London Town & Happy Thanksgiving!

Just got in from London, and I had a blast!!
Tuesday night, immediately after marketing was over, Mary Ann was nice enough to drive me to the airport in the rental car. Saved me £15!! Of course, she did have an ulterior motive. Jack Niklas, the golfer, was in town checking out a site for a golf course in Donegal, and he was flying out of Derry Airport about the same time I was. We never got to see him though. Silly famous people and their private jets. Psshhh.

I got to my hostel in London around midnight, made my bed in the dark and CRASHED. I spent the next day walking around Piccadilly Circus, Westmister Abbey, and Big Ben. It was FREEZING in London! Thankfully I brought my big coat, scarf, and gloves. That night I had tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre. It was an excellent seat, that I paid dearly for, but it's my favorite show, so it was worth it.

The next morning I got up early to catch my train to Grantham. For those of you who don't know the significance of that city, it's home to Harlaxton College (the sister campus of my undergrad University of Evansville). I could have studied there as an undergrad, but never did for various reasons. It's a castle, and absolutely beautiful. Tiffany, a freshman I met during my senior year is studying there this semester, so I stayed with her for a night. Tiffany was an excellent host and Grantham & Harlaxton guide. We had a tasty lunch at a restaurant in town and she took me to stand in awe of the ASDA store--the closest thing to a Walmart that I've been in since I left home. It was wonderful. :-)

Once at beautiful, amazing Harlaxton, I got the tour of the grounds. We walked most of the mile drive that many students run naked and drunk at night. They call it the Naked Mile. Original, huh? Though there's not much else to do around the manor. Being in Derry is nicer if for the simple fact that there's a city within easy walking distance. I also like having my own kitchen, even if it is dirty ;-) Oh yeah, and I don't feel quite so old. Here, I'm the baby of the IMBA group. At Harlaxton, when asked when I graduated from UE, I get funny looks that say "that's the year I graduated from high school!" Gah. Where's my wheelchair?

Dinner at the manor was.. mmmm.. interesting. The stories about the food there, yeah they're all true. It's best just not to ask. My visit to Harlaxton ended all too soon. It was wonderful. You MUST see the pictures. The manor is amazing. I had a great time reminiscing about UE.

The next day I caught the train back to London to meet up with Samiyah and do the whole London Bridge/Tower of London/Westminster Abbey/Buckingham Palace tour thingy. Unfortunately, she had some problems with the Derry Airport and didn't get to come in until late that night. So to kill some time, I walked around 'Cheapside', ironically enough, an area of London known for it's expensive brand shops and the London Stock Exchange. Back in the day, it must have been the trade area of town. Streets are still named things like Milk Street, Bread Street, Lace Lane, etc. I happened upon Leadenhall Market which I didn't find out til later has something to do with Harry Potter. I'm not sure what, but you HP fans might know what I'm talking about. Either way, it was a neat little market with open air vendors for flowers, cheese, sausage, fish, and fruit.

Samiyah and I met up the next morning and decided just to walk around the city instead of taking the expensive bus tour. First stop was the London Bridge which turned out not to be much of anything. It's the Tower Bridge that's the cool one. Wonder why they wrote a song about the boring bridge... guess they felt sorry for it. Walking along the Thames we saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and almost fell on the patches of ice. We weren't really expecting ice... It's a lot colder in London than it has been in Derry. Once at the Tower of London, we caught a bus over to Trafalgar Square and walked down to Buckingham Palace just in time to watch the changing of the guard. We walked around in St. James' Park and over towards Big Ben. By that time we were just about frozen so we stopped for tea before I had to head back to Piccadilly Circus for "Guys and Dolls".

This time my seats weren't the greatest, so I paid my little 50p to rent a pair of binoculars. The show was great, and I was really impressed with the singing and the Chicago accents. They did a great job. I met up with Samiyah again and we enjoyed a budget dinner at the Spar convenience store before hiking up along one of the famous shopping streets to Madame Tussaud's, which ended up being closed. Blast! But we got to come back the next day and mingle with the likes of Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Mel Gibson, Oprah, Elvis, President Bush, Tony Blair, and the Queen! I think that was the most fun part of the whole trip!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Wembley the Indian/Pakistani part of town wandering around in the market and sampling some excellent Pakistani food. Mmmm! I had to race back to London to pick up my suitcase and get to Stansted Airport and back to Derry. Overall, it was a very nice weekend away from the stresses of the end of the semester. We've got 3 papers to get written and 3 presentations to give all in the next few weeks. Less than a month now till we all come home!

