Vandon house part 2

So this semester is like the real deal. Not being home for nearly 7 months. Seems like way to long to be away from my family! THANK GOD that I get to do a Europe tour with my sisters! can't wait!!

Being back in London with a whole new group of people has been a very interesting experience. The house is packed! 52 students living in one building (AHHHH!) Going through the whole process of meeting people, and getting to know people is more grueling than I remembered it to be. BUT.... I have gotten to know some really great people in the last 3 weeks. The sad thing is though, since I was here last semester and it took awhile to build those great friendship...I know by the time we all build strong friendships we will be leaving back to the states. I'm going to try not to think about that at the moment and enjoy every minute.

Our first real outing together as a group was for Katherine's 21st birthday! Katherine was here with me last semester and is an amazing person! Her birthday fell on AUSTRALIA DAY! Before that day I had no idea that there even was an Australia day. let me tell you....there is and the party HARD. So for her birthday and the celebrations we all went to Walkabout which is a Australian chain of bars. IT WAS PACKED! SO CRAZY! it was like oktoberfest for australians haha it was ridiculous! We stayed and hard a great time, and made sure Katherine has the best birthday ever! (im not sure if it was really the best, but it sure was memorable!)

Soooo...last weekend as a group we all went to Liverpool! On the way up we stopped in this little village called Chester, and pretty much only had time to eat lunch. haha but it was cute! SO after a ridiculous amount of time spent in a double decker coach we made it to liverpool. It wasnt anything like I expected, it was way nicer and developed than I imagined. BUT EVERYTHING WAS SOOOOOO CHEAP! We all definitely took advantage of that, so a little bit too much. We did an interesting ghost walk, which was pretty cheesy but entertaining all the same. We afterwards went to a pub called the flute and had a great time! (drinks were SO cheap) The next morning we did a Beatles tour where we got to see John Lennon's and Paul Mccartney's house as well as Penny Lane and the strawberry field! It was really cool and very interesting! We then got the rest of the day to explore Liverpool. All around it was a great weekend, and good bonding time with other program members.

till next time!!!

SEVILLA!

So, I am very bad a this whole blog thing. This semester I am going to give it a better effort.

I've been back in London for about 3 weeks, and although I do love it and am glad to be back in an english speaking country, I miss Spain! I miss the small alleys and orange trees of Sevilla. Living in Sevilla for 3 weeks was the closest thing to a culture shock that I have come by so far in life. But after spending so much time adventuring through the city, making friends, and eating great food I really miss it.

I lived at 65 calle de los banos ( yes street of the bathrooms haha) The building is owned by the family and the WHOLE family lives in it. There were 8 family members and 5 students including myself, but surprisingly it wasn't crowded at all. In the house I had my own room while staying there which was nice, and breakfast and dinner were included. Spanish food is amazing, I could go on and on about it!

While in Sevilla, I had the chance to go to Madrid, Granada, and Cordoba. Madrid was my least favorite, it was not at all what I thought and basically looked like any old city. Although I only spent a day in Granada I LOVED it! The Alhambra was so beautiful and definitely qualifies as a wonder of the world in my book! It was constructed my an arabic sultan and has so much detail it took centuries to finish! I went to Granada and Cordoba with Nina, a student also living in my Sevilla home. Having someone fluent in Spanish was so helpful.Nina has been in Spain for almost a year so she knows the best places and food.

Cordoba was a very small city, which was what I pictures traditional Spanish cities to look like. It has the white washed walls, tiny little alleys, and cobble stone streets. Cordoba has the largest mosque in Spanish and one of 3 that are left standing. It was beautiful, filled with amazing arches on the ceiling and the largest gold alter I have ever seen. I luckily got to see so much more of Spain than I thought, and sights that I will never forget.

I think that the thing I miss the most about Spain is the culture and the people. Everyone is very warm hearted and friendly. I felt very comfortable walking everywhere I went, and had no problems with ay Spaniards. Traveling to spain for 3 weeks by myself taught me so much. I really like traveling alone, you can just follow your own schedule and do what ever you want. A lot of people were very skeptical when I told them I was going to Spain alone, but if I had gone with other friends it would have been a completely different experience.

I want to add pictures but my computer wont let me! hopefully I can figure that out soon! and I will get better at this blog thing!

