Germany!

Hello! This past weekend myself and 6 of my friends went to Cologne, Germany. It was my first trip flying somewhere and to a country where they don't speak English. On Friday morning we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland. I was there just last weekend, but we found a really cheap flight out of their airport. I hate flying and the woman who held my hand during the turbulent flight from New York to London wasn't around, but I survived the hour and 20 minute flight. We got to Germany late so we just grabbed dinner and went to bed early. The next morning we galavanted around Cologne. We went to a gorgeous cathedral called the Dome. We were located right by this huge shopping street so we did a ton of shopping. Towards the end of the day we found out all the stores would be closed the following day because it was Sunday so by Saturday night we were rushing around trying to buy souvenirs. Sometime in the afternoon we took the train to a little town called Bonn. It was a short train ride away, but was still very different from Cologne. We visited Beethoven's house and I got my first crepe! We then spent the majority of the next two days eating.. We had a ton of pastries, gelato, german sausage. I wasn't expecting the food to be so good there! Saturday night we were so exhausted from running around that we just hung out at the hostel. We all played cards and tried some German beer. Although not knowing German wasn't a big deal.. we had a few issues. There were bowls of candy around the lounge in the hostel. Brittany grabbed a bowl and started passing some out to our group. Well a girl that barely spoke english jumped and told Britt that the candy was "not common". We still don't know what she meant, but we know we weren't allowed to have any. We went to bed semi-early after this very awkward moment. It was really cold and there wasn't a lot to do on Sunday so whenever we needed somewhere warm to sit we would go grab something to eat. We also made it our goal to find places where you don't have to pay to use the bathroom. A lot of places in Europe and England you have to pay to use the toilet.. even restaurants! It's quite odd. We flew back to Scotland Sunday at 9pm. I was nervous, but the flight was fine. We met a girl who is in the Army and is based in Germany. She approached us because she heard our American accents and she is from Florida. Since the trains stop running to and from Newcastle at 10pm we booked a hostel to stay the night. At this point we were all ready to get home, but had no choice. We got lost trying to find the hostel so we hopped in a cab. We went straight to bed, woke up at 8am and caught a 9am train back to Newcastle. Although we were all exhausted, we had such a good weekend! The next 2 weekends I will be spending my time around Newcastle. Then I will be meeting my parents in London and my friend Krissy from home will be visiting! It's scary that by that week I will be halfway done with my study abroad session..

XO

For the record.. I shared this with someone!

Inside the Dome.
The Dome.
On the Rhein River in Bonn.
Our group- 6 Americans, 1 Aussie!

Sick in Scotland :(

Hello all! Things have been quite crazy on this side of the pond. I spent all of last week being sick. Nonetheless we had train tickets and a hotel booked for Scotland for Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I planned on meeting Brittany and two of her friends at their place at 10am. Well.. I woke up at 9:56. Since I knew we probably wouldn't have time to shower in Scotland I decided to jump in the shower, attempt to make myself look human and be on my way. I met them in town and luckily beat them there. When we got to the train station we noticed our train was running late and knew we were going to miss our connecting train. Luckily we found out our ticket was good for any connecting train and not for a specific time. It was an hour and half train to Edinburgh.. in first class! We had no idea, but were very excited to find out we had first class tickets. Then another 50 minutes to Glasgow. Even though we were staying in Edinburgh we wanted to see some of Glasgow so spent all day Saturday there. We sat down on our connecting train.. found out it was canceled because of mechanical problems and had to run to another track. When we finally arrived in Glasgow we grabbed lunch, went to a few museums and went to the University of Glasgow. It was so pretty and looked like Hogwarts! We had to take a train from Glasgow to Edinburgh at night so we could get to our hotel. We did this straight after dinner because we were so exhausted from walking around all day. We got on a 7-something train that said the first two cars were to Edinburgh. Well... we didn't end up in Edinburgh. We ended up at a random station that looked like the Ronkonkoma LIRR station.. okay it wasn't even a station.. it was a platform. We traveled an hour and a half to the middle of no where! So we got back on the train (another hour and a half back), got on the correct train and took a taxi to the hotel. At this point we were far too aggravated to be searching for a hotel after 10pm in Scotland.. so much for getting there early and getting to bed! We spent the next day not wanting to get out of bed, enjoying a continental breakfast and galavanting around Edinburgh. I was forced to go hiking in leather over the knee boots and still wasn't feeling well! However, I must say it was worth it because when we got to the top the view was gorgeous. After some shopping, nachos, a cashmere scarf purchase and waiting in the freezing train station for an hour we were on our way back home! It's so odd to go on the weekend trips because I can't wait to get home.. when this isn't even my real home. Despite the occasional drama or two we had a very fun weekend! On Friday.. we leave for Germany! Good thing the only think I know how to say is I love you.. Shall be interesting...

XO

In Edinburgh.

In town in Glasgow.
At the top of our hike!

Climbed 134 steps for this view!

London!

