Lauren and I in front of St. Giles Cathedral
The view looking down the Royal Mile
Lauren and I at the top of Arthur's Seat
Holyrood Palace: the Queen's Palace in Scotland
The rainbow out my window on the train ride home!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
I've fallen in LOVE!
Well its about time. I've finally fallen in love... with Edinburgh!! What an amazing weekend I had! It all started at the train station in Grantham... the rest was fate! I was nervous and had butterflies in my stomach when I arrived at the train station all by myself. Riding on a train was a completely new experience, but a good one! After 5 hours, I arrived in Edinburgh on Thursday night. Lauren and Ben (friends from Baker who are living in Edinburgh for a year) met me at the station and we walked back to their flat. The University of Edinburgh's student unions have pubs and clubs in them, so we went to check one out and grab a drink and catch up.
Friday morning Lauren and I ran some errands she needed to get done, then hit up Princes St. for some shopping! I found a few bargains, including a dress at H&M and a blazer and tank at Oxfam, a charity shop. After wandering around and hanging out, we met a few girls from Harlaxton and then some of Ben's friends and we all went to the Edinburgh Rugby match. It was my first rugby match, and for those of you that know me well, I LOVE SPORTS! So of course I loved this. It was fun to learn a new sport (thanks to Ben's friends who have grown up playing and watching in England and Scotland) and it turns out it is a really entertaining game! I plan on trying to go to another one before I leave! After the rugby game (which was cold and a little wet) we went to a pub in one of the first banks of Scotland. It was a lot of fun and after talking and hanging out with everyone, we called it a night.
On Saturday, we decided to sleep in a little, then met Dr. Robin Liston (the visiting Baker faculty member at Harlaxton) for lunch at The World's End Pub. It was delicious! I tried a bite of the traditional Scottish dish Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties (haggis is a ground meat, neeps are mashed turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes). It was interesting to say the least, better than expected. My meal was Scottish Steak and Ale pie, which was scrumptious! I loved it. We ordered dessert and had Sticky Toffee Pudding (pretty much the best dessert I've ever had) and Cranachan. I'm determined to find a recipe for the toffee pudding and make it when I get home! After lunch, we met Ben and went sightseeing, including the castle, Parliament, the Queen's residence, and climbing up Arthur's Seat. After the afternoon of walking and hiking, we went back to the flat and made dinner. We had pasta with chicken and sauce, garlic flatbread, salad, and hummus. MMMMM (: Then we headed to a "Freshers Party" hosted by the University of Edinburgh. We met some friends there and hung out, and when we went upstairs to the club part, we found out S Club 7 was going to be playing! Lauren and I were soooooo excited! For those of you who don't know S Club 7 or don't remember them, they were a pop group in the 90s that had a television show that everyone watched! Talk about a throw back to our childhood! Anyway, we got to enjoy the concert and had a blast singing along! I think Lauren and I are sick of having their songs stuck in our heads daysss after the concert! Overall it was a fun night and a great weekend!
Sunday morning before I left, Lauren and I went to a church service at St. Giles Cathedral. It happened to be a commemorative service for the Battle of Britain and members of the Royal Air Force were there. It was amazing to walk in to this beautiful cathedral to a brass ensemble, and then to hear the choir sing during the service! We both agreed it was by far our favorite part of the weekend!
Needless to say, I'm already making plans to go back up to Scotland before I leave so I can see the few things I didn't get to this trip. St. Andrews golf course, the Scottish highlands, and a couple other things. Lauren and Ben are also planning a trip to come down and visit Harlaxton and see Grantham! Can't wait! Love is a great feeling!!
Until next time,
Courtney
Friday morning Lauren and I ran some errands she needed to get done, then hit up Princes St. for some shopping! I found a few bargains, including a dress at H&M and a blazer and tank at Oxfam, a charity shop. After wandering around and hanging out, we met a few girls from Harlaxton and then some of Ben's friends and we all went to the Edinburgh Rugby match. It was my first rugby match, and for those of you that know me well, I LOVE SPORTS! So of course I loved this. It was fun to learn a new sport (thanks to Ben's friends who have grown up playing and watching in England and Scotland) and it turns out it is a really entertaining game! I plan on trying to go to another one before I leave! After the rugby game (which was cold and a little wet) we went to a pub in one of the first banks of Scotland. It was a lot of fun and after talking and hanging out with everyone, we called it a night.
