Here's to the end...

Since I was young I have hated the idea of being comfortable, of settling for what is and just living life that way. I truly believe that is when life gets boring. Being stuck in your comfort zone your whole life is no way to live, at least for me. Its for reasons I went to school far from where I grew up. I looked at it like I have four years to do what I want and become a person who I want to be. I approached this situation in a similar way. My mom was surprised when I told her I barely knew my roommates but other than that I knew not one person on this trip. For me meeting new people and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, like across the atlantic, is what life is all about. New people and how you can find ways to relate to them reveal characteristics about yourself you would have never noticed before. It can be a scary thing but for me it is scarier to stay in the same place your whole life.

London has been quite the experience and since we landed I feel like I have been on the 

fast track to July 31st. To have a city at your doorstep and endless amounts of things to do is an incredible opportunity that I believe I have taken full advantage of. My parents are going to be very upset when I sleep for three days straight when I get home. On June 1st it felt as if we would live here forever but just like that my bags are all packed (kinda) and ready to go home. I can truly say that I have made friends here that I would never have been exposed to in my activities at JMU. I feel that this experience has added on a new dimension to my life that is vital to who I am. I can go home and say that "Oh this one time when I LIVED in London", many people can't say that never mind a 19 year old. 

To sum up London in an online blog or in one review post would be unjust to my complete experience. Every day is something new and no one will ever fully relate to it unless you were one of these twenty-eight people picked to live in madison house. I had the time of my life and I am truly grateful for everyone on this trip because otherwise it would not have been the same. The greatest part of this London experience is that it is not the end, goodbye is really see you later because we will all be at JMU in a short month. I know I will be rushing my arrival. So heres to the next 48 hours, I know they will be insane to be apart of. Happy Birthday to Leslie and Rachel! And peace out 14 Bedford Place Flat A Bedroom 01, it's been real. 

Dublin!

Rushed and anxious are the two words I would describe the beginning of our trip to Dublin. With no time at all during the week I packed in between two classes and for once I was very precise in what I was going to wear. I believe that being abroad in London has made me a very decisive packer

  Anyways back to Dublin. I believe the worst choice we made was to fly Ryanair. The deal with Ryanair is that they make you check in on line anywhere up to 15 days to 4 hours before your flight or you have to pay 40 pounds for them to print your boarding pass. Don’t worry mom and dad, I checked in earlier in the day. But some people like Rob, Rachel and Goose did not follow these instructions, leading to heightened anxiousness and agitation. With a great deal of struggle, we boarded the plane and took an hour-long flight to Dublin.

            Motivated by Forever by Chris Brown, my hostel room (Rachel, Vikki, Elizabeth, SBP, Leslie and myself), the usual boys and Katie T and H plus Rachel Brubaker headed out to a pub. We stayed there long enough for us (my hostel room) to be comfortable enough to belt out Mr. Brightside by The Killers.

       The following day we had our free breakfast, which was pretty much toast and headed out on a free walking tour. We saw many Irish landmarks such as the Castle of Dublin (which was not much of a castle), the prettiest helicopter landing pad, Viking settlements and Trinity College. Lets just say, we walked all over Dublin in three hours…piece of cake. Half our group split up and went to the Guinness Factory while myself, SBP, Goose and Rachel strolled around and eventually took a much-needed nap. Later, the four of us headed to a local cheap pizza place for food and met up with the group in the lobby of our hostel. From there we headed to Temple Bar for a bar crawl with our tour guides from earlier in the day. This lead to RJ’s big night out. That’s all I have to say about that.

            The following day we had a slow start. It was nice to sleep in for nice, we were on our time for once and it was a nice change of pace. Rachel, SBP, Goose and I headed out to the Guinness Factory…which took ages. We ran through it having in mind that we would be spending the majority of the day at the coast. We reached the top, received our four free pints and took photographs of all of our reactions to Guinness. SBP and I discovered we actually did not mind the taste…Rachel on the other hand is a different story. We then proceeded to steal our pint glasses as souvenirs. How do you say? We just walked out like we owned the place, no big deal. We grabbed a cab and rushed back to meet some people in the lobby to head to the coast. We took the longest train ride ever to Bray, a beautiful beach in Ireland. We took pictures in the water…Goose did NOT like that. Then, like usual we saw a mountain and thought how great it would be to climb. Every single girl was wearing flip-flops and Rachel was even wearing a pretty white dress (she managed to keep this clean the whole time). With some difficulty we were up and down within an hour. The views were gorgeous but it was no Edinburgh and we were all hungry. We proceeded to eat dinner with real Irish food and then took the train back home to catch a free Irish step dance. The best thing ever happened at the Arlington Hotel, where the dance was, I ordered a gin and tonic, paid with a 10 euro and then got 43 euros back! I would have given the bartender it back but all my friends made the argument that my laptop was stolen; therefore I should just keep it. So sorry mom and dad but I did. Throughout the dance Goose pointed out how terrible every dancer was (I mean she can do that because she is third in the nation!) so without further a due we left. We headed to the pub we were at the first night but about one or two beers in we decided to leave due to exhaustion. The following morning we woke up, hopped on a bus and boarded Ryanair and headed back “home”. Great success.

