Springtime!!

Wow! I cannot believe I haven't posted in almost two months now!! I have been on many trips, and the time in between has seemed to pass slowly, but now that I look back, time has just flown by!!

I went to Dublin with several of the Americans staying in Coleraine with Sydney. We had such a good time seeing all the sights!!! I have also seen many things around Belfast, and now that the weather is getting warmer, my mood is improving :)

I have just returned from staying two weeks in Germany, and had a fabulous time! I stayed with friends of the parents from way-back-when. It was nice to catch up with them, and have a very relaxing time staying with them! The weather could not have been more perfect when I was there. When I left Ireland, it was rainy and windy and cold. When I arrived in Germany it was about 80 degrees outside and beautiful! The weather stayed consistently warm and nice for my entire stay except the last day I was there, so I was VERY lucky to have such wonderful weather. I read a lot and laid out in the sun a lot too :) I have returned to Ireland with a tan, and great memories!

While in Germany, I traveled to where my family lived when I was born, and also saw the now closed Army base there. I also traveled to many of the small towns near Frankfurt, as well as Frankfurt and Cologne.

I had a wonderful time in Cologne...I made a day trip with Sandra, but wandered around the city all day on my own. I visited many cathedrals and bought the original Eau de Cologne! I had a great day there! Frankfurt is also an amazing city...I was blown away by all the trees and such there. Germans are very outdoors-y and it was amazing to see how the trees are just everywhere in the city. It is almost like they built the buildings, etc around the trees and not the other way around. I was amazed by how pretty the city was!!

Germany was amazing, and I can't wait to go back to visit and see more! I am leaving for my Marine Ecology field course today, and I am anxious. I wasn't ready to return to Ireland and the cold. I also just wanted to relax some more in Germany :)

Well, I will be home on June 4th, so today that means I have 46 days until I return home! I am looking forward to being home again!

I will try to post more often from now on :)

Life in Belfast

So, I have officially been gone from home for a month now! I can't believe how time just flies by! I was having computer difficulties, and thanks to my wonderful parents, they sent me a new computer. I was without one for twelve days, which is a very long time if that is your main means of communication and entertainment. I have really appreciated this new computer and it is just absolutely wonderful :)

I have always wanted to live in a city for a short amount of time, just to have the experience and to know what it's all about. I have now realized that I love living in the country. This city is dirty, and disgusting. There are many beautiful buildings, but the streets and the sidewalks are just gross. I have decided I will be sick with a cough, itchy throat and runny nose until I get home, because the air is just so unclean here. Every time I walk outside, I know I am just inhaling exhaust fumes and all the other dirty smells a city has. I hate walking to class for twenty minutes along the most disgusting sidewalks you have ever seen. Anything that looks nice has graffiti on it. Everything in the city is just not to my liking!

I have learned to appreciate the country more. Last weekend I went into the countryside with another American who is here. We had an amazing time, and I will be posting a blog and pictures later :) The air was so clean and fresh. I didn't have a cough, and I didn't have a runny nose all day, and that was wonderful!

I feel much better about being here, I'm adjusting now, and am in it for the long haul! That's much easier to say now that my trip is a fourth of the way over. I have several assignments coming up in my three measely classes, and none of them are worth very much in the overall scheme of things. After the next two weeks, I won't have any work to do until finals! I can't believe how little work they do for their classes here. I feel like I'm in kindergarten!

I am also more appreciative of the fact that America is a service society. Everything is just very inconvenient here. The shops open late and close very early. The people working in them are rude, because they don't have to satisfy their customers like we do in the US. At the grocery store, which is called Tesco, the cashiers sit down to ring up your groceries, and they do not bag them. They just put them on another belt wich feeds the groceries to the end of a countertop and will keep the belt running and your groceries piling up until you bag all of them. Also, they do not provide you with bags unless you ask and pay for them. I just bring a big bag with me and fill it up. And when you give them your money, they won't put out their hand to reach for it, you have to lean over the counter in front of them to hand it to them! They're just so rude!!

Another really rude thing, which I find very weird, is that you cannot expect to be waited on at a restaurant. They just simply don't do that here. The waiter/waitress will come and get your order and will get your drinks sorted out for you, but after that you're on your own! They do not come back to the table, and at every restaurant I've been to, we've had to personally track down the waiter and ask for our bill! But the plus side to that is you're not expected to leave a tip here like you are in America. So, that saves us a lot of money in the long run!