On Saturday, we decided to sleep in a little, then met Dr. Robin Liston (the visiting Baker faculty member at Harlaxton) for lunch at The World's End Pub. It was delicious! I tried a bite of the traditional Scottish dish Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties (haggis is a ground meat, neeps are mashed turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes). It was interesting to say the least, better than expected. My meal was Scottish Steak and Ale pie, which was scrumptious! I loved it. We ordered dessert and had Sticky Toffee Pudding (pretty much the best dessert I've ever had) and Cranachan. I'm determined to find a recipe for the toffee pudding and make it when I get home! After lunch, we met Ben and went sightseeing, including the castle, Parliament, the Queen's residence, and climbing up Arthur's Seat. After the afternoon of walking and hiking, we went back to the flat and made dinner. We had pasta with chicken and sauce, garlic flatbread, salad, and hummus. MMMMM (: Then we headed to a "Freshers Party" hosted by the University of Edinburgh. We met some friends there and hung out, and when we went upstairs to the club part, we found out S Club 7 was going to be playing! Lauren and I were soooooo excited! For those of you who don't know S Club 7 or don't remember them, they were a pop group in the 90s that had a television show that everyone watched! Talk about a throw back to our childhood! Anyway, we got to enjoy the concert and had a blast singing along! I think Lauren and I are sick of having their songs stuck in our heads daysss after the concert! Overall it was a fun night and a great weekend!
Sunday morning before I left, Lauren and I went to a church service at St. Giles Cathedral. It happened to be a commemorative service for the Battle of Britain and members of the Royal Air Force were there. It was amazing to walk in to this beautiful cathedral to a brass ensemble, and then to hear the choir sing during the service! We both agreed it was by far our favorite part of the weekend!
Needless to say, I'm already making plans to go back up to Scotland before I leave so I can see the few things I didn't get to this trip. St. Andrews golf course, the Scottish highlands, and a couple other things. Lauren and Ben are also planning a trip to come down and visit Harlaxton and see Grantham! Can't wait! Love is a great feeling!!
Until next time,
Courtney
Thursday, September 15, 2011
My fingernails are going to be gone!!!
So today marks the first day of my adventure out of England. I am headed to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend, and will be traveling all by myself. Talk about being scared out of my britches!! I am taking a train up there, and have two stops/changes along the way. I've never been on a train and I've never been in a train station, so it should be an interesting evening! I'm not so nervous about the ride up there as much as I'm scared of the changes and figuring out what to do/where to go! Lucky I will still be in a country that speaks English (: I'm excited to get up there though, and spend some time with one of my friends from Baker, Lauren, who is living in Scotland for a year!! I'll be staying with her in her flat, and I am lucky enough to be her first house guest! I can't wait!!!
So until next time, have a great weekend!!
Courtney
So until next time, have a great weekend!!
Courtney
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Oops I Did It Again...
I forgot to put pictures on again! Sorry!
Trafalgar Square
The girls before we headed out Thursday night
The Horse Guards
Left to Right: Alisa, Ariel, Me, Maddie
Red Telephone Booth! (That's Big Ben in the background)
This is the man that feeds the squirrels!
Westminster Abbey
Making a wish at Buckingham Palace
Left to Right: Mindy, Natalie, Me, Alisa, Ariel, Maddie
Hampton Court Palace Dining Room
I also forgot to mention another piece of exciting news... On Monday evening, Harlaxton hosted a group of professional actors who performed scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Two of the actors are Harlaxton alum and they have all been performing with Kevin Spacey in Richard III in London. Much to our surprise, Kevin Spacey made a guest appearance! YES! KEVIN SPACEY WAS AT HARLAXTON!!! Pretty cool, huh? Anyways, afterwards me and a couple friends were creeping around the manor trying to find some secret passage ways and tunnels and such. We went out into the conservatory and were looking around and heard someone come out after us, but we didn't see them. After a bit, I walked out an open door and was looking around to see who was out there. They had just left a pile of stuff in the gravel, and then a saw a figure in the distance. Clearly they wanted privacy so I turned around and came back in. Low and behold a minute or two later, Kevin Spacey comes walking through and back into the manor. We all said hello and he kept on walking. I'm sure he thought I was stalking him or something. SOOO funny!
