November 12th!!

I'M 21!!!!!! WHAT UP WORLD

That's all, peace

Sprenkenzi Anglais? - A Trip to Frankfurt

As you should know if you read my last blog post, I went to Frankfurt this past weekend! I would like to give you all the deets, but I'm a little pressed for time because I have yet to prepare for my trip to PARIS AND PRAGUE, for which I leave earrrrly tomorrow morning. Therefore, I am going to give all of you a photo tour of my trip to Frankfurt. Before I begin, I would like to give a shout out to the Henschels (aka Joe's aunt and uncle's family) for letting my stay with them for the weekend. They were excellent tour guides and extremely hospitable!

Now on to the photos:

 On day one, which was Friday, Joe gave me a walking tour of Frankfurt. I have to say he was a pretty good tour guide. I was surprised at how much he remembered from the tour he took. We began at the center of Frankfurt with the church you see above. I was pretty amazed as it towered meters above me. One thing I found interesting was that they painted the inside walls of the church to look like stone because they didn't like the way they looked originally.

Later in the day Joe and I walked along the river. We crossed the bridge that you see above over to the other side of the river, for one, so we could see the view of the city and also because Joe wanted to show me the legendary chicken that the bridge is famous for. 

This is the chicken that I speak of. I swear there is a point to this! Ask Joe for the story behind the bridge, I'm sure he'll tell it better than me.

Later in the day we went to a little market. This was probably one of my favorite things of the day! All the smells and colors were just so tantalizing to my senses. Joe and I had an original Frankfurter sausage. It was surprisingly tasty as long as I didn't think about the amount of fat that I had to have been eating ...

After that, we went to a famous department store in Frankfurt and took one too many escalators all the way to the roof. From there the view was spectacular! You could see the entire city, and Frankfurt has a surprisingly nice skyline, as you can see above.

 The last venture for the day was a trip to the communications museum. There was this little gadget in which we could see yourself in ... as you can see I was rather amused by it.

 The next day was a little bit more relax but just as awesome. Joe's aunt and uncle took us on a drive up the river Rhine, which was really neat. Then, as you can see from the picture to the right, we took this lift thing all the way to the top of what I think was a montain? haha Anyway, once again the view was beautiful ... this seems to be a trend among my pictures. From the top we saw the monument in the picture to the left!

The last day we went to a little town called Bat Hambourgh. It was a really quaint place, as can be seen from the pictures above. We walked through a garden, which was both relaxing and refreshing! We also climbed a tower that was used as protection during a war.

Well, that's it folks! I hope you enjoyed my photo tour of Frankfurt :D
Peace!

Michelle Enters Harry Potter Land :D

Life has finally gotten a little bit serious here in London, which explain my lack of blogging. However, it's my obligation to keep my fans informed (well at least the few I have)! As for busyness, I had my first presentation this week. It was actually a little bit stressful as I was suppose to lead discussion, along with my other two group members, for the seminar of my International Relations Theory class. Also, as a side note, the British seem to have a problem with the way I say class. Apparently is typical "ditsy American." Oh well! My presentation actually ended up going very well. The professor was very impressed with both the discussion questions we came up with and with our knowledge of the subject at hand, which was Liberalism. The class also seemed to enjoyed discussing the questions we came up with. So, basically it was a win, win.

The week was a fairly quite one in terms of partaays. This was due to a certain incident that occurred the weekend prior. The incident I speak of was when I twisted my ankle when I walked back from a fail at an attempt to go clubbing. I have to say it hurt. A lot. This happened last Saturday, and on Monday I went to the health center to get it checked out because it hadn't really gotten any better. They told me that I had inflamed tendinitis and that there was some bruising on the muscle behind my achilles tendon. It sounds a lot worse than it actually was. They wrapped my ankle up, put something like icy hot on it and told me to "take it easy." Yesterday it pretty much felt back to normal, apart from a little pain when I went up and down stairs. Due to the fact that I was feeling good, I proceeded to go out for a friend's Birthday. Coincidently, this girl happened to go to high school with Joe! What a small world. We went to Roadhouse, a club/bar in Covent Garden and got our groove on. The only sad part was the cover charge, seven pounds, which I guess isn't too bad.