I haven't seen a proper parking lot since I've been here, and people just park their cars along the side of the street, with one side's tires on the sidewalk. Speaking of cars, the price for gasoline here is astronomical! They sell gasoline for around 90p/liter...which is equivalent to $5.50/gallon!!! Unbelievable! Everything here is just so much more expensive than it is at home, but the minimum wage here is about twice as much as it is at home, and people do not have to pay for healthcare, because it is provided to them.

I have been very frustrated lately when I am washing dishes...as I've mentioned before, they do not have regular sinks here. Each sink has two faucets. One faucet has hot water and one faucet has cold water. So either the water coming out is freezing, or boiling, and it is very frustrating to wash your hands or do the dishes because the water is never a normal warm temperature....

I have two new favorite dessert items that I will have to make for everyone back home! Banoffee pie and honeycomb ice cream! Banoffe pie is delicious...it's a banana and toffe pie!!! It is absolutely amazing! Honeycomb ice cream is now my new favorite ice cream! It is just regular vanilla ice cream with lots of honey and actual honeycomb in it! Since the honeycomb is frozen, it is crunchy and very tasty in the ice cream. I might just have to go get some tonight :)

I have booked my flights to Germany and back! I will be leaving April 4th and returning the 18th. On the 19th, I will be traveling with my Marine Ecology to a marine biology labs in Portaferry. I am very excited for my Spring Break plans, and am only 5 weeks away from being on break!

I can't believe I've been here for a month already, I've had ups and downs, but I am generally having a great time! I have enjoyed all the people I am living with, and I have enjoyed learning about a different culture! I am planning fun weekend trips, and will post my past two weekend adventures soon! The picture was actually taken in Strangford Lough, but right now, these flowers, called Snowdrops are everywhere and in all different colors!

Fifteen Days In!

Today is the fifteenth day I've been here, and I must say, I am feeling a lot better about being here! Sydney came this past weekend and we had a very nice relaxing time. We went to Chili's on Friday night, which might be kind of odd, but I've decided I don't like most of the food they serve here, and we were both craving some classic American food! We went with Ruth who is from Belfast and studied at Lyon last year. We had a really great time!

On Saturday we went to the city center for some shopping, and then we visited the Palm House which is in the Botanic Gardens. The Palm House is what the picture is of. Notice, if you will, the snow, green grass and the palm plant. I'm amazed at what will grow here! I tried to get the first picture to load at the bottom of the post, but it loaded at the top! I thought this was a very pretty flower inside the Palm House :)

I have made myself some amazing meals lately, but am still looking for suggestions :) I got a gym membership, and that is helping me out a lot by giving me something to do during the day! However, it is really really busy there. We went last night, and that is the last time I will ever go during the evening. People were waiting in line to use the treadmills! I think I will be in pretty good shape when I go back to the states, because it takes fifteen minutes just to walk to the gym!

I have also got to do a lot of reading while I've been here, and I've really enjoyed having the time to do that. I have been reading the Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory, and have been reading the Bible alot. I enjoy both of them :)

I feel like I'm taking a break from my life at home. It has really helped me take a look at my attitude towards life and is giving me a great outlook on the future. I hope that I continue to grow while I am here, because I think this experience is already starting to mold me into a stronger and better person.

I think I am starting to like it here. I just needed to get over the initial shock of how different everything is. But, I am still looking forward to summer in America!!! :)

My classes are pretty good. I am taking Marine Ecology, and I am really enjoying that. I am also taking American Politics, which is really weird because they refer to America as America, where we refer to it as "we" or "us". It's not something you would think about and it has been hard to get used to! My third class is Sounds of the City and is an English class that reads and talks about how people have viewed cities throughout time. It has been pretty interesting. I had to drop an Invertebrate Biology class to take it, which I was glad I did because I would've had a lab on Friday afternoons, and that really interferes with my weekend sightseeing plans :)

Sydney and I are planning our trips to Germany for Easter Vacation, and we are now trying to plan a trip to Dublin for a few days around St. Patricks day! Wish us luck!!!