Paying the Price
Well last weekend was our trip to London... and needless to say IT WAS AMAZING!! We had a fantastic time!
We arrived on Thursday night to the Royal National Hotel, changed clothes and freshened up and headed to a club in Piccadilly Circus! We had a blast, ran into some other Harlaxton friends, and ended up walking a couple miles home because the tube was shut down for the night when we left!
Friday we set our alarms pretty early (for us anyways) and set out on foot to see London. Our first stop was the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and lots of other Greek and Egyptian statues, tombs, etc. Then we continued walking until we hit Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and Whitehall Street. There we saw the beginning of the Horse Parade to changing of the guard, got to pet the horses, and crossed the street into St. James Park. The park is absolutely gorgeous, so we spent some time walking around and enjoying the scenery. We met a man who calls over the squirrels and feeds them nuts out of his hand! It was crazy! We asked him if he'd ever had one go crazy on him and he said that one crawled into his pocket once!! After strolling through the park, we headed towards Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Supreme Court. These were some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen! We didn't take a tour of Westminster Abbey like I wanted to, but I plan to go back and do that when my family comes over! Next we headed down the street to a little cafe where we bought sandwiches and had a picnic in St. James Park. After eating (and feeding the pigeons), we headed to Buckingham Palace, which was just at the end of the park. We stopped for a few pictures, and made a wish and threw a coin into the fountain. Then headed towards the river. Here we saw the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben again, and crossed the river, walking by street vendors galore! Then we headed down to the river walk where we ran into Bob, who we had met earlier in the day. He checked up on us to see how we were doing and if we made it everywhere we wanted to! His wife gave us some shopping tips for the next day, and we decided to call it a day and head home on the tube. After getting back to the hotel, we went right back out and went for dinner. We ate at an Italian Restaurant in SoHo called Bella Italia. It was absolutely delicious! Then we headed back to the hotel, changed clothes and went to a pub called Knights Templar. It was beautiful. We had a great night, ended up walking back to the hotel (again) and slept in the next morning.
We got going pretty late on Saturday, and decided to head straight to the Tower of London. We got on the tube, and in the middle of changing tubes at a station, found out where we needed to go was closed. MAJOR DETOUR. We asked a worker what the best thing to do was and he said that they were running a replacement bus service that would take us right there. So we crossed the street to the bus station, grabbed a bite to eat at a great place called Pret, and waited for the bus. As we were waiting, we heard some chanting and shouting from across the street and went to check it out. There were police all around, so we asked what was going on. Evidently this was the start of a protest led by the English Defense League that would be going through town to the East London Mosque. I had never seen any thing like that before, so it was kind of neat. When the next bus came around, we hopped on and asked the driver if he was headed to Tower Hill. He said no. :( so we hopped right back off. We decided to ask the director at the bus stop what bus we needed to get on. He ended up talking to the driver and said that this bus would take us where we needed to go. So back on we went. We got to sit on the top of the double decker bus and see the city as we went. Pretty soon, we stopped at a bus stop that said "Rail replacement service ends here", so we had to get off. Unfortunately, we were NO WHERE near the Tower of London. We ended up in far east London, where much of the Islamic community lives. We started heading back the other way on foot and ran into the East London Mosque, where hundreds of people were gathered to protest their side. It was a little scary, being in an unfamiliar city inside a mob of people and trying to get through. We clearly stood out as foreigners, but we had two of our good guy friends with us and they made sure we all made it through safe. There were hundreds of police there and the people probably went on for a mile. We actually saw a man get