Done with Papers!

Ok, I am ready to come home. But I have 2 finals. I miss everyone!!!! Off to turn in my 3 awesome papers and go to Harrods for some wandering around.

Finals Time.

Finals time over here is alot like finals time in Austin. Its cold and I am in my pajammies alot. One of the key differences is that I only have to pass. Thats all. A big, fat C will do just fine. The truth is that if you get anything better than a C, you're an idiot. Why work harder than you have to?

I am dealing with this realization with watching lots of tv (on my computer, that is). I have been watching Heroes (which is a really awesome show), How I Met Your Mother (also a soon to be classic), and Scrubs (which is causing me to narrate my life). All in all, I think that this is going pretty well.

Yay for Cs!!

Parents are here!

My parents just got into town and are now taking a nap. Tomorrow we are headed to Rome to see our family. I am excited. It should be very nice weather for us to wait in line at the Vatican. I guess that I should be finishing up packing, so I will fill you all in on the trip when I get back. I will give the Pope a high five for everyone!

Moving to Barcelona

Since leaving Barcelona yesterday, we have officially decided to move there. It is soooo beautiful. I definately think that it is my favorite place that I have been so far. On the first day that we were there, we had a bit of a shopping marathon. The Euro is only 1.3 to the dollar so it was so much more affordable than London. We also stumbled upon some historical sites along the way. We saw Gaudi's house, walked through the Gothic District, drank sangria in a georgeous square where some Gaudi's early works are. We walked across most of Barcelona the first day, so all of the paella that we ate was well earned. The next day we went to Guell Park where there were more of Gaudi's works. Robert Guell and Gaudi were friends and he was commissioned to create a park for children to play in on Guell's country estate. It was very neat. Gaudi was before his time, many of the works seem futuristic in the current age and Gaudi died over 75 years ago. After the park, we went to the Saagrada Familia which is a humumgous church that has never been finished. It is another of Gaudi's works that are all around Barcelona. It was his las project before his death in 1926. The details are incredible. After all of the siteseeing, we spent the evening in a lovely tapas bar. Barcelona was a really great trip and I would love to go back again, any takers???

Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes is remembered on November 5th for something that he failed to do. Guy was a Roman Catholic in England in the late 1500s, which which was not very desireable back then. Catholics were not given the freedom to practice religion and other bad stuff. So Guy and some of his Catholic buddies decided to blow up Westminster during the opening ceremonies of Parliment in 1605. Determined to go out with a bang, Guy packed a room below the Parliment chambers with barrels of gun powder. Unfortunately, none of this came to fruition. Guy and his conspirators were captured and tortured at the Tower of London (see above entry) and then they were executed. The 5th of November is celebrated, ironically, with bonfires and fireworks and British people running around like fools. Blake, Erin, Sean, and I went to see one batch of fireworks at Alexandra Palace and it was quite a spectacle. And it was REALLY cold. There are pretty much firewoks being set off in every direction, though, including outside our dorm. And apparently, British parents think that it is ok to let children play with fireworks as well. Good thing National Health will take care of them when they lose an eye.

For more interesting reading on Guy and the Gunpowder Plot go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes.

Holy Halloween, Batman!

Wow. Thats pretty much all I can say. We had Borat, Leprechauns, Dark Angel, Euro-handle bar-mustache-trash, soccer houligans, oh, and Nicole Richie. Ridiculous.

Not quite the Luck o' the Irish

Last weekend we went to Ireland. We took a train and then a ferry into Dublin and it was a very beautiful trip. The next morning, we went on a tour of the Guiness Brewery. It is the largest brewery in the world. After the tour and a few free Guiness beers, we headed out of town. We went across the country to Galway. A very charming little place. Little did we know that it was 1) a bank holiday weekend (big deal in Ireland), 2) there was a huge soccer tournament in Galway, 3) there were no hotel rooms to be had within a 50 mile radius. Super. Kim, Kevin, and I felt quite biblical: there was no room at the inn, any inn. Finally we found the last hotel room in Shannon, a quaint little town in the middle of freakin' nowhere. There were no food places open, so we ate at a place called Supermacs (McD's but grosser), where , we are pretty sure, the whole staff was stoned. Great. The next day we headed out again. This day turned out a little better. We set out for the cliffs of Moher. On the way we found a little surf town, Lahnich. They must really love surfing there, because you could not pay me enough money to get into that cold ass water. But it was fun to watch. Then we trekked up to the Cliffs (picture), where I was pretty sure that I was going to see someone plunge to their demise. There was an area that was clearly marked no tresspassing (first cliff behind us in the picture), but also had a trail. Attractive nuisance or what!! There was no barrier or anything to keep people from falling a good 200 feet into the rocky ocean. I got about 10 steps out there and turned around, not because I was scared (bc I was definately staying far from the edge) but bc other people were obviously not scared. They were so close to the edge, I was about to have a coronary! So I turned back and looked the other direction. Luckily, no one died while I was there and I got the hell out of there. We then got safely back to Dublin and later to London. Phew, home safely and happy to have a weekend of rest!!! Not so fast with that one ;) Check out Halloween posting.

London Sightseeing

The weekend after Amsterdam, we stayed in London. Blake and I went around London to see some of the sights around town. First, we went to the Tower of London. This is where there used to be alot of torture, but in an effort to change the image, the Crown Jewels are now kept there. We took a tour with a genuine beefeater (yes, think of the man on the vodka bottle). We saw where Anne Bolyn was beheaded and buried. There were also these incredibly creepy ravens, yes ravens, everywhere. Ther were the size of small dogs! And there were signs that warned visitors that they bite! The Crown Jewels were incredible. There was a diamond called the Star of Africa that is on the end of a scepter that is 52 karats! I told them that I'll take 2 :)

Then we walked across the Tower Bridge (picture). It is a very pretty view of the city. Then we were off to St. Paul's Cathedral. That is the site of 2 very important things: Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles and where the Bird Lady feeds the birds in Mary Poppins. It was so grand! The inside was impecably beautiful. The ceilings were all done in mosaics and there were marble statues everywhere. There was also a memorial in the rear of the church dedicated to the American and British soldiers from WWII. It was a very productive day :)

Amsterdam

We went to Amsterdam with the whole group. There were 8 of us in all. Holland is very beautiful. Amsterdam is much more than the pot-smoking, legal-prostitution reputation that it has gotten. Kim and I stayed with Brad and Marissa at their flat. They are studying for the semester at the University of Amsterdam. The first night that we were there we went to a tapas restaurant and then to a salsa club. It was very nice. We got to meet alot of Brad and Marissa's school friends that they have met since they began studying there in August. The next night we took a walk around the red-light district for the hell of it and then settled in for a night of beer drinking. We also visited a huge outdoor market that was by Brad and Marissa's. Amsterdam was a great time!!

Horns up across the Pond!!!

We are off to the American Sports bar to start getting ready to see UT beat OU. The Longhorn spirit survives in this strange town. Hook 'em!