Paris, A Hawaiian Paradise

I am a pretty lucky person to have been in Paris twice in the less than 6 months; actually it’s barely 3 months. I signed up for this trip truly believing it would be a different experience than the one I had in March with my mom, aunt and younger sister. Granted my sister Britt would not be walking around Paris with a fake French accent for the weekend, which was probably the number one thing I would miss. All in all Paris is not far from London; it was a two hour train ride and a one hour time difference. I slept the whole time, having it be 8:15 in the morning when we got on the train.

Ten of us were staying at the Aloha Hostel, four boys; Dylan, Ryan, Sean and Chris and six girls; Goose, Mave, Cougar Cub, SBP, Rachel (mom) and I. We checked in but had to leave our bags in the luggage room because we were not allowed in our rooms from 11 – 5 everyday. This didn’t matter because why would I want to be sitting in a hostel when I am paying butt loads of money to be in Paris? So we were off to find lunch, which was a challenge in itself to order and the headed to then Musee D’Orsay. I was happy that we were headed there because it was a museum we had skipped in March. Our group headed by RJ and Mave arrived first, obviously. Other groups started to trickle in slowly. One group had trouble trying to locate one girl who had gotten a hostel by herself and then got loss (not going to name names), so understandably they were late. I mean how mad can you be at nice people for trying to help a lost girl out? The last group arrived an hour after we were suppose to meet, which you could tell irritated a lot of the group. They had their reasons, which as always people chose to believe or not to believe. On a different note the museum was amazing, I really love Monet and somehow I always forget how much I love Picasso. Overall it was a nice beginning to the afternoon of outings. We then headed to Notre Dame, which is always breath taking. I walked around with Lawler and we discussed how when you over study something and then go and see what you have been studying all these years, it is not as great as everyone makes it out to be. Over analyzing and hyping landmarks up, seem to take the winds out of its sails. Anyways we enjoyed it and then sat at a café for some much needed coffee. Our waiter kept offering us champagne and when we turned the offer down, he stopped enjoying our company. Our next stop was the Louvre, where our culture by design teacher took us around to look at paintings and sculptures. It was interesting to go a second time and see paintings from an academic perspective. Afterwards we completed Goose’s ultimate dream of eating Mickey D’s, drinking wine and smoking a cigarette while sitting at the Eiffel tower. Mission complete. One of the funniest moments was when a man selling champagne, wine and beer out of his backpack approached our group. Goose bartered with him that the bottle of champagne was only worth only twelve euro compared to the fifteen he wanted. After that purchase, in the next five minutes Rachel got the bottle of champagne down to seven euro for Lawler to purchase. Same guy, same champagne but a different price, it was quite funny. After, Rachel Brubaker as social director had arranged for all of us to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Sorry Rachel, A for effort but I hated this idea and activity due to be terrified of heights We were only at the bottom when I started to get really anxious and feel a slow panic attack coming on. Keep in mind; I am terrified of heights, already crying and yet I am still fully on the ground at this point. Bennett, my hubby, I am sure with no intention of pissing me off, started to make fun of me for being so scared. Anyways as I cry on the elevator with plenty of strangers, wouldn’t be the first time, Bennett attempted to propose….with no ring, for comic relief? I was also asked strange questions like would I like to stand on the perimeter of the elevator or in the middle? Mmm there was plenty more but I just focused on breathing. Sam was nice and offered to stay on the second tier with me and not go all the way to the top. Which, I really appreciated. We had a nice time and were up there for probably an hourish? Went back down, made sure everyone met up with their prospective hostel groups and Team Aloha headed back to the headquarters. Mave, the boys and myself went out for another drink at a pub near by and had really great conversations. After the boys had two bottles of wine, we called it a night.