arrested as we walked by. It was truly an eye opening experience, especially to see both sides of the protest. I am so thankful we made it through okay, but I'm also thankful that we had to go through it. I think it gave all of us a lot to think about and it was definitely an experience I will never forget. I can't imagine the people that have to live with that every day. After that whole ordeal, we finally made it to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge! After looking around a while, we decided to continue our day with shopping!! We headed to Harrods. My dream (: We didn't spend a whole lot of time since clearly we can not afford to shop there, but it was amazing. And huge. I looked at a simple black maxi dress, and it cost over 3000 pounds!!!! Insane! After heading to a few other shops in the area, we went on to Oxford St. There we pretty much stopped at H&M and then headed home. I picked out a few dresses and got pretty good deals on them!! After we headed back to the hotel and changed for the evening, Natalie and I met her boyfriend (who is studying abroad at the University of Notre Dame - London) and headed to the American Sports Bar to watch the Notre Dame football game! I was in heaven... football, quesadillas, and molten chocolate cake!!!!!!! It was delicious! Unfortunately, the bar wasn't able to stream the football game like they orginally thought, so we went on down the street to a pub called Chandos on Trafalgar Square. When I think of a typical British pub, this is what I think of. It was great. It is part of a line of pubs on that street that they call "Samuel Smith" pubs. They each have their own home brew for 2 pounds. I tried one called Samuel Smith's Taddy Lager, and it was good!! We had a fun night hanging out with Jack and Ben, and headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest after the pub closed. As we were heading into the hotel with our Ben & Jerry's ice cream, we ran into a couple Australians and talked to them for a while. They are traveling around Europe and had stopped in London for the weekend. I was getting a kick out of them because they thought I had a strong accent!! Brennan told me that he couldn't understand me some of the time!! Which I think is hilarious!! Anyways, a great way to end our last night in London.
On Sunday, the school took us to Hampton Court Palace before we headed home. It was a typical breezy, rainy English day, so we toured inside for a while, then grabbed a bite to eat. We asked one of the guards where a good place to eat in the area was and he sent us to King's Arms Pub. I wasn't sure what to get so I asked our bartender. He ordered my a typical English Sunday dinner... roasted lamb, with roasted potatoes and vegetables, and a traditional English ale. It was delicious. I loved getting to eat the local food and really experience the culture. Our next stop was Runnymede, the place where the Magna Carta was signed. This was more a stop because this is what we had been studying in British Studies at that time. If you ask me, it was a poor excuse to drag tired college students through a field in the rain to see a gazebo built by the American BAR Association. I would've rather stayed warm and dry on the bus. (: But, overall we had a FANTASTIC weekend (as you can probably tell by my rambling on and on about it here).
Now that was almost a week ago, and a lot has come from that weekend. I am definitely paying the price for our busy weekend. I have a sinus infection and have not felt well the last two days, particularly yesterday. A lot of things have gone on back at Baker this week and at home, and I'm getting a little homesick. I'm jealous of all of you that are there. Now don't get me wrong, I am having an amazing time here and I love it. Its just starting to get to me that I'm not going to be home for a while.
To end on a happy note, I get to have an easy weekend this weekend! I have nothing planned (besides homework). I'm hoping to maybe take a day trip somewhere on Saturday, but I'm not sure yet! My next exciting thing: I meet my Meet-A-Family next Wednesday! I'm so excited. Marcus and Maureen Pettmann are letting me and one other student be a part of their family for the semester. I cannot wait to meet them and make plans with them!
Until next time, have a great one!
We arrived on Thursday night to the Royal National Hotel, changed clothes and freshened up and headed to a club in Piccadilly Circus! We had a blast, ran into some other Harlaxton friends, and ended up walking a couple miles home because the tube was shut down for the night when we left!
