The last couple days have been crazy! Let's review:

Last week I got my first interview invite.... to Johns Hopkins! I was so excited, I wanted to faint. I couldn't believe it. Freshman year of high school, I did not envision myself being a biology major, accomplishing as much as I have academically, having all these amazing opportunities likes studying abroad and researching this summer, and certainly didn't see myself applying and actually being competitive for some of the schools on my list. It's crazy how life happens.

Monday was my birthday. I received two cakes, one from my apartment-mate Rachel and one from Brittany. I had a test in my hardest class. Although I had spent a lot of time preparing, I was surprised by 1/3 of the test being on material he hadn't covered or told us to know (I was later told he covered it the lecture AFTER the test.) So clearly I was not in a good mood. I hit the library as soon as it opened and then had class straight from morning until 7pm. I hardly got to talk to anyone. On the way to dinner with Kelsey and Brittany, I got a call from my dad saying my birthday present was tickets to the Sharks v. Penguins hockey game on Saturday. I was screaming my head off somewhat inappropriately for being in public. I was so excited because the Penguins are really good and won the Stanley Cup last year, and I really dislike them because of all the hype. And the Sharks were amazing last year up until the playoffs and they are pretty decent this year. It was going to be a great match up, but when Kelsey and I looked for tickets months ago, they were all either sold out or too expensive.

Kelsey and Brittany took me out to East Asian cuisine. I had chicken dumplings which were unusually spicy and really good steak satay. All the food was very different. It wasn't an Americanized East Asian, it was very traditional. Kelsey had some salad we spent the majority of the time trying to figure out what the heck was in it. We went back to their apartment for CAKE. Then I came home, thinking about how I should have been at the library studying.... oh well.

So Friday, I had the ABRCMS conference in Phoenix. Thursday after class, I drug Kelsey and Brittany to the mall because I really disliked my old suit and I really adhere to the principle if you don't look good, you don't feel good. I really wanted something that would fit me more comfortably and looked sharper. I really just wanted a jacket and was surprised at how much they cost. You can get a suit for $200, but a jacket is $150+? I finally found something a little less formal but it fit me well- herringbone slacks and a black, silk shirt. Then, we went to dinner. I went to bed at 1am because after having a crazy week with tests, birthday, and presentations, I hadn't printed my boarding pass, packed my purse, figured out how I was getting to and from the airports, or anything. I'm not usually this unprepared.

After getting exactly 2.5 hours of sleep (coming off a week where I'd had maybe ten hours combined sleep), I sprung up and got ready. I had to pack my purse carefully. The dilemma was that I had to carry everything that I'd possibly need for an entire day trip where I'd be sleeping, the temperature would be changing, and I'd need to freshen up, yet small enough that I could carry it all day. I'd arranged for a taxi to take me to the airport. You live and learn these things. After doing it, now I know how to call ahead and arrange for a taxi. I was really down after everything went so smoothly I realized I was at the airport 1.5 hours early for a 6am flight.


I arrived in Phoenix and took another taxi, where I figured out that system as well. I got to see my friend Ruth! I also hung out with Oneil, also from summer research. We were sad the rest of our crew wasn't there. I'm considering adding one school to my list as a result of the conference, but instead, it was good to go around and get more specific information about the schools I applied to (like a summary of the weather.) However, going there has made me even more up in the air about where I want to go. In addition, they gave me some good advice about interviews and just generally what to look for when I visit a school. Once again, this conference focused on minorities. It was sad to see some of the schools begging for African-Americans to apply. Maybe instead of starting at graduate school, they could start by having high schools try to graduate more blacks and then universities. From there, it should be a given that there would be a large pool of qualified African-Americans that would be competitive for positions in graduate school, instead of trying to lower the standards for graduate school in order to recruit more diversity now.

