So I just finished another semester at Clarkson, leaving one more to go! I thought I would give a quick update on my senior year, and my plans for after college. Right now, we are on Christmas break, we have about three weeks off in between semesters. I don't have too many big plans for the break, I have a lot of extended family in Connecticut so I visited them over the weekend, went to a family Christmas party, it was really nice to see everyone. I just plan on relaxing for the majority of break, and eating a lot of food, lol. Once New Year's comes around I am going to start some serious New Year's resolutions with working out 3-4 times a week and eating a lot healthier. My eating and work-out habits have gotten awful, I was actually better when I first got to college than I am now. I did the same resolution my freshman year of college and I actually stuck with it really well. When I was in England I didn't work out or really eat healthy and that has pretty much been the same path that I have followed since. I think I should be able to stick with it alright, New Year's is a time for fresh starts! :)
Enough about that, I have some exciting news - I have a job for when I graduate from Clarkson! :D I will be working for IBM as a Global Business Services Consultant in their Consulting by Degrees Program! I am so excited, I think that this is the perfect job for me when I graduate! As part of the consulting by degrees program I will be able to learn about all areas of consulting. The job will entail a lot of traveling which right now is very exciting to me, but I am sure over time this will become less exciting. . .
Oh another exciting thing! I am part of an Exchange Buddy Program that Clarkson offers where current Clarkson students become "buddies" with International students that study abroad at Clarkson. Last semester I had the best buddy ever - her name was Amelie and she was from France. I said goodbye to her a couple of weeks ago, and although I didn't get to hang out with her that much I will miss her! It seems like just yesterday she arrived and I was taking her to the bank and Wal-Mart and now she is gone. Anyways, next semester I have a buddy from England and I am really excited - I miss the English accents and fashion. :)
I think thats enough for now!
<3 Jen
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Who knew getting home would be such an adventure?
So, I have been back in The States for about 3 weeks now. Matt and I flew home on the 21st, and we were lucky to make it back because of the way the weather in Europe has been. My last week in Europe was so much fun, but again because of the weather some of our plans got cut short.
Matt arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at 10am on the 13th so I had to leave Brighton super early to make sure I was there when he arrived. I wasn't sure how everything was going to work out, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to be there. I had to take a bus, train, and then another bus to get to the airport, and we did the same thing getting back to Brighton. That night I showed Matt Brighton, we had fish and chips and by then it was already late so we had to go home and pack. The next day we went to London and I gave him a tour of London, we saw all of the major sights. That evening we took the Eurostar to Paris. Days after we were on the Eurostar it got stuck in the tunnel because of the weather. I am so glad that I wasn't on it for that, I would have been so scared. That night we had dinner in Paris, and then checked into the worst hotel ever. It was so disguting and there wasn't anyone even working at the desk so we had to go to the hotel next door to check in and then go back to our hotel. Every time we showered the entire hotel room would flood with water, nothing in the world would make me stay there again. The next day we walked through Paris - saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Napoleon's Tomb, and Notre Dame. I went to Paris about a month before so I had seen all of the sights but Napoleon's Tomb - that was so cool, I think it was one of Matt's favorite parts of the whole trip.
The next day we went to Berlin. That night we had dinner at a german bistro, we both had schnitzel. It was delicious and the man who owned the bistro was so nice. He didn't speak much English, but we found out that they didn't accept credit cards and we didn't have very much cash on us so he gave us a discount on the food. We ordered cheap food but then he brought us out more expensive food and didn't charge us for the difference. It was so nice, definitely one of my favorite moments from the trip. You probably had to be there to get the whole feeling of it.
The next day we went on a walking tour of Berlin. It was soooo cold, and the tour was really long but it was worth every second! We saw all of Berlin and some amazing sights like the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, the Reichstag, Hitler's Bunker, Berlin Dome, and so many more places! It was seriously such a good tour!! I like to do walking tours more than bus tours because I think you can get more out of the experience that way, and it is easier to take pictures. That night we had brotwurst and currywurst for dinner at a little German restuarant and then had german pastries for dessert at a bakery. It was a really fun day, but we did not know what tomorrow would bring.
