Jet Set Europe

Salzburg

2005-05-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

the town of mozart and the sound of music. on our way on eurobus, leaving venice and crossing the boarder to austria and going back to the german language. peter, our bus driver, popped in the sound of music, which we all (well...not all) enjoyed. let's just say there was some singing along.

it was hot in salzburg. i had pants on on the bus and immediatly changed to shorts and was out the door in about 15 minutes. dennis and i decided to take a walk towards the city center and i tried to track down a bank that would let me use my credit card and 2 forms of id to take money out, since i didn't have my pin code for the atm. no luck. jaime and carly m. eventually met up with us and we walked until we found shops and the city center. we stumbled upon a magnificent water fountain and sat next to it, waiting for the wind to pick up and sent drops of water our way. from there we hit up the post office for phone cards and post cards and then we made our way to a square with a small market and lots of people playing chess. there were huge lifesize chess boards and people playing small ones. we even had a piano player over to the side who did requests. jaime and dennis played a huge game of chess and many people came over to watch, which was really neat. i think jaime won...i don't remember. after some more window shopping we made our way back to our hotel for supper. after some food, a group of us got together to "go up the mountain," as there is a big mountain fortress pretty much right in the middle of the city. so dennis, jaime, jill, steph, silus and myself take off and eventually find a funicular up to the mountain, where they happen to be having a mozart concert going on in the castle. it was pretty empty up at the castle, which made it more enjoyable for searching around and enjoying the fantastic views from uptop. it was amazing. eventually steph and i got lost from the group uptop and after about 20 minutes ran into them again. there was a restaurant up there also, so some of the group got drinks and we sat by ourselves, except one other group of 3 guys, looking out over the city, enjoying each others company. eventually the other group looks up at us and asks where we were from. "minnesota" we tell them. "no way! we're from minnesota, too!" what a coincidence that the only other people up there were from minnesota! apparently these 3 guys were playing american football over here (well, really in germany) and 1 of them was coaching young kids too. we ended the night walking down the mountain, instead of taking the funicular, and jaime with his aviator sunglasses, singing top gun songs to us the whole way down. it was so much fun. we also got scared by this statue that looked strickingly real as it sat over in the shadows until jaime threw a coin at it and we were all much better after we heard the coin clank against the metal of the statue. steph also ended up giving jaime a piggy back ride for much of our walk. all in all...it was a pretty fun night.

the next day we woke up and loaded the bus with luggage and then were on our way for our salzburg tour. we saw sights from the sound of music, which causes many re-enactment pictures and we also saw mozarts gebertshaus (birth house) and did a little bit of shopping. some people bought mozart balls but my big buy was my music box that plays edleweiss and has edleweiss on the front of it. i played it a couple of times straight, it's such a pretty song. after a tour of mozart's church, where he was baptised and were he and his father played these magnificent organs (there was 5 organs in the church and the tour guide explained how the back organ, mozarts organ, was so hard to play as it takes 3 seconds for the sound from that organ to reach the other 4 at the front of the church and how the other 4 players had mirrors set up by their music so they could see the rest of the organ players) we were back on the bus. we watched salzburg fade away, drove past the huge abbey where maria got married on the sound of music, and then were on our way to vienna.

Venezia

2005-05-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Venice seems so long ago, but I have to keep going with my updates...Our stay in Venice was pretty interesting. We wake up that morning and walk across the street to the train station where Peter, our bus driver, pays for our tickets to take the train from our town into Venice. The train ride is about 5 minutes, taking us over water into the train station in Venice. We are greeted with the Grand Cannel outside the train station and begin our walk all the way over to the other side of Venice to meet our tour guide. We think that we are being led astray by Peter as we are walking through narrow streets and over funky bridges. Being led like this through strange cities scares us as we are usually left after our tours to find our way back to the hotels. We finally get the the Doge's Palace in Venice, right by the main harbour and at the main square, St. Mark's, which you might recognize from the DeBeer's "A Diamond is Forever" commercial in which the guy and the girl are twirling in this square and he starts yelling "I. LOVE. THIS. WOMAN!" and the girl, embarrassed at him yelling this out, asks him to stop and he said that this will have to do, presents her with a diamond ring, and then she starts whispering, "i love this man, i love this man." so yeah, anyway, that's where i was. our tour that morning was at the doge's palace, where we had a very rude and, well, i have no other way to describe him...non informational? tour guide. he said some pretty off handed and rude comments to some of our members of our group that left us doing a 'did he really just say that?' laugh. and we pretty much learned nothing about the palace or about the doge's because our tour guide was that bad. what we did learn was that carly was mary magdalene and that jaime's new nickname's are machine gun and pedro...and that pedro has 26 kids. interesting. afterwards though, we went to a glass blowing factory and had a demonstration which was the coolest thing i have ever seen. it was absolutely amazing how the glass blower easily molded the glass into a vase. then we went upstairs where they tried to sell their venician glass to us poor college students. it was still quite the experience. returning back to the outdoors of venice, crystal, carly and i walked around venice doing some shopping and eventually we were tracked down by a gandola operator who we paid 90 euros for a ride. he was pretty funny...he ran all over the place just to get his gandola for us...we wanted to yell out to him as he hopped from gandola to gandola to get to his, to calm down...we weren't going anywhere! but we had an amazing gandola ride where we saw the bridge of sighs, casanova's house and marco polo's house. we got to wear our gandola dude's hat and take pictures with him. it was definetly worth the 30 euros i paid. next, the 3 of us, after much confussion, boarded a vaporetto (water bus), which took us out to the island of Lido, where we met much of our group out on the sandy beaches for some fun in the sun. Sand castles were built, sea shells were picked, and let's just say that a bunch of us girls decided that, once we were far out in the Adrianic Sea, that we were far enough away from anyone else so spontananity took place and we went skinny dipping. it was pretty wild. don't worry...suits were put back on shortly afterwards and before we returned back to being able to touch the bottom of the ocean and before shore!

at about 5, we all broke up, heading our separate ways to get back to our hotel. My group (Nic, Crystal, Carly and I) grabbed some gelato (mmmm...ice cream) before finding our water bus. Once we reached the grand cannel, we did some shopping and then boarded the train for the way back. I met up with other people from our group back at the hotel and heard what everyone had been up to that day. Crystal and I ate some wonderful chinese food at a place across the street and then I retreated to my hotel room, turning in early for the night...which didn't last long as jaime came and asked if i wanted to go on a night time gondola ride with a small group. not wanting to turn down an adventure, i went with. grady, fallon, crystal, jaime and i headed back into venice with a time limit...we didn't want to miss the last train back to our hotel. once there we easily found a gondola ride and a reasonable price and where on our way. fallon sang madonna songs the whole ride, hoping that madonna would answer back to her as she has an apartment in the city. many stars do have apartments in the city, as it's one of the most expensive places to live. we sat and joked around and asked our gondola dude questions, but he didn't speak much english. once back on ground, we stopped for our last taste of real italian gelato, which was wonderful. we then retreated to our train, which we had a great deal of fun finding...it might help if we spoke the language...and went back to our hotel, to pack up and get ready to leave for austria the next morning.

gondola rides for the day: 50 euros. or about approx...$65 ish dollars.

don't worry...it was well worth it!

italiano!

2005-04-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

italy is one big blast of a time. it's wonderful. we started off in florence, which was alright. we saw the david by michelangelo, which was amazing...he's really, really, really big! i think the best part of was the hotel room. 2 floors of sweet fun in one room! 2 bathrooms, 3 beds, tv, mini bar, badays (however the heck you spell those...as dennis describes them, "it's like a carwash for your behind." no, i have not used one yet and have no itensions of using one)...and our room had one big huge belcony! it was a blast. next was rome, where we almost had a toga party...didn't quite happen, but maybe tonight? who knows. first night in rome, we party under the beautifully lit colleseum...it was so beautiful. the next day we had a tour of the vatican, saw the museum, the sistine chapel, which was slightly a let down. there was so many people there and our tour guide warned us many times before we entered: no pictures, videocamers and NO TALKING. we entered and it was so jammed packed with people screaming at people you would have thought it was wall street. but the paintings by michelangelo were so beautiful...it's not what i imagined the sistine to be, but it was pretty amazing. then we went over to st. pauls (we saw st. peters the night before, equally amazing). the cool thing about st. pauls is that it is so porportioned that you have no idea exactly how big everything is in there. there was writing on the top of the walls that look to be about a foot but was really 6 feet tall! we also saw a dead pope...i can't remember which one, all preserved in a glass case with wax over his face. kind of creepy. we didn't have time to go down and see john paul II, not enough time. from there we excited and got back on, what we affectionatly call "the eurobus" as that's what it's named (it may be sung a couple times in a row). then a couple of girls and i ran around town seeing julius ceasars grave, the mouth of truth and a whole bunch of ruins. then that night we hit up the trebbi (sp?) fountain and the spanish stairs. 3 others and i stayed at the spanish stairs until way into the night as there were many guitar players there and we were so mesmerized. it was an absolute blast. we met germans and sang and clapped along to well known songs. if you go to rome, i advise you to go pary at the roman steps and the fountain one night and plan on staying late...and hit up the colleseum at night when not to many people are there and it's beautifully lit up. today we visited orviato (which is rumored to be where they filmed under the tuscan sun). i wanted desperatly to buy a sunflower, my favorite just to carry around for the day, but they are out of season. instead, i indulged on fresh picked fragola (strawberries) from the market and some fragola gelato (ice cream!) it was fantastic. we made it to venice tonight...well outside of venice. the most expensive hotels in the world are in venice so we aren't staying there. we are a little ghetto-y here at our hotel area, but the rooms are nice. but nothing like our posh places at florence! o well. to lido tomorrow for a beach party! it's so hot here...sorry to hear it snowed at home...what happened with that? we had the cold weather here when you had the hot weather and now it has done a 180. odd. anyways...shower and bed! night!

switzerland!

