Take me far, far away

It's weird how I can't stop thinking about it. I never really expected to feel this way.Why is it that I want I want to drop everything, rush to the nearest airport, and go somewhere, anywhere. I crave cultures and new places, I want to explore the unknown, meet new people, and see God's footprints in far away places. I long to return to the places that I came to love, and discover new places to dream about.
I never knew that 4 months abroad would change the way that I think, view the world. I had heard that it might, people even mentioned that I might miss Oxford a little. I shrugged it off, not really knowing the full effect my experience would have on me.

I feel almost ungrateful. I should be happy with what I was able to see and experience. I should be content. I can't shake the feeling of wanting more, this passion for traveling has been ignited within me...and I'm praying that God will show me what to do with it.

Italy-My last trip...for now.

I just spent 7 wonderful days in Italy..and I think to say that I am exhausted would be an understatment. We got back at 5:30 this morning and I had class at 9.We left right after class on Wednesay and flew into Rome. In Rome, I got to see the Colleseum, the Vatican, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. I really enjoyed seeing all the main sights in Rome, but overall I have to agree with those who think that Rome is a big, dirty city. I am still really glad that I went, but I just don't know if it would be a place that I would want to come back to. Our hostel that we stayed at in Rome was very, very tiny. It was kind of funny having to wait in line to take a shower because you had to wait for the one bathroom to free up. The last night we were there, one of the guys that worked at the hostel made everyone in the hostel a free dinner, and we all sat around and ate and talked. I thought this was really cool, and I liked getting to meet different people from all over the world.
On Saturday morning we took a train to Florence. When we go there, the weather was BEAUTIFUL! All of us girls wore our dresses or skirts that we had brought, and we all wore flip flops. Florence was really pretty. There were famous landmarks there, but I liked how it was slow pace. We didn't feel rushed to go see a lot of stuff and had the time to just walk around and relax. Some of our other friends were staying in a different hostel with a pool, so we went over there to hang out and swim. I was sitting down next to the pool, with my feet in, and when I sat up, I hit my head REALLY hard against a ledge that I did not know was above me. Long story short, I think I suffered from some type of minor concussion because I started to act very strange. I did not realize how strange i acted until i woke up the next morning and I could think more clearly. They said that I looked kind of dazed and loopy, like I wasn't really all there. I kept walking off the the side, and I just remember feeling like my brain was "foggy" and I had a hard time focusing. Please don't be worried as you are reading this, I am completley fine now, It just was such a strange feeling and I am glad that it went away after one night.
We took a train to Venice on monday morning, and from the start it was rainy day. I was the only one who had actually brought an umbrella, and everyone else ended up buying one. Venice was beautiful!!! Even though it was raining, I think this was my favorite place out of the three. It even cleared up after a little bit the first day that we were there..and we went on a gondola ride!! It was pricey, but it was definetley worth it because we all wanted to do it and now we can say what we've been on a gondola in Venice, Italy. Basically we just did a bunch of walking around in Venice, got lost a couple of times, and fed the pigeons a lot. In San Marco's Square, there are pigeons EVERYWHERE and for some crazy reason everyone buys food that the pigeons will come and get all over you to eat it. I tried not to think about how grossed out I am by pigeons while they were all over me, and it was a lot of fun.
So, I think that I made a great choice for my last trip. I had geloto at least once a day, felt the sun for what feels like a long time, and really enjoyed all the great sights I got to see. I officially leave England 2 weeks from today. It feels so unreal. I can not belive it's already time for me to go back. I am going to do everything I can to soak up every moment of all the time I have left here.
I can't wait to see everyone, and I really hope and pray that you all are doing alright.

Cheers!!

Paris!!

We went as a group to Paris this past Saturday through Wednesday. Our hostel including breakfast and dinner was included and we were even given an allowance of spending money on top of that. However, we all managed to spend a lot of our own money on top of that. Oh well.

We took the Euro star from London to Paris. It goes underneath the ocean somehow. It was only a 2 and a half hour train ride, and it went by really fast.

On the train ride over I was sitting next to Katie who had been to Paris before. She was telling me about a great crepe place that she knew about it. We planned to go there right away when we got to Paris..and so we did.

Katie and I with our first crepes of the trip. There were crepe stands EVERYWHERE in Paris. I had WAY too many! In fact, I really think that all I ate while I was in Paris was pastries and crepes. I really am craving some healthy food after all the "junk" I ate. Even though it was SOOO good.

The first night we were there we took a Bike Tour through Paris. We had been told that this was something that we really needed to do, and it came highly recommended. It's called the Fat Tire Bike Tours and it's an American company. In fact a lot of the tour guides were from the University of Texas, which is really funny. Anyways, you go on a tour while riding bikes around the city of Paris at night. It was SOOO much fun. Paris is beautiful at night and I liked how we got an overview of the city before our trip really began. This was probably my favorite thing in Paris and one of the highlights of this semester. Who wouldn't want to ride a bike past the Eiffel Tower?