We will find out towards the end of March when we will have final exams, so everybody cross your fingers that I will get done with mine early and that I will be able to come home sooner than expected! The exams are scheduled to take two and a half weeks, so hopefully (knock on wood) I can be done with mine during the first week or so...we'll just have to see :)

Love you guys!!!

Almost a Winter Wonderland...

So, this is what I woke up to this morning. Needless to say, I was VERY surprised! However, the snow here is really wet, and the sidewalks did not stay snow-covered for very long! In fact, as soon as people started walking on them, they all turned to slush. I had a horrible time walking to class this morning. The snow was still falling, and it melted on contacts. After my twenty minute walk there and my twenty minute walk back, I was soaked! That was not pleasant at all. It snowed until about 4 o'clock and I think it's been clear ever since. Hopefully it doesn't snow again tonight...ugh! By the way, this is the view out of my window. I live on the third floor.
I had a wonderful birthday, besides my computer problems. I'm not sure what is going on with my computer right now, but it's not behaving. I have had multiple problems over the last several days and am not very happy with the current condition. Oh well, everything will work out!
I had signed up for three classes here, which is all they allow you to take. I am taking Marine Ecology (with a field class in Portaferry), American Politics and Sounds of the City. I was originally taking Invertebrate Biology for the third class, but the lab was on a Friday afternoon each week, lasting until 5pm. I am used to attending about 22 hours of class and lab at Lyon, but here I only have about 8 hours of class. Clearly, I've been really bored. I am going to get a gym membership tomorrow, so I will have something more productive to do with my time!
I miss America...I miss the ease of everything, and I miss the sunshine already. I will never take for granted my American life again. I miss having a sink that mixes hot and cold water. The sinks here have a spout for hot and a spout for cold, but the only place that mixes them to get warm water is the shower. I miss being busy. I miss being in the same time-zone as everybody else. I miss my family most of all. That includes everyone, whether your blood kin or not!
I have a lot more time here, and I need to find something productive to do. Sydney is coming this weekend, so I think that will make me a little bit happier, but I do miss my life back home. I am hoping to get over this homesickness soon, and I think I will. I'm just adjusting. Eventually I'll find my way here, and I'll like it, I know I will!
I need to find meals to make for myself! We don't have a cafeteria here, and everyone has to make their own meals, which is hard to do, when you have to walk to the grocery store!! So if anybody has ideas for simple meals that can be cooked for one, please let me know!!
Well, that's all I have for now!

Just what you've been waiting for!

I have pictures!! I have posted them on my facebook profile, but I am attaching the link with this post, so please go look at my pictures! I have tried to label what each picture is! Also, I have forgotten to mention how green the grass is here! You will see that in the pictures, I was really amazed by it! Enjoy!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014299&l=c15c2&id=1446180027

Belfast

Okay, so I finally made it on Tuesday (4 days ago) and time has been a whirlwind since then! There's so much to see and do here, and I've been very busy! I stayed with Lyndsay's parents for Tuesday night, and they brought me to Queens on Wednesday. I moved my measley two suitcases in and was lef all alone in a big city...but I'm doing fine, and I've had a very exciting time so far! On Wednesday, the weather was really nice and the sun was out...I haven't seen it since...

We had international students orientation on Thursday and Friday and I met a lot of people from all over the world. On Thursday we had boring stuff and then we went on a bus tour of Belfast. We visited the Parliament house as well as Malone House which is a southern-style plantation house. We also visited a few other places, but they weren't as pretty so I don't remember them :)

Also, on Thursday, we had a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee). This is a tradtional celtic get-together. They played traditional Irish music and taught us how to do certain dances. The dances are similar to the dances you would see in a movie showing an older time period in which the music would start playing and people would do line dances, etc. It's a great way to meet people, and everyone there had such a good time! I also got quite the work-out because we danced for 2 hours!

On Friday, I was getting pretty tired, and the weather was AWFUL! The highlight of the day was getting back to my room and watching a movie with a girl I've met here!

Today, me and my new friend (lol) went to the city center and did some of the shopping we needed to do. We needed bed linens, grocery items and other random little things you discover you need.

So now, I'm just going to list some stuff I've found very interesting since I've been here, and I hope you all enjoy!