2005-04-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

hello all! it's been awhile since i posted but it's been go go go since we left oxford. paris was the most wonderful city ever. we first got to our hotel, opened the windows and we were all hanging out, shouting out to the world that the eiffel tower was to the left. it was pretty funny. we went up the sacre coure the first night to get a feel for the art district and sat in on mass there. they have a great view of the city. the second day we had a bus tour, saw the louvre and the mona lisa and crown jewels and many many tourists. we ended at notre dame which is an amazing cathedral. from there a bunch of us hit up hard rock cafe, which is my favorite. then we went out walking and that night had a great bike tour by fat tire bike tours, which is a bunch of awesomely cool, twenty something americans who just happen to be giving bike tours as their job. we had these old granny like bikes, bright yellow vests and bells. my bike's name was aussie, aussie, aussie, oy, oy, oy! which i thought was fitting...i think of the australian swimmers when ever i hear that! we had some fantastic ice cream, went all over town and through traffic on our bikes and ended with a boat ride and wine while traveling down the seine. the next day myself and 2 friends hit up the monet museum which was the best art museum i think i have ever seen. just fantastic. then we walked around town, saw napoleon's humongous above ground grave and then sat at the very top of the eiffel tower for a really long time watching the sun go down over the city of paris and all the lights come on. we were even on it when it sparkeled at the top of the hour! then we walked down it part way taking crazy pictures. i pretended to slide down on my stomach. it's a great picture. then we went back to the hotel for a little while and then we got wine, went up to sacre coure and just watched the city for a long time. then we walked the red light district coming back, passing the moulin rouge. morning came too soon and we left at 8 and now i'm in switzerland! completely different from france. it's lovely. we went to what i would like to call a switzerland how-down and watched people try their hand at the alphorn, yodeling and traditional dancing. we laughed all night. then we had a great night dancing at a club and today, we have a tour at noon, and right now we are just exploring the whole town of lucern. we're hoping to go up a mountain this afternoon, but it depends on the weather, or basically the clouds. tomorrow it's florence, italy! i'm excited for italy and hopefully some warm weather! i'll try and keep in touch. take care!

19.4.05 april

2005-04-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

only 2 more days left of our time here at this lovely town of oxford. we have exhausted our list of things to see and do or oxford to what i need to study and when can i get my laundry doen? i know i'm gung-ho about buying film here from english speaking people - however - i know i would get a better deal with the dollar in france. i also need to hit the internet and get some info on switzerland for my bus tour presentation. maybe i can do that tomorrow, plus study, do laundry and pack. wednesday is test day and thursday 6:30 am, our bus leaves for the white cliffs of dover and by supper we will be in paris (par-ie!) which as they say in 'anastasia' paree holds the key to your hear - with some oo la lalas.

tonight, kent, louise, andy b, dennis and jen h. and i went to the eagle and child for a small part of our assignment overseas: we had to each read a part of our journal to louise so she knew we were keeping one. it was quite interesting to hear others journals and their styles of journal writing. some had short entries, others long, some more detail than others, some more thoughtful. i read my part of my first trip to london. i think that's what my travel essay will be on. then we had fun talking while we sat in the cozy atmosphere. dennis told us how he had a FREE RIDE SCHOLARSHIP TO STANFORD FOR SWIMMING. we all gasp at the fact he gave it up - for love. i am completly jealous. he could have swam int he olympics and with natalie coughlin and i think the kirk sisters go there. amazing. it was great fun. we finished it off with a trip to houssains (more "big smiles!" haha) as, let's face it, supper really wasn't all that great. then we had a cold walk home - and now - to sleep!

Paris is comming!

2005-04-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

thursday night i will be in paris! (or as i like to call it...paree!) i've been studying hard, getting laundry done and packing up my ever growing collection of stuff that i have accumulated over here. i sent some stuff home yesterday...wasn't all too cheap but i simply didn't have room for an easter basket. just wasn't going to work. so...6:30 am thursday, i'm on a bus headed for the ferry over to france. scarry.

i thought i would leave you with a list of all that i have done that i still haven't mentioned on the blog...a lot of it is trips to london. here you go:

-the trans-international scrabble game between louise and andy. louise won but we had fun with everyone. we had paparazzi there, commentators, official word looker-upper, and official rules person. we had good old fashion fun.

-thursday gloucester green markets. it's a huge rummage sale and all very cool. you can find almost anything, for cheap.

-first visit to london: buckingham palace, outside of westminster abbey (much too expensive to go in), big ben and parliament sightings, trafalger square and beautiful fountains, national gallery of art (van gogh's sunflowers!), show: STOMP! banging on everything including the kitchen sink, double choc flake frescatos...mmm, mmm, good, moving statues, street shows, street paintings, outside british airways london eye (the huge faris wheel)... i heart london!

-2nd trip to london, 1st trip by myself...see posting below

-3rd trip to london: tower of london including seeing the crown jewels (soo soo pretty), the story of the 2 murdered princes and not knowing who killed them, anne bolyn's grave and where she was beheaded and where she was proposed too, learned she was witch like...had 6 fingers! saw the london bridge, pretty depressing, real one is in arizona of all places. HARD ROCK CAFE! they had honey mustard! went into the vault and held jimi hendrix's guitar! saw the huge collection of guitars and could hold what ever i wanted, saw paul lennon's hand written songs, learned how the hard rock was first started as this was the first hard rock: eric clapton used to live by the american cafe in london and went in for his daily drink and someone was in his spot and the bartender argued that that person's money was just as good as clapton's so eric came back the next day with a signed poster and demanded his spot back and then other artist started pouring in other memorabilia and then when the american cafe decided to go international they changed to the hard rock cafe.

-city of bath and the roman baths, the city of burford (cotswald village)

-4th trip to london, 2nd solo trip: Tate Britain art museum, at leister square saw nicole kidman at london premiere of the interpreter, went and saw chicago on stage

-Warwick Castle: old medieval castle, climbed all over it, saw peacock gardens and many old torture devices and elizabeth I riding sadle.

-stratford-upon-avon: saw shakespear's grave, his supposed childhood school, and his supposed birth house (they don't have actual proof but are pretty sure that's where he was born, saw the royal shakespear company's a midsummer's night dream, the guy who played puck was the same guy who was heath ledger's friend in a knight's tale plus a couple (well more than a couple) pounds, AND i fed a swam ice cream. it was amazing

-had to deal with my dog's death. it was hard.

-5th and final trip to london: left really early, kensington palace and gardens, princess diana's dresses and princess margaret's state apartment and king william III's state apartment (it's big), also queen victoria and mary (the queen mum) were born there. i also saw a collection of queen elizabeth II's dresses. london eye ride and how they tell you to "enjoy your flight!", a quick run through the tate modern for jill, and the jack the ripper tour...it's not pretty what he did.

Houssains

2005-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm...food. I walked a good half mile and arrived at the big trailer with the bright red "Houssains" on the back. they had what i was craving after a dull, icky, dinner at wycliffe hall (i'm going to come out of this trip fat...they have a horrible diet going for us over here of nothing but meat, potatoes and bread or pasta...ick), and that something was a donner. i was psyched. i walked this half mile in the dark, by myself (no one else wanted to go or had just got back). "yes, please," houssain said as i approached as every other worker at a food establishment asked you when taking your order (probably due to the fact that 'yes' and 'please' are the most common known workds in any language). i flashed a precious smile and asked for my favorite - a donner kebab. it's a turkish sandwich in a poscket like break with lots of veggies (lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, and onions), lamb meat (same meat in gyros) and garlic sauce. although not as good as those in berlin (susanna got me addicted), these will do. houssain starts preparing my donner (pronounced derner) and then come back and told me how much. i handed him some coins and then he repeated the price - i was to pence short! i reached to hand him 10 pence and said tha's ok and gave a sneaky look to his co-worker. "just give me 'nother big smile." i flashed him my cheesiest and he said, "alright, very good!" wrapped my donner up and handied it to me, i flashed another cheesy grin and was on my way.

check it out

2005-04-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

i highly recommend you check out louise's blog, our trip leader. it has more information on what we have been up to, AND pictures! none of me, but pictures none the less. the link is on my side bar, located not at the bottom of this page due to the berlin pictures taking up lots of room. one day it will return to it's rightful spot on the side of the page!