Friday we set our alarms pretty early (for us anyways) and set out on foot to see London. Our first stop was the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and lots of other Greek and Egyptian statues, tombs, etc. Then we continued walking until we hit Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and Whitehall Street. There we saw the beginning of the Horse Parade to changing of the guard, got to pet the horses, and crossed the street into St. James Park. The park is absolutely gorgeous, so we spent some time walking around and enjoying the scenery. We met a man who calls over the squirrels and feeds them nuts out of his hand! It was crazy! We asked him if he'd ever had one go crazy on him and he said that one crawled into his pocket once!! After strolling through the park, we headed towards Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Supreme Court. These were some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen! We didn't take a tour of Westminster Abbey like I wanted to, but I plan to go back and do that when my family comes over! Next we headed down the street to a little cafe where we bought sandwiches and had a picnic in St. James Park. After eating (and feeding the pigeons), we headed to Buckingham Palace, which was just at the end of the park. We stopped for a few pictures, and made a wish and threw a coin into the fountain. Then headed towards the river. Here we saw the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben again, and crossed the river, walking by street vendors galore! Then we headed down to the river walk where we ran into Bob, who we had met earlier in the day. He checked up on us to see how we were doing and if we made it everywhere we wanted to! His wife gave us some shopping tips for the next day, and we decided to call it a day and head home on the tube. After getting back to the hotel, we went right back out and went for dinner. We ate at an Italian Restaurant in SoHo called Bella Italia. It was absolutely delicious! Then we headed back to the hotel, changed clothes and went to a pub called Knights Templar. It was beautiful. We had a great night, ended up walking back to the hotel (again) and slept in the next morning.
We got going pretty late on Saturday, and decided to head straight to the Tower of London. We got on the tube, and in the middle of changing tubes at a station, found out where we needed to go was closed. MAJOR DETOUR. We asked a worker what the best thing to do was and he said that they were running a replacement bus service that would take us right there. So we crossed the street to the bus station, grabbed a bite to eat at a great place called Pret, and waited for the bus. As we were waiting, we heard some chanting and shouting from across the street and went to check it out. There were police all around, so we asked what was going on. Evidently this was the start of a protest led by the English Defense League that would be going through town to the East London Mosque. I had never seen any thing like that before, so it was kind of neat. When the next bus came around, we hopped on and asked the driver if he was headed to Tower Hill. He said no. :( so we hopped right back off. We decided to ask the director at the bus stop what bus we needed to get on. He ended up talking to the driver and said that this bus would take us where we needed to go. So back on we went. We got to sit on the top of the double decker bus and see the city as we went. Pretty soon, we stopped at a bus stop that said "Rail replacement service ends here", so we had to get off. Unfortunately, we were NO WHERE near the Tower of London. We ended up in far east London, where much of the Islamic community lives. We started heading back the other way on foot and ran into the East London Mosque, where hundreds of people were gathered to protest their side. It was a little scary, being in an unfamiliar city inside a mob of people and trying to get through. We clearly stood out as foreigners, but we had two of our good guy friends with us and they made sure we all made it through safe. There were hundreds of police there and the people probably went on for a mile. We actually saw a man get arrested as we walked by. It was truly an eye opening experience, especially to see both sides of the protest. I am so thankful we made it through okay, but I'm also thankful that we had to go through it. I think it gave all of us a lot to think about and it was definitely an experience I will never forget. I can't imagine the people that have to live with that every day. After that whole ordeal, we finally made it to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge! After looking around a while, we decided to continue our day with shopping!! We headed to Harrods. My dream (: We didn't spend a whole lot of time since clearly we can not afford to shop there, but it was amazing. And huge. I looked at a simple black maxi dress, and it cost over 3000 pounds!!!! Insane! After heading to a few other shops in the area, we went on to Oxford St. There we pretty much stopped at H&M and then headed home. I picked out a few dresses and got pretty good deals on them!! After we headed back to the hotel and changed for the evening, Natalie and I met her boyfriend (who is studying abroad at the University of Notre Dame - London) and headed to the American Sports Bar to watch the Notre Dame football game! I was in heaven... football, quesadillas, and molten chocolate cake!!!!!!! It was delicious! Unfortunately, the bar wasn't able to stream the football game like they orginally thought, so we went on down the street to a pub called Chandos on Trafalgar Square. When I think of a typical British pub, this is what I think of. It was great. It is part of a line of pubs on that street that they call "Samuel Smith" pubs. They each have their own home brew for 2 pounds. I tried one called Samuel Smith's Taddy Lager, and it was good!! We had a fun night hanging out with Jack and Ben, and headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest after the pub closed. As we were heading into the hotel with our Ben & Jerry's ice cream, we ran into a couple Australians and talked to them for a while. They are traveling around Europe and had stopped in London for the weekend. I was getting a kick out of them because they thought I had a strong accent!! Brennan told me that he couldn't understand me some of the time!! Which I think is hilarious!! Anyways, a great way to end our last night in London.