The following morning we woke up late and rushed to the CBD outing that started at the Pompidou, which is often compared to the Tate Modern here in London. We didn’t go in because they said it would be costly to us, which is fine by me. We then took the longest tube ride possible to the Eiffel Tower and discussed how it really has no importance. I was tired and pretty much just leaned on Bennett the whole time. Our next and final stop was Musee Branly. It had artifacts from the Aztecs, Africans, Chinese and many more cultures. Bennett and I walked around together; I personally enjoyed the masks that various people from the community would wear. After this outing the Aloha team decided to be French and go to a grocery store to buy baguettes and wine to eat in some park that Dylan knew of. The journey was long and the one weakness of Team Aloha is that when we are not properly fed, we tend to get very cranky so it was a struggle. Being French was quite the success with all of us sitting in a park and once again enjoying each other’s company. Eventually, we headed back, to buy more wine and headed out for a nice dinner. It was absolutely delicious and we had multiple servings, it was almost as if eating in your own kitchen.

Originally, our group had discussed doing numerous activities such as going to a discoteca or a pub after dinner but we decided on picking up more wine and champagne to enjoy in front of the Eiffel Tower. We not only saw the Eiffel Tower light up multiple times, we were there until it turned off. We saw the Eiffel Tower turn off! After a great night, possibly one of my favorites, we headed back to Hawaii. The next morning Team Aloha split up into three groups. Goose, Mave and RJ went to Versailles. Dylan and Ryan had a very much-needed man date. Leaving SBP, Rachel, Chris and I up to do whatever we wanted. Hence, Rachel’s big day out. We ate crepes, took a picture in front of the Notre Dame, went on a riverboat ride, the opera house and went to Sacre Coure. Sacre Cour was BEAUTIFUL! Rachel took plenty of illegal photos and I personally enjoyed falling asleep on the front lawn. We then shopped for souvenirs. I have bought a shirt in every country that I have gone to this summer, so of course I bought one in Paris. I also replaced shot glasses I broke from the first time I was in Paris for my friends that got the short end of the stick. Sorry mom.

Later that night our group barely made it to the train and once we were on it, every single one of us passed out. We arrived home late on Sunday night; exhausted I went straight to bed. Team Aloha!

This may or may not have happened...Shakespeare

All I have to say is thank God Stratford and Oxford did not take up our actual weekend. It was like a Shakespeare rollercoaster that you couldn’t get off. With that being said…it all started around three in the afternoon on a Thursday…

Being around twenty-eight people all the time has made me really appreciate the time I have with my Ipod. The bus ride to Stratford was no exception. Although my Ipod, like all the rest of my belongings, is somehow falling apart it did the trick. I am pretty sure the whole bus managed to pass out until we safely arrived in Stratford. I did ask RJ a few times if he knew where we were (I mean he always does), but he wasn’t so helpful this time. Anyways we arrive at our inn, which the twenty-eight of us took over. I mean every room was filled; the poor innkeepers had no idea what they were in for. When Lawler and I went into our room, I immediately thought it was adorable and very homey. However, after returning from Romeo and Juliet, I came to the conclusion it looked like some interior decorator threw up in our room. Lawler had no choice but to agree.

Anyways due to traffic we did not have a sufficient amount of time to get a full meal. However, this did not stop us from ordering one. I mean how could you turn down dinner for two for seven pounds! Anyways just my and Rachel’s meal came two minutes before the play starts. Great. But of course nothing stops me from inhaling my fish in chips and then proceeding to run to the theatre to make it on time. Romeo and Juliet was interesting. Out of the whole cast only Romeo and Juliet were dressed in modern day dress. Which I thought was just to make them stand out as young children. (I mean they are only 14). However, we ended up talking to an actor from the play afterwards and he pointed out there are two ways to split the play; family versus family or Romeo and Juliet against the world. This particular director chose to portray the play as Romeo and Juliet against the world. Which I thought was interesting and I had personally never thought of before. Having him say that made me like the play much more. 

The following day should have been called “Shakespeare may or may not have ever existed”. We went to his wife’s home, where they may or may not have lived during their first few years of marriage. We also went to Shakespeare’s birthplace where he may or may not have born and where they had possessions that may or may not have been his. What a joke. The highlight of that afternoon was that we went shopping on the way back to the bus.

 After the tour of what may or may not have been, we hit up Oxford. Now Oxford was legit but it is no JMU. I did not realize that Oxford is not just one school but rather multiple. However Chris and I just walked around wondering where the block parties would be or where we could hold a tailgate. The answer is nowhere.

 We hopped back on the bus a few hours later, rested up and roughly 12 of us went on the Westminster pub-crawl. The motivation was a free t-shirt. Holla…its really ugly. But the best part was that Chris and his frat-tastic homeboy showed up in matching attire. You go frat stars.

