Actual Changing of the Guards

Camden market Bird Caller

Day 7 & 8: Classes galore! and The 39 Steps in the Theatre

Thursday was not too exciting for me because I needed a bit of time to relax. I had my marketing and sales class in the morning and in the afternoon I took some time to relax while everyone else had class. Later on that night we got the amazing opportunity to see The 39 Steps. This was a British play about one mans life and it was absolutely brilliantly done. Had lots of comical moments and I would definitely suggest getting to see it!!

Friday was the last day before the weekend!!! yay! I had two classes but they were both the design and merchandising class. It was good and a lot of fun. In the afternoon we got to go walking around and went to an exhibit of Masion Martin Margiella who was a brilliant designer. Then we went to the apple store in the city and it was absolutely mobbed. We went to these two places to look and see and gather our reactions about the stores and clothing and everything. It was a really fascinating afternoon. The night was spent trying to plan our our days here and plan out traveling. It was a pain, but we are still working on it :)

Miss you guys

Day 6: First Day of Classes and small walking tour on my own

First day of classes was pretty interesting. Apparently our class is a little bit less marketing and a bit more sales oriented, but our teacher is relaxed and cool. We are learning about how the consumer things, how to get in sync with the consumer, understand them and sell to them better. It is really interesting, but a lot to take in at the same time. After class today I was on my own because everyone else had the Shakespeare Class, so I went on my own little walking tour.

My book provided me with a walking tour through "the city" and took me from Trafalgar square to Tower Bridge. The first photo is from me in I forget exactly where, but it is in my book :) It took me all along this street called the strand and along there was Twinings Tea company. They have been there since 1706 and I was allowed to go in back and have a complementary cup of tea. I tried the pomegranate white tea, it was pretty good but I wound up getting a multi-pack with different types in there like english breakfast, early grey and 3 others.

Another place it took me to along my journey was Ye Old Cheshire Cheese. I did not go in to eat but it looked pretty interesting. I have been craving cheese lately so maybe they have some good stuff inside ;)

On down the road through the strand that turned into Fleet street was St. Patricks Cathedral. Very beautiful and so large it was hard to get a picture of it all. I did not go in to save time for the day but the outside was simply breathtaking in itself.

After going to many different places including churches, narrow laned side streets, shakespeare's London, the monument, the place where 9 streets come together and Tower Bridge I called it quits for the day. I came back to the flat and on the way got myself a little cookie from Ben's and it was to die for!!!

Later on in the evening Megan and I went for a walk through Hyde Park and all the way up to where my family will be staying when they get here and then went back through the park, past the lake, to Dianas monument and back to the flat. We did not realize it but we had been gone for about 1 1/2 hours and were exhausted and hungry... Late Dinner time!

Day 5: Tower of London and Dinner at Wagamama with everyone

Tuesday was the day for the Tower of London. It was really packed with people when we got there, but there was no turning back for us. We were determined to get in and see everything we could. It is really a pretty place, not what you would normally think of when you hear the name Tower of London huh! But the castle was really nice.

So even though it was busy and there were about 50 other people trying to go on the walking tour with our Beefeater tour guide, we still tagged along. We found our way to the front of the tour by running around other people so we could hear everything he had to say. The only people that now live in the Tower of London are the beefeaters and doctors and thats about it. The king or queen used to live there, specifically there were lots of stories about King Henry the eighth who brought his many wives there for them to later be killed. Many of their bodies still lie in the church on premise along with many other ppl. There were lots of funny, sad and interesting stories we were told about the castle, but it is hard to remember them all.

It was very interesting that before we got in the long line to see the crown Jewels we saw the guards. These guards in the dark uniform marched out and got ready to relieve the guard in red. It was cool, unexpected and I caught a bit of it on video!

