Yes, I'm Still Alive!

Hey everyone! Sorry for my absence! The past week has been very, very busy. Last Thursday I went to see Wicked with a few friends. OMG, it was AMAZING! Granted, it was much different than the book and the ending was completely different too, but it was still so so good. The music was incredible! On Friday, I went to Cambridge for one of my classes. It was one professor, Professor O'Boyle and 9 students. O'Boyle actually went to Cambridge so he was showing us all around and was embarrassed when we all took pictures and looked like tourists, but oh well. When am I ever going to go there again? So here's the scoop, Cambridge University is actually made up of like 31 separate colleges that are private institutions, each with their own endowments, classes, accomodations, etc. Cambridge is just like administrative center. Cambridge was founded in the, wait for it, 13th century! Can you believe that. The buildings were incredible; it's hard to believe that people actually live there!

Exhibit A:


This isn't actually part of Cambridge University, but it's from the town and I just thought it was pretty. So I'm posting it. Gotta a problem with that?



Here's more of Cambridge:






It was a long day, but a lot of fun. Though it was really cold there. We didn't get home until 11:45 and we left at like 12:30 in the afternoon. Well worth the trip though!

On Saturday, I got up early to go to Canterbury. We didn't spend too much time there but we did got to St. Martin's Church, which is the oldest church that has had continual services in it in England. It was really neat looking, old and nestled in the woods:


Here are the remains of St. Augustine of Canterbury's Abbey:



These pictures are of Canterbury Cathedral. It was huge and really beautiful in the inside and outside. Inside, they had tons of gorgeous stain glass windows, ancient tombs and mosaics, and crypts:





Oh and perhaps the most exciting thing from the Cambridge trip! We had to go on the train and on Platform 9 they had a sign that said Platform 9 & 3/4ths like from Harry Potter. Naturally, I had to take a picture with it and O'Boyle made the whole class get in it too! Yes, I am a dork.



Second "oh," because Courtney commented that I didn't have a picture of her up, here you go:



Oh and this was a cute little dog at St. Martin's Church named Bigsby. He was entirely black and the only way you knew what end was which is when he had his pink tongue out. Instead of walking, he waddled! It was sooo cute.



Thanks to everyone for their comments! I'm very impressed with the outpouring of comments! I knew you guys had it in you. A special shout-out to Gramma, who figured out how to post comments, and has showered me with the love! Thanks Grammy!
You are sooo technologically capable!

Love you and miss you all!

Gina

Update on the Life

Hmm, so I finally post pictures and not one person comments? To borrow a phrase from "Full House," "How rude!" Just kidding! So Saturday we went to Bath and Stonehenge (I too realized it was spelled wrong today, thanks Uncle Wee Wee and Gramma).

Here's a picture of Stonehenge:



As you can see, they are very big rocks. I took about 10 pictures of these very big rocks from every angle imaginable. It was neat to see, but it did not require the hour we spent there in the cold:



However, at least it wasn't raining!

After perusing the items in the Stonehedge gift shop and buying some postcards and a really good cookie for 50p (that's 50 pence), we returned to the bus to drive to Bath.

Bath was a neat little city. They have actual Roman Baths there, but it cost 10 pounds to get in and we were too cheap. So we had lunch and some gelatto and then we tried to go into Bath Abbey, where they "invite" a "gift" of 2.50 pounds, the American equivalent of 5 dollars, mind you. There are four of us trying to go inside while this Nazi-like old women at the front counter is like "Are you not going to make a donation? I know you're not thinking about children and grandchildren, but don't you want the Abbey to still be there when they visit" and all this other typical, give me money crap. Well, two of the people with us didn't have any cash and they told her that to which she responded, "Oh, I highly doubt that." Unbelievable! But they just walked in, while Krista, the bleeding heart, starts giving the old bitty money. Well, there's no way in hell I'm giving money to go inside a freaking church, especially not when this old women is being so horrible. Then there was this other British women behind us, who was a uppity and says, "Perhaps they don't know what it means." Well, that was the end of that. For 2.50 I can feed myself for like a week so I turned around and walked out of the church. Meanwhile, I hear Krista asking the women if the Abbey is Catholic to which the women responds, horrified, that it is Protestant. If I wasn't sure before, that settled it. No way am I giving 2.50 pounds to a PROTESTANT Church. Fat chance.

Anyway, the outside of the Abbey was very pretty:



I don't know about the inside, but it certainly wasn't worth 2.50. Perhaps if there had been chocolate involved, but alas.

One more thing. If you're going to force people to pay to get into the Abbey, why not just make it mandatory? I mean an invitation masquerading as an obligation is NOT an invitation, it's a requirement! Bullocks! (that's British).