Borough Market

As a lover of food, I was disappointed when I thought I would never be able to experience Borough Market. Fellow residents and flatmates of 14 Bedford Place had raved about how great and fresh the food really is. Therefore, when Dietrich announced the market as a class outing I was more than thrilled. The only downside being we would be going on a Thursday when only a small portion of the stalls are actually up and running. But have no fear followers, I did go back and experience Borough to the fullest.

The group of us walked in accompanied by a few non-bloggers who had been to the market before. Sarah Hagan was one of these people. As we approach our first stand and awed in amazement, Sarah, Rachel and I started to sample every single chocolate covered nut. Sarah warned that buying from the first stand you see is always a dangerous idea in Borough Market because there is much more to sample. However, this did not stop her and Rachel from buying a bag and sharing it with the rest of the group. Hey, I didn’t hate it.

We ventured around more, finding a small cider place that had plastic cups claiming not to be plastic cups.

Rachel and I also stumbled upon a store that sold Ostrich meat. As a lover of food, I will usually try anything but Ostrich? In reality, if I had no idea what I was eating and it was cooked well enough I probably would have enjoyed it. But that is not what happened, so therefore I found the stand rather gross, for lack of a better word. With further exploration there was a very fresh seafood stand. I mean it literally looked like they had caught the fish and put them immediately on ice in the market to sell. The smell of fish, I really have never enjoyed in large amounts however, unlike Ostrich meat I would eat it. It reminded me of Fjord Fisheries, a Norwegian fish market/store, around

the corner from my house. Now, Fjord is bomb and I love it when my parents pick up salmon tartar and the likes for dinner.

With further walking around we stumbled on more strange items for sale such as goose fat. I have no idea what that would be used for. However, overall I truly enjoyed Borough Market and all it had to offer no matter how strange. I mean c’mon I liked it enough to go back…right?

Update on life

In case you're wondering why it took me so long to put up blog posts...my laptop was stolen from my bedroom via the window on Tuesday. Real Cool. So you will see pictures when I go buy a USB. The end

Art or Vandalism?

I had been looking forward to going to this graffiti museum since our professor Jay had told our class. My dad would be jealous. (Bennett and I cannot figure out how to form this sentence so I am leaving it random. Sorry bout it.) Every family trip we take, if there is graffiti, my dad loves to have one of the four kids pose in front of it. If you don’t pose, it will not make it to the living room display. Sorry not sorry.

Anyways, Jay had been really mysterious about the whole thing, refusing to tell us much. I think this only made it a bigger deal of where we were actually going. We ended up on Leake Street behind Waterloo Station, an old train system use to run down there and it has more or less turned into a graffiti museum. Street artists approached those who owned the tunnel and asked if they could take it over as a self-governed place to display graffiti. Surprisingly, the owners handed the tunnel over. Famous street artists such as Banksy and Team Robbo came for the first opening to make their mark, some of which is still up today. The tunnel will blow your mind with how talented these artists can be. I think I looked at the walls with my mouth dropped open the whole time. It is a different class of art, but it is truly amazing how talented people are, even if they are just writing tags. I ended up spotting some left over Banksy that no one had yet touched. We ended the outing with a discussion on whether graffiti is art or not.

I believe it is, but there are two sides to every argument. I would say that art is a way of expressing yourself and graffiti is just that. People are not going to universally appreciate or like the same art however, who says they have to? There are different art forms out there for everyone to enjoy, why degrade what someone else enjoys just because you don’t like it?

**pictures to come**

Iceland

So I was anxious travelling by myself to Iceland, but I had to go for my mom. In the end it wasn’t as complicated as I thought, just crowded. After I finally understood why three hours prior to my flight I didn’t have a designated gate and successfully passed through security, I turn up the jams and continue reading The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo in some random airport lounge. However, as my boarding time approached my gate number still hadn’t shown up. Nervous? Well, yes I was. With roughly fifteen minutes till the designated boarding time, my gate finally showed up and was announced fifty times over the speaker system. Rushed, I forgot my rain jacket in the airport lounge… which I didn’t realize until I was in Iceland and it was raining. Winner!

My brother was the first to hug me, followed by my dad snapping multiple repulsive photos of myself. Typical for my dad, he was extremely proud. My mom was the happiest to see me and very thankful I could come and see them. My sisters were nowhere in sight…surprise, surprise. I thought I would be exhausted landing in Iceland but with it looking pretty much like 6 o’clock at 2 am, I was surprisingly awake. For the forty-minute ride, my mom and brother drilled me with questions as my dad made me look through the 200 photos he had already taken. He was most proud of his latest project, capturing the Smith family while asleep. I believe Greta, my youngest sister, takes the gold for this new photo album. As we pull up to the apartment my family had rented out for the last few days they were in Iceland, my family goes on and on about how much better the other one was because it was so close to town. However, I didn’t really mind, we had no time to go into town anyways.