For lunch we had a guest speaker who among her many accomplishments double majored in African-Art and some engineering field, medical school, Peace Corps tour, started two businesses, was on People magazines 50 Most Beautiful People list, and was an astronaut in space. The most I can say is, "When I was in Dublin..." and she said "When we were drifting through the Aurora Borealis..." I did a few more hours of networking and before I knew it it was time to head to the airport. Martha came to pick me up (she lives two hours away from Phoenix.) I was so excited, I hadn't seen her in months! We drove around and around Phoenix looking for a place to eat dinner. We eventually stopped at this Chinese restaurant. It was the most run-down place I've EVER seen. I mean, there were bars on the windows... of a restaurant. And to get to the bathroom you literally have to weave through the middle of the kitchen. I got to the bathroom to realize there was no window in the window space, just a rug over it blocking the wind from the outside. The bathroom had only a hook latch for a lock. The toilette paper was hung on a loop of wire. To wash you hands there was an old bottle of watered down Joy dishsoap and now towells. When Martha and I ordered a drink, she brought 2 cans of Sprite and two glasses, no fountain drinks. However, the food was really really good. There are pictures, but at this time I had been awake way too much, and my body (including my complexion) felt the effects. In the picture, I look old. I went to the airport and got on the plane. Kelsey and Jesse picked me up in San Jose and I came home and crashed!

Saturday was game day! When I found out about the game, I went online and ordered a Sharks shirt and had it overnighted. In all my time here, I hadn't invested in any Sharks-wear yet, but I thought now is the time. I didn't really think about the game until like three hours prior and then I started getting really really antsy. When you are sitting at the game, it's like you almost don't believe it. The HP Pavillion is walking distance from campus, and imagine 17,000 people consolidated to a few blocks radius, the police shut down the streets because there is so much foot traffic. Everyone is really excited (or maybe just really drunk) and the mood is contagious. We had really great seats in the 15th row. Apparently they serve wine at hockey games. I'll upload the picture on Picasa, they give you a tiny plastic cup full of wine, and put a lid on it. When they handed it to us, Kelsey and I looked at eachother laughing. It looked exactly like a urine sample that you would give at a hospital and it was so comical that they would put a lid on it.



The game was amazing. There were three fights and the Sharks won 5-0. There were a few lone Penguins fans bold enough to wear a jersey. It seemed unreal. I never thought I'd be sitting watching the Sharks and the famed Sydney Crosby!

I'm excited. I get to go to the ABRCMS (Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students) conference in Phoenix on Nov 6th. There are going to be representatives from many of the graduate schools I applied to there. The conference runs from Thursday-Saturday. Unfortunately, I have a presentation that I can't miss. However, the coordinator at our school was able to work out things so I fly in Friday morning, network, and fly out Friday night. I'm really fortunate to get this opportunity. Besides that, I've just been trying to catch up with school. After studying so hard for the GRE, I'm basically behind about 1.5 months in school (this is no exaggeration).

I do find time to go out with my girlfriends. Last week we went to Peruvian food. I don't really feel like a college student anymore. Instead of going out for pizza, on Fridays, my friends and I unwind with a glass of wine, while dining at different themed restaurants. I'll basically try any style of food now, however, I still and never will eat sea food. Here is a picture of us before going out to dinner last weekend.

Reminiscing

Currently: missing my favorite British restaurant Kashu (you know the one with the amazing cheesy pizza creation).


I have just been reminiscing about the past 7 years. My high school/college era is coming to an end. I think I'm getting a bit nostalgic. Most of my life happened before I started this blog. I have a bunch of pictures taken over the past years that I have been negligent in distributing to family, so I posted a few of them on Picasa. It's mostly my friends and I.

So I just took my GRE and did pretty well. With that weight off my shoulders, I can finally move on with my graduate school applications, focus on classes, and actually have a life. I'm just so glad that it's over and that I got the score I wanted.

