Reminiscing.....(beware! long blog ahead)

So last night in class I was talking to my little Chinese friend, Ge Sung, during one of the breaks. She asked me if I had ever been to her homeland, China. I told her that I didn't think my people were welcome there so I had never gone but I had been to most of western Europe. After our talk I started thinking about my study abroad semester in England and all the fun that I had. I met so many people and made so many memories. Seriously, I would go back in a heartbeat.


After class I went to the computer lab to see if I could find the old e-mails that I sent while I was over there. My friends over there and I would try and take trips every few weeks so as to make the most of our time there. I sent e-mails after each trip and according to my family, especially my grandpa, these e-mails were hilarious.


I found various e-mails that I sent to random people and I cut and paste from these e-mails below because, my grandpa is right, they are rather funny. I noticed that when my study abroad semester ended and I was traveling by myself through Spain (waiting on my brother, Nate, to get there) that my e-mails were limited to 1 sentence. I think there are 2 reasons for this. 1) I was a small, American girl by myself in a strange country and I didn't want to be sitting anywhere for very long for fear of becoming a target and 2) even though I loved traveling by myself for 3 weeks, I still had fears that I wouldn't be able to pull it off completely and I didn't want those fears coming across in my e-mails. So I obviously didn't include my e-mails from Spain but I did have a great time with loads of amazing experiences by myself. But below are the other e-mails I sent after the various trips I took while in England. Most of you will recognize them. Enjoy!


Date: Mon. October 20, 2003
Subject: Venice and such....


Well, well, well. One trip down, 4 to go. Venice was amazing. The trip was......well, a trip in itself. 7 of us left after class on Thursday and it took us 3 hours to get to the airport. That's because we have to go on a train, then the tube to another train, then that train takes us to the airport. All that involves waiting on the trains, or waiting as the train/tube makes stops. It takes awhile. So, we get to the airport and I find out that I get to walk across the pavement to board the plane, like a super star. I was way excited. We got into Venice, with the time an hour ahead, around 9:50pm. We get into this airport with 2 ports. That's right. 2 doors and 2 baggage claims. I've never seen an airport so small. As we stepped outside, this is where hell began, and our fantasy ended. It was btw. 30-35 F and we had to board a bus that was blowing air conditioning. The bus took us to the main bus station where we were told by the directions I printed out for the hostel that we were to take another bus to a different airport. At this point, we were freezing and pissed. We asked someone for directions and no one knew where it was, let alone speak English. So, we boarded the bus and headed for the different airport. We got to this airport and found a woman who spoke English. She told us we missed the last bus that went to our hostel, since it was midnight by that time. We then called a cab. 2 cabs were called and they cost 12 Euros, which was a lot considering we went 5 minutes down the road from the airport. But, there was no way that any human could've walked in that cold. So, we get to the hostel unhappy. Then, for the worst news of all. We found out we booked a hostel campsite. For those who don't understand, let me explain. We had what we fondly started calling "bubbles" for 2 people. They were the same material as port-o-potties and shaped like bubbles. Inside were 2 beds with a pathetic blanket, a pillow that you couldn't pay me to put my head on and a heater that wouldn't have heated me if I was standing in front of it. There were tons of bubbles in rows, outside. The sinks were in a line, outside. The toilets had no toilet paper and were outside. So, needless to say, we all wanted to go home. But, the next day made all the difference. We got up early, since none of us could sleep. We took an over-priced bus into Venice and from there, the hostel campsite was forgotten. The city is amazing. The sun was shining and it made us all warm. The city has about 5-7 main roads where cars can drive, but the rest you either have to walk on or ride in a boat. It's cool. They have millions of tiny alleys packed with shops and after a while they lead into huge plazas with huge churches. The city is a combinations of the alleys and plazas. They also have dozens of coffee shops. And, man oh man, they are different from the States. First, they don't believe in "to-go". And, second, they don't believe in sitting. So, you get a nice coffee cup filled with great coffee, and you stand in a flipping tiny coffee shop until you are done. Plus, Italians hate Americans. Everywhere you went they spoke English, but they hated you for having to do it. My favorite was St. Mark's plaza, which had St. Mark's church and then this huge plaza with tons and tons of pigeons. I got a picture with all these pigeons on me-on my head, arms, and shoulders. It was cool. But, the plaza was the place where all the drama happened. First, we had a boy from our group named Ryan who took an earlier flight than us and forgot to get the name of the hostel from me, but we didn't know this yet. So, since the hostel was outside Venice, there was no way he was going to find us. The first night he never showed up and we kinda freaked. We assumed that maybe he missed his flight from London to Venice. Since none of us have cell phones, there was no way we would find him. Well, on Friday, he sent an e-mail to me telling us to meet him in St. Mark's at 3pm. But, since I was in Venice, I was not checking my e-mail. So, I never got it. But, so it happens, around 3 we decided to go to St. Mark's. There he was. It was pretty cool. Then, on Saturday in St. Mark's we see some people from Centre College (my school). See, there is a group in England from Centre, a group in France from Centre, and a group in Mexico from Centre. Well, we just happened to run into the group from France while in St. Mark's. It was amazing because it was in Italy, a country where none of us are studying. So, we took a picture and sent it into school. Oh, and on Saturday we rode in a gondola. It was way cool. We asked our rower/driver to sing for us, but he said that it might make us sick, so he'd better not. Everything in Venice is really expensive, but I managed to try and buy slices of pizza for 1.35 Euros which is really cheap because the pizza slice is almost as big as a whole pizza in the States. Even though the weather and sleeping arrangements were miserable and kept us from changing clothes and showering for 3 days, we still managed to have fun.I even met a lot of people at the bar on the hostel campsite. I met 2 guys from New Zealand, a guy from Australia, and a guy from South Africa. They all were just traveling the world. It was really neat. They had been to a lot of places and were still going. They had a lot to say. All in all, we had a great time and made the best of the situation. One of the nights we just all bundled up in our clothes bought 2 Euro bottles of wine and drank to stay warm. After that we immediately got into our beds still bundled up with the flimsy blankets. Quite the experience. I have lots of pictures, but most of my money was spent of the buses and taxis. So, we're supposed to go to Windsor Castle this weekend;Edinburgh, Scotland and Loch Ness the next weekend; Dublin, Ireland the weekend after that; Athens, Greece the next, and maybe Amsterdam if I have the money. All of which I won't be spending any money in, thanks to Venice. Oh well, it's worth it. I hope all of ya'll are doing great and keep writing me so I know that someone misses me besides Mom. ;) Nate, be prepared to bring lost of clothes to layer. It'll be cold when we go. Love all of ya'll and talk to you later.