The next day we were suppose to leave for Rome but when we got to the airport we found out that our flight was cancelled. We were at the airport for so long, and were getting so discouraged when we met a girl who was suppose to be on the same flight, and she helped us out. She spoke German so it was easier for her to communicate with the employees. With her help we got a hotel and free meals for the night. We flew a discount airline, EasyJet so they almost never give you a hotel or anything if your flight is cancelled. They didn't even have a customer service desk, you had to use the phone to call their customer service department. So we were really upset but we decided that we would try to stay postive about making it to Rome tomorrow. The next day we went to the airport again and our flight was once again cancelled. At this point I started to get really worried because our flight back to London was scheduled from Rome and our flight back to the US was in just a couple of days. If we didn't make it back to London we wouldn't be getting home! Also, we were going to book tickets straight from Berlin to London but almost all of them were already sold out and it was risky because the weather was bad and flights to London were still being cancelled. Eventually Matt called the customer service department and they gave us a few options. We chose an option that required us to be at the Munich airport and catch a flight from Munich to London. So, we had to take a 6 hour train ride across Germany in the middle of the night, and then sleep in the airport when we got there. So many things could have gone wrong with this, but we made it to the airport and luckily it stayed open all night or we would have been outside in the freezing weather. After all of the stress we had gone through, we actually slept pretty well in the airport, which is pretty sad, haha. We made it back to London, but when we got there, a lot of trains were shut down or late so we had to wait a really long time to get a train to Brighton and we are so lucky that we did get one. London cannot handle the snow like Northern NY, that's for sure. We made it back to Brighton hours later, but the story gets worse. I thought that I had enough minutes on my cell phone to make a call to a taxi company to have a taxi ready for tomorrow to take us to the bus station, but when I went to use my cell phone it ran out of minutes. Then, I had just enough pounds to make a phone call using my pay phone in the flat, but the pay phone ate my money so that didn't work either. Where I live there is nothing around, so we would have had to go into town to go to an ATM and the buses were not running, so that wasn't an option. So, I had to skype my mom and she called the taxi company from the US. She talked to a man and he said everything would be fine, he'd be there in the morning. The next morning we waited for our taxi for a half an hour and it never showed up. Buses weren't running so we couldn't use that as an option and we had already missed our bus to Heathrow Airport by this point. We were freaking out, I was so upset that the taxi driver didn't show up. I didn't have a cell phone with money on it, so I couldn't call and I had already packed up my laptop and checked out of my room so there was no way to have my mom call again. We ended up hauling 4 huge suitcases down flights and flights of icy stairs through mud and slush to get to the nearest train. From there we got on a train to get to the center of Brighton. From there we caught a taxi to take us to the bus area. We had no idea if there was going to be a bus or what, the place to buy tickets wasn't even open because it was so early(about 4:30 in the morning) but we didn't know what else to do. We had to get on our flight back the United States. As the taxi driver helped us get the luggage out of our car, we saw that there was a bus waiting and it said HEATHROW AIRPORT on it. What are the odds that the exact bus we needed would be waiting there? We had the wrong tickets because we missed our bus, so the bus driver said we needed to buy new ones. I didn't have enough cash on me, and they didn't accept cards. He said we could still get on the bus and we could get off on one of the stops and quickly buy tickets. He didn't have to do this, most drivers would have just said, "sorry, you are out of luck". We were so thankful, and just when we were already appreciative, we went to get off the bus to buy tickets and he told us to sit down. We were confused at first but when we got off the bus at Heathrow Airport, he said "Merry Christmas". The tickets would have cost us the equivalent of $60 when we had already paid that much for the original tickets and he let us ride for free. This was potentially the worst morning of my life up until that moment.
In every city that we went to we would get discouraged about all of the people being rude to us, and then someone would come and help us out. In Paris, we were lost downstairs in a subway, . . we followed the signs and then when we got there no one was around, there were rats and it was all blocked off. We were scared and confused and then out of no where this girl came and took us to a different route that we could take. She walked us all of the way to where we needed to go, even when it was past where she was going. When we first arrived in Germany we were staring blankly at a sign trying to get to Oranienburg to see a concentration camp when a German man directed us where we could go and explained to us a little about how the German trains work. This stuff kind of just made me think about how there are people out there who are mean and rude, but there still are the kind of people that will help a stranger out, even when it is not in their best interest and that makes me feel a little better at the end of the day.
Matt arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at 10am on the 13th so I had to leave Brighton super early to make sure I was there when he arrived. I wasn't sure how everything was going to work out, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to be there. I had to take a bus, train, and then another bus to get to the airport, and we did the same thing getting back to Brighton. That night I showed Matt Brighton, we had fish and chips and by then it was already late so we had to go home and pack. The next day we went to London and I gave him a tour of London, we saw all of the major sights. That evening we took the Eurostar to Paris. Days after we were on the Eurostar it got stuck in the tunnel because of the weather. I am so glad that I wasn't on it for that, I would have been so scared. That night we had dinner in Paris, and then checked into the worst hotel ever. It was so disguting and there wasn't anyone even working at the desk so we had to go to the hotel next door to check in and then go back to our hotel. Every time we showered the entire hotel room would flood with water, nothing in the world would make me stay there again. The next day we walked through Paris - saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Napoleon's Tomb, and Notre Dame. I went to Paris about a month before so I had seen all of the sights but Napoleon's Tomb - that was so cool, I think it was one of Matt's favorite parts of the whole trip.
The next day we went to Berlin. That night we had dinner at a german bistro, we both had schnitzel. It was delicious and the man who owned the bistro was so nice. He didn't speak much English, but we found out that they didn't accept credit cards and we didn't have very much cash on us so he gave us a discount on the food. We ordered cheap food but then he brought us out more expensive food and didn't charge us for the difference. It was so nice, definitely one of my favorite moments from the trip. You probably had to be there to get the whole feeling of it.
