Amsterdam

              It has been a crazy couple of days and I have a lot to tell. Friday night I left for Amsterdam. In order to get to my hostel I had to take every form of transportation possible. I took a tube, a bus, a plane, a train, and a tram just to get there. We arrived at the hostel around 10:30 pm (Amsterdam is 6 hours ahead of the US), pretty exhausted but ready to explore. First I would like to give you all a visual representation of our hostel. We were on the fourth floor, and the stairs that brought us there (no elevator) were as steep as a ladder. So lets just say it was a real struggle getting to our room. The beds were bunked, and smelled so that was fun too, but all worth it. Friday night we just hung out but Saturday morning we woke up really early. Our first stop of the day was the Anne Frank Museum, which is the actual house where she stayed and kept hidden for two years. We managed to get to the museum without getting lost but it is confusing because the sidewalks look exactly as same as the roads, both made of brick. So we found ourselves frequently in the middle of the road by, just standing there, confused. Also everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam, there are actually more bikes then people and that is a fact! Anyways, the Anne Frank Museum was extremely powerful and emotional. We actually walked into the apartment she stayed in, behind the bookcase (they still have the original), and all around. They also have the actual diary there as long as other pages that Anne wrote stories on. After the Anne Frank Museum we went to the Van Gogh Museum. There were a ton of his original paintings as well as paintings of those who inspired him. Now, this is the part in my blog that jumps from PG to PG13. At night my friends and I (30 something of us) decided to go on a Red Light District pub crawl. We went to 6 different pubs, all near and around the Red Light District. That was some experience. All of the prostitutes were standing behind clear windows in rooms with beds. Those with red lights meant they were women prostitutes, but those with blue lights meant they were transexual. It was sad and so incredibly strange. They had to warn people on our trip not to take pictures because their pimps might beat them up. Definitely out of the ordinary and something I will never want to see again. Anyways the pub crawl itself was actually really really fun because it was all people I knew and we were able to just relax and have a good time. On Sunday we went on a canal tour. Amsterdam is known as the Venice of the North. It is filled with so many canals that contain boat houses, and other boats people use to get around. After the canal tour we went to the Cheese Museum. I would like to compare this place to Heaven but that may be a little far fetched. You literally get to try a ton of different cheeses and learn how the cheese is made, and dress up in old cheese making clothes. Another cool thing about the cheese museum is it held the most expensive cheese slicer in the world. It had diamonds. At night we hung out and we left Monday morning very early. The plane ride was amazing, we were ascending and as soon as we got to the highest altitude, we descended. It only took about 40 minutes.

          Today was a long day. I had class from 9:30 to 5. I got to see an exhibit in Tate Britain about 18th century England, super fun. At night my entire trip was treated to a Shakespearean play called Henry the Fifth. Just before we got into the theater, this very cute English boy came up to me and asked me for the time, after I told him he asked me if I liked his scarf. I said yes and asked him who he was trying to impress, he answered back his boyfriend, because thats who bought the scarf and he didn't want to look too gay (my luck). Just thought I'd throw that little story in there. Anyways, Jude Law was Henry and I think I spent most of the time staring at his beautiful face, and unfortunately his receding hairline, then actually watching the play. The play lasted for about 3 hours and I was just able to make out most of the plot. In the end, I have had a very busy weekend so I apologize for not writing sooner and hopefully I will be writing another blog sometime later this week.
(P.S. everyone should go to Amsterdam at least once in their life.)
Also if you want to see the pictures better you should be able to click on them and they will appear larger!

Bath, British Museum, Bars, Oh My!

    It has been a busy few days so I apologize for not writing anything sooner. On Friday I went to the British Museum. It was pretty big so we couldn't get through all of the exhibits, but it was so fascinating. There were mummies, and lots of statues missing noses, as well as crumbling pottery, and ancient Roman instruments. We stayed for a few hours but realized our attention spans were up when we started taking some inappropriate photos with naked statues, and fist pumping ancient ruins in the shape of a giant hands.
      On Saturday, we went on a three hour long bus journey to a place called Bath. Bath was part of the Roman Empire back in the day, and contains many ruins of ancient roman baths. We went on a long walking tour, taking lots of pictures of cathedrals, and other historic sights. Then we explored, went into random stores, nothing too exciting. After, we were able to explore these ancient Roman baths. I tried to imagining a ton of naked men, sitting in a pool together, bathing and enjoying each others company. I came to the conclusion that I am very happy they invented showers and shower curtains. Realistically though, everything was very interesting and I am happy I got to see more of England besides London.
     Being the Americans that we are, we couldn't miss the Broncos vs. Patriots game last night. We found a local sports bar in Picadilly Square, completely full of Americans. Since most of my trip were Patriots fans, I decided to be original and root for the Broncos. Lets just say I may or may not have some enemies on the trip now. I also made friends with the security guard at the bar. He kept calling me Audraayyyy, and gave me a hug when I left. So, i'm popular. Anyways, I'm heading to Amsterdam this weekend, but other then that I have no plans except for class and homework. I'll write again soon!

