My Year Abroad!

Kirkstall Abbey is a 12th century Cistercian Abbey right here in Leeds! It is about a 30 minute walk from where I live and I have been meaning to go see it since I got here. I finally went! It is now just ruins but it very well preserved. It was a beautiful sight in all the snow as well. The surrounding area has a great big park with the River Aire running alongside. After visiting the Abbey my friend and I tried to build a snowman but failed=( Its been a while since I have built one and since he was British he has never seen enough snow to be able to build one! We weren't the best pair to try and build a snowman. It just turned into a snowball fight that only lasted until our fingers were so cold we couldn't move them! Sometimes I miss the snow! But I will be happy to go back to So-Cal with the warm sunshine filled winters!

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One of my friends from UCSB, Shelby, is studying down at the University of Sussex in Brighton. Brighton is about an hour south of London right on the coast. During the summer I'm sure Brighton is THE place to go on holiday. It reminds me a lot of Santa Monica and all the beach cities back in California! There is a pier, lots of shopping and cheap food! The Royal Pavilion is one of the main tourist attractions in Brighton. It was finished by John Nash in 1823 for King George IV. It was his "seaside" home. It was built in an Indian style and contrasts very much with the English style of the rest of the city. One day we took what we thought would be a nice walk through the country side to a little town near by called Lewes. It turned out to be quite the strenuous hike in the freezing cold! At the end of the hike it began to snow and continued to snow all day and all night. It turned out to be the most snow that southern England has had in 20 years! There was so much snow all the trains, buses and cabs stopped running come morning! Needless to say I was stuck down in Brighton for another day until they figured out that trains could still run even in the snow!

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Ripley Castle has been home to the Ingilby Family for almost 700 years!! The castle has had many Kings and Queens stay both in times of war and peace. The castle is much smaller than many of the other ones I have visited but it had a home like feel to it. Probably largely due to the fact that the family still lives in the castle. Much of the upstairs is roped off to visitors. The day we were at the castle there was a wedding going on. The bride was standing outside taking pictures even though it was only about 30 degrees! It even snowed later that night! Inside the house there were secret passage ways and winding stair cases that were used to hide people in times of war! The family that now lives in the house has 5 children all around 20 years old give or take a few years. There was a family picture in one of the rooms so me and some of the other girls went over to look and one of the sons looked so much like Prince Harry! We could not believe it. Our tour guide came over and said "Looks quite like the Prince huh?" and we said "Umm YEAH! Is he home? Can we meet him?" haha. Apparently that is quite the joke of the family, that perhaps he is more closely related to the Windsor's than the Ingilby's! After touring the house we walked around the gardens but once the sun started to go down it got too cold for us and we headed home!

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Once I got back from the grand tour of the European continent with the family I spent a few days down in London with Laura! We stayed at a hostel right by the London Eye so we were right in the heart of London. I kind of forgot how close everything was in central London!! We hit all the major tourist sights like Buckingham, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey, Notting Hill and Harrods. There was a Princess Diana & debutante exhibit at Kensington Palace! We learn how to set a table, walk with a book on our heads, curtsy and waltz. We are well trained British women now! Laura and I also took a lovely stroll down the Thames and took a tour of the Globe Theater. There was a poster in the gift shop that was so witty I had to buy it. It was called Quoting Shakespeare and went something like this:

