Oxford Bound!

So I'm already loving my time at Oxford! I'm a bit jealous of Kelley and Paige who went to Stonehenge and Salisbury, but I'm so happy I"m here. I'm sure these 5 weeks will just fly by! My room here is pretty large, which is nice. It also has an incredibly great view of the quad. The rooms, especially mine, are much better than I expected. Mine is on the first living floor of the staircase (which happens to be the second floor) so it's not a far walk up to it. It also has it's own sink and mirror, a desk, and a complete dresser.

Already I've bonded with quite a few of the other students here. I was talking downstairs to go explore Oxford when I ran in to a girl who asked if I was part of the program, and then met a lot of other students who are also participating. We agreed to meet up to go to one of the local pubs for the night, and about 20 of us did. Not surprisingly, we basically had a huge sign over our heads saying that we were a group of Americans. But it was still a lot of fun meeting some of the people. I think a couple of us are going to get together to get lunch tomorrow.

We've already been discussing about travel options for this summer. A lot of people want to go to Scotland, so I'll probably know at least one person when I go, which will be nice. A lot of the different locations people are looking at include Paris and Ireland. If ticket prices are cheap enough, I'm actually contemplating going to Ireland for the first long weekend. But once again, I'm going to have to investigate and check things out.

So now I know what it's like to live in a big city with a lot of tourists. Earlier when I had just been walking around Oxford there were a TON of tourists around! So many people were checking our a lot of the schools, especially Christ Church. More than had been there when we had visited a couple of years ago.

There was a big sign at our entrance which said that no visitors were allowed in. Trippy, right? But then I was hanging out in my room when a couple of large group of Italians came through. I've never had the experience of tourists outside of my room before!

So, not much has happened, so I don't have much to say yet. But I hope this will at least tide you over until tomorrow.

Lurve y'all.

Moi

Last Day of London

The internet was out at our hostel, so lucky you! You're gonna get 2 posts soon! This one was written on my way up to Oxford on the train, and so it's a cut and paste post. Once I actually get around Oxford I'll blog about that tonight!

So yesterday was my last day in London, although I'm sure to spend some more time there within the next 5 weeks, and we made the best of it!

We first began by waking up and heading out to Windsor. It was about an hour train ride outside of town, so it was a way away. It was a lot of fun to go to, I just love the architecture of castles. Windsor Castle just so happens to still be a functioning castle, which is super cool, but also means that it wasn't completely open. My favorite part of the castle was what they had done to the moat. Obviously they don't need it for protection anymore, so they turned it in to a nice little garden area.

There were a lot of artifacts there including old original paintings (including the famous young portrait of a young Elizabeth), a sketch done of Anne Boleyn while she was alive, the handwriting of Elizabeth, and even the resting place of King Henry VIII. I was curious to whom he would be buried aside- Jane Seymore who died while married to him, or Catherine Parr whom was his wife when he died, who consequently married again. Well it turns out he is buried with Jane Seymore and also the infant child of Anne.

On our way out of Windsor, Kelley saw a restaurant which had a special on Indian food, specifically curry. Kelley decided she was not leaving London until she had had some Indian food, so we stopped in and she got some. Paige and I joined her, and I got a 'lemonade' which was a bit like a carbonated lemon water, but still pretty refreshing! On our way back I stopped and got a Happy Kids Meal, which was only 2.15, and even got to keep the oldschool box! I ended up giving Kelley the toy though...

We also stopped by a couple of little gift shops on our way out. At the first place I bought a pack of playing cards for a pound, for all of the long train rides I'll be taking this summer, but that was definitely not the best purchase! At the next stop we saw some soccer jerseys for sale for 10 pounds, not a bad price for a cheap knock off jersey! I went ahead and bought a kids Manchester United jersey, although I almost bought the Chelsea one until I saw they didn't have my size. The name on the back of my jersey is Ronaldo, who I think is known as being kind of a hunky modelesque soccer player/celebrity. But I'm not positive if that's him... But no matter who it is, I should probably start learning a little bit about my new team!

