Football, Prague, and Stonehenge!

I have had a very exciting 2 weeks with trips to London to see a football game, a few days spent in the Czech Republic to visit Prague, Halloween, and a day trip to visit Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury Cathedral. On top of all of that, I also had to attend classes. So 2 Saturdays ago, my friend and I took a trip to London. It only takes an hour to get to London by train, so it is really not too far away. We walked around, went to Harrods, which is a really expensive store - we saw a cake that cost the equivalent of over $6000. The main reason we went to London was to see Tottenham play Stoke City in football (soccer). I wanted to see a real European football game while I was studying abroad, and this was a Premier League (I guess it is the best league, with teams like Manchester United and Arsenal in it) game, so it was really awesome! We had second row seats and were so close to the players!

Last Wednesday, I went on a trip to Prague! It was a pretty last minute decision, but I am so glad I went! I had heard that Prague was the most beautiful city in Europe, and it was really pretty. While in Prague I went on a tour and saw all of the major attractions, as well as the old Jewish part of Prague which contained a few synagogues, a museum and a cemetary where 12 layers of people were buried! We also visited the castle of Prague, and while on the tour saw places such as where James Bond jumped from the roof in the movie Casino Royale. Overall, Prague was a really nice city, and I hope to go back someday!

The day after Halloween, I went on a day trip to see Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury Cathedral. They were all amazing sights, but Stonehenge was probably my favorite. It is crazy that no one knows why the stones are there, or how they got there. The stones were carried from miles and miles away and they weigh over 40 tons! Salisbury Cathedral was a really nice cathedral, but they were doing construction on the outside so that kind of ruined the beauty of it. Bath was a very pretty city, and at this time of year, it was even nicer. Brighton's trees don't compare to how the North Country looks at this time of year, but in Bath the leaves were prettier and the whole area was very peaceful and not as crowded as Brighton.

Next week I am going to a concert, and then partaking in festivies for Guy Fawkes Day, which I will explain in my next post! I am also leaving for the weekend to go to Paris on Friday, so a lot of excitement ahead! :)

Another week in the UK!

So, now classes are in full swing, and I only have class 3 days a week for 2 hours each day! My classes are based on either one big exam or paper at the end of the course, but no homework assignments or mid-terms like Clarkson. I think that this leads to a lot of pressure to do well on the final assignment, but hopefully I will be fine! It is starting to get colder over here, but not Northern, NY temperatures yet (no chances of snow, thank goodness:))! Next weekend I am going to a football game with one of my friends! When I say football, I obviously mean soccer, which the rest of the world calls football. I am so excited, as it was one of the things I definitely wanted to do while being abroad!
This week I went to a museum in Brighton and saw all kinds of exhibits about Brighton, and other places in the world. In the picture you can see a mummy that was at the museum. It was a really interesting museum, and there was quite a lot to see. I also went shopping in the Lanes, which is an area of Brighton that has many small shops in small, narrow streets. You don't get to go shopping in a place like that in the US! I went on a ghost walk on Friday night, in which the tour guide took us around the town and showed us different places that are supposedly haunted. It was pretty neat, especially with Halloween coming up soon! I am not sure how many of the stories were actually true, but it was cool to learn some more about the town. Supposedly, Jack the Ripper spent quite a lot of time at The Cricketers, which is a pub in Brighton that we stopped at. On Saturday I went back to London, walked around again and then Saturday night saw The Phantom of the Opera. I thought that the musical was pretty good, but it did not compare to the musical Wicked that I saw the previous week. The picture that I have included shows the inside of the theater. On Sunday, I went to a place called the Seven Sisters, in which there are 7 different cliffs in a row. It was such a beautiful place, and the pictures definitely do not do the area justice. That's all for now, I will be sure to update next week! :)

Today I spent the day in London and went on a tour so I could make sure I saw all of the significant places in the city. We started off the day with a train ride from Brighton into London and from there we walked to Buckingham Palace, and saw where the Queen of England lives. There was a certain flag up at the palace that indicated that the Queen was not in the Palace today. After that, we walked and saw the changing of the guards. I have included a video of this at the end of my post! It was pretty cool, but honestly not as exciting as I expected. We then walked around London and saw all kinds of sights like Big Ben, Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives), the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and more! I learned that Big Ben is not the actual name of the clock tower but instead a bell that is inside of the clock tower and most people are just confused and call the clock tower Big Ben.
We also went on a boat cruise down the Thames River and saw all kinds of different sights like the Millennium Bridge and an old Boy's School where people such as Winston Churchill attended when they were children. I learned so much about the history of London today and am very glad that I was able to see such famous sights!
After the sight-seeing we were able to go shopping so we walked around for a while, had dinner, and then took the subway back to get to our train and then headed home. The weather was cloudy at some points but thank goodness the rain held off. It hasn't rained here as often as I thought it was going to but some days can be very dreary when it is cold and gray outside.

On Wednesday of this week I was actually in London too and saw the musical Wicked. I thought that it was very good and would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about seeing a musical. It was about the background of the Wizard of Oz and I thought that the story line was great.

My friends and I want to see the musical, Phantom of the Opera so hopefully we will head back to London soon to shop and see the musical. I am planning on going to Stonehenge within the next couple of weeks and in less than a month I will be spending a weekend in Paris!

Field Trip!