I have finally posted photos (on Picasa) from this summer at Dartmouth and the weekend in NYC. As I was going through them all, I realized I had completely forgotten how much fun it was and how much I got to experience. I had forgotten about some of the minor things like dinners that we had, but there was some inside joke going on or something that made it stand out from other memories. That happens with my pictures from Europe too. I look at them and all the memories and tiny details come rushing back and, I'm not usually sentimental, but it makes me sit back and think, wow I am so lucky to have seen all I've seen, met all the great people that I did, and seen parts of our country and parts of the world that are totally different than what I knew.

And on a more shallow note, I just rememebered the other day that I had met "The Hoff" when I was in Arizona visiting Martha last school year. I was really excited. My first celebrity sighting ever! David Hasselhoff.

Do you think if I wrote the bio department and said I was vegan, they wouldn't make me attend Mammalian Physiology lab?

The thought of stabbing blindly around the peritoneal cavity with a 20 gauge needle in order to withdraw 5ccs of blood, while our oddly albino rat seizes to death, leaking urine all over the table, has me ready to start an animal-product-free diet. Fine print in the university catalogue: physiology deals with live organisms.... anatomy is dead ones. Oops.

I'm in the wrong major.

Trust me, you should read this. It's funny!

Yesterday I had a little incident with my no longer trusty Pyrex pan and since fighting with Canon the last eight months, I have no energy to even write a letter. However, I will warn you. Yesterday night, I was cooking a kebab in the oven in my glass Pyrex baking dish. I took it out of the oven, took out the kebab, and held the dish over the sink. Now I'm not sure what the next sequence of events was, as I was standing there in shock. Somehow I went to turn on the water and the dish literally exploded with a loud pop and where the dish used to be, about 100,000 tiny shards sat in the sink.... along with pooling red blood. I was holding a red hot-pot holder and thought how weird it was that after having it so long, it still bled in water. It was then that I realized the red color was from me, my entire hand was gushing blood. I always forget how bright red fresh blood is. I didn't even know where the cuts were so I didn't know how to contain them. I dripped blood all over the kitchen floor and in the bathroom where I wrapped toilette paper around and around my hand, too afraid to look.

I went to check out the damage and realized that pieces had been shot nearly ten feet from the sink. I'm glad none of the shards got into my eyes or torso. I think I was still in shock as I picked pieces out of the sink (one handed) and disposed of them. Somehow tiny shards had cut me all over my hand, so blood would seep from places where I couldn't even see a puncture mark. I have one big gash between fingers and a huge one on my thumb. I didn't want to go to the hospital, even though my fingers bled through the night (and through at least half a roll of toilette paper).

Ok so I promised you would laugh. Reading about my hand being made into minced meat isn't that funny. But this is. I googled exploding Pyrex because my mom swears that it has happened to her too years and years ago. After receiving no less than 700 complaints of the exact same thing happening, a consumer reports site wrote an article. Oddly, the people who wrote in said the same things, "explosion," "shards," and "loud pop" and this was a result of many different conditions. Some had the dishes in the fridge, microwave, range, oven, never used and still in the box, hot water, cold water- all situations, they blew up.

World Kitchen purchased Pyrex and Corning Ware, and there is a rumor that they changed the chemical makeup of the glass to something cheaper. Douglas S. Arnold, a vice president of World Kitchen responded to the article by saying-

"We want to assure you that neither Pyrex glass bakeware nor other glass bakeware 'explodes.' Glass does not explode but it can break. As glass bonds break, people may hear a noise and be surprised. When glass breaks, it may appear instantaneous, and may be described with violent words such as 'exploded' or 'disintegrated.' Instead of disintegrating, however, a glass failure generates from one or more fractures, each of which begins at a particular site and grows from there."

Isn't this like describing an airliner crash as an "inadvertent impact with terrain?" Is this guy a politician? If it shatters like an explosion and sounds like an explosion, it's an explosion. Don't try to shmooze your way out of this by arguing semantics, I've taken chemistry too you know! I have a few "violent words" for you too Mr. Arnold.