Good Quote:

2005-04-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

"No, the long version is 'spoonerific.'"

-leslie, in response to a question on our really long game on elimination SPOONS.

happy silver anniversary!

2005-04-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

happy silver anniversary mum (hehe) and dad! it's been 25 years...hope your day is wonderful!!!

happy 21st, carly!!

2005-04-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

hope your 21st (on the 10th) was wonderful!!

it's coming...

2005-04-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

...the end of our stay in oxford. tomorrow:
-warwick castle
-stratford-upon-avon
-'a mid-summer night's dream' performance by the royal shakespear company at the shakespear globe theater

thursday:
-london and tate britain (more artwork!)

friday:
-another attempt at blenheim palace (more on the first attempt later)

saturday:
-portsmith downs and the dock yard

sunday:
-last trip to london :(

we leave very very soon.....

i tried

2005-04-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

i tried to call nate. it didn't work. i don't think i have the right number and booty gave me the wrong number. unless he changed his number and didn't tell me. nate...you should email me your number.

ick

2005-04-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

yeah, you guys should be livin it up back home...

it's been nothing but cold and rainy here in oxford.

7-4-2005 april Thursday

2005-04-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

i just got back from a trip to london - that i went on ALL-BY-MYSELF!! it was fantastic. didn't worry not even once (well, maybe that i was looking too touristy when i took out my map). i decided to go their on my own for fear ofnot being able to see all that i want tolof london. i boarded thebus right after class and went there, eating my lunch on the way. 2 hours later i was there, dropped off on some london street corner not quite knowing where to go. i needed a bus to tate modern, but these buses wizzing past me didn't show that they were going there. i kept looking, not quite sure what to do. first thing i probably should do is buy a bus ticket, and i found a ticket vender right in front of me, so i purchased a pass. then i started walking untili figured that my best bet would be to go to waterloo station. i find a bus stop and tentatively hop the next bus that says waterloo. good thing i have a street smarts -yeah. moments later i was dropped off at waterloo - and a costa coffee. i think it was a sign from God, him telling me to congratulate myself for getting this far so i ran inside for my favorite - double choc flake frescato. i took that and easily navigated myself through the streets until i proudly stood in front of the grand Tate Modern. i entered and noticed i had an hour and a half to see everything so off i went - first stop - the turbine hall - the gallery used to be an old mill and the turbine hall is a grand opening - pretty much of nothing. every now and then they will fill it was a huge piece of art,but today it was empty except for the sound ofwhat i believe may have been a turbine - to add to the atmosphere - you could hear it grouning as you went up the escalator. i then turned up the next one and entered the first gallery - picasso, matisse, monet, dali, polluck, degas, rodin, rothko - so many, many, many great works of art! i can't even believe how many masterpieces i have seen. i even saw one of my favorites - watterlillies by claude monet, amazed by how huge it was. i even saw some rooms that were a whole piece in themselves. on of the 30 copies of squeak's favorite, 'tiny dancer aged 14,' by degas was there. for some reason i thought it would be larger, but beartiful just the same. then, after the 2 gallery floors, successfully completing the gallery, i ran down tothe gift store and bought favorites that i saw and a poster tube. i was pretty excited about the poster tube. now i have something to put all my posters in and it says TATE and it's blue.

out the door, i crossed the famous millenium bridge to st. pauls, taking pictures the whole way. after many photographs, i hopped a bus to victoria's station - not knowing it was going the wrong way. so i had to wait for a turn around bus, which didn'tlast long, and then i was off, back to victoria. i hopped off early for food, then best i could see was mcdonalds, so i went for a safe bet with chicken mcnuggets. i then put the food in my backpack and went to locate the bus stop for the oxford tube back to oxford. i found victoria's station and circled it - finding nothing. it now started to rain so i ran to take cover andtake out a map. went back, went down another street and successfully located the bus stop. after a long wait, a crabby bus driver, who i lied to, sort of,when he asked if i had KFC in my backpack (he was my pop in my hand). i told him no, and he said that's what he though. i was telling the truth - i had mcdonalds. found a spot on the top deck, got situated and took out my food - enjoyed my peaceful ride back to oxford. feeling more independent than ever.

Tues. 5 April 2005

2005-04-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

today was a day of confrontation. well - only this morning before class. laura m. stood up to suggest that vegtarians get to 'cut the que (cue?)' of the lunch line as by time some of them get to the lunch servers, the vegetarian food is all gone and then they can't eat. this is happening due to when someone doesn't like the main course offering and takes vegetarian instead, which the cooks did not plan the food for them to eat vegetarian. and since everyone needs food, we decided that would be the best option.

carly s. stood up next. she also had an issue to bring up. she's very brave, i think, because i wouldn't normally bring this up. this is what she said:

'the bemidji people really like the moorhead people and this isn't a 'we don't like you thing' but we were wondering if we could have alternating nights with the common room becausewe feel like we can't come in there...

or something along those lines.

anyway, it was really sweet what she said. all we wanted was to be able to use the tv room also - or even just watch the news. but when you walk into the commons room, you suddenly feellike a foreigner as they all stare at you. then you turn around and walk out. well, all the moorhead people (well, not all - just the eyes-glued-to-the-tv-ones) are upset. they tried to justify themselves with excuses - but it just didn't work. it was suggested to have people fill out suggestions to the solution on a piece of paper and then turn them into louise. we'll have to see what happens.

this afternoon we went to summertown, a small little shopping town 6 blocks away. we saw a house that was the former home of the writer of the first oxford dictionary (you'll have to excuse me, i don't remember his name right off hand). once in summertown, we hit up some smaller stores, lots of them thrift. nothing really hit my eye. then i spotted a sports store and ran inside for aquick look - and lo and behold - they had swimcaps!! i bought a few - they weren't what we call cheap, but it was well worth it.

on the way back, laura m and i ran into kent and he showed us this cute little street right by wycliffe hall that had quite a few art stores! and beautiful art it was. we both decided that we were going to quit school so we could move to oxford and spend our money there. it would be fabulous.

Good Quote:

2005-04-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

"how much did you spend at the pub this last week?"

-louise to silas after he complained about the cost of blenheim palace and it's requirements to the eurospring course.

english boys

2005-04-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

one night out at the infamous purple turtle, 2 guys came over to a table of us girls and asked if they could show us a magic trick. after we agreed, they asked for a volunteer and jill stepped forward. they asked for the ashtray and then asked her to hold out her hands, palms down fingers out. they moved her hands out and they asked her to close her fists. they then placed a dot of ash on top of her hand, then they wipped it away. they asked jill to turn her hands over and - tada! - there was ash on the underside of her hand where they wipped ash away on the top side. we were impressed . we sat and talked with them for awhile, they seemed very interested in jill and rachel. i left early however as i was tired and the music was loud.

they invited us out for the next night. one was a manager of a posh (which we found out was a word that originated from the early days of the titanic where the rich people stayed on the Port Of Star Harbor = POSH) bar in oxford. it was a good time there. we love their accents and they can't get enough of american girl accents - how weird. after the bar we walked to the PT ( or the lavender tortoise, urple nurple or anything else that rhymes with Purple Turtle) and crystal and i sat and watched the others get down to some english techno. english boys bring great fun!

avebury, stonehenge, salisbury and the druids

2005-04-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

saturday, 2-4-05 april

quite the day of traveling. we boarded our tour coach buses: moorhead bus #1, bsu bus #2. but that was for a good reason. andy browers was giving his presentation on avebury and stonehenge, which he actually changed it to druids - who as dr. chapman told us, did NOT build stonehenge. on friday, at our feildtrip lecture, he was telling us about a tv special he was hosting about stonehenge and he ran into druids at stonehenge. he asked who their leader was and a man shouted, "i am!" chapman asked who he might be. "arfer! king of the druids!" (arfur = arther). the arthur, king of the druids, got in a fight with another druid who apparently thought he was king and chapman, apparently, was not impressed. so - back to andy - he didn't want to give his presentation on the same bus as chapman and we knew he would be on bus 1.

so anyway - andy gives his presentation and we are rolling on the floor of the bus laughing. he mentions facts of the druids: "fact: druids built stonehenge with their magical powers. fact:druics spend their nights playing castle and dungeons (or something like that). fact: druids are highly reachable on their mobile phones." anyways. we're all completly ready to be druids for halloween. except crystal w. who says, and i agree - thye look like they are members of KKK.

we arrive at avebury and pile out of the bus and head into town. we must look like a strange site: dr. chapman with many students following him. kind of like papa duck and his baby ducklings. it must really look like that when he heads across the road to hold the gate open on the other side and we wait (60 of us) on the other side for cars to pass.