"Quoting Shakespeare"
If you cannot understand my argument and declare "it's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare. If you claim to be "more sinned against than sinning", you are quoting Shakespeare. If you act "more in sorrow than in anger", if you "wish is father to the thought", if your lost property has "vanished into thin air", you are quoting Shakespeare. If you have ever refused "to budge an inch" or suffered from "green-eyed jealousy", if you have "played fast and loose", if you have been "tongue-tied" - "a tower of strength" - "hoodwinked" or "in a pickle", if you have "knitted your brows" - "made virtue of necessity", insisted on "fair play" - "slept not one wink" - "stood on ceremony" - "danced attendance" on "your lord and master" - "laughed yourself into stitches", had "short shrift" - "cold comfort", or "too much of a good thing", if you have "seen better days", or lived "in a fools paradise", why, be that as it may, "the more fool you", for it is a "foregone Conclusion" that you are "as good luck would have it", quoting Shakespeare. If you think "it is high time", and that "that is the long and the sohrt of it", if you believe that "the game is up", and that "truth will out", even if involves your "own flesh and blood", if you"lie low" till "the crack of doom" because you suspect "foul play", if you have "teeth set on edge at one fell swoop" - "without rhyme or reason", then "to give the devil his due" if the "truth were known" for surely you have a "tongue in your head", you are quoting Shakespeare. Even if you bid me "good riddance" and "send me packing", if you wish I was "dead as a doornail", if you think I am an "eyesore" - a "laughing stock" - the "dwvil incarnate" - "a stony-hearted villain" - "bloody-minded", or a "blinking idiot", then "by jove" - "o lord"- "tut, tut!" - "For goodness sake" - "what the dickens!" - "but me no buts" - "it is all one to me", for you are quoting Shakespeare...

Enjoy the pictures!

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Hope the New Year finds everyone doing well! My Dad, Mom and Tara came over to Europe and we had the most amazing vacation! My dad planned quite the fun filled sight seeing tour of Germany, Austria, and Italy. I met them in Frankfurt, Germany on December 21 then we headed down to Heidelberg. We got there while it was dark but we walked around a bit and had our first taste of Germany food. We were all pleasantly surprised I think=) Mom and Tara then tried some mulled wine...I had tried some before and knew I wasn't much of a fan. The next day we woke up walked around in the light a bit then headed down to Munich for the Christmas Market and had some tasty German sausages! We then continued on down to Garmisch, a US military resort in the Bavarian Alps and spent the night there. I have since decided that when I graduate I am going to go work there for a year before I go into the real world!! The next day we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle which was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It is the castle that was used as inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disney. It was amazing! Just wait til you see the pictures. Then the drive continued down to Innsbruck, Austria where we spent the night. We saw the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Ski Jump that is in the city. This whole time we were driving through the breath taking Bavarian and Italian Alps! Verona, Italy was our next stop because I insisted on seeing Juliette's house from Romeo and Juliet. It was a nice break anyways because the drive from Austria down to Pisa was quite long. We arrived in Pisa on Christmas Eve and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That is about the only thing to do/see in Pisa so after that we headed back to the hotel and watched some weird Italian Circus show on tv. haha. Christmas Day we headed down to Roma. Roma was amazing! It is a very busy city with lots of people and lots to do! We went to the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We practically walked constantly for 2 days. We then decided to head over to Pineto, Italy to stay with my mom's family a day early. On the way we had to drive through the mountains of Italy which had lots of snow and ice! We saw cars spinning out, it was quite scary. Ask my mom about it=) We then spent two days in Pineto visiting with family. And I thought we had a lot of family in Ohio...going to Italy was about equal! It was nice to find out that there are some cousins around Tara and me in age over there too! Venice was the next stop on our tour and probably the coldest city (in my opinion!) Venice was like no other city because of the fact that no vehicles can come into the city! Everything arrives via boat. After Venice we headed back up to Munich for New Years and then stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site on the way to Frankfurt where we all parted again. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

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Sorry I have not uploaded pictures in a long time! At the end of November I went to visit my best friend Addie who was studying in Dublin, Ireland! It was quite rainy while we were there but other than that it was beautiful. We had a fun filled four days and i even tried my very first (and last) Guinness. I could not even finish the one free pint that you got when you bought admission to the Guinness Factory. We also took a bus ride over to Galway while we were there. Talk about cold! It was SUPER cold there and there was not much to do. Oh well! I hope to go back sometime and go visit Cork and Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone=)

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The school planned a day trip up to the Lake District which is in North West England. It is home to the tallest mountains and the largest lakes in England. Everyone told me to dress warm and prepare for the rain because it rains a lot there, but we got lucky! Although it was quite cold, we had sun most of the day and no rain! Yeah for good luck! Beatrix Potter wrote many of her children's novels while living up in the Lake District and the poet William Wordsworth also lived there. We made two stops one in Windermere and one in Ambleside. At the first stop we were able to take a trip out on a boat around the largest natural lake in England--Lake Windermere, then we had some Cornish pastries and spent quite a bit of time re-reading the tales of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck! One of the girls from the trip decided that she did not need to follow the time restrictions....so we only had about 20 minutes of daylight left when we got to the second city. Oh well! It was still a great trip!