Carms



Date: Mon. November 3, 2003
Subject: Edinburgh, Scotland


Today I finally caught up on my sleep from this weekend...it was quite long at the end there. We (7 of us all together) left Friday morning at 8:30 and it was a 7 hour train ride. The view along the way was amazing. The English countryside is beautiful. We arrived in Edinburgh to find that, unlike Venice, our hostel was about 2 minutes away from the train station. We were happy. The hostel was really nice and warm. We got a room with 5 others and met some cool people. By the time we got all ready to go get dinner, it was dark outside. So, that first night we didn't really get to see Edinburgh. After dinner, we tried our luck at few pubs. I got carded twice at the same bar. First, they asked me at the door. Then, a guy came over to us about 5 minutes later and told us that children were not allowed in the bar. I was about to ask him if 'children' had huge boobs, but decided against. So, because of that and the drinks were expensive, we left. Since it was Halloween and Edinburgh is supposed to be haunted, we went on a walking ghost tour. We went through these vaults under the city and then the graveyard. It was a little creepy, but more interesting than scary. The next morning we got up to something that my family appreciates.......a free breakfast. And, since I happen to be a Masdon, I not only ate the free breakfast, but stuck some of it in my backpack to snack on for later. Yeah, that's how it's done. We checked into going to Inverness (Loch Ness and the Highlands) but it was way too expensive to go. So, we walked around the city. Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful. The buildings are really old, Gothic-style, and just amazing.We went to the top of this hill and saw the whole city. Right beside the city are these cliffs that are just wonderful. I thought about climbing them then I remembered that I hate climbing, much less walking. The thing about Edinburgh is that it's really clean. There's not any litter, and it makes the old buildings even more amazing. After the hill, we checked out the Edinburgh Castle. We decided to only take pictures outside of it instead of going in, since it was £10 (18 American dollars). On Sunday, we checked out of our hostel but our train didn't leave till 7pm that night. So, we walked some more. We went to the Royal Musem, which was really interesting and, again, free. We went back to the hostel where I snuck my way in and took a shower. Finally we left on the train. By this time, I was exhausted. A group of 16-17 year olds got into our cabin and thought it would be cool to get drunk on the quiet end of the train. I was flipping mad. So, since I am Carmelle, I didn't hold back. I stood up and yelled at them like they were my own children. But since I am not a large man with a scary face and instead a small, petite girl with a young face, my yelling accomplished nothing. And to make matters worse, we had a layover in the train station of Manchester from 11pm-6am. I wasn't too happy about this. As we walked around the station trying to find somewhere to sleep, we noticed the small group of kids from the train had found more friends and were going to be spending the night with us as well. I was not a happy camper. We ended up sleeping on these cold, metal benches with the kids running around pushing each other and celebrating that they didn't have to go to bed before midnight. I could've killed them. Did I mention that the station had no heat? So, we were bundled up trying to sleep on these tiny metal benches. Again, let me stress the obvious fun we had. It was a real party. When the train got there at 6am, I hurried on and then quickly passed out in my seat until 9am. That sleep was so amazing.It was the kind of sleep you lust after. But, luckily when we got into Reading directly, instead of having to go on a tube, then another train, then tube, etc. The train went directly to our city. So, once here, I've been sleeping all day. The trip was great and I really enjoyed that city. The next trip is Dublin on the 13th and Athens on Thanksgiving. I'm so deprived. ;) Keep it real and I'll talk to you later.

