Berlin and a few more random things.

Well it seems like if I don't blog for a few days then I have so much to say! So I'll try to make things semi short :)

I'm in my finals week right now. The semester is set up in 2 terms. I have 1 class that goes the whole time I'm here. Then I have 2 classes that are over tomorrow. I had one final today, I have one tomorrow. And then I have 2 research papers due tomorrow, which of course I've barely started. Then after a week break I start again with a new class.

Berlin was an amazing trip. I posted many picture and actually started putting captions on them. It wasn't really a trip where you go "oh yeah that was really fun!". Not because it wasn't good, but more because of what we did while we were there. Berlin has so much recent history. It's crazy to think that 20 years ago I wouldn't have been able to even travel where I was because of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall dividing the Soviet East and Democratic West. The city itself is not a very "pretty" city per se. Most of the city was destroyed during World War II and has since been rebuilt.

We took a long walking tour the first day and saw things like the place that Hitler's old bunker used to be (now converted into a car park), the Berlin Wall, a Jewish Holocaust memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gates, and much more. It was very interesting and informative, although a little cold. The temperature all weekend was around 0 degrees Celcius. We went out at night and I met a German guy named Freidrich who is now my email pen pal. I think that's pretty cool.

The next day most of our group went to a concentration camp called Sachsenhausen (pronounced saxon how zen). That was a very moving, emotional, and depressing experience. The fact that we were standing there in our scarves and heavy coats and hats still cold helped to put things into perspective as well. Even though everyone was definitely freezing, I didn't here anyone complaining about it. Especially after seeing the thin cotton prison uniforms that were the only clothing of prisoners. I did a lot of studying about the Holocaust when I was younger, but I still learned so much while I was here. I think it's an experience everyone should have in their life time.

Our last day we did more of our own exploring of the city. We visited a bombed out church, Alexanderplatz, the radio tower, the Reichstag where we climbed up a large glass torpedo like structure to look out over the city, and a few more places. It seemed to take a little bit of time to get from place to place. The U-bahn and the S-trains aren't quite as efficient as the Tube. Although the fact that everything was in German also didn't help us out too much :)

My favorite new food is what is called a Kebab. It's not what we think of, meat on a stick. Rather it is what looks like a pita but thicker stuffed with lamb or chicken, lettuce, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and an interesting garlic like sauce that kind of looks like ranch dressing. Oh and pastries. Germans have amazing pastries!

Well... so much for being brief. Oh well! After tomorrow I have a week plus a little off for our Spring Break. I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow around 3 and come back Sunday night. Then Tuesday I am flying to Rome (random turn around) with 6 other people. The plan is to go to Rome, then Florence, then Venice. We'll get back Monday night from Italy! I'm pretty darn excited!

Part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.


Glass torpedo to climb inside the Reichstag

Houston, We Have Lift Off!

I FINALLY have my internet back!! Apparently some wire just wasn't connected to the wireless card anymore.

But ANYWAY this means that I am posting a ton of new pictures! Don't look at all of them, there's too many. But if any titles look interesting scan through them :) Have fun!

homepage.mac.com/laurab5110

Gehen nach Berlin!

"Going to Berlin!"

I'm leaving this evening with a few friends to go to Berlin. I'm super excited! We'll be there through Sunday night and have a ton of things planned to see and do. It's supposed to be raining and snowing and quite cold. Should be fun!

Prayer

This morning I found out that one of my professors had to take an emergency trip back home because his daughter just found out she has cancer. We haven't been told anything else at this point, so I'm not sure how serious things are. Please pray for him and his family as they are trying to comfort their daughter and figure out ways to help her through the cancer. I'm not sure what the daughters name is, but the professor is Dr. Ronald Hughes.

A Few Fun Facts (This is my 700th post by the way)

1. My phone alarm actually has a "snooze" button.
2. Words: mobile, cash machine, loo, cheers, aluminium (pronounced that way), advert, tele, knickers, trainers, cockfosters, goodge, juicy bits, coach, parcel.
3. Londoners know how to celebrate. Yesterday there was a HUGE celebration complete with parade and fireworks for Chinese New Year.
4. When something goes wrong you are actually told what the problem is. For example on the Tube this morning 2 lines were shut down "due to a police investigation". In America you would never be told why.
5. In a similar way unstated rules are stated: an announcement I heard, "Beggars frequently opperate on the trains, please do not encourage them by giving them money"
6. There are many different accents depending on what part of England you're from. So far the Liverpool accent is my favorite.
7. There is literally at least 1 pub on every block, and people frequently go to pubs on lunch breaks.
8. The fashion is so much cooler here, as in there actually is a fashion.
9. You can fly almost anywhere in Europe for less than £100 round trip.

More to come later...

In the London Eye

Bath Time

Friday we took a day trip to the city of Bath. It was a beautiful little city with tons of history. The major thing being the Baths that the Romans built (way back in some year that I can't seem to remember). The baths and pumps still work today, which is pretty impressive. Although no one is allowed to actually go in them because there's a ton of led in the water... which is not too good for you.

Pictures hopefully to come some day. Making an appointment to take my computer in is proving hopeless it seems. It doesn't matter how early I try and make one to take my lap top in they are always booked up for the day. So I'll be calling them soon to see how the heck I'm ever supposed to get my computer fixed...