This was me trying to look tough on my bike...but not doing a very good job of it.

My favorite was when the Eiffel Tower would glitter for 10 min. on the hour at night. It was SOOOO pretty!

We went to the Louvre on Sunday. It was REALLY big. Some people go to Paris and could spend the whole week just looking at the Louvre. I liked looking through it for just a little while, and then I was satisfied. There were just so many people everywhere and it was really overwhelming. I saw the Mona Lisa..and that's enough for me!

The Louvre

Mona Lisa

Karissa, KrisAnn, Beth and I left the Louvre and then headed to Notre Dame to climb the tower. It was a lot of stairs to get to the top, but it was worth it. The view was amazing. We also got to the famous bell of Notre Dame. From Victor Hugo's story Quasimodo supposedly lived up near the bell.

I loved the gargoyles, or actually I think they were called chimeras

This was the little door that led to stairs which then led up to the Bell

A view from the top of Notre Dame

Me squinting in front of the Arc de Triumphe. I personally had never heard of this before. It is definitely a famous landmark of Paris and it was neat to see.




Another really cool thing that happened while we were in Paris was that the Olympic Torch came through. They blocked off the Eiffel Tower for the day, and it was hard to find streets open to get a view of the torch. We got there early and had a great view. Before the actual torch came through, we noticed big crowds of people swarming in. Some of them were people from China who were there in support of the Olympics because the Olympics are in Beijing this year. They were smiling, waving flags, and kept yelling, "Welcome to China!"(We weren't really sure why)

However there was also a HUGE group of protesters because of events happening with Tibet. They were against the Olympics and had black shirts on with the Olympic rings in the shape of handcuffs. Huge riots started breaking out and the French Police(who were EVERYWHERE) had to link arms and push people back. I lost count of how many people I saw tackled to the ground by French police.

Then the torch came by and they got even crazier. I am not meaning to make it sound like I was in a dangerous situation. There was a not a moment I felt "unsafe." We were a good distance above the riots and there were enough French police there for me to feel protected. It just was something that was crazy, intense and very interesting to watch.

If you look closely you can see the torch, and all the masses of people in the background

This is one of the many beautiful, famous painting I saw at the Muse de Orsay

We went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower!

The view from the top

My breakfast my last day in Paris

I think that I liked Paris more than I thought I would. I had heard differing opinion from others who though it was a dirty, overcrowded place. Even though it was still a populated city, and it was not the cleanest place I've ever been..it had a charm and beauty to it which you can't experience unless you've been there. I loved all the famous landmarks. I walked by many accordion players and more people smiled and said, "Bonjour," than I thought would.

I am glad to be back in Oxford and I can't believe I leave to go to Italy again in a week. I also can't believe that that will be my last trip and that I go home in 4 weeks. At this point in time, I am ready to go back. I feel at peace about it. I know that everyone has been talking about home a lot and more people are getting irritable with each other. The feeling of it being the "end" is in the air.

I want to soak up my last month and enjoy it while it's here. Well I am very tired and I hope to rest up this week.

You all are in my prayers. Keep reading and commenting!

Scotland

Jessica and I took a trip to Scotland, just the two of us, and it was really great. We left on Wednesday morning after taking a major Humanities test, so we were glad to get out of there. We took a train from Oxford to Inverness, which took a total of about 10 hours. It was very long, but not AS bad as I was expecting because we changed trains twice. We arrived in Inverness late Wednesday night.
The next day we woke up and went to the tourist center right away to book our Loch Ness Tour. We had the morning to explore before our tour so we set out by the river to the Ness Islands. It was so peaceful and beautiful. There were bridges connecting the little islands together and nature paths went along them. Jessica and I took our time exploring. It was really cool. We noticed right away that people in Scotland are very friendly. Almost everyone we passed, smiled brightly at us and said, "Good morning!!" After the trails, we spend some time going in shops and got some lunch before our tour.

This was taken back along the nature trails of the Ness Islands

You can't see the whole thing here, but there was a huge tree trunk that had been carved to look like the Loch Ness Monster

The tour started out with an hour and a half boat ride. It went along the Caledonian Canal and out into Loch Ness. I was worried that it was going to be very cold, but we got blessed with the weather because the sun was out. We started out sitting inside but moved outside because we wanted the real "experience." They had Scottish music playing in the background on the boat and periodically a recording would talk about historical facts and landmarks. It was a beautiful boat ride and I really enjoyed it. I find the Loch Ness monster stories very interesting. The little town of Inverness knows that Nessie has put them on the map, and they seem so proud of the stories. One man has moved out here from the states and is living in a van, and is making his living by creating Nessie figurines, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster. There have been historical accounts of sightings as far back as 560 AD. I'm not saying that I really believe that that Loch Ness Monster exists, I'm just saying that I find in very interesting.