Last weekend wasn't all a lost cause! Before I twisted my ankle on Saturday, I went on a day trip to Oxford. It was a beautiful day, which complimented the little town very well. I pretty much felt like I was in Harry Potter land the whole time. We went to a Castle, Christ Church College, which is where Harry Potter was filmed, a botanical garden and a Cathedral. I learned that Oxford University doesn't really have one main campus but is made up of 36 different colleges!

Christ Church College

The Cathedral

I would have to say the coolest part was entering The Great Hall. That is where they dine in all the Harry Potter films and where the sorting hat does it's magic! We also went into what they call The Divinity Room, which is where the dance scene was filmed for the 4th Harry Potter movie. My real traveling adventures start the coming Thursday when I head to Frankfurt, Germany! Joe has family there, and they invited me to tag along, which, I have to say, was extremely nice of them. I've been to Germany before with my family, but we only went to Munich. So I'm super excited and planned to squeeze as much adventuring in as possible even though I'm only there for three days. :D  

Me jumpin' jumpin' in the Divinity Room

The Great Hall!

Lastly, I have to go on a little rant. In response to Joe Patterson's, AKA smarty pants, know it all's, latest blog post:
I'm sorry if the people in your class are unintelligent imbeciles, but COMM MAJORS KNOW THEIR STUFF. I apologize for the banter, but I have to stick up for myself and fellow Comm majors.

Peace!

Lil' bit of exploring and a lil' bit of reuniting!

Well ... it's been a while since I blogged so everyone better be eager and excited for this post! I'll try not to bore you with all the details of my life since the last post.

Last week was pretty much a waste of my life because I was dying with multiple illnesses. Not only did I have some sort of cold/flu thing, which came along with a fever and the spins, but I soon learn that on top of that I had a UTI. Yes, a urinary tract infection. :( That is probably more information than anyone reading this needs, but all should know that UTI's pretty much blow. But thankfully I had the lovely Joe Patterson to take care of me. He made me soup and watched movies/TV shows with me. It was kind of the perfect weekend for the situation at hand.

On to happier times, last Sunday, even though I was still feeling a little crappy, Joe and I went on a day trip to Canterbury, Leeds and Dover. We explored the Leeds castle, which is absolutely beautiful! For approximately two hours I felt a little bit like a queen as we explored all the rooms in our self-guided tour. Next we went to lunch at this cute little mom and pop restaurant in Canterbury. Of course I had the traditional fish and chips! Then we headed to Canterbury Cathedral, which is masssssive and has amazing architecture. If you think the National Cathedral is big, think again. It was definitely a sight to see. After we headed to Dover which is on the coast. We didn't have very long there, but we got to walk along the beach. Sadly, the fog got in the way of what is suppose to be a beautiful view of France! I even took a neat little pebble as a souvenir. : D

A week ago today, I finally started classes! Here in London, apparently we don't study or go to class. We sleep, eat and drink. But alas, I am a student again, even if I only have eight hours of class a week. My classes are actually pretty good. I'm taking 4, each worth 4 credits. They are International Security, International Development and Public Policy, International Relations Theories and Applied Studies of Anthropology. I will also be doing an internship! I'm not sure where yet, because the university is going to set me up with a placement based on my professional interests.

This past weekend London had some visitors! The infamous Jess Lin and Kyle Contrata. It was awesome seeing them again and reminiscing with them. I've got to say it made me miss AU a little. Kyle arrived Thursday evening and we proceeded to play some beer pong and then go out ... who didn't see that coming. But I have to say that I truly missed the drunken shinanagins that prevail when Joe and Kyle are together.

Jess arrived early Friday morning and was waiting for us when we returned from the club. There was quite a lot of drama with her arrival, but you can refer to Joe's blog for the down low. Friday we went to see some of the sights as Kyle and Jess wanted to explore London a little. That night we played the wonderful game of Nemesis and Joe, Jess and I were quite the team. Then of course we hit up the clubs. Saturday night was almost exactly the same, apart from a little bit of X Factor thrown it, which is the British version of American Idol. Overall it was by far a successful weekend!

Now I'm off to go get some iceeeee creammmm! Woot.

I wish I could change my accent ... um right about NOW!

I would just like to comment that having a so called "American" accent here in London is kinda a lose lose situation. For one the Brits never fail to make fun of my improper English and for two when I try and put on a British accent or speak "proper" English I just get made fun of even more. I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that I'll always have butchered English ... oh well.  

-Michelle

The Adventures Don't Seem to End!

