My traveling parter left...

My mom is now gone.  She left for London this afternoon so that she can get to the airport easily in the morning.  I left her and instantly felt less safe and a little lost.  I think that when she was with me I could just walk around aimlessly, knowing that she would stop me before I got run over, ran into a pole, or got mugged.  Now, I was on my own.  So far, none of those things have happened. 

Before she left we had quite a day.  We woke up, had breakfast at the hotel (cause seriously where else were we suppose to go to eat in the middle of no where), and then got packed up.  We made the mistake of reading the bus schedule wrong, plus we only had a Monday – Saturday schedule with us.  But we got to the station (after 20 minutes of walking down a sorry road, dragging our stuitcases through gravel and dead bunnies) only to realize that the bus should get there an hour later than the time we thought.  So at that point there was no reason to head back to the hotel, so we sat, and sat, and waited for some sign of a bus.  In short, the bus never came.  So I saw a nice man drive up to his house across the street and I went to ask him – “do busses run on Sundays?” And he said that he thought so but he would call his wife and ask her.  She claimed that they should come once an hour.  So then he checked the bus schedule and said he saw what we saw.  So an angel that he was, he offered to take us into Cambridge!  Seriously, I don’t know what we would have done without him!  So he was very nice and took us to town.  From that point we had to drag our bags for a couple more minutes and we then made it to Cambridge.  By this time it was 1 or so, but they let me check in and drop off my bags.  My mom was able to see my room and take a few pictures to send home.  After all of this, we went to find food.  We ended up at The Eagle.  Its one of the oldest pubs in Cambridge (from the 1500’s) and is known as being the place that Watson and Crick announced their discovery of the double helix DNA.  From there we went and toured King’s College.  They have a beautiful chapel.    Then, she had to leave, so I took her over the bus stop and said bye to her there : (.   At that point I was fighting the tears so I walked into the first thing I recognized – an H&M.  haha.  I found a  dress for 7 pounds!  Then I walked back to Pembroke and unloaded my suitcase and got my dirty clothes together to do laundry.  On my way to laundry I met someone name Eleanor and she came with me, and then we walked around town to try to find her some shampoo and conditioner.  Unfortunately, everything is closed on a Sunday evening.  

I went to the group dinner at 7.  There is about 60 of us from the states here with this program, most of whom are from UCI.  It was nice because they didn't overwhelm us with information, they just let us eat.  They are leaving that for tomorrow...  I got to talk to some very nice individuals at dinner at that made me feel even more at home here.  They announced that the program assistants were hosting a pub night tonight and at first I was like... ehhh...  But, I WENT!  And it went well.  Four of us bought a pitcher of Caribbean Punch or something so it was only like 2 pounds each.  It was fun and I actually enjoyed myself.  Tomorrow is a full day of orientation, class, safety sessions, and then a formal dinner in the evening.  

King's College Chapel 

The grounds at King's College

Bye Mom

My home for the next 5 weeks!

The view from the pub. 

Cambridge!

So far, I adore Cambridge.  We got into town around 11am and had no idea what to do.  Our hotel was 10 miles in across town and we had 500 pounds of luggage.  Luckily, someone gave us great directions to the tourist information building and a woman told us where to store our luggage for the day (a bike storage place), where to have a tasty meal, and how to get to our hotel later in the day.  We walked around Cambridge for a while, and saw my cute campus (I’m very excited!).  It’s pretty beautiful.  From there we got lunch and then walked around town.  By 3, we were beat and decided to find the hotel (I know, lame- but it’s the truth – I might as well confess now that we ate at a Hard Rock Café in Amsterdam).  But the treck to the hotel was HARD!  They took us to the middle of nowhere and said, your hotel is quite a way down the road.  But, we made it, and all was good.  I’m super exited, but sad that my mom is leaving me tomorrow.  Hopefully I will get to do laundry so people will want to be my friends. 

PEMBROKE!

The River Cam

A man playing Radiohead's Karma Police in a trashcan.

See what I mean!  Middle of no where with some heavy luggage.

Made it to Came Town!

After almost 3 weeks of traveling, we have finally made it to Cambridge!!  Here are some pictures of London from the past few days.  We didn’t do a ton, but here are our highpoints:  Tower of London and seeing Harry Potter in London!!    

Olympic Rings

Whata Pose!

Friend!

Our first attempt to made take a clever picture...

Off with her head!

The toilets dumped straight into the moat at the Tower of London!

The kid is laughing at me...  I don't blame him.