Carm



Date: Sat. October 25, 2003
Subject: Windsor Castle this weekend......


Today my friend Ang and I went to Windsor Castle, where the Queen herself stays when she wants to get away. It was the coolest castle I've ever seen in my life. There were all these rooms that all the kings and queens before used to sleep--it was way interesting. Also, there is this room where they have this huge doll house that is a minuature of the rest of the castle where we can't go. That was really neat, but I couldn't take pictures. It was real detailed and it made it cute. Then, we walked down to Eton College where Prince William went to high school at, and Prince Charles goes now.The college was closed to visitors but we just walked around the outside of it. It was nice to know that my future husband and I walked on the same sidewalk today (I heart me some Prince William!). The trip was really cool. I packed my own lunch, so I didn't have to buy food---y'all would've been proud.
Let me know how the fam is and I'll talk to you later. Love ya.

Carms



Date: Mon. November 17, 2003
Subject: Dublin and the wee cities about it....

This trip was not quite as hectic as the last few have been. It was only my friend, Ang and I. This made it loads easier. We left on Thursday for our flight at 7:30. We got into Dublin around 8:30. It was super easy to find our hostel. Our hostel was great. It looked like a hotel. Our room was warm and the beds were super comfortable. They had a huge kitchen with pots and pans for us to use. So, instead of going out every night, we bought food from the supermarket 2 doors down, and cooked our own food. This saved us loads of money. On Friday, we did everything. It was rainy and cold so it made for a bleak sight seeing day. First, we went to the zoo because it's supposed to have the world's largest egg there. But, since the weather was so bad, we decided not to go in. Then, we went to the Guiness Brewery- the highlight of the trip. We paid to go on this tour of like 5 floors. Each floor showed a different part of the process of making beer. On the last floor was a bar where you got a free pint of Guiness. Appearantly Guiness is really strong because I got a little tipsy off of it.I beat a record in one sitting: the earliest time I've ever drank.....11:30 in the morning. Wow. Ang was worried because I was in charge of directions. On top of that, I thought the pint glasses were cool and since I paid €9.50 for the tour, I figured I get my money's worth and take the glasses. They're pretty cool, I will say. Next we went to the Old Jameson Distillery but since I had my free pint of beer, I figured I didn't need my free shot of whiskey as well. I didn't feel like making that a record. Next, we went to the Dublin Castle, which just looked like a college building. It didn't even look castle-like. We were pissed. After that was St.Patrick's Cathedral. We took a bunch of pictures of the outside but they wanted €4.00 to go in. How can a church charge just to look inside?? Not cool in my book. Then, we went to Trinity College, home to hot Irish boys and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is like the 2nd oldest book in the world dating back to 800AD. After that we headed up O'Connell street, which is a huge shopping street. After dinner, we went to this bar, The Celts, where I ordered the best pint of cider I've ever had. Thanks to the dirty old men that ended up surrounding us it was also the 2nd and 3rd best pints I had. We met the owner, also a dirty old man, who gave us drinks on the house. We decided to leave when dirty old man #1 asked for our numbers, and dirty old man #2 told us he'd buy us drinks 'until we didn't leave'. Appearantly Dublin must be having a famine on women, because when we left that pub there were guys outside hooting and hollering. I checked my outfit thinking I may have accidentally put the mini-skirt and skimpy shirt on instead of the 3 layers of shirts and bulky sweater that, much to my surprise, were still there. On Saturday, we were smart. See, when we first got to Dublin a guy told us to buy these 3 day bus passes from the airport so we could ride the bus while there and get a ride back to the airport. But, since the passes expired right before we left on Sunday, we got screwed. So, we looked into cities we could visit. We decided to visit Howth and Bray. Howth is a city along the coast and Bray has lots of sheep. We went to Howth first. When we got there, we wanted to see the Howth Castle but we couldn't find it. We stopped this old man with his three dogs and he showed us the way. He also walked with us and talked to us about his life. He was a cool guy. We walked around Howth and it was absolutely beautiful. Everything was green, as I thought it would be. It was weird because it's freezing cold over there, yet everything was green. I was really impressed. Then, we went back to Dublin and ate lunch. After lunch, it was Bray. Bray was a little further away and we just got off the bus, and ran into some sheep. I tried to take a picture with a sheep, but appearantly they don't like humans. Oh well. So, after the sheep-bonding time, we left. Some cute college boys were talking to us on the way home. I was ready to marry one of them, right then and there. It was cool because Irish accents are just as hard to understand as in the movies. I didn't care because the boys were nice to look at, so it didn't really matter what they were trying to say.We really got our money's worth on the bus passes, though.
All in all, it's easy to figure out that Dublin has a striving economy. I loved the people and culture but the buildings and such were not as pleasant as some of the cities I've been in so far. But, I would have to say that the countryside is the best. I really fell in love with the countryside. This weekend we're going to Stonehenge and then the last and final trip (before Christmas with Nate) is Athens, Greece on Thanksgiving. I can't wait. I had such a great weekend but I have so much work to do. What a shame I can't just travel and not go to school. Oh well. I miss and love ya'll very much. Happy Birthday to Naomi and Galen.