New Horizons

Today was the first day of my internship. Going into it I wasn't entirely sure what my job entailed, and was pretty nervous. On the way there I only got lost once, which is probably a record for me. Those who know me understand that I have no sense of direction. When I arrived I was the only person under the age of 50. I soon found out my purpose of the day (it'll change) was to individually teach some of the elderly how to use technology (computers, ipods, phones, ect...). I went in with a lot of confidence, thinking about how easy my job was going to be, plus I was able to get a free lunch and a cappuccino so I had high hopes for the day. Well those high hopes were quickly shattered as I learned how frustrating it was to speak to a generation who did not grow up with the same technology as we did. I wanted to grab there shoulders and shake them until the information sunk in. It was nice talking to them when I wasn't trying to teach them how to use Google. I helped one of my older friend's Dave (age 70) buy a hammock because he decided he wanted to go backpacking in Morocco this summer. I also think that most of the staff (all mostly older) were not used to seeing one so young because I got a lot of stares, and when I moved tables to plug in my computer one of the elderly men sitting next to me got up and moved to a table near my new seat. The cleaning staff seemed interesting too. I could tell by the amount of times they came to my table and cleaned the same exact spot.  In the end, I'm happy with the internship I received, because my favorite thing to do it to talk to people who have very different lives then my own. And I can positively guarantee these people have a lot of history and are willing to share and pass there knowledge on to me.

(Trafalgar Square)

Double Decker Tour

My favorite thing to do in London so far is to see and absorb as many things as possible. At night, this city's treasures surprise me all over again. Lucky for me, my entire UConn group was treated to a double decker bus tour of London. You can see some pretty amazing sights looking out the window of an ordinary one story bus but that extra story really enhances everything, especially one with an open top. The only issue with this open double decker bus was the fact that it was only about 40 degrees, so by the end, my entire body was stiff with cold. However, it was completely worth it. We started the tour right near my apartment in Central London and worked our way around, going to places like St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham's Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London. I'm still hoping to further explore these places in the future because a lot of them offer free tours, and sorry for this cliche, but "free" is my middle name. The tour guide varied his information by decades. One second he would be talking about all the people murdered in the Tower of London, like most of King Henry's wife's, and the next second he would talk about different places where James Bond, and Harry Potter were shot. In the end I had an amazing time and I can't wait to keep you all updated with how I am doing here. Classes started today so I won't have much to write till the weekend because then we are taking a trip to Bath. Miss you all!

Fulham vs. Sunderland

Today we were all invited to a premier game soccer match. The two teams were Fulham (which is London based) and Sunderland. The underdog going into the game was Sunderland, and we were at the Fulham club stadium in London. Because I had no knowledge of who to root for, I decided to root for whichever team was winning at the time. To astound many of the disappointed fans, Sunderland won by a landslide. The final score was 4 to 1 so I instantly became a Sunderland fan. What really amazed me the most about the game was the amount of pride each individual fan had for there team. There was not one single moment when I couldn't hear cheering and singing all around me. I had such a great time being part of the crowd, and I can't forget to mention that there were very attractive men on that field. Also their hot dogs came in baguettes which I thought was pretty interesting. Anyways after the game my roommates and I went to a local pub in Waterloo, right near the Thames river, and sat around eating burgers (still American), and drinking our pints of the house's cheapest beer. The name of the pub was called Camel and Artichoke, which I don't quite understand, and have never once before thought about mixing the two, but it was very delicious. Once we finished we walked along the Thames river past the London eye. I overheard one man saying he was kicked off the London Eye because he passed out drunk on it. I found this pretty funny. Now I am back in my lovely flat feeling morbidly obese, and wondering how I am going to wake up at 8am for our London bus tour. Miss you all and I hope you're not too depressed that I'm not with you in good old America. :)

Bar Night

I don't have much to share for this post because orientation has just started and I was sitting in a classroom for 8 hours today, but we have had some fun night time adventures. Two nights ago we went to this bar called Oneil's. On the outside it looks like any other bar, but on the inside there are three separate floors, with individual bars, and live music on the top floor. What amazed me the most was not the extremely expensive/ delicious alcohol, or the cover band playing all American songs, but it was the people at the bar. I don't think I actually met a single British person, or even a person that lived in the UK there. However, I did meet people from Spain, Italy, Australia, and all over the world. We obviously had discovered the most touristy bar in London (which is not helping our image). Although our main goal was to socialize with people our age who are actually from England, it was fascinating talking to people from everywhere. It was pretty hilarious observing silly German boys trying to pick some of my friends up and myself, claiming they had been to CT. When I asked them to name an actual place in CT they realized we were to smart for them (see Dad I can take care of myself)! Getting home was a challenge but I'm finally grasping some sort of direction (kind of). As you have already been notified, I love this city and everything about it and I can't wait to explore more! I will post some more soon, and don't forget to look for me on Skype!