avebury is one of those mystery rock places - kind of like easter island. it has this circle - that has been interupted by the town of avebury - that is perfectly a half mile across that is marked by these monsterous stones. then there is a deep ditch which then goes up into a hill. we walked around on the hill for part of the circle, dr. chapman lecturing on the way, mentioning to imagine carrying these boulders for 10 miles with nothing but strength and animal hide rope. and reminded us the huge trenches were made from digging with animal bones - probably the shoulder blades of animals. we then took a million pictures posed next to the rocks - climbing them, pushing them, hiding behind them or just posing. we then went into town and hit up a tourist shop. i bought some post cards, as did most others. louise bought a book we will present to dr.chapman: 'arthur: king of the druids.' it's complete with pictures AND - as we found out later - arthurs signature! we are all going to sign it and present it to him.

after avebury, we grabbed some lunch made special for us from the wycliffe hall cooks - just your ordinary bag lunch. heading on the bus for stonehenge, we have to do a u-turn. a road is blocked due to a car accident. a gasp goes through the bus as we see out of tour picture windows a mangled body of a motercyclist laying ont he street. we all knew that he had passed as no one was around him. the bus was quiet for the detoured trip to stonehenge.

we saw stonehenge before we got their - towering over the horizon. it was kind of surreal - seeing this structure that you never would have thought you swould see in your life. we walked through the gates, under the highway and entered the track that surrounds it. as we walked around, we took more pictures. i think i took about 20 panaramic shots of all the different angles of it. i liked watching the birds fly around it - there was something amazing about watching them fly high over the sky and then land on these huge formations with hordes of people standing everywhere. after we had made the round, we slowly walked back, stoping at the souveneir shp to buy, 'henge,' as we like to call it, shirts, rings and post cards. to our disappointment, no druids are spotted.

back onthe bus we head for salisbury cathedral. we no have dr. chapman on our bus. we look for fox hunters with their red coats, horses and dogs as it is now illegal and chapman wants to see someone disobeying the new law that tony blair signed. chapman calls tony blair a control freak. unfortunatly, no fox hunters today, bur there are lots of sheep, flocks and flocks. i remember on our bus when we very first got here, right outside of london. there were sheep everywhere and a murmur went through the bus, "sheep." at that point it could have been "sleep" though.

salisbury cathedral is huge. not as big as i expected, but big just the same. we could see its spire in the distance before we entered the town. we run to stand next to it, not even readhing where the massive windows start. we run around the other side, picture taking along the way. we enter the cathedral and are amazed by its vastness. the folding chairs int he back are a far ways awaay from the altar, which we can't even see due to its being blocked off for a wedding, which we can still hear. looking down at our feet, every tile is a grave stone, which still freaks me out. we head over to dr. chapman who brings us over to what they belive is the world's oldest clock. it does not have a face to tell time, it was built to ring the bells at the top of the hour and is still doing so today. walking towards the front, we pass more tombs - these ones above ground in huge concrete caskets which are carved and engraved. it was kind of different how the church was so vast with different things to look at scattered all around. they even had different toylaties praying altars there to look at.

on your way out, off to a different room, they had one of the few copies of the magna carta that still exist. it was neat to view it, but nothing all too exciting. just a piece of parchment jam packed with old english quill writing stating the placement of the king and parliament with in the UK. there was so many people i didn't even get a chance to read it.

i felt confused leaving, as if there was supposed to be more to see, but i didn't know where to go. amy was on her way out so we both took off for a walk around the church, meeting everyone at the bus stop. everyone slept on the way home, too tired to do anything else. louise said we missed some great scenery.

that night at supper, we got news of the pope's passing. this was one fo the things that we had on our list of "what if this happens while we're over seas?" we will be in rome in less than a month (scary!) and are not sure of how chaotic it will be there. it does seem like we will be able to get in. i guess it is something to worry about at a later date.

that night, we were all to bed early...we were all tired with all the walking we did.

news from home

2005-04-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

we got wind of the shooting the day after it happened. it was shocking. louise annoucethat we all probably knew about what happened back home. puzzled,we askedwhat as she started towalk away from the front ofthe lecture hall. she then aid that their was a school shooting in red lakeand a gasp went threw the room. it was weird - i wasn't sure whatto think about it. sure ifelt sad that something likethis had happened so closeto where i go to school. but at the same timeit felt so far away. i did think about the people from BSU that were student teaching there - it was realiving to find out all from bsu were ok - but still horribletohear about the young kids who died. the story made all of the paper's front pages here. on the plane over to berlin the guy i haed to sit next to, after noticing my accent, wanted to know why so many school shootings happened in america. i didn't have an answer for him. i couldn't blame it on media,or security - they didn't seemto be the cluprits. he suggested it was ammendement 2 - the right to bear arms. i agreed so i wouldn't have to talk to him anymore - i think he wanted my # so he could show me around london. ick.

burnt hair

2005-04-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

weeks ago was a blur. i got behind on the journal thing and now i'm trying to keep up. my roommate, jill, ended up singing (sp?) or should i say melting her hair off with my 3 barrell curling iron. she wanted to try using it, and i said sure - i had used it on sunday. we plugged itin with converter and adapter first andit didn't work, so thinking that i only use d the adapter, pluggedit in and the light turned on. a few minutes later she went over to start curling and when she saw smoke she startedto scream - she had taken off a good chunk of hair the curling iron was so hot! i ran over and just surveyed the damage - and then tried not to laughit all seemed really funny. we unplugged the curling iron and set it down and i looked at her hair. she really didn't have too much taken off and you coun't notice it anyway. i told her she was lucky it happened here and not at home where she had toface more people she knows. after we showed everyone the damage - including the 3 barreller with blackened hair burnt on to it, we threw the curling iron, i trimmed off the singed hairs to make them lay flat and then weopened a window, cause burnt hair smells really bad.

a small update

2005-04-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

Ok...just wrote this once...lost it...and now i'm rewritting it...grrr.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures...I'm now done posting them and will the only pictures you will see until I get back. I still like my "real" pictures and my digital camera is more for art work and I wasn't going to lug it with me. but one of the reinecke's last gifts to me was a cd with all the pictures from my time there so i thought i would share them with you...enjoy!

time here is going by fast. we only have 3 weeks left and i have so much left to do. i still have to go to london and even though i'm going on sunday, wonder when i will have the time. i'm too busy with classes here, but i guess that's what i came here to do. i won't be able to go to prince charles wedding...i have a class at 2:30 next friday and the time to travel to london takes too much time...i would get there and have to turn around and come back...and i can't skip this one. it's for our Saturday fieldtrip. but i will be going to see STOMP! this Sunday in London. i'm slightly frustrated as most people have been to London (many went over easter break) and have seen all the places i want to see so it's hard to find someone to go with me to london. i'll figure it out.

i have to update my journal. i'm a week behind and once that is caught up, i can post it here so you can see what i have been up to. it's pretty much been cold and rainy here so we don't get the opportunity to do much.

that's pretty much it...and i will get caught up on my journal. i should just do it tomorrow, especially since i have a 6 hour head start to most of you. well, 7 until the saturday night. we did our spring ahead with the clocks last weekend. i always assumed there was a universal day to do that, but i have found out wrong, europe was last weekend, us this weekend. learn something new everyday.

and i guess that's it for now...with one final note:

HAPPY 21ST DANIELLE! PARTY HARD!!

peace...
andi

a small update

2005-03-31T08:09:00.001-08:00

a small update

2005-03-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

i'm done with pictures. i finally finished! hope you enjoy them. i don't have a digital camera here (i like actual pictures...which is weird coming from me, the graphic artist) but one of my final presents from the Reinecke's was a CD with all the pictures that they took from my weekend there so i decided to share them all with you! I hope you enjoy them.

I am very behind on my journaling, thus makes me even more behind here. I plan on doing that tomorrow. Time here in Oxford is flying by. I think I'm the only one who hasn't been to London yet, which makes me wonder when I am going to get there. I'm far too busy here to get there and since everyone has seen all the stuff I want to see there, I have a hard time finding someone to go with. I'm slightly worried. I also can't go to London on the 8th, the day Prince Charles gets married...I have a class at 2:30. So unconvenient. I really wanted to go. I will, even though I said I didn't think I would get there, will be going to London on Sunday for a performance of STOMP! since Kent got us tickets for half price. Sound be fun.

I will update my journal and post it here for you soon. Just hand in there. I should just get it done and up...especially since I have a 6 hour head start ahead of most of you...well 7 until Saturday night...we sprung ahead last weekend. Something else I didn't know...I knew that only some places actually did the spring and ahead and fall back with the Time but I thought it was a universal day to do it...didn't know that Europe and the US did it on 2 separate weekends!

So that's all for know...not much new, but I will get you updated. And on a final note...

HAPPY 21ST DANIELLE! PARTY HARD!

talk to you later...
andi

2005-03-31T08:05:00.000-08:00

Annette, Susanna and I pose on the main level of the Auditorium where the Swing Band Orchestra Frank Sinatra concert is held. The stage and organ is in the background

Annette, Susanna and I pose on the main level of the Auditorium where the Swing Band Orchestra Frank Sinatra concert is held.

talking to Susanna inside the auditorium before the Swing Band Orchestra starts

ooooo the pretty ceiling of the auditorium!

