Eiffel Tower!

This is meant to be a group shot in front of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, when I stole the picture from Melissa, it shrunk...

Jenna, Melissa, Mary, and I in front of the inside entrance to the Louvre.

The Mona Lisa is very tiny...

Group shot in Endinburgh (Branden, Me, Jenna, Melissa, Josh, Dani, Mary, and Cameron.)

Another group shot, plus James on the end. He was basically our personal tour guide. It was awesome.

In Durham.

Durham again.





More Paris photos to come later, along with pics from St. Patrick's Day and Ireland!!!

I am no longer in LONDON! I cannot believe this whole extravaganza is almost over. It is craaazy. Right now, I am currently on a train that is taking me to the airport, which will take me to Ireland where I will be gallivanting around the green countryside in search of leprechauns and pots of gold. Hopefully I will come back with a nice sack of lucky coins to spend =)

These past few weeks have been insane. I was not joking when said I would have no extra time for anything (sleeping was even cut back much to my dismay). I have basically been traveling for three weeks straight with yet another week to go. I have never in my life been on so many different trains, planes, taxis, busses, and various means of transportation. I am very much looking forward to driving a car when I get home. I might even drive to class.

Soo, the end of the study tour was not as fun as the beginning. This was due to the fact that everyone was beginning to get a wee bit cranky and tired. As for me, traveling with a suitcase that has a broken handle is not ideal. In order to roll it on its little roll-y wheels I had to hunch my back down reeal far in order to reach the handle that refused to go up any farther than about three, maybe four inches. It was awesome.

I do have to say the Liverpool was interesting. It was the last city we hit on the tour (right after Manchester (which was swarming with crazy football fans because of the match the day we left)). Basically, it is a city dedicated to the life and works of the Beatles. It was very cool to see some of the streets and places the “Fab Four” frequented back in their days as Liverpudlians. And yes, a person from Liverpool is considered a Liverpudlian. This is because a nickname for a pool of water is a puddle and OBVIOUSLY that is what you would change Liverpool to. Haha Puddlians. I wanted to buy a shirt that said that on it….but I could not find one. Sigh. I digress. Yes, the Beatles were a large topic of interest. Many of the different names in their songs can be traced back to street names in Liverpool (Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, etc… (Abbey Road is in London)).

(HAHAHA A little kid in the seat across from me totally just peeked his head up over the back of the seat and growled at Melissa. It was funny.)

Anyway, Liverpool was entertaining. Unfortunately a slight damper was placed on the end of the trip due to other circumstances relating to drama-filled situations back at SCU. It never fails to amaze me how efficient drama is at following people around. I am on the other side of the globe and I still have to deal with this stuff. Wonderful.

We returned to London Friday afternoon. Completely exhausted, we had to unpack our bags, rush to do laundry, repack, and leave for Paris the next morning. And by morning I mean middle of the night. We left at 4am on Saturday. SO TIRED. But it was worth it. Paris was amazing. We went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tour, The Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame Cathedral and many many other places. We met up with out two French friends Diane and Souad who took us out to dinner where we had the most amazing Crepes. Mmmm it was good. It would almost be worth going back to France simply to eat the food. After dinner, Diane took as on a walking tour of the city by night. It was beautiful. We saw almost everything there is to see and it was all lit up. It was awesome. We even saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle! (which it does every hour for five minutes—it was very cool). By the time we got back to the hotel/hostel we were so tired we all passed out within minutes. Sunday, we basically re-did everything we had done Saturday night, just during the day. We went to church at Notre Dame Cathedral. The church is amazing—inside and out. We lucked out with the weather as well—it was absolutely lovely out! I even got sunburned! Shocking, I know. Sunday night we found a little French restaurant that had been recommended to us by a friend. I would definitely suggest eating the duck at Chez Papa at one point in your life. The sauce was amaaazing. And for dessert, we had authentic French Crème Brule. HEAVEN.

We had to leave Monday morning at another ungodly hour in the morning—getting up at four to make our 6 o’clock train back to London, only to go to class right afterwards. We were sooo tired when we got back, I literally thought I was going to fall asleep walking. But I survived, and amazingly I am not sick. I am extremely impressed with my flu-fighting skills.