The writer of the article responded:

When, let's say, numerous consumers who do not know each other, who live in different parts of the country and who have no apparent reason to engage in an elaborate conspiracy to bring down Pyrex report something, there is good reason to believe that it probably happened pretty much as they described it, no?

How to explain Vice President Arnold's head-in-the-sand approach to exploding cookware? For public consumption, he represents the standard corporate point of view, which goes something like this: There are no known defects in our products. If we knew of defects in our products and did not fix them, we would be liable for damages or injuries resulting from their use. Therefore, we don't know of any such defects.

The second verse of the standard corporate litany always goes something like this: If our products are exploding, catching fire, melting down or irradiating bystanders, it is obviously due to operator error since there are no known defects in our products. If there were known defects, we would have ... etc.

Now you should be laughing... maybe it's only me. I've dealt with my fair share of shady business people over the years and that is exactly what they say. Never their fault. Today I was thinking that I should be thankful, it could have been worse. I'm glad it was not. I will not be writing to Pyrex to get a coupon for another dish which may explode- oh excuse me break- in my face. What is going on here? I should not have to enter the kitchen prepped for battle. I have to do it, I have to write a short letter.

Dear Pyrex,
I hate you. You ruined my Saturday night and my kebab/asparagus meal. Thanks to you, I will not be able to make brownies in my favorite brownie pan because it blew up. Now my brownies will be shaped like pound cake, or to thin from the 13x9. I was going to ask for your eight piece set with plastic lids from Target for Christmas, but now I will not! I will switch to stoneware. So there.

Your no longer loyal customer,
Briana

My new address at school is:

375 S. 9th St. #2019
San Jose, CA 95112

My GRE is scheduled for October 3rd. Until then, I'm just keeping up with my five classes (surprise! I'm only taking 15 credits this semester), working at my old on-campus job, trying to figure out some kind of volunteer position that fits in with my schedule, doing a ton of paperwork for graduation, GRE practice, and starting my graduate school applications which is no joke.

The list changes daily of the PhD programs I'm applying to. There are so many options! I finally decided that I'm going to focus on programs on the west coast. I don't think I can commit to living that far away from my family for 5-7 years.

New York

Hailing a taxi, which is actually pretty fun. It gives you a power rush to raise your hand and bam! Taxis screech to a stop.


Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My lab decided to give me increased responsibilities so I went from doing nothing to working seven day weeks, 16+ hour days (without time to even eat lunch) in addition to classes and other SURF required stuff. I'd like to think I'm not lazy but barely having time to sleep, shower, or eat was not fun. I was wondering which was more like the life of a grad student. Neither is really that favorable it seems. Now it's crunch time. I present to my lab tomorrow and we do another poster presentation on Tuesday, this time to the professors in the department. I have a paper due before I leave, and I fly out on Wednesday back to Boise for a few days.

Tuesday of last week I was sent home because I was too sick to work and was contaminating everyone's stuff. I get back to the room to realize my two roommates were also sent home. We had a sick day together. I thought I was going to die. It went away 24 hours later though.

Last weekend we went to see Eric Huchinson at an outdoor concert in Woodstock, Vermont. I don't know what it is about outdoor concerts, but they make me feel more well-rounded and deep. The Sixers opened for him and they were like any punk band. Then this nerdy, white boy gets on stage playing the piano in an all white suit with white, alligator-skin shoes, a stripped shirt, and a polka-dotted tie. His style was that of most alternative singers, but more jazzy. He had someone on the sax and he was playing the piano most of the time. Amorette took us three girls and her husband. Poor him. It was all girls singing, dancing, and idolizing this guy and he was just sitting there thinking he'd rather be anywhere else.