Our seat's in the auditorium for the Swing Band Orchestra Frank Sinatra concert

Jen's and his girlfriend, Susanna, me and Annetta and the Concert House before the Orchestra concert. Uwe's being photographer

Jen's and his girlfriend all spiffed up!

Susanna and myself...waiting outside before the Frank Sinatra orchestra concert

Outside of the auditorium where our Frank Sinatra concert was held

Ummm...the traditional German Easter dinner. It was good...I guess the Reinecke's tried to make it for the Stadem's but didn't have the correct ingredients in the US...so here it is! And that's not mashed potatoes...it's a sticky ball of dough.

Easter Sunday Lunch...made for us by Jens, Uwe and Jen's girlfriend.

Isn't it beautiful? And huge?! Were we went to Easter Sunday Church...the Dom Kirche. Annette and I are in the lower right hand of the picture

Susanna and me and the Dom Kirche

The really big Dom Kirche!

Susanna and I at the front Gates and stairs of the Dom Kirche were we went to Easter Sunday Church

The front gates of the Dom Kirche!

Susanna and I sharing a laugh after Easter Sunday Church

2005-03-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

Easter Sunday Church getting out

The front alter at the huge church (The Dom Kirche) we went to for Easter Sunday

The front alter of the Dom Kirche we went to for Easter Sunday

Susanna and I in our Easter Sunday's best, standing with the Dom Kirche's front alter in the background

My Easter Sunday Picture, dressed in my Easter Sunday's best

Easter Sunday's church sevice being let out at the Dom Kirche

The Copula or Dome of the Dom Kirche from the inside...sehr schon! (very pretty)

The Bishops pulpit at the Dom Kirche at Easter Sunday's service. Martin Luther is the statue up on the right!

The amazingly huge organ and pipes and the choir balcony at the Dom Kirche

Easter Sunday Church at the Dom Kirche

Easter Sunday breakfast...and my Easter basket! The Easter bunny came! I just woke up, that's why I look sleepy

Getting ready for a day out...I'm putting on my contacts, hence the hunched over look

Our mess...Susanna's and my room

Concentrating hard on painting a beautiful Easter Egg

Uwe and I painting away with great concentation

In the living room/dinning room painting Easter Eggs for the Easter Tree!

2005-03-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

Easter Egg painting for the Easter Tree with the Reinecke's friend who is originally from Iraq

Look at me go! Busy painting my Berlin Easter Egg

Concentration needed for painting my Easter Egg

At the top of the Copula at the Top of the Reichstag

The hang out at the top of the Reichstag

Up the Copula at the top of the Reichstag

Through the Looking Glass...Annette, Susanna and I looking at the mirrors...and the start of Uwe, the photographer's feet

Uwe and Annette taking a picture...of themselves taking a picture

The inside of the Copula at the top of the Reichstag...it dips down into the Parliament room

oooo...pretty mirrors inside the copula

Uwe and I being photographers...or just tourists

At the top of the Reichstag takin pictures

Awww...aren't we cute? With the copula in the background at the top of the Reichstag

The big Dome (Copula) at the top of the Reichstag

Me taking a picture of the city as Susanna looks on...sleepily

The top of the Reichstag!

At the top of the Reichstag...over looking the Brandenburger Gate

Susanna and myself trying to keep warm at the top of the Reichstag

With the dome in the background...and it's cold!

Picture time!

2005-03-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

Uwe, Me and Susanna on top of the Reichstag

Susanna and Myself looking out over the city from the top of the Reichstag

Inside the Parliament main Room of the Reichstag

Reading about German Parliament in the Parliament's main Room at the Reichstag

Looking for seats at the Parliament's main Room at the Reichstag

Parliament's not in session...

Cutting the line...since we were with a tour guide, we got to cut through the 3 hour line outside of the Reichstag...which was good...it was cold out!

On the front steps of the Reichstag

Waiting for our tour to take off

Our tour group...getting ready to see the Reichstag

Touring Berlin and the Reichstag...Me, Uwe, and Susanna

2005-03-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Uwe, Me and the Reichstag tour guide

2005-03-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

tada!

2005-03-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

Keifer...gold medalist...USA...100 free...back when they only had 9 events!

2005-03-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

pointing out USA gold medalists in swimming to Uwe

2005-03-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

it's the olympic pool! it's so small....and under construction. you would never be able to hold today's olympic games there

2005-03-29T07:58:00.000-08:00

Annetta walking up the forever long stairs

2005-03-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

hanging at the 1936 olympic stadium

2005-03-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

the cheapest these seats will be here...1936 olympic stadium

2005-03-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

touristy again...taking pictures of Annetta and Susanna

2005-03-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

Me at the 1936 Olympic Stadium...the roof is newly added

2005-03-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

and here's one in color! 1936 Olympic Stadium

2005-03-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

Me and Susanna in the 1936 Olympic Stadium

2005-03-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

the front gates of the olympic stadium

2005-03-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

the bell tower...you can barely see Susanna and myself at the bottom

2005-03-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Outside the Olympic Stadium Bell Tower, Me and Susanna

2005-03-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

the olympic bell and stadium

2005-03-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

me and the bell...at the top of the 1936 olympic games bell tower

2005-03-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

me and the bell...at the top of the 1936 olympic games bell tower

2005-03-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

that's a hot picture....you can see the pool...it's the building directly to the left of the stadium

2005-03-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

Me at the top of the bell tower over looking the site of the 1936 Olympic Games

2005-03-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

More of Uwe, Susanna and me at Sanssouci Park

2005-03-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

weird looking ducks...Sanssouci Park

2005-03-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

Me and the Duckies...Sanssouci Park

2005-03-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

The ducks at Sanssouci Park

2005-03-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

Uwe, Susanna and me at Sanssouci Park

2005-03-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

And More At Sanssouci Schloss

2005-03-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

More at Sanssouci Schloss

2005-03-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

Me being Touristy...complete with my arrival present from Uwe and Annetta, a Berlin Guide Book

2005-03-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

Susanna, Uwe and me: Sanssouci Schloss

2005-03-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

At Sanssouci Schloss

2005-03-28T07:56:00.000-08:00

Sanssouci Castle/Palace (Schloss) in Potsdam with Susanna and Annetta

2005-03-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

With Susanna at Cecilie Palace

2005-03-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

With Susanna at Cecilie Palace

2005-03-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

With Susanna at Cecilie Palace

2005-03-28T07:49:00.000-08:00

With Susanna at Cecilie Palace where the Potsdam Conferences were held (anti-Hitler coalition)

2005-03-28T07:42:00.000-08:00

Susanna's Arrival

2005-03-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Finally! Susanna's here! I haven#t seen her in almost 3 years!

2005-03-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

More Waiting at the S-Bahn

2005-03-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

waiting for Susanna at the Train Station (S-Bahn)

Berlin Pics!

2005-03-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Arrival in Berlin (with Annetta)

adulthood

2005-03-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

dearest aunt dee dee,

i believe i may now be an adult. once, at the lake, you told me i was not an adult until i drank coffee. i never thought i would reach adulthood.

i had a good friday meal with the reinecke´s and after, for dessert, we had cake (jen´s makes fantastic chocolate cakes - but i have yet to see the kid) and coffee...well suzy and i had cappuccino. i have actually had it twice, once for breakfast.

does this make me an adult? i´m not sure of cappuccino´s qualifications as coffee, so i thought i would bring this to you. it is not my favorite drink, and after europe i´m not sure if i would have it again...but drinking it does make me feel adult like, which helps at a table when you can´t really join the conversation due to my lack of german speaking skills. maybe i´m just an adult in duetschland.

thanks for your thoughts and the suzy and the reinecke´s say hi!

fröhe ostern und fröhe gutten frietag!

one of your favorite neices,

andrea

(p.s. in case you were wondering, this is dripping with sarcasm - haha)

21-3-05 day 4

2005-03-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

STOP THE LIE!

it´s just after lunch and i have just sat through 2 more lectures, on of them being mz first meeting of science discoveries. o, and by the way, we need to stop the lie! did zou know that bz 250 bc, eratostheres, a greek, measured the distance aorund the earth and knew that the earth was round? and that manz manz zears later, washington irving (sleepy hollow dude) writes a story saying otherwise so that that is what we are told in school? in 1492, when columbus sailed the ocean blue, he knew darn well the earth was round - that´s whz he though he could get to china the other way! at that point of time thez were more worried about the equator boiling their blodd. stop the lie - spread the truth! washington irving...grrr. what columbus found (but didn´t know) was this new continet (the america´s) and the fact that there is more water on earth than land, which is what was believed before. he also discovered the pacific after crossing mexico. poor guy. anyways, though you should know!

i´ve got the rest of this day coming - but i´m not done typing it...it was long, it was crazy and it will be up...but i need to type it...but i´m off with susanna to checkpoint charlie! auf weidersehn!