Jessica and I on the boat

Loch Ness.....can you see Nessie??? I managed to capture TWO Nessies ;)

The tour then took us to the Urquhart Castle(above) where we got off the boat and had an hour to explore the Castle. The Castle was in such a remote location, in the middle of Loch Ness. It was really neat and Jessica and I enjoyed exploring it. We even stuck our hands in the freezing cold water just to say that we touched Loch Ness.

This was somebody's room....

The next morning we took the train to Edinburgh. The train ride was beautiful. I even got to see snow, although it was only from the train, I was not actually "in" snow.

After arriving in Edinburgh, we went right to our hostel to drop off our stuff. Our hostel was located 15 min. outside of the city, but they offered a bus transport. The reason we were persuaded to stay here is because of this picture below....it was on the beach. Even though it was quite cold, we went exploring for a little bit in the "back yard" of our hostel. We went back into Edinburgh later that night, went exploring some more and got dinner.

Edinburgh Castle

The next morning, we got up early and went to climb Arthur's Seat. It is an extinct volcano up on a hill, that is said to be somehow connected to King Arthur. I was not feeling that up to climbing it...but Jessica persuaded me, and I am glad that I ended up doing it. We saw the whole city below us. I have also never felt the wind so strongly in my life, and it was scary at some points, as I thought I might be blown from the mountain. The picture below shows just a small taste of the wind, as we were genuinely just trying to smile normal.
We did not stay that much longer in Edinburgh. We did walk around a little bit more and ran into this guy playing the bagpipes. I am surprised about how many guys I actually saw wearing kilts. Either they are wearing them to draw tourists into buying them, or they are just darn serious about being Scottish. Either way it was quite amusing.
We took a 6 hour train back to Oxford, and here I am. I have the whole week in Oxford, which will be nice because I have been gone so often. Then on Saturday we are going as a group to Paris. I am very excited about this trip, especially because everyone gets to go together.
I hope to get caught up on all my schoolwork this week.
I really feel disconnected from my "other world" back in the states sometimes. I have gotten into such a routine of things here that I am fearful of post culture shock upon returning. I know that there is nothing I can do to change it, and that there is no use worrying about it now. I just did not expect to feel this great of an attachment to Oxford and just Europe in general. God has truly blessed me, and I hope there is not a day that goes by that I don't forget it.

Parents come to Oxford, and off to Italy we go.

I just got back from Genoa and Cinque Terre, Italy last night. It was beautiful and a lot of fun.My parents arrived in Oxford last Sunday. On Monday after my morning class, we went into London. We went through the National Gallery and saw Les Miserables. It was really good. I showed them around Oxford on Tuesday. It was really fun to show them what I've been experiencing all semester. I think they liked being able to picture "my world" here too.

My mom and I in Trafalgar Square in London

Outside the Theatre

Dad outside of one of the pubs that we ate at. JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis used to meet there to discuss their writing.

We left VERY early Wednesday morning for a bus to Stansted Airport. It was a long day of traveling but it was worth it once we got there. Genoa was a lot bigger than we had expected it to be. It was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and one of Italy's most important harbour cities. It had the world's second largest aquarirum that we went to. It was cool, but as my mom said, we are spoiled by SeaWorld being so near to us in Florida. We also went to a lot of the Palaces and saw lots of paintings. It was neat trying to imagine people living in these huge, grand rooms with ceilings of gold and unbelievable architecture.

Dad and I on top of one of the palaces

There were boats everywhere

We got gelato quite frequently while we were in Italy. Dad barely made the picture.

We spent 2 nights in Genoa, and we had our own little apartment in our hotel-thanks to mom ;).On Friday morning we took a train to Cinque Terre, which took a little more than an hour. We were a bit confused as to what we were doing because everything was in Italian. In fact the whole time that we were in Genoa, we did not run into anyone else who spoke English as their first language. We were using my dad's newly bought Italian phrase book alot. Anyways, people were so kind to us. It was quite obvious that we needed helping because we looked confused a lot. One particular man on the train went out of his way to make sure that we knew how to get to where we needed to go. He kept talking and talking in Italian and I think he thought we could understand him more than we actually could.
We spent our time in Cinque Terre exploring the 5 towns(Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarolla, and Riomaggiore) and walking around, eating, and relaxing. When we showed up, our hotel was not re-confirmed so the lady told us that we had no place to stay. God really took care of us because the lady then went on to help us find a different apartment for each night which were owned by friends of hers. They were both nice, but the last night we were there we stayed in an apartment owned by an English lady who was very kind. It was way up on the hill and we were a funny sight dragging our suitcases up the mountain. It had a view of the ocean and it was very cozy.

Monterosso

tiny village of Manarolla

Manarolla

a bridge on one of the hikes in between Manarolla and Corniglia

On the mountain there were figures lit up for Easter. We had a perfect view of them from our apartment and it was really cool that it was up for display for the whole town to see.

I really enjoyed this trip and I know my parents did too. Now I have to work really hard on school work until I leave again on Wednesday for Scotland. HaHa. I am crazy.
Time is going by so fast and I really dreading saying goodbye to Europe.
I miss everyone so much and I hope that all is well. Love you.