So I have to say I'm finally settling in here in London! I've met all the people on my floor, I'm making friends and I have to say, I'm definitely living it up! Last Wednesday I went out to my first club here in London, which was a smaller scale club. It was definitely a good starting point. I went with a bunch of other study abroad students (or affiliates as they call them here) and Joe even came along with us. The club started out kinda lame and rather empty but picked up as the night went on. I had a good time but the music could have been a little better. I'd like to hear more than bum bum bum ba dum dum (i'm trying to type out techno, bear with me) throughout the night.

The rest of the week was filled with more orientation stuff and a little sight seeing! I went on a London bus tour and got to sit on the top level of the double decker bus. It was a great way to see all the major sights and the city, but I have to say being on top of that bus was realll cold! The rest of the week also consisted of going out night after night after night ... the adventures really didn't seem to end.

This past weekend I spent a lot of time with Joe and what I like to refer to as AU's version of Real World London (aka, the flat that Joe lives in with 11 other students from AU). We went to a club called Fabric Friday night, which was a little overwhelming to say the least. It was crazy packed and the music was once again a techno overload. If I was on E it may have been more enjoyable.

Saturday we went to an Everton vs. Fulham match which was pretty awesome! We were in the very front row behind the goal, and I have to say that seeing the back side of Tim Howard was definitely a highlight of my day!

Saturday night we proceed to do some more clubbing in Piccadilly Circus! This club was actually pretty awesome! Great music, good looking men (yes, I have Joe but I can still admire from afar!) and lots and lots of dancing.

Not the most attractive picture ... but we were breaking it down!

Now it's Monday, and it's a new week! Here at UCL they call it induction week and also Fresher's week (which is UCL's version of welcome week). I thought classes started this week, but apparently I was wrong. This week is what they call a "trial" class week. You can go to whatever lectures or seminars you'd like to and see if you'd be interested in taking the class. But in reality it's a week of crazzzziness. I don't know if I'll make it out alive. But currently I'm taking a breather and trying to plan where I want to travel and what shows I want to see in London, before heading out for what I'm sure is to be another crazzzy night. Currently, I'm planning on going to Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and possibly Madrid but we'll see what actually happens.

For now, I'm off to engage in some more shenanigans. I'll check in at the end of the week and let you know if I lived!

Arrival: Finally in London

I'm here, I made it! After 3 flights, Ft. Walton Beach to Detroit to London and approximately 10 hrs in the air, I landed in London. That was on Sunday. Since then, I have to say I've been really busy running around trying to sort out my new life. The first great thing was getting to see Joe at the airport. It was the perfect welcome to London! Thanks to him, all my luggage made it safely to Ramsay hall. I have a single in Ramsay, which is a little small but definitely workable. I've tried to put a little bit of my own flare into it with pictures and what not. It's growing on me, and slowly but surely I'm meeting everyone on my floor.

Sunday I just spent the day with Joe, which was awesome since I hadn't been with him for a month. We went to a pub and I bought my first, legal pint of beer! The food wasn't too bad either, which was definitely a plus as I've heard British food is a little on the bad side. Monday, Joe had no class so we went to the London eye! It was really great. We got to see the entire city from every angle possible. It just made me want to explore even more!

Monday was the first official day of orientation. It was pretty good but slightly overwhelming. I went to a meet and greet and met a ton of new people. It really did feel like freshman year all over again. Also, I've never heard so many languages in one place at one time EVER. It was mind-blowing. London truly is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. After the meet and greet we headed over to a welcome talk, which was typical orientation. Then I went through the enrollment process .... grrrr. It was slightly nightmarish. I had to wait in line for 2 hours just to get my ID card, username and password. But eventually I got through it!

After that I went back to my room, and I have to say, being in a single is a little lonely. I sat there thinking why am I here, in London, having to pretty much start all over again. Then I realized that I'm just a person who loves change. Life would be too monotonous if you always stayed in the same place and always did the same thing with the same people. I've gotta say that I like the challenge that change entails, and I know that being here in London is going to help me grow as a person. So I say, bring it on world!

So after that little "moment" in my room I decided to go out and venture. Lo and behold I meet a ton a people who felt the same way I did. That's the beauty of being a new student, everyone just wants to make friends, awww! Also, the neat thing was everyone that I met was from somewhere different. We decided to go get some pizza and then go to a pub to watch the Arsenal - Tottenham game. The atmosphere was great! I also had cider for the first time, yummmm!

Well I guess so far so good, London is a success!