20-3-05 Day 3

2005-03-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

Hallo auf Berlin!

i´m sitting at susanna´s computer right now as they get good friday dessert ready. we just had the best potato salad (kartoffeln salat) ever. i think i need to get the recipe...my mom can even eat it.

so...here´s day 3...disreguard the mistakes please as this keyboard is all goofz...like the y and the z has done a switcheroo...

woke up early to enjoy a beartiful palm sunday. i curled mz hair even and wore a skirt and myself, jill and stephanie walked cross town to christ church for servicea dn to hear the men´s and boy´s choir.

upon arrival we found that we had somewhat missed the service and the guard at the door kept saying that we weren´t allowed to enter even though the sign next to him said differentlz. we gave up there and turned around when we heard singing and thus crossed the road to the church to inviestigate. i could immediatly tell that a contemporary worship was going on and we tried to find the front doors. at first getting across the street, i wans´t too happy to find myself standing on someone´s grave but found mzself more in awe of the contemporary music coming out of this old and weathered church. we crossed around front and finallz found a large glass structure that turned out to be the door. we were quickly welcomed and given programs and a part of a palm leaf folded into a cross. we were then ushered into a packed church. no knowing where to sit, some more ushers came and found us decent seats, all the while this band is jamming in the fron and the TV´s surrounding the popel everywhere showed children dancing away and the words to the current song scrolled across it. the tv´s, amayingly enough, were up high on the beautiful stone and marble pillars everywhere and were painted the same colors as the stone as if to match it. upon sitting, we found that the children were all up front dancing awaz. shortly after, the music was put on hold for what we think was their version of a baptism, but from what i could tell, the kid wasnät there - it was more the mom (mum!) telling us how and whz she named the kid and the family was also on stage. then we sang a whole lot more - none of the songs i recotgniyed except "here i am to worship," which was extremelz uplifting. i get reallz excited when a song i know is sung in church with the band - makes it 10 times more beautiful for some reason. maybe itäs all the voices or because it´s live with a band - i donät know. a speaker came on next and explained palm sundaz with help from the congregation. she would ask a qustion and thez would answer. she also threw in manz bible versus and the sort. then she said thez were going to bring in the donkez but thez were, as repeated from another girl, "in a donkey jam." here i was expecting some kids under a blaket when in walks a live donkey into the church for all to pet! it was amaying so jill and i ran to take pictures and kids were everzwhere. afterwards thez mentioned that thez had a live broadcast from jeresulam on what people were thinking of all this praising that was going on so we turned our attention to the tvs to see a guz all dressed up in the days of jesus attire getting a report from people in the streets - all the while with mcdonals in the background, and it was recogniyablz oxford´s mcdonalds. it was prettz funnz but i couldn´t hear much of what thez wre saying.

after that announcements were made, offering happened and a final hzmn was sung after the sharing of peace. hoping they did offering the same way, i dropped a pound in the basket (not fat, the money). when filing ou of church, jill and i became the ultimate tourists and snapped some photos of the inside before heading out. she ran back in to get another shot of the donkez while steph and i stood on some more graves outside.

while walking back we all could´t stop talking about how completelz awesome and uplifting church was and shared this with louise, nic and cindz when we ran into them on the street.

we also noticed on our waz back all the people out. the stores or reallz anz place isn´t open but there are always all these people on the streets. why are they all there? where are they going? are thez actuallz going anzwhere or are thez just out there? we don´t know...

back at wzcliffe, i ate and then ran back upstairs for more journalling and a anap before more lectures. louise said that the onlz reason for lectures on the weekend was due to the earlz easter break and the want to get stuff done.

chapman gave us 2 lectures todaz. one on oliver cromwell and how he wasn´t actuallz a king, but he did rule england and how he got there and wasn´t actuallz a part of the monarchy. the second lecture on king charles II, how he got the thrown, what he did to cromwell´s head after his death (cromwell executed charles´ dad) and how he lead a pleasurable life. he then talked in great detail about the plaque and the fire that nearlz wiped out london and thez were great to listen to. mz butt gets so sore during these lectures (not excited for 3 tomorrow) but i think i enjoz them so much because chapman is great at adding stories to his lectures and makes it kind of like the inside edition to the historz of england. we get to hear all these inside stories about englads greatest. it´s kind of like good gossip - except these people are long gone so it´s after the fact. it´s just plain interesting.

afterwards, steph and i ran to an internet cafe for awhile basicallz so i could blog (type on my website). then we came back for supper and then i ran upstairs to call susanna, who i will be visiting over eater. she explained how i will be picked up and then she will and then she explained the church situation and how there zou have to paz to go and since that doesn´t make sense to her (or to me) that we probablz won´t go unless i really, really, really wanted to. she also seaid that her mom got us tickets to the frank sinatra orchestra concert for easter sundaz - exciting! i will also get to see and go inside the reichstad where their government is and to bring mz suit (swim) and some clothes to be active in.

i then made up some signs sazing that we will be going punting (boating) on this day and to the blenheim palace on another daz. i was volunteered to get all that information ready as i brounght it up to the group earlier that it would be a lot more fun if we went as a large group. so i set up dates, costs and such with information and posted it. mz habitat presidential skills and book from aunt deedee and familz came in reallz ehlpful there.

i also found out later that elspeth and jen mazbe taking mz same flight on wednesday! that was extremelz excitng for all 3 of us when we found out. we even hi-fived! we´re going to talk tuesdaz and finish figuring out which bus to take to london and so forth.

and that was tuesday...it´s friday...i have more written down but not posted. i´ll get to it. duetchland ist spass!

frohe ostern! andrea (say that with an accent and roll the r´s...my name sounds much more exciting that way!)

3-19-05 (the second day)

2005-03-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

today starts our first offical day of classes. i woke up womewhat early so that i could make sure i would catch breakfast. i got downstairs with plenty of time. i arrived to find a good group of BSU students eating breakfast. as i enjoyed my egg, granola and orange juice we had a good time talking aobut anything and everything. i had attempted to make toast in an English toaster. instead of pushing down, you lift the lever up, after you push the "on" button and set the timer. my bread somehow got stuck to the inside of the toaster and i was only able to rip out half of the slice, leaving the rest as i did not want to stick a fork in it - for obvious reasons.

at 10 am, Dr. Chpaman entered the lecture room, complete with lecture cape - which is black and from the front looks like a vest but is a cape int he back and has long sleeves but has holes haft way through so he can stick his arms our and can let it the rest of the sleeve hang down. he talked about the english inthe 1600's - from queen elizabeth I to king james who came from scotland. he talked about how great britain came to be great britain and social class and order to their diets and professions. after our break he takled about how the civil war in britain had started and came to be and how history actually lead to their civil war. i hadn't taken notes for classes in awhile (design tech students don't usually need to - or it will be printed off for you already), and i leaned over to show laura at one point the indentation in my ifnger from my pen.

after our extremely long lectures (what can i say? they made my butt hurt) we had a lunch of baguettes and ham with other meats offered too. it was really good.

jill and i took off after lunch and some journal writing to run some errands before her next class we first went to the post office where we foundthat some of the best deals can be obtained there: phot cards, maps, stamps, crayola, and my little phony to name a few. i will go back there at some point to buy a phone card and stamps.

we also stopped at some osford apparell shops. i know i would like an oxford sweatshirt and now that i know where abouts the pool is, i would like to find an oxford swimming shirt and swim cap.

jill then had to leave for go back for class so i then headed towards an internet cafe. i ran into some bsu students and they had said that the place we thought was 1 pound an hours was actually 1 pound for 20 minutes. i didn't really care at that point so i went in to catch up on my email and website. from there, i just walked around, trying to familarize myself with oxford. i looked at all the little shops, went in a few. i then went and ran into the covered market, which is like any other market, yet it's inside. it was really strange as people even brought bikes inside. i found lots of little treasures but none that i would be able to afford or take home for that matter. after walking around the stores there i began heading back but decided to find the bus station for which i knew the where abouts of it and followed to where i was told to go. on the way i found public toilets, which i thought was odd - out in the middle of an alley way - not what i expected. i eventually found Gloucester Green, which is a big open square where they have markets on Wednesdays. i eventually found the bus station and talked to them about tieckets to London and told me to purchase them on day of departure. i then found a little convienence store that sold phone cards and - ahh! - Dr. Pepper! which wasn't as cold as at home but was cold compared to the other stores that didn't refridgerate, although the label says best when cold. when i was buying my items the lady who was ringing me up asked how much i wanted with my phone card. i replied,"5 dollars." she started to get it, stopped, and i immediatly corrected myself. "i mean, pounds!" "that's ok," she said, "i knew what you meant anyway." "yeah," i told her, "i'm still getting used to it."

on my way back i ran into louise and explained what i had been up to all day. she told me, "good for you." as i told her all the places i had been. i then took a different way back to wycliffe hall - i was disoriented with not knowing my exact location but knew i was close to the hall. eventually i made it back, clickbed the stairs and grabbed a chair, threw it out the window to the balcony and climbed out there to catch up on journal writing before supper and just enjoyed being outside in the city of oxford.