Funny side note: as we're walking through Bath, we see this man playing and singing John Denver and Sweet Home Alabama on his guitar. I couldn't believe it. He's singing about going home to West Virginia in BATH! Insane and so random, it's delicious.

One more picture. This is Krista and I in Bath.



Alright, gotta go do homework!

Love you and miss you all!

And you know, if you loved and missed me too, you would comment on my posts.

What? Emotional blackmail, you say? Pfft, hardly. There were no ultimatums or "inappropriate" pictures mentioned, except for right now. Does that count?

A Little Note

Hello all. Tomorrow we are going to Stonehenge and Bath. The bus leaves at 8:15 so I have to go to bed very soon. But my dad commented that I have no pictures of him up. To prove that he does exist, I am posting one. Happy now, Padre?



*cough* He is soo wrapped around my finger. *cough*

And Susan requested a picture of me in a red telephone booth:



I aim to please.

This afternoon, we went to see Big Ben, the Parliament building and Westminster Abbey so I will have pictures up soon!

Love you and miss you all!

The Long-*#@ (Edited by My Mother's Requested) Walking Tour

Here are some long awaited pictues from the aforementioned 3 and a half hour walking tour we took Sunday. I took like 80 pictures and now I can't remember what 3/4ths of them are of. But they're pretty! That's gotta count for something.

First here are Krista and I on the plane. It was about 6 hours and 40 minutes long and I wasn't able to sleep through any of it, hence the extreme paleness:



Here is me with two of my roommates, Claire and Maureen:



This next one is of four of the Lyons girls in London!



This is Westminister Cathedral. We had mass there Sunday and it was really beautiful. The choir was amazing! And like all Catholic Churches, they also begged for money.



Okay, this might seem a little strange, but we went to lunch after mass at this pub that had the coolest bathrooms ever! So, naturally, I took pictures. Here's the stalls that had revolving doors!



Here's a picture of the sinks. It was the swankiest bathroom I've ever seen. Bar none.



A real red London telephone booth!



Stuff that is pretty, but I can't remember what it is:






We walked passed St. Paul's (I think or Peter, can't remember) Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married:



Then we climbed up the monument that commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was a 311 steps but it was cool to see London from the top.



Here's the Tower Bridge, it's in the Tower of London, from the top of the monument:



We did some more as well, but my camera died so I don't have any pictues of that. I'll steal them from Krista though and then post them!

Love you and miss you all!

Gina

Longest Day Ever

Today, 16 Tuesday 2007 (that's how they do it in London, you all), was officially the longest day EVER! My day started at 7:15 when I got up and showered and made myself pretty for the day (or as near to it as I can get). I walked about 40 minutes over to the school building and had three classes until 2:00. Then I walked to the bookstore by myself, for which I am immensely proud of myself. I returned some books and got 16 pounds back (which is about 32 dollars, the exchange rate is literally killing me). After that I went back to the school building and had afternoon tea which consisted of tea, little sandwiches, and an awesome pastry. Then I went back to Waterstone's (the bookstore) and bought a London map so I don't get lost so much. Next, I finally found Charing Cross Road and walked to the used bookstores by myself again! This time is was even in the dark (don't worry, Mom, it was only like 5:30 and there were people everywhere). I think I'm getting a hang of this. At 7ish, I had to go to a play near school for my Introduction to London Theatre class. It was called Amy's View and it was pretty good, although the ending was a little depressing. By the time the play was over I was feeling a bit peckish so we took the Tube (London subway) home and then I made myself spaghetti. I felt a little homesick when I got home, but I'll plow my way through. Now, I am offically tired. I was out of the flat for almost 14 hours straight today. It was very tiring. My plan for the rest of the evening: homework, internet, prepare for tomorrow, look for used books, bed.

Love you all!

Oh, I will hopefully post pictures from the walking tour soon!

Progress

Hi all. Things are slowly getting better. Internet access is limited but today we went on a tour over the oldest part of the city of London. I took about 100 pictures and I'll post some of them in the next few days. Classes start tomorrow so I'm going to go to bed.

Don't worry Uncle Wee Wee, there will be details in the next one. Hold your horses.

Love you all and miss you!

Miserable

No jokes in this one. I'm in London and I hate it. End of story.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow (cue scary "Pyschoesque" music), more commonly known as "Wednesday," I leave for London. I'm still not anymore comfortable or prepared for this adventure. Trying to pack four months worth of clothes, shoes, "unmentionables," etc. into 2 suitcases has been an interesting experience.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Exhibit C:



Me really tired after trying to pack, taking a mental health nap.

On my last night at home, my grandparents came over and made taco pizza (as I explained to Krista, it's taco and pizza, the best of both worlds). For visual aids,

My grumpa:



He's like a teddy bear! I heart him!