This was a view of some of the inside of the Tower of London. To the left is where the crown jewels are and straight ahead is where the gallery is and museum. We did not go to the museum, but we did of course see the crown jewels. You cannot take pictures inside but it was well worth seeing. There was so much gold and large diamonds and other precious stones that it looked almost fake and unreal. It was hard to take in seeing that much jewelry, crowns, platters and other cool things. My favorite part was getting to see the actual ceremonies they had videotaped and had on display because it allowed you to really understand the use of all the pieces and then see them in real life. So cool. The afternoon was not as eventful, we got some fish and chips after that and then relaxed until we had to go to dinner at Wagamama, a noodle bar, with all of the students. Dinner was REALLY good and they were pretty relaxed about what we got so we got a feast! then came back and relaxed with full bellies before class the next day :)

Day 4: Orientation, Fish and Chips, V&A Museum etc.

Monday started off a bit dreary outside. We all went to our orientation from about 10-12 this morning and got a feel of what the program is going to be like over here. We did not get to learn a lot about our classes, but the other information on housing and travel was helpful.

Because we were not expecting to have much of the day to ourselves we did not know exactly what to do after orientation. I went to get some Fish and Chips with one of the other girls. It was soo good. We got a larger one and decided to share, just enough for the both of us. As Fish and Chips goes, they seem to have really good tartar sauce here compared to the states. Actually both Ireland and London seem to really know how to do their tartar sauce, yum yum.

After that, because it was a rainy afternoon we decided to hit up one of the local museums. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is known as the V&A by locals and was founded by Prince Albert, Husband of Queen Victoria. It holds (as my great little red guide book says) "some of the greatest treasures from around the world including sculpture, ceramics, glass, metalwork, photography, architecture, fashion, jewelry, furniture and furnishings.

We went through the Medieval and renaissance sections, the english, british and fashion sections as well. There is so much to see and do there we only made it through the front half of the museum and we are planning on going back on another rainy day to see what the other half holds.

After that we came back to relax in the apartment for a bit and then Megan and I are probably going to go out for our nightly stroll!

Love and miss you, post pictures later

Day 3: Camden Market and Picadilly Circus

For a nice Sunday we went to the Camden Market which is gigantic. There is everything there from punk stores, piercing and tattoo parlors, girly shops, london shops and much much more. It can be really overwhelming when you have no idea what you are getting yourself into, but overall was a great experience. This is the sign from the market and just a little glimpse of some of the many shops there.

This is me overlooking a different part of the market. Down there is where we got our pina colodas! For lunch we got all different things. Some of the girls got crepes and I got pad thai with fried chicken, egg rolls and tempura type broccoli and carrots. It was really good and really filling for only 5 pounds. The other thing that I also bough today was the necklace I am wearing. this is a little watch that is enclosed and you can pop it open to see the time. It is really pretty and I like it a lot.

Yummm virgin pina coloda time (because I know everyone at work will try to convince my mom otherwise and that it has alcohol in it, well it didn't you can even see that it says virgin on the sign) After the market we went to Picadilly circus. This is just an area in London with lots of shops and theatres. It was pretty interesting there but we did not spend too much time.

On the way back to our flat we saw a girl walking with delicious looking fro-yo so we caught the name of the place on the cup and looked it up right when we got back. It is called Snog- which over here means kiss. I got the original froyo and chocolate mini heart chips, raspberries and mango. It was the best dinner ever ;)

Megan and I then decided to go on a walk through town and made it up to kensington gardens and Hyde park. There we saw the statue for king albert (i think) and walked all the way back to the apartment to relax for the rest of the night before orientation tomorrow. Goodnight and Love you all!

Day 2: Blue Badge guided tour of London!

So Saturday was day two of London and we got to go one a "Blue Badge" guided tour of London. This is me at Buckingham palace. Before this we got to ride the underground picadilly line to cockfosters and "minded the gap" as we got on and off the tube. So far I have found the tube really easy to navigate (especially after today the third day). Buckingham palace is really nice we got to see the changing of the guards which is the picture below!

At the changing of the guards the old guards going off duty marched with their band down to the palace and then wait for the new guards to march down from their barracks and then one by one they change. The air force was going off duty and the irish army and what i think was the scottish army went on duty. They apparently do not have as many of their own guards there because they are so highly trained, are off in afghanistan.