at 6, i went down for supper only to find that supper was at 6:30. so, finding kent standing there (he's louise's wife , and louise is our trip supervisor) i pointed out the oxford swimming poset and told hime i wanted to go there but didn't know where Iffnely Road was. He then showed me that there was a map inthe next room and i was quickly able to find it, though it would be a good walk there. i'm all excited to go now once i get a break. i really want an oxford swimming cap.

supper was then served - it was chicken curry, which was in no comparison to the stuff we tried in our workshops in bemidji. it was really good actually. i was impressed watching Nic, kent and louise's son, eat. you could tell he had been to england before or may have mistaken him for an english person. he was squirting brownsauce on his potatoes and wasn't all cautios at first glace aobut his food.

after supper i had convinced myslef i wasn't going out, although the group had already declared an outing to the infamous purpel turtle. but when i made a journey across the hall to tell stephanie this, her and Laura R. convinced me to come with.

the purple turtle is a union bar here in oxford and is widely spoken about by one eurospring generation to the next as it is quite the funky underground bar and dance place. when we finally found where it was cleverly hidden in some back alleyway, we made the descension downstairs and were all carded and then let in. we found a majority of the group int he back on circular booths. i decdided to do a "when in Rome" and ordered my first drink from the bar - a half pint of strong bow, a type of apple cider that seemed to be what the other girls seemed to like. but i quickly remembered why i hate drinking as i barely finished half and then gave the rest to laura and steph. i really do not like the taste of alcohol and i really cannot drink that much of any type of beverage as i get way too full. plus, i really do not likethe thought of myself getting drunk. so there i sat - and the sad part is that all that was really going on was drinking, no actual conversation. so at one point, carly looked up at me and said, "want to go back?2 and i was so glad she asked. we had a great walk home, talking about all sorts of random things, it was great.

that night i called my mom (mum), gave her details thus far (the 6 hour difference really is no fun) and then did a bunch more journal writing before bed.

first night

2005-03-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

here's the rest...finishing off what i started before:

making our way through traffic, we make our way back to Wycliffe and supper. after a toast with juice or water we head in for a pasta supper.

after dinner we decide, tired as we are, we want to go out for a bit, and head down the street. we run into some of our group that say the Internet cafe is closed, so a few stop at the mcdonald's which has some computers. the rest of us head back in search of a store that might sell phone cards but the few stores that are open don't. many of us at this time are slightly worried as we had not had the time to go, get cash, buy a phone card and call our parents to let them know that we safely made it here. i asked a fellow eurospringer earlier to borrow her card and quickly called to home to say, "i'm here!" as i knew they were probably pretty worried. after we gave up on phone cards we headed to The Eagle and Child to which we found was now standing room only. i could see why the Inklings would want to write here - the front booths where almost like round little rooms with a table in the middle. we found the Moorhead group in the back and they were celebrating a birthday. it seems to me that they are pretty much here in europe to get drunk. after we were done there we ran over to the Flag andLamb where we found the rest of our group. it was extremely smoky but it was fun for awhile to sit with the rest of the group. i just sat there as others smoked and drank (more drinking than smoking but yet surprised at who did smoke), as i prefer not to do either (especially smoking). shortly after, tired, me and some friends trekked back to wycliffe.

once back, i trudged up the stairs to finally, finally, take a shower as i had not done so since yesterday plus 6 hours. i was warned that it was cold but i wasn't expecting sheets of ice to fall down on me! i quickly was in and out and ran to the sink where there was warm water, trying to warm up. 5 weeks of cold showers is so not going to be fun. heading back to my room i unpacked my things into drawers and got ready for bead. soon after lights out and some talking, jill and i welcomed sleep.

and so was my first day in oxford. so much happened - and yet there is so much more still to experience! we also have a list of items we need to see and do and then to journal them. so here begins the rest of my journalings!

Orientation and Tour

2005-03-22T02:40:00.000-08:00

here comes the rest of my first day...and a whole lot more...happy reading!

after dropping our things off we were rushed into orientation. Dr. Allen Chapman is our main lecturer and it takes a couple of minutes to get used to his thick accent. i have heard once that all english people have different dialectrs to their accent depending on their profession and that Dr. Chapman has a professors accent. And due to his accent, one should beward the front row as the usage of the accent causes spitting.

the room that we are in for orientation is smaller than i imagined. it looks somewhat like a very small sanctuary but it's not. a lot of very dark wood adorns this room - high wayne's coating on the sides and a raised ceiling all done in this dark wood. there are thick cemented plastered white painted walls. also a stone chimney that doesn't look to be in use. we have many chars set-upin rows - those metal chairs with blue fabric cushions and carpeted floors. also a podium, a white board ad a projector. i was surprised by the white board and projector (which is mounted up on the wallup on the wall with the screen mounted opposite). i assumed Chapman would just be talking away but seems to rely heavily on the white board. Ha - me alarmed by the use of modern technologies!

after orientation, chapman offered 2 walking tours of oxford, you chose which one to attend. i was going to attend the first on with jill but we fell asleep on our beds and slept straight thrgouh. she miraculously woke up and then me just in time for the 2nd tour. if it wasn't for that nap though, there would be no way my jet-lagged self would have made it through the rest of the night!

our tour met with Dr. Chapman outside of the hall. after he stopped for tea,m which is what he runs on, we were off. before going on, i should explain dr. chpaman to you. he's an older man, womewhat short and slightly round. he always wears a suit and usually with a funky colored bowtime in plaid. he has white hair that is thinning in the front and is slicked back. he also has what i like to call a very english looking face. i have no other way to describe it, alli know is that if i saw him on the stree, i would look at him and say, "he must be english." so dr. chapman and our group take off. he trotts a little to get ahead of the group which is amazing for an older man. he needs to get in front of us before crossing the road as he needs to remind us to look RIGHT not LEFT as we are used to - otherwise, we may have causualties. after a small lecture we are off walking agian. soon he points out the Ashmolean museum, which is a presennt collection of art and antiques from the early 17th centure. the collection of rarities colleced by John Tradescant while traveling was given to Elias Ashmole who donated it to the university of oxford. the museum is this grand building with amazing ston and cement architecture complete with statues sitting high above on the ceiling. you can also tell the age of the building due to the weathering of it. a very worn building, but still grand and beautiful.

as we continue walking he also points out a pub called The Eagle and Child, which was, as he told us, the regular meeting place of the 'inkilings,' a group of academic and literaryt men, including c.s. lewis, author of 'the chronicles of narnia,' and j.r.r. tolkien, who wrote 'the hobbit,' and 'the lord of the rings.'

next he pointed out a large monument. he explained that in 1554, queen mary I imprisoned the influential protestant leaders, archbishop cranmer and bishops ridley and latimer, in oxford's bocardo prison. ridley and latimer were eventually burned at the stake in the town ditch, which is now Broad street on oct. 16, 1555 and cranmer was forced to watch from a near-by tower. cranmer was eventually also burned on march 21, 1556, first having his right hand thrust into the fire, with which he signed the recantations of his faith. so now there is a memorial for the three. dr. chapman next took us down broad street and showed us the bricks made into a cross in the road that marks the spot where they were burned.

next he took us down more streets and alley ways in which we thought was an effort to get us good and lost. he eventually brought us to the heart of the city - hwere the university pretty much started. he pointed out the bodleian library - a library where you cannot rent books, but can view pretty much every book pulished and copyrighted in the UK. he also showed us the radcliffe camera - which is called a camera as the definition of camera is an enclosed object, which was really built to be a library but is now a reading room for the bodleian. as we walked on he showed us some more amazing buildings where we can climb to get more amazing view: university church of st. mary the virgin, the sheldonian theater, which was built to model the ancient roman theatre of marcellus. it used to be used for degree ceremonies and is now still used for theater purposes. the ceiling of the round, monsterous building was painted to give illusion of an open sky. next he pointed out christ college, which is another place to get an amazing view, but this church and college is special for a couple of reasons besides the fact that it has an amazing boys choir. first off, charles dodgson, or better known as lewis carrol, was an undergraduate and mathematician at christ church. apparently he was a marvelous storyteller and delighted in the company of children and there at christ church he befriended the dean's daughter, alice liddell. he wrote fanciful stories around her real life in and around oxford and recorded them in his books, 'alice's adventures in wonderland,' and 'through the looking glass.' we got a glimpse of the garden and amazing tree where alice used to play and he, write. the other reason this college is special? the collge hall, with a grand staircase usder a splendid 1640 fan vault and medieval design, was used as the dining hall in the 'harry potter' films. i can't wait to go there! j.k. rowling is a graduate of exeter college here at oxford university.

as we came back around to the main road to head back for dinner, you couldn't help but notice the large number of people. the stree we were heading onto was amazing: it had many banks, expenisive clothing stores, a kfc, mcdonald's, burger kind and gap, just to name a few. this city that i thought was going to be so small, really is not. it's home to 120,000 people!

i gotta stop here, as i need to make it back for class...i hope to type a lot more later today, but we'll see. tomorrow i leave for easter break and susanna and the reinecke family! have a wonderful easter and i hope the easter bunny all leaves you something extra special and full of chocolate, as i hope get!

bye!

welcome to wycliffe hall!