Carms


Date: Sat. November 22, 2003
Subject: Anyone that tells you Stonehenge is......


'a bunch of stones'......is RIGHT. Ohmygosh, Ang and I went to see them and golly geez, those were some stones.I've seen some stones in my day, but these, by far, were the perttiest. So, it was raining and about 25 degrees. Right at the point of taking my pic in front of them, my umbrella breaks. Yep, that's right folks. Dead. So, I'm stuck in the cold English rain with no umbrella. Plus, I was still pretty pissed that I had to pay to see these stones. Who makes people pay to look at rocks? And, even after paying, I couldn't get that close to them. It was ridiculous. I almost got my money back. Ummmmm....so if anyone asks what Stonehenge is like, tell them it's the only group of stones in the world you freaking pay to look at them from a distance of 50 feet or so. I didn't even get to touch them.

Carms



Date: Mon. December 1, 2003
Subject: Greece was the best of times, but it was the worst of times...(for my wallet)


Wow, what an amazing place. Greece is definitely on my list of my places to keep going back to. I absolutely loved it. It was supposedly 'winter' over there, yet it was in the 70s. What a life. Speaking of lives, or lack thereof, is the life that has left my wallet after this trip. Man, it was a beautiful country but it took a lot of my money. So, when I don't make it home.....EVER, you'll know why.
My friend, Ang, and I left England on Thursday night (the end to a very sad, uneventful Thanksgiving that no one in England celebrates) and got to Greece at 5am because of the 2 hour time difference. I attempted to go to sleep but never did. We woke up (or should I say, I finally got out of bed) at 9am. I was exhausted and not a happy camper. But, as I went outside, I became happy. It was sunny and warm and there were smells of delicious food everywhere. The only thing that kinda sucks is all the dust in the air, so it comes off like the city is dirty. But, the truth is that there is just a lot of construction going on for the upcoming Olympics in 2004. First, we went to the Acropolis, which I found out was actually just the name of the mountain it sits on, and not a building of some sort. There we saw the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, the theater of Dionysus, and the Acopolis Museum. All these buildings were being worked on for the Olympics so they were not quite as cool as they normally would be. At the bottom of this mountain is the ruins of what used to be the city center. This is where speeches were given around 125 AD. It was amazing, or else I'm just a history nerd. This is also the place where the Temple of Hephaistos is, which is where they used to go to worship. A little way away was the Olympic stadium, where the old Olympics used to be held in ancient times and where the 2004 ones will be held. Neat stuff to say the least. Then we wondered around the actual city of Athens now. We decided (against my will) to go ahead and get this 1 day cruise package to 3 islands. We actually got a good deal on it because it is off season for tourists, but I still will have to give up my firstborn child in order to make that money back. Then, we found an amazing meat and fish market. It was so cool because everywhere you go they sell everything fresh. We saw octupi....fresh and ready to be eaten. Umm, also, how about a nice rack of dog? Yep. Dog. Quite disgusting. We noticed various pet stores where they sold such animals as peacocks, chipmunk-looking-things, roosters, and parrots. It was crazy. Next, we went to their Parliament building where the common 'changing of the guard' takes place. Seriously, their uniforms suck. If I had to wear their uniform, I'd go ahead and take the gun they guard with and kill myself. They have these huge poof-ball-looking-things on their shoes, like elves. Also, a skirt to go with some nice tights. Sounds sexy. Nope. Next to that were the National Gardens.... absolutely the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen. After dinner, we went on top of the Acropolis to look at the city at night. Amazing. Plus, I didn't even have to put a sweater on at night. That was amazing. On