After buckingham we walked through st. james park and went near war museums to westminster, westminster abbey, big ben and finally to the bridge that takes you over to the london eye. We didn't go on it today but we are saving that for another time. We then went to go get lunch and Megan and I got burritos while others got pasta, smoothies, sandwiches and other things. But I do have to say for being deprived of good mexican that burrito tasted sooooo good.

The next half of our tour after lunch was in our own neighborhood of Kensington. We saw a lot of the area that in undiscovered by tourists. A lot of places where poets used to live and other famous ppl. And of course in such a posh part of London there has to be the coolest new things in town. So we came upon the fish pedicure. Here you put your feet in a tank and then the fish bite off the dead skin on your feet and therefore makes you have nice feet. It was pretty cool. We also saw a lot of small shops including some nice bakeries and places that had lots of pastries. yummm

Then we went to the Kensington Palace. It was a really good day but after all the walking we were so tired and came back to the flat to relax and talk to friends and family. Love and miss you guys!

Day one of London, England

So on the morning of the Friday the 23rd it was off to London for five out of seven of us who went to Dublin. We got up at 4:30 a.m. and left our apartment by 5:30 and were on the plane and off to London by 8:40 landing by 10 in the morning. Overall the flight was good but needless to say I passed out for practically the entire ride after getting maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before. Woops!

When we got to Gatwick we were greeted by James a resident assistance at our flat on Manson Place. He gave us some important details about our flat and then off we went on a walking tour of South Kensington, the area we will live and go to school in. South Kensington is one of the richest areas of London FYI so it is absolutely beautiful and we got really lucky. We walked by Imperial college which is the picture here. This is London's version of MIT as James said.

We then walked by a gorgeous music hall that is known for playing classical music. Apparently it can seat up to 2,000 people (maybe more i forget now) and every night you can que up to get in for about 5 pounds and have a whole evening of classical music. We are thinking about testing it out one evening!

This is just an example of some of the beautifully designed homes in South Kensington. They are all under law required to stay as they are right now. Some cannot even have the interiors changed to keep the history and decorations the same.

Some of the girls (from left to right) Ilana, Amy, Megan, and Rachel. And that is James in the background. This was us as we were walking around the neighborhood finding out how close we are to the other flats and our school at Foundation House.

Last Night in Dublin: Blarney Inn

Hey everyone, for our last night in Dublin we decided to go out to a nice local place called the Blarney Inn. This place has live music and dancing on some nights and we got really lucky. As we got in there were people playing music and traditional Irish Dancers. So Rachel and I decided to get up and dance with them when they asked for volunteers and it was a blast, they taught us all the steps to a dance so we could dance along. It was a really fun night! Here are some photos

Last Days in Dublin

So, to commemorate our last couple of days in Dublin we thought it would only be right to try the famous "Batter Burger" Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like, and apparently it does not usually come on a bun. For those of you that might not have been able to imagine this Batter Burger until you saw the picture I will describe it. This unnatural form of burger might kill you in one shot if you are not careful when consuming and knowing accurate body state of health. This burger is like any other burger until you dip it in batter and deep fry it. Yum, sounding like a heart attack yet, well I asked them to add cheese too it. It was pretty good, although I have to say I like regular burgers better, no batter needed for me.

For our second to last day of classes Genevieve took us out to get some ice cream as a treat for being so good during the long presentations and as a reward for answering all the questionairres she had for us. We went to a place called Murphy's. It is from Doolin and Kilkenny and pure Irish icecream. They have some pretty cool flavors like brown bread, baileys, burnt caramel and others among those. I got chocolate chocolate chip and honeycomb (which honeycomb anything is my new favorite)

This is just a picture that I had never gotten to take all along. It is Temple Bar in the Temple Bar district of Dublin. Temple bar district is full of.. BARS.. not very hard to guess. They are also known to have some other markets and stuff. But it is a very touristy area especially at night when in the night scene, but it still makes for a good time and this area is where we had met the scottish boys a while back.