2005-03-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

the next thing i knew was that we woke up at wycliffe hall. there were cars EVERYWHERE. not at all what i had expected. from what it sounded like to me, and the rest traveling with me, was that oxford was a sleepy, studious, town with lots of greenery and gardens. not these beautifully old, worn buildings with many, many cars, people and a lot of noise. the town never stops. people walking and riding bikes everywhere, cars, buses. it was - strange. after grabbing suitcases, we were signed inand given room keys. i already knew what room i was assigned to - #11. now one would think that this was on the first floor. well - maybe in america. but not in wycliffe hall. no, rooms 9 - 14 are up in this tower somewhere called the old lodge. we went through a hallway . past a little chapel and library. up 4 narrow stairs, turn, up a flight of stairs, then another hall, more turns, 4 more stairs, turn, flight of stairs and another flight of stairs. then our floor. we don't even know what floor we are on and if it is even classified as a floor. there are about 11 of us up here and most of us sharing rooms. everyone else is in singles on the complete other end of the building - as in through the millions of stairs that we hauled luggage up, common room, up more stairs and such. my roommate is jill and we have a cool room. it's decently sized with lots of random furniture. 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 deskchairs, 2 bureaus, 1 dresser, 2 chairs, 2 end tables, 3 lamps, a sink, shelves and a randomly placed coffee table. it's under the sink. and it juts out. completely weird. and i think there is a closet, but it's blocked by a night table and dresser - maybe for a good reason? there is a shower room right out side our door and a bathroom right down the stairs. the sinks have a faucet for cold and one for hot water. the only way to get warm is to plug the sing and run both to get a pool of warm. 0 - and did i mention we have a balcony? i stole a chair from the hall and was writing out there. you have to crawl through the window but it's worth it - a view of many old buildings, lots of chimneys, trees, wycliff's backyard and all the cars and buses driving on the left side of the street.

lunch was served in the cafeteria, just off to the main enterance. their food is likable but not home's. we had pizza or chicken for lunch, myself choosing pizza. then there is a cold food area to the side with salad's and other type things - i call them this because i'm really not sure what they are. there is usually turkey and salami there too and bread. there is usually fruit also and i ususally stick with a banana. on the table they offer ketchup, salad cream (which looks like mayo - we don't know. but they put everything in it - mustard, salt, flour, santhum gum...) and brown sauce. the latter 2 look really questionable. but hey - whatever english people. to each their own. there is milk, but i'm so picky with milk, i don't drink it. multivitamins are my workaround. and the water actually tastes ok.

ok...i'm going to stop here...i haven't even got through my first day yet! tomorrow i have a full day of classes though, but later i'll write to you about my first glimpse of the rest of oxford and a little about all the amazing history they have here...talk to ya later...

andi

the forever long plane ride

2005-03-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

the plane ride over was actually OK. it actually went better than i expected. i wasn't sure if my ears would make it as my ears gave up on me my senior year of swimming but the flight was actually ok. i took my sudafed, chewed my gum like crazy and was actually calm.

it was completely foreign to me in the minneapolis airport. i hadn't been there since i was 6 years old and on my way to my 2nd trip to disneyworld. and i remembered how much my ears hurt. after a tearful goodbye to my parents (i told myself that i wasn't going to cry...i don't even cry i don't think because i'm sad, it's more like, i'm leaving them for 2 months and i know they are probably sadder than i am so i feel like i'm supposed to cry...weird), losing my contact while crying, which made a good reason to stop the crying, giving the guard at the x-ray/check in point a "you're crazy" look when i completly forgot about running one's shoes through the x-ray, trying to find caribou coffee for a smoothie and found out the airport doesn't have accurate maps and having to change gates due to a fuel leak, we finally lifted off. i still worry aobut my film, even after the very stern, large african-american woman told me in a loud voice that any film under 800 would be ok through the x-ray. i'll be mad if it's not. well, more than mad. completly heart broken.

after a plane switch in detroit to the airbus, or a northwestern a330, we were flyin in high style. we had these cool tv/computer screens each to ourselves. i watched finding neverland which was as wonderful as i expected it to be, listened to some music and tried playing games. i think my game feature was broken though as every time i tried to play a game the system would restart itself. not cool.

we were so low on sleep due to those computer screens in the airplane and not to mention those uncomfortable seats. i did have a window seat however. right on the wing. i was trying desperatly to stay awake, but i got really sick. not sure if it was motion sickness or not, but all i wanted to do was watch the sun rise up over the horizon and i barely saw it. from what i did see though, it was beartifully breathtaking, coming up over this curve of clouds as we pressed on towards london.

london gatwick airport was very ghetto. i was run down and old. i did successfully make it through customs, even though some had problems as oxford forgot to send them information on our group. i found my bag also, with no problems. then we waited around for awhile in teh smokey lobby area (they all smoke around here! indoors, too - yuck!) and then boarded our backwards bus. england is just like the U.S. except they drive on the outherside, have different packages for goods, same produck though, and have funny accents. we like to try and talk like them. they also have different power outlets. one girls hair straightener melted, some's hairdryers don't always work. my ipod plugged in and charged just fine, thankfully.

i didn't really pay attention on the bus ride to oxford and wycliffe hall. i don't hthink anyone did. we all slept.

i would like to tell you more, but it's £1 for 20 minutes on the internet. and since £1 = $2, that's really $2 for 20 minutes. so i'm going to stop here for now and when i can, i'll tell you all about oxford and really how different it is than what i was expecting. o, and about our room in a really old college with a balcony out the window...kinda like monica's place on friends!

england is wonderful...talk to you all soon....

andi

on my way...

2005-03-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

tomorrow i leave for the cities.

the day after, for europe.

i never thought it would come.

i still don't think it's coming.

i'm not excited yet, but i will be.

once we pull up to that airport...

next stop...europe!

Wow.

2005-03-08T23:39:00.000-08:00

Eight more days. I have to get this blog up to date by then! I'm leaving for home on Monday, the 14th to see my grandparents, my parents, pack and the sorts. Then my parents are bringing me to the airport for the flight that leaves at 4:50 on St. Patty's day. I also got my Easter Break plans figured out. My friend Susanna (she graduated from high school with me and was my cousin's foreign exchange student) and her family have invited me over to Berlin. I'm excited! Although, it took some trouble getting the plane ticket as I found out I should not be allowed to book tickets. Let's just say it was a $200 life lesson. O my. But yeah. One more weekend of Eurospring workshops and then I'm outta Btown for 2 months...and then I get to move into the new house! yay!

Well, I'm outie...I've got to get this blog in shape but it won't be tonight...*yawn*

the first letter

2004-09-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

To: All 2005 BSU Eurospring participants
From: Louise Mengelkoch, Academic Director

Hello everyone! I wanted to make contact with you early in the semester to
give you an idea of what to expect during the next few months before our
overseas adventure. I'm so excited and I'm sure you are too!

The first upcoming event (which is very soon!) is the annual visit of Dr.
Allan Chapman, our main lecturer at Oxford University. If you haven't
experienced a Chapman lecture yet, you're in for a real treat. (Even if you
have, you're still in for a treat!) His public lecture is Monday, Sept. 20
at 3 p.m. in HS 100. Even if you have a class at that time, most professors
are happy to excuse you for this event. Some of them even take their entire
class to Chapman's talk. I hope to see you there. Please find me and
introduce yourself. I'd love to meet all of you as soon as possible.

Beginning about mid-October we'll be meeting 3-4 times before semester
break. We'll be spending time on logistics, such as registration, passports,
etc., but also academic preparation. These meetings are a part of the
pre-trip workshop, for which you will receive academic credit and receive a
grade for spring semester. We hope to get full participation. With that in
mind, I'd like to hear from each of you regarding your fall schedule. I'm
considering 4 meetings (2 hours each time) on weekday evenings. My schedule
allows me to meet any evening but Wednesdays. Would you please respond and
let me know which evenings would work for you (or late afternoons).

This is going to be the experience of a lifetime and I look forward to
enjoying it with each one of you. Hope your fall semester is starting off
well, and I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

Regards,

--
Louise Mengelkoch

jet set europe

2004-08-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

so in a few months i will be making my way over to europe for a great adventure! studying and touring is what is in store for me. i'll post everything here for all to read.

Jet Set Europe

Salzburg

Venezia

italiano!

switzerland!

19.4.05 april

Paris is comming!

Houssains

check it out

Good Quote:

happy silver anniversary!

happy 21st, carly!!

it's coming...

i tried

ick

7-4-2005 april Thursday

Tues. 5 April 2005

Good Quote:

english boys

avebury, stonehenge, salisbury and the druids

news from home

burnt hair

a small update

a small update

a small update

Berlin Pics!

adulthood

21-3-05 day 4

20-3-05 Day 3

more posting!

3-19-05 (the second day)

first night

Orientation and Tour

welcome to wycliffe hall!

the forever long plane ride

on my way...

Wow.

the first letter

jet set europe