Once we got back to our Train Station, we went to Kings Cross Station. In case you can't remember why that name might sound familiar, it's the station that Harry Potter takes Platform 9 3/4 to get to Hogwarts. We took photos next to the cart going inside of the train, oh so touristy! I forgot how the bathrooms in some of the public areas of London have a fee attached. Kelley and I got lucky though, the meter was broken and was currently being worked on, so we got in for free while it was being worked on.

From Kings Cross we went ahead and took the Tube to Green Park. We had to do a little bit of changes in our routing, since the rail we had been planning on using had 'major delays.' Once we got to the park we went and visited Buckingham Palace. Sadly none of the guards had the big furry hats on, I think it's because it's summer now, but I'm not positive. We took some nice photos though of the Palace, the Victoria Statue, and Green Park.

On my map which I brought of London I noticed there was 'Lancaster House' was nearby, so it wasn't hard convincing Kelley and Paige to go with me to it. There was  no sign distinguishing any specific house, so I asked the bobbie at the front of one building which was marked with 'No Pedestrians' if it was the Lancaster House, and he answered yes. I then asked if it was alright if I could take photos of it, since to me it was more than some building, with my last name being Lancaster and all. He said yes and went back to his station where he changed spots with another bobbie who he told my last name to. This bobbie obviously also found it amusing since he came up to talk for a little bit about why I'm in England and such, a little about the city Lancaster and such, and was overall really nice! He was quite impressed that we could trace back 21 generations to Lancaster, England, and even told another car full of bobbies about my last name! I'm super happy we stopped by!

After then we just went ahead and headed back to the hostel. We ordered some fries (we weren't too hungry) and Diet Cokes. Kelley and Paige decided to go ahead and do their first load of laundry here, and I stayed downstairs in the Pub watching Fish play in the Davis Cup, which was pretty exciting! It was pretty cute sitting there though, since right next to me was about 7 older British gentleman all there for a pint rehashing stories about London cabs and about different times they had drank just a taaaaaaad bit too much... It was so adorable!

It was a Friday night though, so we decided to locate to the basement to the designated 'chill room' where we watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" with a couple of older patrons of the hostel. We were really glad we didn't stay upstairs, since it sounded like it had basically turned in to a club. We could hear the loud music and heavy footsteps from the basement. And it seemed like there were a bunch of "Woooooo Girls" which showed up (for the reference please watch How I Met Your Mother). It was quite difficult, but we eventually were able to get some sleep.

All of my photos from Paris should be online, although the Versailles ones have yet to be uploaded. My London ones should come soon shortly afterwards. So if you want to see all of my photos instead of just the few I post on the blog, go to findingtrueroots.blogspot.com. If there happen to be any issues with the page, just contact me, and I'll see what I can do. Also, I believe anybody can leave comments, with or without an account, but if not, feel free to email me!

Now I'm off to explore Brasenose and Oxford a bit. Blog some more later!

More Royalty and History!

So today has been quite the busy day! As soon as we got up we ate some granola bars and were on our way! We first went to Hampton Court, which was so pretty! It wasn't quite Versailles, but it was still, it was better than shabby! It was pretty busy today because it happened to be the day of a huge garden show, so a lot of people were on the train and were wandering around. 

One of the cool things about the place was that it had a lot of history of the beginning of King Henry's reign with the stuff regarding Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Cardinal Wolsey. I was very impressed with how much stuff I knew from that time period! But it helps when you've read a lot of Historical Fiction novels and such. We also got to do the world-famous maze they had there, which was pretty fun. We got stickers for finding our way through!

While we were there we got to meet some celebrities! Well, King Henry the VIII, who was about the get married to Catherine Parr. I would just like to point out that at that point in his life, Henry would not have been walking around like he was, he had a serious case of gout and well, other diseases, which left him mainly bedridden. I'm just saying... But it was still fun to meet him and get to take a photo with him (which is the one pictured in the blog).

After Hampton Court we went back to London and checked out the British Museum. While in Paris Kelley was a little disappointed she didn't get to see the Rosetta Stone in the Louvre. I mentioned how I had seen it at the British Library (oops) but then corrected to museum, but they idea got in to Kelley, so we checked out both today! At the British Museum we mostly stayed in the area with the Mummies and then the Partheon. It was really cool to look at the old stuff, but not so much dead bodies. Just not my thing. Kelley was completely blown away at the Library, which made me feel proud for suggesting it. We saw lots of original work including stuff by Jane Austen, Da Vinci, Handel, and of course, my favorite, the Beatles.