New York:
We drove down to NYC with Ruth's (my roommate)sister. Her sister's boyfriend knows New York very well and he was our personal tour guide to Manhattan. The drive was about 4.5 hours. We had to work on Friday so we didn't end up getting to Manhattan until about 9pm. When the hotel said only two per room and we thought they were just trying to rip us off and had the three of us in our room, but when we walked in we realized that that was for our own good. Besides the queen bed, there was about 1 foot on each side and that was our room. I ended up sleeping on the floor. We had late dinner reservations at a Japanese fusion restaurant. It was very upscale, seeing that it was located in Trump Tower. I had asparagus on a stick and Kobe beef. The beef was amazing. Even with small portions, you still get really full.

The next morning we got up and walked to Union Square and Madison Square Garden, picking up breakfast on the way. We walked to Time Square and Bryant Park- famous for fashion week. Time Square was slightly disappointing. However, we did see where the Morning Show and TRL are filmed.

We met up with Lilly's boyfriend for lunch and stopped at the Empire State Building on the way. He told us to go to a NY style pizza place which was AMAZING. We walked to Ground Zero. It's so weird. An empty spot in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers. They are making it into a memorial..... and mall. Mourning + capitalism. From there we walked to China Town. It was really crowded and they were yelling at tourists to buy knock off purses and bootleg CDs.

We took the subway a few times. I hadn't really experienced what the study abroad program refers to as "reverse culture shock," but being in NY made me compare it to other big cities I have traveled to. I was considering applying to graduate schools in NY, I realized that there are other big cities that are closer to home that have similar charm.


We also went to Battery Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty. We were far away but I still thought it would be bigger. After walking about 10 miles we went back to the hotel to get ready for the Broadway musical, Marry Poppins. We got all dressed up and caught a taxi to the theater and met up with Ruth's sister and her boyfriend.

The play was amazing! There was singing, dancing, and at one point Bert was tap-dancing upside down on the ceiling of the theater. At the end Mary Popping flew up into the audience. We were on the balcony and she flew right in front of us. After the play, we went to a Mexican restaurant where the food was once again amazing! We poured into bed at about 1am. I loved eating at 10-11 at night.

The next morning we went out to breakfast at a really good diner that Danny recommended. Then we were off to Central Park and Central Park Zoo. We walked by the Plaza hotel and could tell that we were in an area with money, the cars parked in front of that hotel were very nice. Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue. Since we all had lab work to get back to, we left at about 2. After all that walking the day before and Sunday, we were exhausted! All in all, I'm glad I had the experience.


Ahh the New York Times

Leadership Alliance

Hey all,
Sorry I haven't written in so long, I've been busy. Nothing really exciting to report. I work five days a week 9-5 or 6. Have GRE study class two days a week 6:30-9 and journal club one day a week 6:30-9. Between all these I try to fit in an hour work-out a few days a week. On the time we do have off, usually our PI (primary investigator) have assigned extra reading or we are working on posters or papers we have to write. Basically all of us get home exhausted. On the weekends are surf activities and studying for the GRE. I decided not to take it at the end of this summer but instead, at the end of September. I'm glad I didn't sign up because students just now are realizing their test date is in 1.5 weeks and no one has really prepared because we are so busy.

My project is coming along. I'm thankful for this experience because it's taught me that two months of this kind of work is enough for a lifetime. I will not be going into a biology field as I thought I would all through college. While many in the program are trying to convince me not to give up all hope, I don't really see a very good job in this field where you don't have to do bench research, type 90-page long requests for grants, or be publishing, peer reviewing, or keeping up on very technical articles. I'm still interested in biology as it relates to health but on a more macro level. Well very macro.. I'm interested in population diseases. So now I've discovered the field of public health. Some of the jobs you can do would be to have a combined public health/public policy degree and go to DC and become an advocate for different healthcare issues, run a clinic, work for the Center for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, or head up other government and private programs. However, I just decided this so it's a little late to start taking more health related classes and participating in more specific internships, considering applications are due to graduate schools in December.