Hiya! (a TON of British people say that instead of Hi.. I'll never say it, but I'm willing to type it) I feel like I've left you all hanging so long without posting! Have no fear.. I'm taking time away from my studies to update you on my life.

On Friday I went to London for the first time! It's a 6 hour coach ride away or a 3 hour train ride. Since we are poor University students Britt and I took the coach. It's only $32 round trip. We went to the coach stop 30 minutes early to be sure we would get a seat next to each other. We realized as the bus was boarding we were sitting on the wrong line! We waited in the wind and rain for nothing and got to the back of the line for the London bus. Our bus didn't leave on time because it was overbooked and no one was willing to get off and take the train ( I was.. but I decided I guess I HAD to stay with Brittany.) It took us 8 hours just to get to Victoria Station in London! We hit so much traffic and almost died because the bus was swaying in and out of lanes on the highway.. plus we were driving on the wrong side of the road! By the time we got off the coach, took the tube and got to the hostel it was 11pm. This was my first time staying in a hostel and it wasn't too bad. Well at first it was.. They give us the keys to the room and told us we were in beds 4 & 6 (out of 12 beds of all females) When we got into the room there were women in both of our beds! Got a little scared that we weren't going to have anywhere to sleep, but we found out the woman didn't want to climb up to the second and third bunk so they just took our beds.. nice. Britt and I got ready very quickly and went out with three girls we met up with that Britt is friends with from her college in Maryland. They are studying abroad in Spain and planned on meeting up with us and staying in the same hostel. We went out (and found out that the tube stops running at midnight.) We took a bus home and all was fine.. only got a few hours of sleep though because it's kinda odd sleeping in a room of strangers.

The next day - our only full day - we filled in as much touristy London activities as possible. We woke up at 9am ate breakfast and left the hostel right away. We got home around dinner time, ate and went out again.. this is where we almost died a second time. We went out.. all was fine - until we tried to get back to the hostel. We knew we would have to take the bus, but couldn't find a bus to take us back to our stop because it was after 3am and only select night buses were running. We decided we were going to get on a bus that was near our stop and walk the rest. We got to a stop that Britt's friend thought was closer to us.. but it wasn't. We ended up in a sketchy part of London with a used bus pass and no jackets. We looked for another bus, but none were coming and we would still have to walk a lot. After Britt was trying to hail a cab unsuccessfully I went into the street and stuck my hand in the air. Luckily, the cab driver drove past a group of people and came to me (still got it from my cab hailing days in NYC) We finally got home around 4am and went off to our bunks to get our daily 4 hours of sleep.

The final day was spent in London casually. We woke up at 9 and walked around to the last couple things we didn't see. Of course Britt and I had to bring our backpacks because we wouldn't have time to go back to the hostel. It wasn't too miserable and provided us with a fabulous workout. We caught the coach back to Newcastle at 5:30pm (FYI a lot of places in London included the coach station charge you to use the bathroom.. odd right?) We got home early because the driver had road rage and did about 90mph the whole way home. In the end it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I finally got to go on my first trip even if it was just to London. I'm looking forward to March and April when both my parents and my sisters are going to be meeting up with me there.

It's 1am, just discovered my bag of clementines has began to rot and my library books were due Friday so I owe a fine.. I guess on that note it's time for bed. Goodnight my loyal followers!

XO

Platform 9 3/4 from the first Harry Potter film.

Big Ben and Parliament.
On the Westminster Bridge.

Week 1/11 Complete.. Almost

Ello! My first week of classes is almost complete! I figured while I'm in between classes I might as well post. My classes have all been quite easy and very different from American classes so far. I'm in 3 classes - each have 2 lectures a week and 1 seminar (2o people from the lecture) that are each an hour long. So far I've never actually had to stay a full hour for a class (one lecture we got out after 30 minutes!) The only real similarity to Stony Brook is that the lectures are filled with about 150 students each which I'm used to between that and 500 students at home. Seminars have been funny because all the lecturers are interested in hearing about how businesses/marketing works in the US. I learned today that Dasani water isn't carried here anymore because they found out it was tap water in a bottle and tv show's and adverts aren't allowed to have product placement in their shows. (They didn't know that the judges on American Idol have Coke cups on the judging table) So class so far has been a success. I feel like I should be doing some sort of work, but none has been assigned. There is only one assignment that is due in May for each class :)

I received a package from my Mom yesterday. I made her send me American Kit Kat's because the ones they sell here are atrocious. She also sent other unnecessary items like towels and Bandaids. Somehow someone's defensive driving workbook got in there too and traveled 4,000 miles to me.. Really necessary.. Thanks Mom!

This weekend should be fun.. (No birdcages will be danced in) Brittany will finally be done with finals so we plan on going to dinner and going out a few nights. We just found out that it's the first ever restaurant week here. (Shout out to Jason.. You would be so proud) So we plan on going somewhere Saturday and getting 2 courses for ₤10. Unfortunately though, we will be retreating back to our dorms after and not staying at a Ritz Carlton on Jason's dime. After this weekend I have 3 full weekends of travel.. London, Scotland & Germany. Should be fun!