~The bathroom door on my floor has a sign reading "W.C." which is short for Water Closet (I had to google that one!)
~The toilet is always in one room and the shower is always in a seperate room.
~A lot of people actually know where Oklahoma is!
~I have a radiator with a control knob, but the heat gets turned off during the day :(
~I have to walk briskly for 15 minutes to get to campus and will need to walk 20 min to get to my classes...bummer
~"Chips" are actually fries
~The UK is not part of Europe
~Ireland is part of the UK
~The Republic of Ireland does not get along so well with the UK
~I miss Wal-Mart, because I have to go into several different shops to find everything I need
~Toothpaste is really inexpensive here! lol...I don't know why it's so much cheaper here than it is in the states.
~A traditional Ulster Fry is a breakfast dish which has beans, soda bread, potato bread, a sunny-side-up egg and a sausage link (and no, I didn't eat one!)
~Irish stew is amazing, and so is fish and chips...but most everything else I've had is disgusting
~The students drink a lot during the week, but not on the weekends.
~The city center is about a 30 minute walk...ugh
~I've been told that to tell what the weather is going to be like, then I need to look toward the hills; (we are surrounded by beautiful countryside) if you can't see them, then it's raining and if you can see them, then it's going to rain :) lol
~It's not really that cold here, just rainy and cloudy
~The Irish have less personal space than we do
~They have one pound and two pound coins...not paper money
~They LOVE to drink tea here. When you order it at a restaurant, they serve it to you in a silver little pot with another silver little creamer dish with milk in it. Even at fast food restaurants they will serve it like this!
~They only drink warm tea, and nobody knows what iced tea is!!

Well that's it for now, I hope you all enjoy! There will be plenty more to come!

O. M. Gee!

So, today is the 10th, and I leave on the 26th, so I only have 16 more days!!! I'm so excited! I got a plug adaptor the other day and my computer and my new camera battery charger can run on 220v. So I think I'm set as far as stuff that plugs in goes... I am going to order some currency next week, and I have my passport, and my entry clearance ready. I will also need to show Customs a bank statement so they know I will be able to support myself while living there...it's so weird that they have to know all of this personal stuff! Well, that's it for now! I'm just really looking forward to going, and I'm getting super anxious!

So, as of today, I have 43 days until I leave for Ireland! All of my paperwork has been done (I think), and Sydney and I are anxious to leave! I picked out what classes I want to take, but I'll find out when I get there exactly what my schedule will be like. I have also found out where I will be living. Other than that, I'm just getting ready to go!

Ugh, I haven't been on here in forever!! I'm slowly getting through the stacks of paperwork required for studying abroad! Good thing it's not due until October!! I'm still really looking forward to going, and I'm officially going to Germany for Easter Break! I can't wait!

The paperwork I have to do is for Lyon and Queens. They each have to have all of their own stuff filed away. The funny thing is that I sat down to fill out the Queens paperwork and had no idea what it was asking for because it was like in a different language! And then, come to find out I may or may not need a student visa...but I'm going to get one anyways, 'cause I don't want to have to stress out about it. I figured I might like it there and stay for another semester anyways (j/k...I'll come home!).

Well, so I'm just working on boring paperwork and trying to decide what classes I want to take. Over there, they have modules. Typically, students take 3 modules a semester, with each module consisting of approximately 5 US credit hours. So I will be taking 15 hours, but only 3 classes basically. I am trying to take American Politics, Marine Ecology and Irish Literature. I thought those sounded fun. Especially the politics class, since that will be right after the election and all!

I guess I'll try to write on here more often. I've been super busy with Alpha Xi stuff as usual. I'm trying to get a new website up and running. Please go look at it so you can see what we're up to! It's rather blank right now, but it should be full shortly!! Go to lyon.alphaxidelta.org

Love you guys!!

I'M GOING TO IRELAND!!!!

Okay, so this is my first blog!! I found out on Thurs. March 20, 2008 at approximately 9pm that I got accepted into a program to study in Ireland for the Spring 2009 semester!!! I was so excited!!! I have A LOT of planning to do between now and then, not including all the money I need to make!! I have always wanted to study abroad, and now I have the chance of a lifetime and I'm so happy. My best friend Sydney also got accepted but we will be going to different schools. I will be going to school at Queen's University in Belfast, the capital of Ireland, and she will be about an hour train ride away at the University of Ulster. We are so ready to go!!!