Disorganization of Thoughts: Munich

3 more weeks left of my first semester...and I'm finally starting my blog. Some may think that is ridiculous, but I'm going to go with the excuse of I am re-capping on my experience.

I will go through this by trips, then London as a whole.

The first trip we organized and planned outside of our study abroad program was Munich. This is also my first time in an non-English speaking country (San Diego pretty much counts as Mexico, but I'll leave that out) . Being the event planner that I am, I research the ins and outs of Munich..how to get to the city center, what things are the must see, and most importantly OKTOBERFEST! Little did I know all this research would mean jack squat when we got off the plane and NOTHING was in English. This was also our first experience using our UK Mobile phones outside the UK, FYI memorizing country codes is a must. Once we found out where the underground was...we must have spent half hour looking at the ticket box in German trying to switch the language or describe to stander buyers what kind of ticket we were looking for. I swear for all the crap that Americans get, people thoroughly enjoyed our misery. (they should look at us as a form of free entertainment) Half hour later we were on our train, hopefully going in the right direction towards the city center.

Turns out we were actually on the right train and made it to the city center. Only one cab ride away from Uschi and Brian Bagnalls house, where we would be spending the weekend. Although I had been emailing with Uschi for months and have heard so much about the two of them from my family, this was going to be my first time meeting them. Kristi, Holly, Ben and I walked up to the door and walked into their beautiful house. Uschi set us up in Brian art studio ( a whole apartment!) She graciously showed us around and how they stocked the fridge for us, they sure know how to make college kids happy. I couldn't have been more happy to be with Uschi at this moment, the week before the trip I was feeling a little homesick. Listening to Uschi and seeing her smile reminded me so much of my family. Apparently I sound exactly like my Aunt Sue. Uschi was telling her fond stories of their travels to California and my Aunt and Uncles experiences in Munich. After a couple glasses of wine, and many stories we went to bed.

We woke early the next morning, Brian had thrown out an invitation to join him at his live drawing class in the city center. Although I am not the best artist, we all thought...when ever in life are we going to have the opportunity to join in on a German art college class. So we joined, and I really enjoyed it. I wasn't half as bad as I thought I would be and Kristi was absolutely in her element. Before this I never really took time to think about how absolutely beautiful the human body is...big, small, curvy, thin.. it didn't matter they were all beautiful. We felt bad leaving their day of classes, but from their we headed over the the Oktoberfest grounds.

Oktoberfest! This may sound naive, but I had no idea that it was a carnival. I have heard plenty of stories about how much everyone likes it, and how you can spend all day in one tent and have the time of your life. But I didn't know that outside these enormous (most hold 7,000-10,000 people) tents was a fun family carnival. I kept thinking about the Van Trap Family, because yes, that is exactly how they dressed! Walking into our first Beer tent is was an experience I will never forget. Everyone was standing on the tables, dancing and having the time of their lives. We walked into 10,000 people singing cheesy American songs with huge mugs of beer in their hands. The Hofbrau house is supposedly the biggest and most fun. After doing a couple laps around, we finally found a place to sit and order a beer. We were next to these guys from Switzerland....one supposedly drank 4 beers in 45 mins, mind you it was only about noon at this point. Fun Fact: 15 mins later this guy puked all over himself and got escorted out of the tent. Throughout the day we made our way to multiple other beer tents said PROUST (cheers!) way too many times. During the day I could only manage 2 actual mugs of beer (I know you'd be disappointed sara), but the amotsphere and food was what I was really fond of. The food everywhere smelled amazing and tasted even better. Mixed nuts is now one of my favorite smells. Fun fact: Germans will laugh at you if you put mustard on your pretzel, guess that's just an American thing. This day was incredible, but I didn't just come to Munich for Oktoberfest. I couldn't imagine being in such a wonderful city and only seeing the inside of a beer tent, like most that visit during this time.

We spent the rest of our time their seeing the sights of Munich, enjoying AMAZING Bavarian foods, and talking with Uschi and Brian two of the most friendly and gracious people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Fun fact: On Brian and Uschi's first date she didn't speak any English so they drew pictures back and forth. It's not really my story to tell, but I just loved that one. We got to enjoy nice weather in one of the greenest major cities in the world, drink legendary beer, eat even more legendary food, and have the time of our lives. This was only my first trip, and set the tone for multiple amazing trips to come.