The next day we went on a walking tour of Berlin. It was soooo cold, and the tour was really long but it was worth every second! We saw all of Berlin and some amazing sights like the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, the Reichstag, Hitler's Bunker, Berlin Dome, and so many more places! It was seriously such a good tour!! I like to do walking tours more than bus tours because I think you can get more out of the experience that way, and it is easier to take pictures. That night we had brotwurst and currywurst for dinner at a little German restuarant and then had german pastries for dessert at a bakery. It was a really fun day, but we did not know what tomorrow would bring.
The next day we were suppose to leave for Rome but when we got to the airport we found out that our flight was cancelled. We were at the airport for so long, and were getting so discouraged when we met a girl who was suppose to be on the same flight, and she helped us out. She spoke German so it was easier for her to communicate with the employees. With her help we got a hotel and free meals for the night. We flew a discount airline, EasyJet so they almost never give you a hotel or anything if your flight is cancelled. They didn't even have a customer service desk, you had to use the phone to call their customer service department. So we were really upset but we decided that we would try to stay postive about making it to Rome tomorrow. The next day we went to the airport again and our flight was once again cancelled. At this point I started to get really worried because our flight back to London was scheduled from Rome and our flight back to the US was in just a couple of days. If we didn't make it back to London we wouldn't be getting home! Also, we were going to book tickets straight from Berlin to London but almost all of them were already sold out and it was risky because the weather was bad and flights to London were still being cancelled. Eventually Matt called the customer service department and they gave us a few options. We chose an option that required us to be at the Munich airport and catch a flight from Munich to London. So, we had to take a 6 hour train ride across Germany in the middle of the night, and then sleep in the airport when we got there. So many things could have gone wrong with this, but we made it to the airport and luckily it stayed open all night or we would have been outside in the freezing weather. After all of the stress we had gone through, we actually slept pretty well in the airport, which is pretty sad, haha. We made it back to London, but when we got there, a lot of trains were shut down or late so we had to wait a really long time to get a train to Brighton and we are so lucky that we did get one. London cannot handle the snow like Northern NY, that's for sure. We made it back to Brighton hours later, but the story gets worse. I thought that I had enough minutes on my cell phone to make a call to a taxi company to have a taxi ready for tomorrow to take us to the bus station, but when I went to use my cell phone it ran out of minutes. Then, I had just enough pounds to make a phone call using my pay phone in the flat, but the pay phone ate my money so that didn't work either. Where I live there is nothing around, so we would have had to go into town to go to an ATM and the buses were not running, so that wasn't an option. So, I had to skype my mom and she called the taxi company from the US. She talked to a man and he said everything would be fine, he'd be there in the morning. The next morning we waited for our taxi for a half an hour and it never showed up. Buses weren't running so we couldn't use that as an option and we had already missed our bus to Heathrow Airport by this point. We were freaking out, I was so upset that the taxi driver didn't show up. I didn't have a cell phone with money on it, so I couldn't call and I had already packed up my laptop and checked out of my room so there was no way to have my mom call again. We ended up hauling 4 huge suitcases down flights and flights of icy stairs through mud and slush to get to the nearest train. From there we got on a train to get to the center of Brighton. From there we caught a taxi to take us to the bus area. We had no idea if there was going to be a bus or what, the place to buy tickets wasn't even open because it was so early(about 4:30 in the morning) but we didn't know what else to do. We had to get on our flight back the United States. As the taxi driver helped us get the luggage out of our car, we saw that there was a bus waiting and it said HEATHROW AIRPORT on it. What are the odds that the exact bus we needed would be waiting there? We had the wrong tickets because we missed our bus, so the bus driver said we needed to buy new ones. I didn't have enough cash on me, and they didn't accept cards. He said we could still get on the bus and we could get off on one of the stops and quickly buy tickets. He didn't have to do this, most drivers would have just said, "sorry, you are out of luck". We were so thankful, and just when we were already appreciative, we went to get off the bus to buy tickets and he told us to sit down. We were confused at first but when we got off the bus at Heathrow Airport, he said "Merry Christmas". The tickets would have cost us the equivalent of $60 when we had already paid that much for the original tickets and he let us ride for free. This was potentially the worst morning of my life up until that moment.
In every city that we went to we would get discouraged about all of the people being rude to us, and then someone would come and help us out. In Paris, we were lost downstairs in a subway, . . we followed the signs and then when we got there no one was around, there were rats and it was all blocked off. We were scared and confused and then out of no where this girl came and took us to a different route that we could take. She walked us all of the way to where we needed to go, even when it was past where she was going. When we first arrived in Germany we were staring blankly at a sign trying to get to Oranienburg to see a concentration camp when a German man directed us where we could go and explained to us a little about how the German trains work. This stuff kind of just made me think about how there are people out there who are mean and rude, but there still are the kind of people that will help a stranger out, even when it is not in their best interest and that makes me feel a little better at the end of the day.
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