Basically Monday and Tuesday were spent napping, packing and studying for our final. Tuesday, we did take a break from the chaos to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Us SCU chicas and chicos brought the kitchen table into our hallway so we could do a few Irish Car Bombs—a classic St. Patty’s Day treat! It was lots of fun. We were really able to bond with each other over the study tour and I am pretty sure that we will all be hanging out a lot when we get back to Santa Clara. The SCU London crew turned out to be a really awesome group of people. I am so happy that we experienced London (and various other locations) together! We dubbed ourselves MGM DCJ2 (Melissa, Gabby, Mary, Dani, Cameron, and J squared (Josh and Jenna))!! It is an awesome name.

So that brings me to right now. Which is me, typing whilst riding on the train. I am going to have to take a short break from my blogging here to turn my computer off and fly to Ireland. This will be continued later tonight.


It’s later tonight! I am in Ireland and about to go to sleep. The airport was annoying as usual. I don’t think it matters how early we get there to check in, we will ALWAYS have to end up speed walking/jogging to make it to the gate on time. People say that if there is one thing the British know how to do, it is to queue (line) up properly. This is not true. Getting into a line in England is utter chaos and pandemonium. We were there over an hour early, waited in a massive and disorganized line for about forty minutes, only to be told when we got to the front of the line that we had been in fact waiting in the wrong place. Joy. Because we would have missed our flight if we had gone to a different line, the woman (who was very cranky I might add) let us call the other location from where we were to give our credit and check-in information over the phone. It worked out fine, but was extremely stressful. This is the third time we’ve almost missed a flight or train. It happened on our way to Sweden, on the train back from Paris, and now. I HATE AIRPORTS. And somehow, I don’t understand why, I seem to set the alarm off EVERY time I go through security. I haven’t yet discovered what it is that makes it go beep…but it is quite aggravating. There are only so many times you want to let someone pat you down and search you while you are about to miss your flight!

Aside from the running to the plane in order to get on it in time for taking off (which is generally an important thing when flying) things went smoothly. The flight was uneventful…I bought a water bottle….and listened to music. That about sums up the flight. Grainne met Melissa and I at the airport when we landed, which was very nice. I am sooo over taking trains and busses when carrying bags. And yes, we have multiple bags each for this next week. It was our bright idea to bring as much stuff as allowed on the plane, so we would not be charged more than necessary for storing our bags. This means that both Melissa and I have large suitcases and a duffle bag…and we are only going to be here for six days. It looks like we are moving in!!

I am not too sure what the plan is going to be for the next week. We are staying at Grainne’s house in Bunratty. We might go to Dublin for the weekend…and at some point visit Melissa’s relatives (but I can’t recall at the moment where they are from). No matter what we do, I am sure it will be lots of fun!

ONLY ONE WEEK UNTIL I COME HOME!!!!!!

The SCU London crew!
(From left to right: Josh, Branden, Cameron, Mary, Me, Dani, Jenna, and Melissa)

My mood is directly linked to how much sunshine I get.

I am very annoyed right now. The Internet is not working, the sun is not shining, the mall is closed, and my room has no food in it. Gabby is not a happy person at the moment. I don’t think I like Glasgow…

Well as long as I have nothing else to do at the moment (what with the internet being spaztastic) I figured I may as well attempt to go through a few of the things we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, my descriptions of them may be tainted by my adverse mood…but I will try not to sound too cranky. I’ll try…I cannot guarantee anything though.

So… where to start. As you know, I went to Sweden last weekend. It was a lot of fun. It was really really great to see Nina and Emma and hang out where they live and see how things work at a Swedish school. It was very cool—the little city we were in (Lund) is basically a college town built around an ancient cathedral. It was an extremely cute little place with cobblestone roads and old style houses. We almost didn’t make it there though. Melissa and I had a final on Thursday that did not end until 4 and our flight was at 5:30. We convinced our professor to let us leave early so we could take the tube to the train, which would take us to the airport. The train was supposed to take exactly 30 minutes, but for some unknown reason it kept stopping and it took almost 50 mins to get to the airport. We then got stuck in a giant line to go through security (which is much less efficient than in the US…and somehow almost EVERY single person set of the alarm). At that point it was about 4:58 and our flight stopped boarding at 5:10. It was baad. I didn’t think we were going to make it. We SPRINTED through entire airport and as we were running heard over the speakers that it was last call for our flight. Ours was the last flight to Sweden for the day so if we missed it, it would have been crappy crappy crappy. Fortunately we made it just as they were closing the gates. The two of us were ready to pass out or have a heart attack when we finally got on board. It was very stressful. Hehe anyways, the weekend turned out really great other than that slight hiccup.