Right now we're back at the pub. No ales tonight though! Tried their version of "Authentic American-Style Buffalo Wings" which were pretty good, but not amazing. And what's sad is that their little Diet Coke was almost as much as a pint! Like a 30 cent difference! While I'm writing I'm watching some Cricket. I don't think that there's actually a game going on, I think it's something called "The Ashes" which is a lot like our All-Star Slam Dunk contests. I'm trying to follow it, but all I've gotten so far is that the pitcher is trying to knock over some of the pins, which the batter must protect. Once the ball is in the outfield though, I'm completely lost. And the hitting of the ball is really all they're showing.

I leave for Oxford in 2 days! I can hardly believe it already! Getting there is going to find itself to be quite difficult. Once I get to Paddington Station (think of the bear), I'll be good, but it'll be hard getting there. I've decided not to take the Tube there because it'll be way too hard with 2 suitcases and no extra help. There are stairs without escalators or lifts, so I just don't think it'll be realistic. But right now I have an itinerary of 3 bus changes and 2 walks. So, we'll just see about that.

Tomorrow though, we'll be going to Windsor Castle! Originally we were suppose to go to Stonehenge, but since I've already been there and I'm going again, they switched their 2 days so that I can do something I haven't done yet. It was very nice of them, and I'm super excited for it! 5 days so far in Europe, and no castles! Can't believe it! Only palaces.

I would like to mention on a last note that I have officially had my first day in England without rain! At least so far... So there ends the streak.

Like always, love y'all!

An American Gal In London

So I would like to begin this blog with an update from my last blog...

The man who I mentioned from my last blog who was staying with us is actually from Lyon! Paige and I were downstairs where we could only get internet in Paris, and Kelley was upstairs reading, and she happened to talk with him. Well, a little bit, he doesn't know much English. BUT the important thing is that when Kelley say us come in she was like "Well our new roommate is really nice! He's from this little place called Lyon" and my face just lit up!

For those who don't remember- Lyon was the city where I spent 3 weeks when I was ten years old. So obviously it has a really special meaning to it. He was only in town for the night, since he was there for a Nine Inch Nails concert, and so he was gone for it by the time that I had made it back upstairs, so I didn't get the chance to talk to him. Plus, he apparently spoke very limited English, so it would have been a challenge anyways to try to communicate. But, who knows! Maybe he was Frederic who was my peer host! Or maybe he could possibly know the family who I spent the time with. Last I heard they have moved down to Cannes, so it's probably doubtful, but once again- who knows. I only now wish that when he had come in that I had actually spoken to him and maybe talked a little of Lyon.

Lesson learned: the strange man sleeping in the same room as you could actually be a friend of a friend! Hope that makes you feel a little bit better dad....

The Chunel to London today was pretty fun. I ended up not being in the same carriage as Kelley and Paige, which made it a tad bit difficult with my luggage, but I had a lot of nice people help me out. It was really difficult trying to find out hostel, it was actually in Greenwich instead of London, which is a nice place, but just happens to always be cut off of maps. Not like the busses and layout of the city really helps...

So today we were the ultimate tourists. We first went on a double decker tour bus and got to see all of the sites. Unfortunately, we were moving so fast that it was kind of hard to really get photos of everything. Our ticket for the bus also included a free pass on a river tour, so we got to do that too. So we got up close views of the London Eye Ferris wheel, the London Tower, and all of that jazz on the River Thames.

Tomorrow we're planning on going out to Hampton Court, and I'm really excited about that too! I don't really know what to expect, so it should be fun. After the court we're either going to be doing our self-made Harry Potter tour, or going to the British Museum and Library. Either one, I'm sure it'll still end up being a great day.

Our hostel just so happens to be attached to a pub downstairs, with cheap food and such. We all got ourself a Foster Ale (which was the special for students tonight) and then I got a BLT. All of about 7 pounds, so that's not bad at all! And even though it seems like it would be loud, being above a pub and everything, it already seems a lot quieter than our one in Paris, which many of the young patrons were busy enjoying the social scene of the city while we were trying to sleep.