This is the Four Courts of Dublin. It contains the high court and deals with other court related issues. This Four Courts got mostly destroyed in the Civil War in Dublin. Many of the records of families and surname history got lost because of this so it is even harder today to find heritage relating all the way back unless you are lucky.

And this last thing is a plaque that our teacher had told us about from one of the many famous ppl in Ireland Captain Sean Connolly.

Ok. Guess what is coming next. LONDON... I know you will all be sad that Dublin and all of Ireland is over but no worries because there will be more exciting things with London.
Love and miss you all

Northern Ireland Conflict

As a group of seven Students as well as Genevieve and Donal, we made a trip up to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland, as you may know, has been a place of conflict for many years. The conflict started with the 17th century plantations, the largest concentration of plantations being in Ulster. The plantation was a time when the British came into Ireland and took the land from the people. There are three major actors in this conflict: The Protestants who are Unionists and pro-union with Great Britain, Catholics who are Nationalists and want to unify Ireland, and Britain who wanted control over Ireland. Overall in Ireland, the Protestants were the minority group and Catholics were majority, but in Northern Ireland it was the other way around. The Protestants in the north of Ireland felt British because Britain was very protestant as well many of the people from the north came from British areas to begin with. A very large and symbolic battle happened from July 1, 1690 to July 12, 1690 called the Battle of the Boyne. This battle was between King William of Orange III, a Protestant, and King James II, a Catholic. King William of Orange III defeated King James II in the battle and destroyed James’ attempt to regain the crown of Ireland. The battle is still commemorated today in Northern Ireland on July 12th of every year. The Protestant group of Orange Men walk through the Catholic community to remind the Catholics who won the battle and what that means for them.

The Protestants are very pro-British and don’t want home rule. In the early 20th century the Unionists campaign against home rule and in 1913 the Ulster Volunteer Force is formed to oppose home rule. The Catholics retaliated on Easter 1916 when the Nationalists had the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland. The Easter rising was simply a way for the Catholic and Nationalist group in all of Ireland to take a stand and hope to end the British Rule in Ireland. Unfortunately the rising was ended after seven days and the rebels were court-martialed and executed by the people at Kilmainham Gaol. Finally in 1922 the Irish Free State was founded and Northern Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom. There was still a lot of fighting from the 1920s to 1960s when the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association campaigned against Catholic people.

The time from 1969 to 1998 became known as “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. The protestant group known as the Ulster Volunteer Force killed many Catholics in 1969. The “Battle of the Bogside” was also in 1969 in Derry where many Catholic Nationalists rioted against the British. In 1972 “Bloody Sunday” was when British Troops killed fourteen Catholic civil rights demonstrators. This killing only intensified the Irish Republican Army who was a part of the Catholic Nationalist group. The Nationalists then went on hunger strike to protests for political status and Bobby Sands in 1981 was elected Sinn Fein MP to the UK Parliament soon before he died. Ireland finally started to get some influence in what went on in Northern Ireland starting in 1985 with the Anglo- Irish Agreement.

This shortly led to the “Peace Process” in Northern Ireland. In 1994 there was a provisional IRA ceasefire, which lead to other major terrorist groups on both sides ending violence as well. The Good Friday Agreement came about in 1998 calling for ceasefire by majority of terrorist groups, power-sharing government formed and The republic of Ireland was required to withdraw its territorial claim to Northern Ireland from their constitution. Unfortunately, the power sharing government did collapse in 2002 but was re-established in 2007 with the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein being the largest parties from both sides. Since this, there has been some fighting still by groups like the IRA who have commemorators, but are illegal. And every year on July 12th the Orange men go marching through the Catholic streets to stir up trouble and remind them of the battle they lost.