My gramma:



Note the label on her shirt that says "Well Used," that was me.

The taco pizza was de-li-cious, two thumbs way up. I made hormel chili dip and ate some homemade salsa. Then we played DVD Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition, my team, Team "A" for ass-kickers, won (no surprise there). I am a fountain of useless and random information. Go me! Then we ate mini-eclairs (yummy! I had four) and I did so more packing. Mom, Krista, and I watched the Lifetime movie "Fat Like Me" and shut up, there's nothing wrong with Lifetime. It's educational and useful in those common occassions when my future husband learns that he is gay or fakes his death and leaves me and the kids with nothing, the bastard. It was a decent movie and we had fun hanging out in my room.

Exhibit A (or D, depending on if we're continuing from above):



Me and Mom, she's going to kill me for posting this.

Exhibit B/E:



Me and my Maddie. I asked my mom to show Maddie a picture of me every once and a while so she doesn't forget me. Is that weird? Not that I care . . .

Alert: Yesterday, I had my first cultural miscue and I haven't even left the US yet.

Krista was telling me about British money, pounds and pence and what-not. She said that they no longer made single pound notes, that they just used coins. My response?

"There's no paper money in the UK?"

Yes, I said it. Now, hopefully, I can move forward, a more mature, knowledgeable individual . . .



Or not. You decide.

So the next time I post, I will be IN London. I can't believe it. I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I know I need to.

'Til the next time.

Four Days

Four days and counting until I leave. I am still scared shitless, probably even moreso than before. January 3rd came and went and the Irish sucked up New Orleans. Ninth straight bowl loss, this time by 27 points. Well, at least we're consistent. And I'm never going to a bowl game because apparently we'll never win one.

Back to the whole leaving the country thing. As the day gets closer, the sick feeling in my stomach just keeps growing. Lovely! But I know I have to do this so I will, no matter how terrified and doubtful I am. And I'm going to lay out some goals for myself:

(1) Grow up!/ Gain independence! The time has come.
(2) Travel to Ireland, Italy and wherever else.
(3) Have fun, but not too much. Have to remember that I'm going to school there too.
(4) Make out with some British boys. What? It's an admirable goal.
(5) Don't have a nervous breakdown (which is harder than it sounds).
(6) Lose some weight because British food? Baaaaddd (Allegedly).
(7) Not get robbed, attacked, assualted, or anything that would involve blood and/or the police.
(8) Keep the cultural miscues to a bare minimum (which I probably won't accomplish because it requires some sort of internal monologue, something that I just don't seem to possess).
(9) Get good grades.
(10)Try not to call home every single day (which will be, once again, harder than it sounds).

So these are my goals. There are probably more, but I can't think of them at the moment. And some of them suck. Oh well, they're my goals so you can just back off.

Four days, people, four days.

First Post - Still in "the States"

It's January 1, 2007 (when the hell did that happen? Right I know the answer to that). In 9 days I will be on a plane flying to London to live there for FOUR months. Which will be the longest time I have ever been away from my home (yes, I am a two-year-old and have the emotional maturity of said tyke). I am (1) scared shitless (2) scared shitless (3) excited under my scared shitlessness (4) really amused at the Lifetime movie that is currently playing as I write this and (5) another healthy dose of scared shitlessness with a side of nausea-inducing nervousness.

What I will miss while studying abroad for the aforementioned four months:

(1) My parents and their general awesomeness
(2) My dog, Maddie, basically the cutest dog ever
(3) My grandparents and their awesomeness + amazing cooking abilities
(4) My brother and his heartwarming, confidence-boosting comments
(5) My friends (especially Katie who I haven't seen since MAY!!) and my family.
(6) My tv shows, which I will not get in London. However, thank God for Itunes.
(7) Internet access because the London Program does not believe we need it in our "flats." I really have no idea how I am going to survive.
(8) My own room
(9) My money, which may sound Paris Hiltonish (well minus the whorishness and brainlessness), since I will have exactly 0 dollars and 27 cents in my bank account when I return because London is EX-PEN-SIVE
(10) And dear Lord, I can't believe I'm saying this but the South Bend area

But I will survive. And persevere. And any other motivational words I can think up to try and make me feel better.

Most importantly, I will NOT freak out. Nope, I will not. Will not. Will NOT. Okay, maybe I will a little. Just a smidge. You really don't need to bring that straitjacket. Or those pills. What are you doing with that needle? Unnecessary!

T-minus 9 days and I'm not freaking out.

Ahhh, the sweet smell of self-delusion.

Since January 3 is 2 days away, I must add this: GOOOO IRISH!