I'm already liking the Tube a LOT better than Paris' metro. It's nice that everything it much more connected, so there's a lot less changes to get somewhere. Like I mentioned earlier, the buses have really been the problem. In general they're just super confusing, and on top of that they're doing construction on the pipes in the city, so there's been a lot of new traffic patters and directions which are not marked on our maps. So confusing!

But in general, I basically forgot how much I love this country. It's just, I don't know, amazing. Although I would like to make a comment that I have not spent a day in England without it raining.... But,  I'm just so excited to be spending so long here, I only wish I could spend longer actually. It'll be different once I get from London to Oxford, I know, but I know it'll still be lots of fun.

Anyways, I'm going to finish my Foster and watch some more Cricket, trying to pick up the sport is going to find itself to be quite difficult.

Love y'all lots annnnnnnnd

Keep Followin'!

P.S. The photo was just taken at the bar with Paige, me, and our Fosters. I'm trying to upload more on Shutterfly, but it says that it'll take more than 8 hours to upload just Paris without Versailles or London. So we'll see about this...

Versailles and Other Adventures

So, my body is hurting allllll over! It's been a busy couple of days.

When I left off with y'all, I had just visited the sewers. Well we ended up going back to the Eiffel Tower, and got to view the city. We only visited the 2nd floor, since it's kinda expensive to go all of the way up to the top, but that was fine with me! After that we went to go visit the mini-Statue of Liberty just down the street (think National Treasure 2). It was a bit of a walk, and we had to back track a bit, but we finally got there. It was no where close to being as tall as the US one, and you couldn't really get a great picture with it since it was right by the water, but it was still nice to have a bit of home there.

Today was Versailles! I love history, especially of this sort, so I've been looking forward to going here for almost as long as I've known I've been going to Paris. Seriously, how could Marie Antoinette want to stay in Belgium instead of over there? I mean, I guess she didn't speak the language, didn't know the culture, or didn't have any of her family there... But it was so gorgeous! The chapel (which unfortunately wasn't available for entrance) was so pretty, and of course the Hall of Mirrors was amazing! It was really just so crazy to think of all of the history which occurred in those halls. I seriously would not have minded being Marie Antoinette... Well, without the head chopping I guess.

The actual chateau was nothing compared to the garden though. It was 6 euros to get in to, but that was a pretty good price for how long we stayed in there. The gardens are famous for Antoinette and the breathtaking scenery. I'm not even kidding. We explored all of the gardens which was quite large, I have no idea how many miles we walked today. There were lots of ponds which had referrals to the Greek gods and goddesses. My 2 favorite was the one dedicated to the Titans and then the Hercules ones. There were also countless statues just everywhere, and I gave up trying to take pictures of all of them. My favorite place of the entire gardens was actually the ballroom area. I could only try to imagine what it would be like to get all dolled up in their outfits, even if they were painful, and dance to live music out there. Kelley got a great panoramic photo which I may just have to steal from her. It's just so hard to believe that people actually used to just hang out back there. I would absolutely love to go horseback riding back there and get to see everything, and stop to play in all of the ponds. It's a definitely a must on my list of recommendations for France!

Living in hostels is not ideal, but it definitely could be worse. The coolest part is actually just hearing where everybody comes from. So far, I haven't heard any other Americans here. A couple of Australian guys are right next to us on the group computers, so that's probably the closest. There has actually been a lot less American tourists here than I would have imagined.

Our first night we had our dorm of 6 beds to ourselves, but tonight it's a full night which has already found for it's self to be a bit awkward. Last night a guy and a girl who came together took the 2 bunkbeds on the other side of the wall from us (the guy snored...) and there weren't too many bump ins with them. But we just got another roommate, a Frenchman, which is really weird. I know it's only 1 night, but we're not really looking forward to there being 2 bunkbeds of us and him. Thankfully Kelley and I are sharing a bed, so he's going to be with Paige!

Another thing I'm just kinda missing from America is my personal space. That bubble I've been used to? Yeah it's been burst. It's a little bit uncomfortable and annoying, but oh well, it's all part of being in Europe!