Liverpool!

I got back late Sunday night from an exciting weekend in Liverpool! There were only 8 students who came which made it so much better with such a small group. There were also 3 professors there and then Jen, who works for the program and is from Liverpool, was there as well.

Friday when we got there we did a little walking tour of the city (it's not very big at all). Then we went on the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" and saw all of the Beatles sights including: Matthew Street (where they hung out), The Cavern (where they had their big break and played more than 160 shows... also where many other big names such as Jimi Hendrix have played), the houses that Jon Lennon and George Harrison were born in, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, and a few other random places.

Oh wait... did I mention yet that it was snowing?? Well it was all weekend, quite alot actually.

That night Jen took us out for a night on the town. Liverpool has a crazy night life! We started out at this delicious "posh" Italian restaurant called Est Est Est. There were SO many courses! That was by far my best meal so far on this trip. Then we went out dancing to many different bars and clubs with different themes. It was way fun.

Saturday we went on a 2.5 hour walking tour in the rain focused on the slave trade in Liverpool. Afterwards we went to the Maritime Museum, where we focused on an exhibition on slavery and racism in England (we went to Liverpool in the first place for my Black Family class). From there we went back and ended up taking a 3.5 hour nap! I guess we needed it! We ate some quick yummy pizza before another night out on the town. The last place we went was Salsa dancing. So much fun!

Sunday we woke up and went to "The Beatles Story" Museum. That was very interesting. After that we decided to go on a Duck Bus (a bus that also goes in the water). Here we first had a tour of the city on land, and then went into the river Mersy for a better tour of the docks. For lunch we went to a China town and ate at a Chinese Buffet. It was delicious! We walked around to look at the many shops but most had closed already because it's law that on Sundays in England shops can only be open for 5 hours. So we hung out at a coffee bar and drank tea and coffee before heading back home on the train!

It was such a fun weekend but I now feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!

It's Snowing!!

A TON! We went on a walking tour of Black London this morning and I learned what it's like to really be in the snow. It's the first time I've ever been in the snow when it was actually snowing. It was very fun and I got a few good pictures. But by the end of it I was just wet and cold.

It's supposed to be the most snow that London's had in a few years! Fun minus the fact that it slows everything down alot. The Tube, trains, cars, walking. Yah for slushy snow!

Wicked

Last night I went to see the musical Wicked. It's based on the character Elfaba, a misunderstood witch who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West that we know from the musical, The Wizard of Oz. It was pretty entertaining and funny. This was definitely one of the musicals that I was looking more forward to seeing and I wasn't disappointed!

A Month?

I can't believe that I've been in Europe for a month already! It definitely doesn't seem like it.
I feel like I'm finally getting adjusted to life in London. I actually said "Cheers mate" without even thinking the other day. And then I got REALLY excited afterwards when I realized what I had just said :)
I watched the super bowl with a few friends at a local university pub. My friend Amanda and I were talking to a few British guys who basically made fun of American Football the entire time. It is kind of easy to make fun of when they play rugby and we play American Football. It wasn't negative though, just friendly joking back and forth. We got their number to hopefully hang out and maybe watch a rugby game. We'll see! I really want to make some British friends. That's half of the experience!

Busy Busy Busy!

It has been a fun and very busy start to the weekend. Yesterday we had a day trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Stonehenge was neat to see since it is one of those landmarks you see everywhere. Sadly we couldn't actually go up to the stones, although they do allow it during summer and winter solstice. Salisbury was a neat little town. I had my first official English tea and it was AMAZING. I don't even like tea usually and it tasted soo good!

Today a few of us had booked a trip to go to Cardiff, Wales (our first trip since getting to London that was out of England). We left by train at 7:45 this morning and got back to London at about 10:45 tonight. Long day but very enjoyable. We went to a HUGE castle... the first castle I have ever seen and been inside. That was really cool. We also went to the rugby stadium (Cardiff is HUGE on rugby), to a Natural History museum, an Opera House, and the coast.

I'm not sure quite what I was expecting of Wales, but what we saw wasn't really it. It is a neat little city, but I guess when I thought of "castle" I was picturing a big open green area of land with a castle in the middle of it all. But not so. It was still neat to walk around in though. One cool thing was that every single sign was in both English and Welsh.

Tomorrow the plan is to do some shopping at a store we discovered that has clothes and accessories all for around 5 pounds. Then some of us are going to go play football at Hyde Park. Hopefully at some point I'm going to take my computer into the apple store to see what is up with my internet not working. And then finally we're going to a local pub that should be playing the super bowl! Yes... there are a few around here who do. That should be fun and random!

The London Eye

A few of us went to the London Eye today after visiting the British Museum. The museum was cool. It holds the original Rosetta Stone, which was really neat to see.

It was actually a sunnyish day so going on the Eye was perfect! We could see most of the city from atop the ginormous ferris wheel. I took some amazing pictures but I can't post them until I get my internet on my computer fixed. The good thing is I found an apple store that I can go take my computer to. The bad news is I'm not sure if I have a 2 or 3 year warranty on it. If it's 3 years then I'm good, otherwise I'm not sure if I want to spend money to fix it...