There are big dinner plans at the flat today, being Thanksgiving. Thankfully Christmas dinner stuff is already out in the grocery stores here, so there's no shortage of turkeys or stuffing mixes. Silly Irish people don't know what cornmeal is, so we can't have real cornbread dressing, but we'll have stuffing and thanks to Mom, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and cherry crunch.

I wish you and your family, wherever you are, a very Happy Thanksgiving. There's a lot to be thankful for this year. In all our travels, anything could have happened, but we're all safe and warm (mostly) and well-fed, so we have little to complain about. I'm thankful for the friends that I've made here and for my family and friends back home who pray for me every day.

Pictures 329-367

Big Trip Finale, Castlerock & Derry Halloween

Hope you had a fun Halloween with lots of candy.

This past weekend saw the influx of crowds to Derry for the Halloween festival. Apparently it's internationally known, and you DON'T leave the house without a costume on. Everyone in the flat was dressed for the occasion. I made use of my extremely long hair for Princess Leia buns, though the only robe I could find was a bit man-ish and looked funny. No matter. The Force was with me, or at least that's what another Princess Leia told me. :-)

Samiyah was a cat; Mary Ann a devil (or Satan as some little kid called her); Chris was a clown; Simone was a witch/vampire? and Brian was a 7-foot-tall, headless, warrior. He was definitely the hit of our group. So many drunk girls kept asking him if he was a model since he was so "tall". There were tons of people, fireworks, food booths, and a singing Elvis impersonator downtown. We had a great time roaming the streets and seeing everyone in their costumes. There are pictures of our Halloween at the end.

And now, to wrap up my novel about the Europe trip. I promise it's painless. Maybe even funny! Here goes.

I left Zurich and arrived in Basel to yet more cloudy skies. No sight of the Alps. *disappointed sigh* But Basel is a very picturesque little town in its own right. My hostel was in this quiet little wooded area behind a church and *eeek* a cemetary. But it wasn't creepy. It was nice and peaceful, with an offshoot of the Rhein running along next to it. I stashed my stuff, grabbed a map, and went exploring around town. I went for a walk along the Rhein, which was nice. A bit dirty though... the pictures in my guidebook showed people swimming in it during the summer. No way! That'd be like swimming in the Mississippi, yech. I wandered my way through the narrow little streets towards the market place where I got some dinner from a street vendor. More sausage, yum! Living off of bread and fruit makes you hungry for some MEAT.

The next day I had some time to kill before catching my train to Strasbourg to meet Sara, so I went to the Kunst Museum. There was a huge deKooning exhibit on, but I'm not a big fan of modern abstract art. Sorry to offend anyone, but mostly it just looks like something a kindergartener would bring home to put on the refrigerator. Why can't I be a famous artist? I could empty a bucket of blue paint on a white sheet and make my profound statement. I call it... blue on white. Deep, huh?

But I digress. They had a really good exhibit on Rudy Burkhardt who was a native of Basel until he moved to New York City to become a photographer. Tonya, you'd really like his stuff.

Finally, I was off to Strasbourg. Sara met me at the station and we went back to her apartment to drop off my bags before class. (For those who don't know, Sara is another IMBA in my masters program at Memphis. While we're here in Derry, she's in France. Cause she speaks French. Quite well, I might add.) Anyhow, for one evening, I was an honorary student in European Integration. It was an interesting lecture, but I confess I was more distracted by people in the class. Apparently it's not a big deal to talk to your neighbor, a lot and loudly, while the professor is speaking. There was even a girl in front of me drawing flowers on her jeans with her pen. Seriously people, we're graduate students.

The next day Sara showed me around town: Petit France, the Cathedral, and Les Musees de Strasbourg. It's a great city, and she seems to be having a lot of fun there. It was so nice to see a friendly face and to hear English spoken by a native. My visit was way too short, but Paris was calling.

I had been told so much and by so many people to be wary of pickpockets that I was completely paranoid as soon as I stepped off the train. I kept one hand on my purse and the other holding onto my suitcase as I bumped along the streets, walking quickly and with purpose. My hostel was about a 30 minute walk from the station, and from what I was told previously, not in the best of areas. It wasn't bad at all though, of course I wouldn't walk around alone at night. Speaking of that, funny story. Enter: my Parisian "boyfriend".

I walked over the hill to the Basilique du Sacré Coeur, which is an absolutely gorgeous cathedral, inside and out. After seeing what there was to see, I walked down the other side of the hill to find somewhere to eat. At the bottom of the hill I was stopped by this African guy from Senegal. He wouldn't leave me alone until I told him where I was from. He didn't believe that I was American and insisted that I was really British. Yeah, cause I have a British accent and all....

