Where've I been?!

It's been a while since I've last updated my blog.  I hope no one has worried about me!! I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks traveling and actually doing school work.  I had a big project due in my Rome and the Mediterranean course last Friday.  It covered the Roman involvement in Spain from 264 BC to 146 BC.  Interesting stuff, huh?  I had to turn it in early due to prior travel arrangements to Dublin, so that was a stressful week!  And this week I have been working out travel plans for the next three weeks.  Easter break officially begins after class tomorrow, as does my journey through eastern Europe!

Two weekends ago, my friends Natale and Emily and I traveling to Liverpool, England.  In case you are unaware, this city is home to The Beatles.  We went to Albert Dock where the Beatles Experience is.  This is a big museum that basically tells the entire story of the band, all of the members, and their life stories.  I honestly didn't know much about them before I went, but I definitely learned a ton!  We also took a tour called the "magical mystery tour."  This tour took us to the homes of some of the band members, Penny Lane, the strawberry field, and many other significant places!  Between all of the Beatles attractions was a proper football match between Liverpool and Tottenham, in Liverpool.  Of course the tickets were outrageously priced, and we couldn't afford going, we watched the match in a pub with some of the locals.  It was so fun to see them scream and shout for a football game just like we do with American football.  After Liverpool won, everyone in the pub started singing the Liverpool Football Club song.  It was great!  It was a fun weekend trip with the girls.  Natalie fell in love with the city.  She plans on moving there some day!

Last Thursday night, I traveled with other students from Swansea University to Dublin, Ireland for a nice long weekend over St. Patrick's day.  We were there from Friday until Monday and again had a great time.  I took a day tour with a group of girls to some landmarks around Dublin.  We went to a place called Glendalough where Braveheart and PS I Love You were filmed.  We also went to a town called Kilkenny which had a large amount of medieval sights.  There were a few other stops along the way, and the local tour guide was great!  The Irish jokes are hilarious.  I couldn't count the number of times we broke out in gut wrenching laughter!  The hostel we stayed at also offered a free walking tour, so of course we took advantage of that.  On the walking tour we saw sights through the city of Dublin such as Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Dublin Castle, and a really pretty park.  This tour guide was also great at what he did.  The tour was fabulous.  It must just be the Irish!

On St. Patrick's day, we obviously geared up in green and headed to the St. Paddy's day parade!  The amount of people (mostly tourists, I presume) was ridiculous!  The streets were filled with people in green, all trying to watch this parade. I couldn't see very well because I'm not the tallest person, but I have a few good pictures from the parade. We all had a great time in Dublin, that is for sure.    I didn't get a chance to see the Cliffs of Moher, which is a must do.  Ireland is a place that I definitely plan on going back to!

That is basically what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks.  I have been working on a couple of scholarship applications for next year as well.  I also had an interview (over skype) with two faculty members in the College of Education at the University of Iowa and am pleased to announce that I have been admitted into the College of Education, majoring in secondary science education.  Thank you to my parents for helping me get various applications sent in on time while I'm abroad, to Amanda Brezina and Coach Boehmer for your help with scholarships, and Brady Kurtz for letting me sit in on some chemistry and physics classes last year to gain some shadow experience! 

The planning has been shifted entirely to the three week long Easter break coming right up.  The official travel plans include stops in the following cities and countries:  Venice and Rome in Italy, Krakow in Poland, Vienna and Salzburg in Austria, Prague in the Czech Republic, Paris in France, and finally a stop in London.  Don't ask me how this is even possible.  Thank goodness for hostels at very inexpensive prices!  It is going to be a trip of a lifetime! 

Here are some pictures of my trip to Liverpool and Dublin!  For all of the Graphic readers, you can find pictures of all of my traveling through my blog online.

halesinwales.blogspot.com

The Beatles stage in the restored Cavern Club.

This seems pretty self explanatory!

Strawberry Fields

Beautiful pier head in Liverpool

Glendalough

Glendalough

Cathedral in Kilkenny

Castle in Kilkenny

These people are brilliant and lucky.  Watching the St. Paddy's Day parade from the balcony!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Part of the Dublin Castle

Park in Dublin

Amsterdam Again

As you may remember, I made a second trip to Amsterdam last week!  Tuesday was Emily's birthday, as well as an amazing Lumineers concert!  It was an amazing trip, once again.

At the concert, Emily, Natalie and I were some of the first people in line.  Once inside the Paradiso, we decided to get front row seats in the balcony to see the performance.  Little did we know, the band members of the Lumineers were going to come up to the balcony, approximately 10 feet from where we were sitting, and perform "Ho Hey" with the help of the crowd.  It was spectacular.  It is definitely a memory to last a lifetime!

Emily, Natalie, and Sam wanted to see some of the historic sites of Amsterdam such as the Anne Frank house and do the Heineken experience.  Since I had already seen those things, I decided to save money and let them go alone.  We did, however, see the second Van Gogh museum that had many of his original paintings in it.  Again, it was amazing.

We arrived back to Swansea on Thursday night.  Friday was spent going to class and catching up on school work!  Yesterday, Natalie and I went on a school trip to Big Pit coal mine and St. Fagans, both in Wales.  At the coal mine, we got to wear hard hats and lights on are helmets to take a tour of the coal mine.  They said it was some 300 feet underground.  This was the first coal mine I had ever been to!  Our tour guide did a great job as well.  He told great stories about the mine and cracked plenty of jokes to keep us entertained. At one point, he had all of us turn off our lights to stand in complete darkness just to get a feel for the atmosphere down there if the candles would have blown out back in the day. 

St. Fagans castle is the city of Cardiff which is the capital of Wales.  We were told we were going to St. Fagans, but neither Natalie or I had a clue what it was when we arrived.  Be purchased a map of the grounds and finally realized it was a castle! What a great surprise!  It was absolutely beautiful!  Built in 1580, the castle still displays some of the original furnishings.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside St. Fagans castle, as well as in the coal mine.  The day was altogether amazing, and we were extremely happy we chose to go on the school trip.

The week ahead will finally bring some excitement in class, as I have my first paper due for my Modern European Film module, and my first seminar in my Rome and the Mediterranean module.  The school system here is a lot different than it is at the University of Iowa.  I only have one big project for each of my courses (one being this first paper), and then a final exam of two essay questions for each of my modules.  There are no midterm exams.  It seems funny after talking to friends back home about all of the exams they have been studying for and already taken!  Getting into the swing of things back home will definitely be a challenge!

Next weekend I will be going to Liverpool, England with Emily and Natalie to do some more sight seeing and exploring.  We are very excited for the award-winning Beatles Story! 

The Lumineers performing "Ho Hey" in the balcony.

The four of us in Vondelpark, Amsterdam.  From L to R: Sam, me, Natalie, Emily

Natalie and I at the coal mine.

Castle at St. Fagans

St. Fagans