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My best friend from high school came to visit me this weekend! She is studying over in Dublin, Ireland for the semester. We went up to York which is just a twenty minute train ride North of Leeds. The city is very small but full of history and sights! Guy Fawkes the Catholic who tried to burned down the Protestant ruled Parliament was born in York. It was also ruled by the Romans at one time and there was a Roman celebration/show the day we were there.

OH! and York was definitely the coldest city I have been to yet! The weather is starting to turn on us over here!

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I am taking an art history class on the English Country House. It details the formation and function of the classical country home in history. For one of the classes, we took a field trip to Harewood House which is home to the Earl of Harewood (the Queen's cousin). The house dates back to the mid-18th century. We did not get to spend much time there but it was quite an amazing building considering it was built almost 300 years ago!

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This past weekend I took a trip back up to Scotland to go on a Highlands tour of the country. My friend Laura ( from Newcastle) met me up there and we stayed in Edinburgh with my friend Mike (a friend from UCSB) who is studying abroad up there. Laura had never been up to Scotland so on Friday I showed her around the city. Saturday morning we left Edinburgh and headed up to Glencoe (glen in Gaelic means "valley) which is an area of Scotland that was home to the Macdonald clan back in the era of clans. We then headed north to Fort William which was named after William of Orange. Then the most famous stop....LOCH NESS. The water there is really dark because the bottom of the lochs are covered with peat. Loch Ness is not the biggest loch but it is about 24 miles long, 1 mile across and 600 feet deep. Loch in the native tongue of Gaelic means "lake". We continued north and spent the night in Inverness which sits on the river Ness just north of Loch Ness. There we tried some Haggis (a traditional scottish meal made of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep mushed together with oatmeal and onions...kind of tastes like meatloaf) and we also tried some local Scottish Whiskey. Laura and i could barely get our small glass down..that is some tough stuff! Mike on the other hand is an old pro these days! I think i will be passing on whiskey in the future. The next morning we headed south stopping in Fort Agustus, Drumnadrochit, Pitlochry (which is a small Victorian town) and eventually ending back down in Edinburgh.

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So my friend Laura is studying abroad just north of me in Sunderland, which is just outside of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I went to visit her for the weekend. Newcastle is a pretty old city that was named because in 1168 Henry II founded the castle and dubbed it the "new castle" and the name stuck to both the castle and the city. The city sits between the river Tyne and the river Wear. Sunderland is about a 30 minute metro ride outside of Newcastle and it sits right on the North Sea.

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So I am all settled here in the beautiful (but industrialized city) of Leeds, England. The first few weeks were pretty hectic getting adjusted and all that, but I am starting to get use to the British way of life now.

When I first got here, my dad came over with me and we spent a day down in Molesworth. It was nice to go back to where I grew up and see some old familiar faces. We then started our journey up to Liverpool, Glasgow and then onto Edinburgh where I had my orientation. Edinburgh is my favorite city so far! We saw Edinburgh Castle where the Scottish crowned jewels are kept and hiked up Arthur's Seat which is a huge mountain/ hill and from the top there is the most amazing view of the city. While we were hiking up we heard bagpipes! So we look up the mountain and sure enough there was a bagpiper up there playing. When we got to the top, we talked to the kid and here he is an American kid who is studying abroad in Scotland and just likes to play bagpipes in random places! It was a nice treat. Then after Dad and I left Edinburgh we headed south down to Alnwick. Here we had to make a pit stop and see Alnwick Castle which is where the Quidditch scene from the first Harry Potter movie was filmed. Dad then spent a few days in Leeds with me getting me everything I needed and then he left me to begin my adventures!

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