Saturday all we did was shop. Man, oh man, this is where I got into trouble. I was so proud of myself because I got the people to go down on prices but the key thing I was forgetting was that I was spending the money, nonetheless. Oh well. It was worth it. Everyone in Greece is so nice. Especially the boys. Appearantly American girls are quite popular over there because we couldn't go anywhere without a ton of Greek men yelling and whistling at us. At first, I was thinking I was looking pretty good.Then, I just got pissed. I felt like a freaking piece of meat. I started yelling back at them. Ang was embarrassed. Though, I did work my magic on the guy who worked at the hostel and got out of paying for one of the nights we were there. Now that I can deal with. After shopping all day, the guy sharing our room with us invited us out for drinks. Come to find out, this guy is loaded. So, me being me (hungry all the time and poor), got as much free stuff as possible. He bought a bottle of wine, a few drinks, and of course, food for me. It was great. He appearantly had been saving his money for a few years just to blow it all in Europe. Sounds like a plan to me. On Sunday was our cruise.We were told that to totally experience Greece, you have to get out of Athens. I didn't understand until I went on this cruise. It was fantastic. Our first stop was the island of Poros, which was my personal favorite. There were lush green mountains everywhere and the water was green. Though it was kinda cloudy, it still rocked. The next island was Hydra, where appearantly only stray cats live. Seriously, I've never seen some many stray cats in my life. Hey, I love cats, but when the population of cats on the island is more than the population of humans, it's time to start shooting. Seriously. The final island was Aegina where they are famous for their almonds. These particular almonds are only found there and in Iran. So, I had a few.....bags. They were quite tasty. The most interesting part of the cruise was the 2 old French men we met on it. One was in his fifties, and one was in his fourties. The one in his fifties was a dentist we later found out. The other one was a lawyer. As the day wore on, we realized that the dentist was appearantly famous all over the world. He was coming to Greece to work on the President of Greece's teeth. The captain of the ship came over to ask if it was really him. At first, I didn't think too much of it, but appearantly the dentist has been on television a few times because of his known wealth in France and the fact he only has famous people as clients. When Ang and I got back to school, I told my French friend Romain about him, and he didn't believe me. So, I showed him the business card the man gave me and Romain shook his head in disbelief because the dentist was really famous. Not everyday you meet a famous and rich dentist. But, the lawyer....another story altogether. During the course of the day, we let the men buy our drinks (again, food for me) and we hung out with them. Ang and I, not knowing how rich they were at this time, just thought they were cool old men. But, then the lawyer got dirty. He started asking me every time Ang left to go to the bathroom if I wanted to go out with him that night when Ang was asleep. I asked him if he knew he could be my father. The thought of using him for his money went through my mind briefly, but passed quickly because I almost vomited. It was really disgusting. At the end, he slipped me his number, winked, and said 'Think about it'. I almost told him if I did think about it then I would have to eat another dinner because my first one would come up. I was not at all flattered. The reason being because the guy said I looked 16, so this guy was a real sicko. Yuck.
Besides that, the trip was a great way to end all the weekend trips during this semester. I definitely want to go there again. The next time I travel will be with Nathan, and that will be a lot at once. We are going to Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Munich, Hannover, Amsterdam, and Paris. I'm so excited. Hope everyone is doing well and I will see you soon. I love and miss ya'll very much.

Carms