Unfortunately, those that rented us the apartment lied when they said it could sleep six, resulting in my mom and I had to sleep on the living room couch. That night my dad and I stayed up pretty late chatting and making fun of my mom. The thing is, the sun is out twenty-four hours a day. My dad and I had the kitchen light on and chatting and my mom, who may or may not have been a little cranky, asked us to turn off the light. We did as she requested, however it made no difference. Haha

The following day I woke up early with my mom to go into town with her, my aunt and my cousin. My grandmother had passed away in October and the trip was mostly to have a service for her family. I had missed it on Monday, but I wanted to go see the gravesite and just in general be with my mom. It was interesting to be there because I haven’t been to Iceland in eight years. At the gravesite owned by my family I saw my great, great – grandparents and other members of the clan my grandmother had talked about while we were growing up. For the rest of the day we were Blue Lagoon bound, which is a pretty cool place. However, Icelanders have a pretty weird custom of having open showers where you have to shower butt-naked before you can put on your suit and go into the pool or lagoon. Not an American thing by any means. My sister and I remembering this from our youth, were not soo happy. My sister begged my mom to tell us how to say, “We are American. I am not showering naked.” My mother refused, leaving Britt with a strange Spanish accent attempting to be Icelandic. Needless to say, we survived and found private showers. We spent hours there with our cousins and their children. I started the “who can be the pruniest person”, my cousin Kirk, who is nine, was the most competitive. However, in the end I won...as usual.

That night we had a family dinner at one of our cousins homes, where I saw family from both Norway and Iceland. It is funny to remember how I have a selective memory of who these people were when I was twelve years old. It was nice to catch up and really nice to enjoy delicious foods that I have grown up with. Also my cousin Dora is engaged! So EXCITING!!

The following day I woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, however it was really 7:30 am. We were horseback riding bound which was a lot of fun. Mostly to see people mount a horse or watch Britt's horse trot and her body bounce around uncontrollably. It was quite the sight to see.

That night we went to my great aunt's home for dinner. She made Swedish meatballs which were absolutely delicious! We took out old photo albums and found pictures of my mom and aunt when they were young, which was hilarious to say the least. My great aunt, Sigrun was telling us stories of our great-grandparents and from what I already know they sound like incredible people. My great-grandparents were Sigrun's foster parents after her mother had passed away when she was only seven. The majority of their children were already grown up, but they took her in, no questions asked. Iceland has such a different culture. We would walk into places and my cousin would just start chatting up anybody as if they were old friends even though they had just met. It was a relaxed atmosphere where everyone seem just genuinely nice.

After Sigrun's we headed to a rock sculpture garden where me and my siblings went on to climb and romp around like five year olds. My mom managed to get some Christmas card photos but in the end was only impressed with the ones she managed to capture of the sun. My dad and brother were leaving early the next day to go salmon fishing in a large river for a "men" outing, whatever that means. So before I went to sleep, resisting to say goodbye I asked my dad to wake me up in the morning before he left. Big mistake. My dad woke me up at lets say 5:30? Maybe? If that late? When my mom and I ignored him, he just sat there complaining how boring we were.

Later, the girls had a nice brunch with Icelandic pastries and tea. My mom later took me into town to buy a few things and we were off to the airport. For some reason, I thought I would cry. But shocker, I didn't. I finished my book while in transit and then proceeded to get lost trying to find the tube in Heathrow (not so easy). Whatever I made it and had time to relax until the rest of the rowdy crew of 14 Bedford Place got home from Amsterdam.

**pictures to come**

Updates on life

1)We are more than half way through with our visit. waaaa

2)I leave for Iceland tonight and I am stoked to hug my mom andd that I no longer have to take a bus into Reykjavik cause my uncle is coming to pick me up!

3) The group is going to Amsterdam this week, it sounds like it is going be crazyyy

4)Dave is leaving the London Pub. (wamp. wamp wamp.)

5)Nothing to exciting happened at Wriglesworth this week

6)Lawler is getting a pupppyyy!! (I am going to play with da puppy errday. This probably should have been number 1)

7) We are officially Spain fans after America and England lost this weekend (You still can't bring this topic up to Sean, so don't try)

8) I miss gtown girls....haven't spoken to most of em since

being here.

That is pretty much all I have got for now.

"No Child Left Behind"