As an American, it seemed surprising to me that the Catholics living in Northern Ireland did not move to the Republic of Ireland. But, when you think about the size of Ireland and the .5 million Catholics that are in Northern Ireland now, there is no way they could re-locate to other parts of Ireland. I was told that many Catholics had originally fled from Northern Ireland at the beginning of the trouble and just those few people created a lot of trouble for the other small towns in Ireland. It was also shocking to see just how many murals there are when we visited Belfast and Derry. Both the Protestant and Catholic communities have murals all over that are constantly getting updated to tell their side of the story. The one that caught my eye the most was one from the Protestant community in Belfast. There was a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters dressed in Uniform with a gun pointed at you. This gun was painted so wherever you were standing and looking at the mural you would see it pointing back at you. Another one that caught my eye on the Catholic side was the mural of Frederick Douglass, the American slave that escaped from slavery and came to Ireland, and how he became an inspiration for the Catholics trying to escape the rule of the Protestant British.

Originally, when I came to Ireland I had no knowledge of the conflict in Northern Ireland. I thought that Ireland was all one country and had no fighting like they did. I think this issue in Northern Ireland and my new grasp of the conflict has really brought me back to reality with the history of Ireland. I always thought of it as a nice green place with lots of hills, sheep, a love of the land and nice people, but the education I have received while being in Ireland has truly transformed my view into something more realistic without destroying everything I had thought before.

Day 32: The Gaol, Queen of Tarts and Souvenir Shopping

Hey Hey. So this is going to be a quick one, but I wanted to let you guys see what I was up to this past sunday. Megan and I took the time to go to Kilmainham Gaol. This is a historical jail from the 1700's in Ireland. It is known for its political position in the history of Ireland. There are many people staying here that were rebels in the 1916 rising and many other famous people.

These are both pictures of the Jail cell doors and a look inside the cell. Megan actually has a picture of me from one of the newer cells, but I don't have that one. The Gaol is now used for concerts and other such things because the acoustics in one of the cell halls is excellent

This is the picture of Megan looking sad stuck in her cell. Just kidding, but we both did pretend to look sad.





This is the newer section of the Gaol. This is the section where they have the concerts now





We saw this guy after we went back to Guinness to pick up some more souvenirs for friends and family.
The rest of our day we spent out and about going to Queen of Tarts, a really delicious tart place and getting more souvenirs. But, unfortunately at Queen of Tarts my apple crumble had a piece of hair in it :( So I had to give it back and I got the pear, chocolate and almond tart. It was not as good but hey, I got the one and a half desserts for free!
It was an interesting day. Quite relaxing getting to shop for all you lovelies back home! Miss you and Love you

Days 29, 30 and 31: Fried Ice cream, Belfast, the rope bridge and Giants Causeway

Hello Hello, sorry it is taking me a bit to get these updated but as it is coming to the end of my time in Ireland there is so much to do. Well this past weekend was great. Before we left for Belfast in Northern Ireland myself and one of the girls on the trip with me, Megan, decided to go out and get some mexican. We got some Nachos, but best of all we got fried ice cream that was actually very delicious! It did have this weird thing on top of it that neither of us knew what it was (therefore we deicided not to eat it) but it looked cool.

On Friday morning, bright and early at 7 a.m. here, we were off on the train to Belfast. As some of you may or may not know, there has been lots of fighting in Northern Ireland over many years. And we happened to go right at the end of the time when some of the fighting was over. I do know some background about the conflicts in Northern Ireland and I am not going to write it all here I will save that for another post, but I will mention a little. Ever since the time of the Plantation in Ireland there has been conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. Religion is huge here and it also has to do with the British who were major players in Irish History. So a short summation is when the British were in Ireland there were the Catholics who are also known as nationalists who fought against British Rule, and the protestants who are Unionists and fought for British Rule. Overall in Irish history the protestants have been the minority group but in Northern Ireland there are many more protestants than catholics. So the protestants wanted to stay under British Rule, Northern Ireland is now considered part of the UK and on the day the Battle of the Boyne happened (when the protestants up in northern ireland beat the catholics) the protestants always go and march through the catholic streets. And as you can imagine this has been the source for much conflict in northern Ireland ever since.