Anyway, I figured that since he lived around there, he would know of somewhere good to eat. I asked for a recommendation and he said he would take me there. No, no, I insisted I could find it myself, just tell me where it is. No, he would take me there. That's when I should have walked away, but I didn't. We walked forever until we got to this African restaurant. Oook, not what I had planned but whatever. Just don't try to poison me, scary man. I thanked him for showing me the way, said bye, and walked inside. He followed me and sat down at my table. Great. Anyway, to make a 3-hour long story short, he ended up following me around siteseeing in what amounted to the red-light district of Paris, continuously putting his arm around my shoulder to which I promptly pushed him off and told him to quit it. Passing an Irish pub, I went in for some water and sat near the window. He kept trying to talk me into sitting in the corner. NO WAY! I didn't want to let him know I was lost, so when he wasn't paying attention I whipped out my map to get my bearings back to the hostel. He went to bum a cigarette off someone, and I took off. He caught up, and that was the first time I got really scared. I kept thinking, if I make this guy mad, there's no telling what he could do. I kept the directions to my hostel in mind and started walking that way with him trailing along next to me. Three or four times he said I should come back to his house instead of going to my hostel, and numerous times, I said no. I finally arrived in front of the hostel, whipped around to face him said BYE loudly and jumped inside. That's when he went nuts. Thankfully there were people at the desk, and they came to the door with me while he stood outside and yelled "WHAT?! BYE?! You mean I walked with you for hours and all I get is BYE?!" My response was "Uh, yeah. What, you wanted something else? I said no. I know what you want, and you can forget it." Cursing me, he finally went away.

SO, not the nicest start to my visit to Paris, but thankfully I wasn't bothered by strange men the rest of the trip. The next morning I woke up early and caught the train to Versailles. The palace is HUGE and beautiful! I saw the State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, and the Peace Drawing Room. Very cool. I caught the train back to the city and saw the Hotel des Invalides, Napoleon's tomb, the famous Pont Alexandre III bridge, the Palace of Justice, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. The Louvre was absolutely massive! I spent four hours there and that was quite enough to satisfy my art quota for the year. I got to see the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and so many other famous pieces.

The next day, I found my way to the Opera Garnier. Being the musical nerd that I am, I just HAD to see the opera house that inspired Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. The inside is spectacular, just as it should be. Alas, I didn't run into the Phantom. From there I went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the hundreds of stairs to get to the top for a great view of Paris. Too bad it was cloudy again, but still a great view. Next I went to the Eiffel Tower. I had to stand in line for about two hours to get to the top. While I was waiting on the second stage, the alarms went off. All I know is a lady speaking in French and everyone around me looking worried. I waited for the English translation, but it never came. From what I could get from people in line around me, one of the elevators had gotten stuck. After that there were several people who re-thought their trip to the top and decided to leave instead. I was not to be deterred from reaching the top. It was worth it!

5 am came very early the next morning and I just barely made it across the city to the bus that would take me to the airport. It's strange how flying into Dublin suddenly felt like coming home. I was more than ready to be back in my room with my bed and my friends, even if it's only a temporary home-away-from-home.

School has started since then, and it's been pretty uneventful. We have lots of work to do, and having to do extra papers to turn in back home isn't exactly the greatest thing, but we'll manage.

Last weekend my Aunt Shirley came to visit. We walked around the city walls and visited several charity shops (thrift shops who donate their proceeds to charity). You can find some good deals and give back all at the same time. It's a good way to rationalize a shopping spree.

We were going to go to the Causeway the next day, but bus service on Sundays during the winter season aren't the most organized things. So we decided on Castlerock instead. Derry was incredibly foggy, so I was worried that the day would be miserable, but when we got to Castlerock on the train, it had cleared up. Aunt Shirley managed the hiking up hills and through fields like a real trooper, and we had a great time.

This past week, I got to go to Cookstown to visit the Warnock Reed Makers shop. This summer working for NORIBIC, I spent most of my time building a customer database for Warnock. I went down to Cookstown to present it to them. They gave me a tour of the shop and showed me how they make the bagpipe reeds. I even got to try one out and embarrass myself by not being able to blow hard enough for it to make more than a pitiful squeaking sound. Then Saturday night, was the Blues and BBQ dinner. My mom was good enough to mail us a bottle of real southern BBQ sauce, so I used the inspiration to throw a dinner party for the flat. I made BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, cole slaw, and Mississippi Mud Pie. Having never made any of those things before, I really surprised myself. It was edible! I would even go so far as to say it was GOOD! We played some BB King and other blues and Memphis-themed songs for nostalgia sake. We're all starting to miss home really bad. Only 47 days to go!

THE Link: Pictures 246-328

That'll do it for now. I probably won't have anything else interesting to tell for the rest of the time here. Hope it hasn't been too boring for you.