Amsterdam Continued

After visiting big cities like Rome and Paris - cities that have definite landmarks and "must see" lists, Amsterdam was a pleasant break.  We were free to see what we wished and didn't feel pressured to fit in an unmanageable amount of sight seeing.  The two things that were on my own list for our visit, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank house, were beyond my expectation and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  When I look back on Amsterdam I am going to think of canals, bikes, Indonesian food, flower markets, and house boats.
 
After this picture I decided I looked like a washed out boy and took my hair down.

This is a picture for my dad.  Him and my mom ate there when they were in Europe together in 2003.  He told us he doesn't remember it, but maybe this will spark his memory.  We had "dinner", aka a cappuccino (me) and a beer (mom), at the bar next door the previous night.

Flower Market

Indonesian food

Dessert!

More flower market

Anne Frank Statue (around the corner form the house)

Sunshine!

More Canals

Don't tell her...

Denise, if you read this, this picture is for you.  I hear its your saying.

A Grey Amsterdam

We left Paris at 6:10 this morning and took a train to Amsterdam.  Last night, we looked at the weather report and it showed rain, rain, rain.  Fortunately, we were able to get to our hotel room with any problems and with no downpours.  Our hotel room has big windows overlooking a cute view of Amsterdam buildings.  

After we checked in and got settled in the room, we headed out for lunch.  Here is a picture of my bruise on my arm.

 Then we headed over to the Van Gogh Museum.  It was one my favorite museums that I have ever visited.  The museum is ordered chronologically so that you as a visitor can visually see how Van Gogh's style changes and progresses through time.  We bought a audiotour which helped me to stay interested and focused.  It was pretty cool because we went and visited Van Gogh's apartment in Montmartre yesterday, and then today saw his works of art that were painted from that apartment and around Montmartre.  His style changed through out his stay in Paris, becoming much brighter.  Although the museum may have glorified him, he seemed like a he was a man with compassion for the poor and a heart for God.  Yet he lived a very tragic life.  (I got this painting of google - no cameras in the museum).

After the museum we walked around for a while and found this large statue/art piece spelling I amsterdam (I don't really know what you would call it).  We then took a canal cruise around the city.  

Walking Around Paris

For our last day in Paris, we had a nice open day to do whatever we wanted (I guess that is how traveling is always suppose to be, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like that). We woke up around 9, and walked to another infamous café, Café de Flore, where we had a long relaxed breakfast.  Although the picture below looks like a huge mess, that really is just a croissant, toast, 2 café crèmes, and 2 glasses of water. 

From there we did the Left Bank walk, a walk around our local area highlighting lesser-known (don't quote me, maybe everyone knows them) and sometimes morose places.  We visited the hotel where Oscar Wilde died, (and later his gravesite), Roger-Viollet’s store (he was one of the first to compile a collection of black and white images to supplement journalism – I think), and Voltaire’s statue.

We then hopped on a metro and went to the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise.  Many notable people were buried here. I can honestly say that I knew nothing about Oscar Wilde before yesterday, but I read a little about his life and was moved by it.  He was a successful Irish writer in the late 19^th century.  Once it came out that he was having an affair with a man, he was ostracized and imprisoned.  He wife left him and would not allow him to see their children.  He soon died in a hotel room in Paris.  He was buried in the cemetery we visited and over a hundred years after his death, his gravesite is covered in red kiss marks and fresh flowers.

Ham and Lentils Lunch -  Funny story about this lady below though.  She tries to speak the people's language, but she gets them all mixed up.  For example, instead of saying thank you to a Parisian (merci), she will say hello in Italian (buon giorno).  There are a couple more examples, and it's happened multiple times and its hilarious every time.  It doesn't really fit in here, but I didn't want to forget.        

My mom and I had wanted to visit Montmartre, a district known for its artists.  Little did I know (though I should have, being that we were going to try to find Moulin Rouge), it was also known for its sex district.  It was a little crazy when we got out of the metro, but we walked down a street a few blocks and it calmed down a lot.  At the time, I was reading about “Pigalle” in the guidebook, and knew as the prude I am, I didn’t really want to go there.  So we walked a few blocks over, hoping to avoid it, but we failed.  But anyways, we got through it, and found the Moulin Rouge, Van Gogh’s apartment, Le Moulin de la Galette, and the area that Picasso’s studio was located.  I really enjoyed the Montmartre area.  There were times were we could walk up streets and not see anyone, and that is a great feeling.  

 

From Montmarte, we caught the metro to the Arch de Triumph (mostly because it felt like I had to see it).  We saw it, took some pictures, and got back on the metro to head home so that we could pack up for another early morning train ride.    

This a church and fountain about a block down from where we stayed in Paris.  

This is a cat.  It Positano there were TONS of cats.  This may be one of the first ones that I have seen since then, but it was sitting in a restaurant behind a booth, and I thought it was strange enough to take a picture.