo, Sicilia

                Today we visited Palermo, Sicily, the capital of Sicily.  We didn’t have a formal tour planned, so we just wandered the city a bit.  It was very hot today, which zapped a lot of my energy and cut the visit shorter than it probably would have been if it was cooler.  We saw a couple of neat looking buildings, but other than that not much.  One of the most interesting things here was trying to cross the street.  When there was a green pedestrian signal, that didn’t necessarily mean the cars were going to stop, so I felt like I spent my day playing Frogger.  The city was busy, crowded, hot, and had a lot of graffiti, so I don’t see myself seeking out Palermo as a place to visit again.   

Our last cruise port was Naples, Italy, but I haven't gotten a chance to write up information on it, so I'll do it as soon as I have time.