On Sunday, the school took us to Hampton Court Palace before we headed home. It was a typical breezy, rainy English day, so we toured inside for a while, then grabbed a bite to eat. We asked one of the guards where a good place to eat in the area was and he sent us to King's Arms Pub. I wasn't sure what to get so I asked our bartender. He ordered my a typical English Sunday dinner... roasted lamb, with roasted potatoes and vegetables, and a traditional English ale. It was delicious. I loved getting to eat the local food and really experience the culture. Our next stop was Runnymede, the place where the Magna Carta was signed. This was more a stop because this is what we had been studying in British Studies at that time. If you ask me, it was a poor excuse to drag tired college students through a field in the rain to see a gazebo built by the American BAR Association. I would've rather stayed warm and dry on the bus. (: But, overall we had a FANTASTIC weekend (as you can probably tell by my rambling on and on about it here).
Now that was almost a week ago, and a lot has come from that weekend. I am definitely paying the price for our busy weekend. I have a sinus infection and have not felt well the last two days, particularly yesterday. A lot of things have gone on back at Baker this week and at home, and I'm getting a little homesick. I'm jealous of all of you that are there. Now don't get me wrong, I am having an amazing time here and I love it. Its just starting to get to me that I'm not going to be home for a while.
To end on a happy note, I get to have an easy weekend this weekend! I have nothing planned (besides homework). I'm hoping to maybe take a day trip somewhere on Saturday, but I'm not sure yet! My next exciting thing: I meet my Meet-A-Family next Wednesday! I'm so excited. Marcus and Maureen Pettmann are letting me and one other student be a part of their family for the semester. I cannot wait to meet them and make plans with them!
Until next time, have a great one!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
(I'm new to this whole blogging thing so I didn't realize I could just add the pictures into my post!)
These are all my friends during the cocktail hour before our Opening High Table Dinner!
Back row: Maddie, Ariel, Alisa Front row: Natalie, Me, Mindy
This is my airplane seat partner, Stephanie! haha
The Baker Gang
From left to right: Mike, Alisa, Ariel, Me
The beautiful manor that is my home for the next 3 and 1/2 months!!
London... Here we come!
I just want to apologize to everyone... I thought blogging would be a lot easier than it has turned out to be!!! I just don't have the motivation! We had the first day of classes on Monday, and I think we all felt overwhelmed. Classes here are a lot different than Baker. We sit through an hour lecture for British Studies on Mondays and Wednesdays, then split into seminar groups to continue the discussion. I then went to Calculus III and figured there would only be about 5 of us in that class... Nope! There were 17! And I am the only student not from the University of Evansville (the home campus of Harlaxton). Then I had a nice long break before my Marketing class... which almost ALL of my new friends are in (YAY!). At the end of the day, I had already been assigned 2 group presentations, 2 term papers, 1 individual presentation, reading homework, and a few math problems. I can already tell it's going to be quite a semester!
But the fun comes this weekend!! We (as in all my friends) are headed on the school trip to London!!! We leave at 6:30pm (my time) so 12:30pm (your time)! We are all sooooo excited and can't wait to see everything and go shopping!! (: I'm sure I will have a few more pictures to upload after our trip this weekend, but until then... I'm uploading three right now!! Enjoy!
Courtney
But the fun comes this weekend!! We (as in all my friends) are headed on the school trip to London!!! We leave at 6:30pm (my time) so 12:30pm (your time)! We are all sooooo excited and can't wait to see everything and go shopping!! (: I'm sure I will have a few more pictures to upload after our trip this weekend, but until then... I'm uploading three right now!! Enjoy!
Courtney
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