Also, I finally completed my Peace Corps application! It was about 100 pages long. I discovered a really cool program they have called Masters International. Specifically in the field of public health, the PC has a combined program with 13 schools where you can attend a few semesters and then receive credit hours towards your degree for your PC service and you write your thesis while you are there. However, you must get into both the PC and the school separately. This is perfect for me because I would get my degree which fulfills the education component but I feel I lack the experience so I think PC service would give me more field experience. And it turns out the schools are some of the top ranking programs. I will probably end up applying to a few really good schools' masters programs as well as a few of the Masters International programs. And hey, if I don't get into the Peace Corps but get accepted to one of the Masters International schools, I can still attend that school.

I think the people here are somewhat disappointed in my choice because the whole point of this program is to increase minorities in the biological PhD world, but sitting all day long with little person-to-person interaction is not me. Plus.. I have this weird need to wear lose fitting clothing, holding poor, dirty kids, and save the world. I think I could accomplish that better as a public health professional.

Besides that life-altering realization, I also went to Virginia/Washington D.C. this weekend to present at the Leadership Alliance Conference.

This is me presenting to a man dubbed "the mean mean man from Brown" who was extremely critical of everyone's posters. Since my protein that we were testing was a fairly new discovery, when he launched in to all these other experiments we should do, it was very easy to defend because he was absolutely right. I told him that yes, further testing should definitely be done to understand the function of this protein. He didn't expect that and really had nothing more to say. I think I stood up well against him.

The Leadership Alliance is primarily for minorities. While our program at Dartmouth is a member of this alliance, the alliance paid for the four minority students to attend but Dartmouth had to pay for our other 4 white students to attend. However, most of the schools didn't opt to do that and only sent the freebies, so the conference was 98% black. This is probably politically incorrect but honestly, it was a really good experience for me to see all the well-spoken, well dressed students from traditionally black colleges like Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard as opposed to the rap-singing, saggy pants wearing men and women who say they are expressing their black pride. Their fellow blacks may call them too white or something with a similar connotation, but black pride does not have to consist of reinforcing steriotypes, but can also consist of being educated and classy.

Besides presenting my poster, they also had panels of everyone from previous graduate admissions professors to a key note speaker who told us that we might be out of a small town, the ghetto, etc but it's not just our job to get out, it's our job to go back and bring at least two people out with us. I thought it was really inspirational, and reinforced what I had been thinking all weekend about public health. The graduate admissions panel also reinforced the idea of your applicaton being a whole package. While I'm always worried about 0.03 change in my GPA or getting a 1400 as opposed to a 1350 on my GRE, they told us that they look at the overall package. If you don't get in, it's not because of a minor thing. It's because several things about you are not in line with that certain program.

We got back late on Sunday and woke up for work the next morning.

Mailing Address

I'll be in Hanover until August 19th. If you'd like to send mail (which is always appreciated) you can send it to:

Briana Coles
c/o George O'Toole, PhD
Dept of Microbiology
Rm 505 Vail Building
Dartmouth Medical School
Hanover, NH 03755

Thanks!

We have the Leadership Alliance Conference in a few weeks where we have to prepare a poster and present it to those walking by, science fair style. Since most schools that get their funding through the Leadership Alliance are on the semester system, they began their SURF programs in May and they are coming to a close. However, since Dartmouth is on the quarter system and this program didn't start until June 24 (which was perfect for me because it gave me plenty of time to travel around Europe with my mom) we will have only done about three out of the ten total weeks of research. When we present at the conference, it will mostly be about what we plan to do. And.. the conference is in Virginia, I've never been there so that will be exciting!

Some of the students jumped right into research either because they already knew what they were doing (as I'm the only one who hasn't been doing research at my college for the last two years) or their graduate student is intent on them being very involved. I have neither so we'll see how this summer goes. I am supposed to present a project tomorrow to the rest of the students in the program (8), but I don't have a project yet... so, we'll see.

Our GRE classes start tonight. Instead of costing each of us $1,200, it's FREE-NINTEY-FREE. That is a really nice perk to this program. Thank you government and private foundations for funding this program. Now the real research starts. The program is no longer taking us to free dinners and planning weekends away. Instead, it's meals at the dining hall and researching 24/7.