We returned to London Sunday night at about 11 and had to unpack…just to repack our stuff right back up again to leave at 8:30 the next morning. Not very much sleep was had that night.

Monday morning we all took the train to Newcastle. And yes, Newcastle is in England. We were there for three nights (three nights I might add, that I had my own room!). The day we got there we pretty much just checked into the hotel, went out to dinner, and then went to bed. Day two, we took a walking tour of the city—going around to look at all of their cool bridges and buildings. It was interesting…but not overly exciting. We had a free evening so the 8 of us went out to dinner and watched a Football match at a sports bar.

Wednesday we took the train to Durham, which is a really pretty little town that is famous for its University and its Cathedral. The architecture there was amazing. The university looked like a castle, and the Cathedral was massive and beautiful! It was a very cool little place.

Wednesday night was the Newcastle vs Manchester United football match. I am not generally much of a soccer fan…but I have to say that it was an awesome experience. People are sooooo into soccer here, it is insane. We had really good seats too so we could pretty much see everything that was going on. The people around us cheered like mad the entire match. I recorded the reaction when Newcastle scored its first goal—it’s pretty loud!

Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel to meet our second group leader at the train station to take the train to Edinburgh, Scotland. I have to say that Edinburgh is probably one of the coolest/prettiest places I’ve been so far. Everything is so green and the castle is amazing! I mean what kind of place can you say you went for a walk after dinner and strolled through a massive castle?! It was cool. We stayed in this very cozy and cute bed and breakfast that was owned by a family who all worked there. Right after we checked in, we took an open bus tour of the city, driving all around the city learning all the historical details behind it all. After that, we went out to dinner to a place called “The Dogs” which was basically a very hip, fancy, yet laid back restaurant. James, our professor/team leader/really-really-funny-Scottish-man-who-acts-like-he-is-only-25, insisted that we all order what ever we wanted, including a starter, main courses, wine, dessert, and dessert wine. It was so much fun! After dinner we went on a ghost tour. It was hilarious because the woman was hard core trying to be creepy, while the boys were all trying to scare us, yet at the same time nobody could stop laughing—including the professor. After the walk we trekked up a hill to walk by the front of the castle, which was all lit up and AWESOME looking. It was super cool. We got a good group shot while we were there—I’ll post a copy when I get one (it’s not on my camera because this was still at the time when my camera was having issues with life).

Friday morning, we hiked up to the castle again—this time going in and paying for headsets that took you all around telling what each thing was. It was very interesting and entertaining. The views were amazing! After that we got food and coffee (which was necessary…I’m seriously surprised I have not yet died of sleep deprivation at this point. I amaze myself sometimes!) and then kept on walking. We went into the Parliament building and then went on a hike. We trekked up a hill to check out a few of the monuments they had at the top, which gave stunning views of the entire city. Even though we were all exhausted, it was still amazing. Some of the pictures turned out really good. After that we were free for the rest of the day and all day Saturday. It was nice to have some free time—which was definitely used for napping and sleeping.

Saturday, we went to all of the little shops along the Royal Mile (a street leading down from the castle), got lunch, and pretty much just wandered around the city exploring. Melissa, Josh, and I went to church Saturday night at St. Mary’s Cathedral (one of the ONLY Catholic churches I could find within walking distance. I was slightly disappointed that we did not have a Scottish priest =( haha but it was cool. The church was very pretty. Saturday night we went out to dinner at a very good Chinese place. There was tons of food and it was good too, so we were all in pretty good moods when we went to bed.

Sunday morning we had to pack up again to catch the train to Glasgow. The train took about 45 minutes, so that wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately I do not have very many good things to say about Glasgow… it is cold, dark, and wet—not a good combination. Last night we went to a pro-basketball game, which was entertaining. It was like watching a high school game! Hehe but people were still very very into it. After that we went out to another fancy dinner, this time at a place called “The Left Bank”. The food was amazing! I ordered duck. Haha it was good. I’ve been attempting to branch out in my food ordering habits while here—some items of interest include rabbit, lamb, and duck. Yes, I am making my way down the list of furry and cute animals…its sad. All I need to add to my list of Thumper, Lambsy and Donald is Bambi and I’ll be set. Anyway, the dinner was great—and James kept the wine and food coming the entire night. I think we were at the restaurant for about 3 and a half hours!

This morning, after stumbling down to breakfast at the horrifying hour of 8 am… we went on an open roof bus tour of Glasgow. All I can say is it was FREEEZING and RAINING. Not that much fun was had… We all pretty much just wanted to go inside the entire time. We did get off the bus at one point to look around the University of Glasgow. The most interesting thing there was the Kelvin Museum. It had all of Kelvin’s experiments and discoveries—some of which were interactive, so it was entertaining.