XO

New Business Building where all my classes are.

Gross, British Kit Kat.
First rainy day! Luckily received my rain boots from home today!

The Studying of Study Abroad Begins..

Hello! I've been getting quite a few complaints that I haven't posted recently since here it goes! A lot has been going on the last week and classes start tomorrow. I've gotten so used to filling my days with going out to lunch, shopping and going down for dinner with everyone from our hall that I've forgotten that we actually have to go to class here. I will be spending way less time in the classroom here then at home (3 days of classes, 2/3 hours a day) so shouldn't be too bad. I have to, however, get up at 8 am tomorrow. Today I went and bought notebooks, probably something I should have brought from home. It cost me $10 for two notebooks! I wanted to get a milkshake because all the usual candy bars here like Kit kat's and Twix taste differently, but they were closed including a majority of the shops here. It's hard to get used to stores closing at 6 or 8pm during the week and being closed on Sunday's.

A lot happened this week so I can't remember specifics! Brittany and I went for Sushi one day and cooked dinner on Saturday since my food plan only gives us lunch on the weekends. We made tacos and baked potatoes and were SO happy. It was nice to have some normal, American-type food. I miss things like that - Taco bell, Applebees, My family.. I suppose. (Just kidding! :) )

I'm starting to get used to the lingo here: rubbish, lift, clicking (cracking your fingers), queries (questions), but I still can't get over everyones accents. I constantly make my neighbors say different words. My new favorite is Harry Potter! They get slightly annoyed by it, but then they make me say door, dog, talk, New York and laugh hysterically. We all get along very well.

I guess I should get some rest before I start classes tomorrow! I will post again sometime this week to let you all know how it is going!

XO

PS. Here are some pictures from this week..

The cutest hotel located by Newcastle University (above).
The view from the top floor of my dorm, Claude Gibb (above).
A statue Brittany and I found outside the Sushi restaurant (above).
The "town wall" (above).

It's Mum Not Mom!

Ello! (I'm getting more British by the day) Since I learn so much each day I figured I would just keep an ongoing British-isms/ fun facts list:

6. A jump rope is referred to as a "skipping rope".

7. Some of the students here watch Jersey Shore.

8. Starbucks charges a luxury tax if you choose to stay in to drink/eat.

9. A line is called a "queue".

10. Every student I have asked is 18 years old.

11. Everyone makes fun of my accent! They always ask me to say dog, coffee, New York etc..

Things are starting to become slightly crazy here. When I first got here and started posting I was basically the only one in my hall. Now 5 other people have moved in. Everyone that lives near me has been very nice. They knock on my door when they're going down for meals so I can join them. Most people started classes today. Lucky for me I don't start until next Monday because I go to the business school. I've learned the education system here is quite confusing. I have about 5 teachers for each class and go at different times and to different rooms throughout the week. I am anxious to get started and see how classes are. Once classes start I know it's going to go quickly because it's only 12 weeks! Tomorrow will be one week since I've been here! It went so quickly and I've already seen/learned so much. We plan on going out tomorrow for the first time so it should be fun. I'm trying to get everything prepared for classes before they begin so we'll see how well that works out in the coming days. Will post again soon!

XO

Cheers!

If anyone plans on traveling to England soon (which I know a few of you are) here are some things you need to know:

1. The elevator is called the lift.

2. Cheers (one of my favorites) can be used to say thank you or see you later.

3. Don't use the word garbage because no one knows what that is. It's "Rubbish"

4. You have to ask for the check at a restaurant.

5. The drinking age is 18.

I forgot to mention the other day that when I went to pick up my cell phone they assumed I was an American student studying medicine. I set the record straight and told them that I was LOOKING for a male student studying medicine. A british husband that is also a doctor doesn't sound too bad. I told them that I had studied fashion back at home so of course they asked me which of them was dressed the best.

Britt took me back to the grocery store Tesco to buy a few more things. I keep forgetting about the exchange rate and bought a can of hairspray for ₤4.70 aka $7.50. Quite pricey so I'm trying to regulate the amount of spritzing I do. We stumbled upon the wine aisle and I said that we should buy some that comes with the cork screw. However that wasn't a cork screw it was a security device..

Today I had an eventful day filled with a fire drill, taking out the rubbish and going to dinner. I was just beginning to relax after sitting at my desk all morning trying to figure out my class schedule. I sat down on my bed with my iPad and immediately the fire alarm goes off. I had a minor heart attack because I didn't know where to go. Luckily it didn't last long and my iPad was still safely on my bed (I was panic stricken when the alarm started going off and I forgot to lock my door Whoops! No one tell my mom I did that because she'll yell at me!) We went to an italian dinner @ 6:30. I always assume people are going to know what I'm talking about, but when I said I'd like a Coke the waiter was awfully confused. The proper term to say would be "a glass of Coke". Good thing Brittany has been out to dinner before because we would have been there all night waiting for the check. You have to ASK for it. Back to my leisurely life.. Cheers!

XO