Well tomorrow we leave Paris and go to London. So instead of people speaking a funny language, it'll only be a funny accent. We'll be waking up at 6 to go to the Chunnel, and then will spend 2 hours traveling there, get to the Hostel (hopefully) around 11, and have the rest of the day to explore! I think tomorrow we're taking a Double Decker bus to explore the city. On our list is also a self-made Harry Potter tour and I believe Windsor Castle along with other things.

It's been a short time in Paris, but I really do think we've made the best of our time of it. I'll definitely be looking forward to the 2.5 hours just sitting on the train. My photo count is up to 165, and hopefully I'll be able to upload some in London. Apparently we'll have free WiFi there.

Well, love and miss y'all! Can't wait to write more!

P.S. The picture is of me posing like the Statue behind me! Thought I'd add one here!

Je'Adore Paris!

So I'm in Paris now!!!

We got in yesterday, and it was pretty tiring. I was unable to get ANY sleep on the plane, because of my turbulence fear and the lady sitting in front of me was really fidgity. At least I was able to watch the Zac Efron movie 17 again.  There was a very nice old man who was at the Air Port who helped us find which trains to take to the hostel. I'm really glad that I grabbed my map of Paris in the morning, since we didn't have one and it has been found to be quite useful!

It was a work to get to the hotel, mostly because I had 2 suitcases (hey, being in Europe in 6 weeks requires a lot of clothes!) and the metro was very crowded. As soon as we got to the hostel we went out and visited the Catacombes. It was pretty morbid, but kinda fun! I was so tired that we then went ahead and passed out. I went to sleep at 6 and then we all woke up for the day at 8 in the morning.

Today has been pretty busy so far. We went to the Louvre and spent a couple of hours there. We saw the Mona Lisa and, the statue of Venus, all the other fancy artwork. I absolutely LOVED the Egyptian stuff that they had. We then walked down and did a short tour of Notre Dame. Mass was in session in both French and Latin. After that we went ahead and took the metro down to see the sewer system of Paris. Not exactly what we were expecting, and very smelly, but it was still an experience! That was right next to the Eiffel Tower so we sat and looked at it for awhile, and were going to go up for a bit, but then it started raining so that's why we came back. After dinner I think we're going to go up to the Arc De Triumphe and something else, I can't exactly remember.

I would also like to mention that between the Catacombs, the Sewers, and the metro- we've spent a LOT of our time here underground!

Tomorrow is Versailles day! I really can not wait for that! Especially the Hall of Mirrors. We decided to go ahead and to the Eiffel Tower tomorrow afternoon also, and hopefully see the light show in the evening.

If I had more time online I would write more, but I hope this does for now.

Kisses for the family! Including Hunter. Wish y'all were here!

Going, Going, Gone!

Happy Birthday, America! 233 years can feel like quite a long time, eh?

So, being he patriot that I am, today is the day I'm leaving for Europe! The books have been bought, the bags are packed, the camera charged, and I'm pretty sure I have everything I need, so it's time to fly!

I'll be first flying in to Minneapolis where I'll be meeting up with friends Kelley and Paige. After about an 8 hour layover there, we'll finally be on our way out! Then it'll be Paris first (July 5-8), followed by London with them (July 9-10), and from there I'll be going to Oxford for my program to start.

Although I've been out of the country before, it's never been this long, so I have to admit I'm kinda nervous/excited. I know I'm going to get a bit homesick for a couple of things. So here's a list of things that I'm a gonna to miss...

Baking (I've made 1 batch of cookies, 1 batch brownies, and 6 pies)

So You Think You Can Dance

Movies from the Library

Sonic Happy Hour, specifically Strawberry Limeades

Tim Horton's Iced Capps

Driving (surprised?)

Playing with Hunter

and of course

Mis padres

Now, I don't exactly know what kind of internet I'll have when I'm in Paris and London, so I probably won't be blogging or emailing much until I get to Oxford. I set up a photo sharing account with Shutterfly. So now it'll be easy to see all of the photos I'll be taking, which has a tendency to be a lot, another thing which I picked up from my dad. To make it easy to find, it's the same name as the blog.

findingtrueroots.shutterfly.com

So everybody, have an awesome holiday, wish I could be there with ya! Have fun eating your hotdogs, drinking your lemonades, and watching the fireworks!

Well I guess I'll be catching you in Europe!

Keep Followin'!