After that, we got back on the bus, finished the tour, and then got lunch. The rest of the day was free. Naps were taken. We did attempt to go shopping, but unfortunately, everything seems to close at exactly six o’clock, so pretty much there is nothing to do right now. And the Internet is not even working. Yes, I am not a happy camper at the moment. I am sure once I get some food things will seem a little bit better…but the weather is really not helping. It is yucky outside.

I hope this post was not too boring. I pretty much was just listing things in an uninteresting way…but I do not seem to be mentally capable of doing more than that at the moment! Tomorrow we leave James to meet the next professor in Manchester. If anything interesting goes on, I’ll be sure to let you know =) I hope you liked the pictures I posted yesterday!

Glasgow does not believe in sunshine. Only rain and snow are allowed here!

Helloo! Greetings from sunny Scotland. NOT. It is gray, rainy (sometime snowy) and c-c-c-cold! We left Edinburgh this morning...which I was very sad to do. It is soo pretty there! Hopefully there will be some cool things to be done here as well even if the weather is slightly less than pleasant. Tonight is a pro basketball game...which should be interesting if only for the fact that most of their players are reject Americans. Ha! After the game we are going to go out to a shnazzy dinner complements of FIE. The food should be good! I'll post more later to let you know whats a goin' on! We've had some fun times in the past few days... castles and heiland coo's aplenty!

ALSO, you will be happy to learn that some pictures have finally been posted. I know, this is an amazing thing. Information like this should not be sprung upon people...but there is no other way around it. Enjoy... here are the links:

Sverige...aka Sweden =)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080690&id=7102721&l=71068

Newcastle and Durham
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080691&id=7102721&l=cb34f

I <3 Edinburgh!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080692&id=7102721&l=9a0d8

Blogger.com sucks at loading pictures.

Don't think that I forgot you people. I've been trying to load pictures for the last half hour...but it does not seem to be working =( I will try again tomorrow. And if if it still does not work, well, then I'll just have to post a facebook album. Try to live without the visuals for a day or so. I know it will be hard...but I have faith in you!!!!

I <3 you!

I <3 Edinburgh

There are so many things to say right now, the most important of which being this: I LOVE SCOTLAND. It is my favorite. I want to live here. Seriously.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, I am going to disappoint you by saying this is going to be brief and un-entertaining compared to my usual standards of bragging about the super cool places I go. In the past week I’ve been in four countries (England, Sweden, Denmark (the airport SO counts!), and Scotland) and 8 different cities (London, Copenhagen, Lund, Malmo, Ystad, Newcastle, Durham and Edinburgh). It has been awesome…in a very tiring sort of way. We have gone to so many cool places and learned so many new (well…technically very old) things, that I do not even know where to start talking about it all. Plains, trains, busses, subways, and most often our own feet, have been our means of transportation. We’ve met Brits and Geordies, Scotts and Swedes—all of which want to know what the hell a group of Californians are doing in this part of the world at this time of year. One Scottish man nicely put it like this: “Whet are ye doo’in here for sprring brek? Tey call it sprring brek fer a reson. Doo’nt ye kno’ that Spring is broo’ken here? The sen doo’nt shaine.” That was the most concise and accurate description of the weather in Northern England and Scotland I have heard thus far.

Museums, bridges, hotel rooms, giant hikes up hills, giant hikes down hills, awesomely ancient cathedrals, castles, walls, graveyards, pubs, football matches, Scottish boys, English boys, and Irish boys, massive castles, snowy streets, and weird foods are just a few things we’ve seen, done, and experienced in the past few days—so many new and exciting things to do with barely any time to do them. My camera also conveniently decided to go into a coma right in the middle of this. One second it was happily snapping shots of a castle, and then the next it refused to see anything but a black screen. Its temporary loss of brain power lasted for a whole day, a day in which I prayed for its little camera life every time I saw someone posing for a picture that I could not take, which BELIEVE ME added up to a LOT of praying time. Miraculously, the little-camera-that-could resurrected itself this morning much to my great joy, and is currently working with minimal residual damage. I have a feeling, however, that this is going to be a recurring problem.

I will load pictures tonight. Be ready.*





*pleeease don't kill me if I do not =) I am going to do my best... but sometimes it just doesn't happen no matter how hard i try!