For a while now there has been a "peace wall" between the catholic and protestant communities in Belfast and you are allowed to write on it. So I made my mark up there wishing they would come to a better agreement of peace where the wall is no longer needed.

On a lighter note, on Sunday, we went up even farther north in Northern Ireland up to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. From this part in Ireland you can see all the way over to scotland. And this rope bridge was a concept that many Irish and scottish people came up with long ago. This area was a great place to catch fish. So instead of staying there all day they created a rope bridge and hung a net from it to catch as many fish as they could and came back later to collect what they trapped.

Needless to say the rope bridge was QUITE high up. Which is probably why they created it in the first place. As well it was the only way they could connect the smaller pieces of land right off the shore to the coastline. This is what it would look like if you were looking down from the bridge. God forbid you drop anything you would be dead meat and probably never get it back. The water was quite rocky down below!

Becuase it was really hard to actually get some great pictures on the bridge (1. it was really scary and wabbly and 2. you couldn't spend forever on the bridge because of the que of people to get across) Unfortunately on the long mile hike to get down to the bridge it started to POUR on us. I know my pants were soaked through and I was not sure that my rain jacket would even be able to keep me dry at this point. Everything was wet. But lucky enough for us, when we went across the first time it has almost stopped, and when we went back across the rain was all over. Something else funny, unfortunately i did not get to see this, but one of the workers for the rope bridge was going across and he had shears in his hands and was pretending to cut the bridge while people were on it. Funny, but not for the ppl on it at the time.

After that we headed over to Giants Causeway. This is a natural formation of rocks that is due to a volcano, where the volcano was, who knows. But there is a much better story that goes along with the formation of this Causeway that gave it its name. The rocks are all hexagonal shaped and range in their heights. It is something that you must go see when in Northern Ireland because the whole area around the causeway is stunning with large cliffs and rushing water creating huge splashes. It was a sight to see.

This is a photo of me on the rocks with the crashing waves in the background. So the story of the causeway goes something like this: Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool) as a young boy went out with one of his elders to find this carrot and this carrot was supposed to have all the knowledge in the world. And Finn was told not to eat this carrot but to watch it as it cooked. And Finn while he was left with the carrot went to test the water and see if it was done yet, but upon doing this he burnt his finger and stuck it in his mouth. As this happened Finn of course got the knowledge and his elder came back and yelled at Finn telling him to get out and he was left on his own around the age of seven. But no worries because Finn was a smart young boy with all the knowledge so he made it successfully on his own.

The one thing that Finn was missing was a wife. And he wanted to have a nice scottish wife so he built the causeway to get over to Scotland (which you can see from there) and found himself a nice wife (Oonagh) to take back to Ireland with him. Finn was a happy man until he heard that a giant called Benandonner was coming over to Ireland to fight Finn MacCool for stealing a scottish woman. Everyone in Finns village was scared, but Finn said no worries "I have the knowledge." He told his wife and all the ladies to make the biggest baby clothes that would fit him, and all the men to make a large enough crib to fit him in it as well. So, at the time when Benandonner was going to come to Ireland Finn told everyone to hide in the forest, and he got into the baby clothes and into the crib. When Benadonner came over to Ireland and saw the baby in the crib he cried out "Oh my god, if this is the size of the baby how big is his father?" and like a coward ran back to Scotland and ripped up the Causeway except the remains that are left. Finn then ripped a large chunk out of the land and threw it at Benandonner telling him never to come back again. And that large hole in the earth left Lough Neagh (lock ney) and missed Benandonner and therefore created the Isle of Man.



Both of these last two photos are from the town of Derry. There is a lot of history in Derry and the town actually has three names. Londonderry (as the protestants refer to it) Derry (as the Catholics refer to it) and it has its original Gaelic Irish Name that it was originally given. The town was very interesting. We went on a walking tour to see the different parts of Derry and where some major history in the fighting was. The Free Derry sign was posted by the Catholics during their attempts to free themselves from the U.K.

The weekend was very busy but lots of fun. Hope you enjoyed all of the information and stories!!!