So, this weekend I went on a tour of East Sussex as part of a field trip. For our first stop we went to an area called Beachy Head. It was so beautiful there with the cliffs and the view of the water. The cliff at Beachy Head is actually the highest chalk sea cliff in England and is about 162 meters above the sea level - pretty cool! Next we went to a location called High and Over and saw the beautiful scenery of the hilltops. After this we drove to the quaint town of Alfriston and visited St. Andrews Church which is also known as the "Cathedral of the South Downs" and dates back to 1360. The town had a very nice coffee shop, chocolate shop, and general store. After we left Alfriston we passed the Long Man of Wilmington which is a famous chalk carving in the hills. No one is sure how the man was carved out of the chalk in the hills or why he is there, but he has been a part of the hills for hundreds of years! After a lunch in a countryside pub we went to the Battle Abbey, which lies on the historic site of the Battle of Hastings. At this location, the battle between the English Army under King Harold and the invading troops of William, the Duke of Normandy took place on October 14th, 1066. The battle ended with King Harold's death from an arrow in the eye, and the English were defeated. Four years later, William built the Battle Abbey for penance of the battle fought at the location. Today, there are many ruins of the Battle as well as a school on the ground called Battle Abbey School where children actually attend school on the historic grounds! I think that would be an awesome place to go to school as a kid- for recess you could play in the ruins!

Tomorrow I am going to the Seven Sisters, which is going to have some awesome scenery! Also, next Saturday I am going to London to see all of the sights there!

Jen :)

My First Week in Brighton!

So, I have been in the UK for a week now, and I am getting settled and use to life here. I flew out of the Ottawa airport in Canada last Monday at 6:40 pm and arrived in the UK at around 6:30 in the morning. The flight was 7 hours long, and there is a 5 hour time difference between the United States and England. I am studying at Brighton University while I am abroad, in the city of Brighton. Brighton is located about an hour south of London.

My parents took me to the airport on Monday where we had a snack, and they then waited until I made it safely through security. After that, I was on my own! On the plane I sat next to a girl from Canada who was going to be studying in London for the semester. It was nice to sit next to another student and I hope to see her sometime while I am studying here. After I got off the plane, I got my luggage and then met people from Brighton University where they put me on a bus and sent me on my way to the school. At the school they gave me some information and then put me on another bus to my residence hall. It was so difficult to carry all of my luggage by myself to my residence hall, but somehow I managed and got my room all set up before 11 am. Just a note – residence halls are called “flats” here. I didn’t sleep at all on the plane so after my room was set up I took a nice long nap, and then went to the library to let my parents and boyfriend know that I had arrived safely. I actually haven’t had any jetlag from my journey! I didn’t sleep at all on the plane, and then the long nap I took must have set me straight. Later that night, the international orientation began and I met a lot of new people from different countries all over the world. As of right now, I have only met 2 Americans and everyone else has been British or from another country.

The orientation program was really great and helped me to get to know both the town and the campus. We were given lots of useful information and also shown a tour of the campus. In order for us to know the town, there was a type of treasure hunt where we worked in groups and had to go around to all different places and answer questions. It was a lot of fun but also very tiring because we walked all around town for 3 hours.

I have already been able to do many things in Brighton such as walk along the beach and pier, have fish and chips, ride a double decker bus and drink a cup of tea! The link below takes you to a slideshow of my journey so far in the UK (Blogger wouldn't let me post pictures to my blog for some reason, so this was the best option). I hope you enjoy it!

Jen



http://cmd.shutterfly.com/commands/pictures/slideshow?site=jensjourney1&page=jensjourney1&album=26

Summer Fun

School is about to start again for most students, but since I am going to England for my Fall 2009 semester, I don't start until the end of September. So I will be working while my friends are attending classes until I leave for the United Kingdom. I was really surprised when I first found out how late they start classes over there. Their semester goes until February, but I will finish the last month from back at Clarkson University while my classes here have also begun. I have pretty much everything I need to go, I have my plane ticket, visa, and most essential items. I ordered new luggage today, so hopefully that will work out well.

Now for an update on what I have been up to lately. A couple weekends ago I went camping at Higgley Flow State Park. It was a lot of fun, and I didn't realize that a state park was so close to Potsdam. There were a lot of things to do at the campground, from fishing, to hiking, and hanging out at the beach. I even went to a star gazing class and learned some pretty cool information about the sky. I definitely plan to go camping every summer now that I had so much fun this time. My boyfriend and I made eggs and bacon using tinfoil and cooked them over a grill. They actually turned out really well, suprisingly! We made smores of course, and overall had a great time!

Last weekend, I spent a lot of time hanging out at Lake Bonaparte and doing a lot of skiing, wakeboaring and boating. It is finally starting to get nice now that summer is coming to an end. I wish that the weather would have been really nice the whole summer instead of wet and rainy. I better get use to the rain though, as I am going to be in England soon!

That's all for now. :)
Jen

Back in the Office

Hello everyone!

I have not posted in a long time because I was working at the Horizons camp for a couple of weeks. The camp went great and it was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. Horizons is a camp for girls that excel in math and science, they continue to develop their math and science skills while at the camp while also having the opportunity to enrich their lives and grow through personal development. It is a very cool thing to be able to be involved in this whole process and to watch and help the girls to grow and form bonds during the week. I am very glad that I was able to be a program assistant at Horizons this summer, and hope to do it again next summer.

I finished working at the camp on Saturday and was back at the office yesterday (Monday). It is good to be back, I know that all of my co-workers missed me. ;-) I had been taking care of paperwork, and had to go to Syracuse at the beginning of July to get stuff ready for my Visa, and while I was at the camp I officially got my Visa! I was so excited that it went through, and I am getting very excited to go to England! I have a lot more to do still, I am booking my plane ticket this Saturday and am hoping that I will be able to get a non-stop flight! I think that I am going to fly out of Montreal so I won't have to deal with stopping at another airport. I will be leaving Montreal on the 21st, and flying into London on the 22nd! There is going to be a representative from Brighton University at the airport to pick me up; that is going to be a huge relief to not have to deal with lugging my luggage all by myself!

I think that is it for now, only a month of summer left- gotta enjoy it! :)