I'm completely confused about grad schools. These are the questions I want to ask someone. Apparently science majors don't have to go through the Masters to PhD track. Most just get their PhD. And apparently you don't pay for your PhD, you are an employee of the school and get health benefits, they pay your tuition and fees, and you get about a $25,00/year stipend. More for better funded schools. This was all just introduced to me about five months ago. So then I'm thinking, why would I pay for a masters if someone will pay me to get my PhD? But, without a ton of research experience, and slightly above average grades, would I even get into any PhD programs? Or maybe I should work in a lab for a year and then apply to a PhD program that way 'll have more experience. Or I should apply to a Masters program and then after getting some experience apply to a PhD program and not finish my Masters? After meeting the kids here and seeing what I'm up against- they know exactly what concentration they want to go into, what graduate schools they are applying to, have years of lab experience, and some have even published articles already. If these are the kind of people that are going to be applying where I'm applying, I need to bring something amazing to the table. It's all very confusing and like most things with school it's different every person you talk to. Everyone takes a different track.

On top of this, now I'm thinking, am I really cut out to sit in a freezing cold lab ten hours a day with me, my petri dishes, my ipod, and a microscope? The first few days here I've been somewhat intellectually understimulated (aka bored).

6.29 Woods Hole/Martha's Vineyard

My roommies: Ruth, Anna, me by the shore

On Monday and Tuesday of this week we went to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. There we toured the Marine Biological Laboratory which is not an aquarium but they use marine animals as models for human problems.

We went to some great seafood restaurants where I chose turf over surf and got steak. I might be getting adventurous with food but I'm not crazy. It was a good chance to get to know the other students. We are quickly becoming friends. Although, there are already some tensions within the group.

On Tuesday we went to Martha's Vineyard where everyone, including me, came back crispy as a lobster. We basically just walked around, played on the shore, rode the carousel where they actually had the rings that you could catch to try to get a brass one, and had lunch. It was fun and I can now check another place off my list of places I haven't been.

Today we stared lab. It wasn't all I hoped it would be but I'm hoping it will get better. I found myself thinking, "I should have majored in Spanish."

Boise then Dartmouth

My time in Boise went like this:
Leave London at 3pm London time, which was 7am Boise time, where I sat by a girl who was airsick the whole time, and she clearly knew she was going to be. You'd think that with all the modern technologies available to her, she wouldn't subject those surrounding her to sounds of her gagging up her vegetarian meal if she could help it.
Arrive in Boise at 11pm
Airport pickup, unpack... somewhat, and get to sleep at about 2:30am
Woke up, for no apparent reason at 5:30am where my mom and I began the daunting task of unpacking 6 months of studying abroad and three weeks of European adventure
Straighten hair in preparation for haircut
11am dentist cleaning appointment, no cavities yay!
Jacob's Birthday celebration/seeing family at 12pm at Star Cafe
Haircut
Booster immunization shots
Go home, begin packing
Shower, dinner and movie with Robby
Home to pack until 3am
Get up at 4am for a mad frenzy of packing
On plane at 6:15am Boise time, 8:15 New Hampshire time
Arrive in Boston at 5pm, arrive at Dartmouth at 10:00pm

I WAS EXHAUSTED!

My program consists of eight other students in addition to me, Amorette who is the coodinator that we love, and the professors that have dared to take us on. So far we have been wined and dined to the fullest. This includes free hotels, free dinners and breakfast, and SWEET swag like top of the line safety goggles.

I have a two room tripple. Already our room has been established as the hangout place. Already we, as a group, are going out to things together that weren't organized by the program. We got up this morning and half of us went running together, we've made random trip to Wal-Mart for those that forgot stuff. A few of us are going to a movie tonight. I think I found my new group of temporary friends!!

We have $400 for food, but after finding out a meal on campus is $8-13 we realized our meal card isn't going to go very far so we are figuring out how to cook or eat at cheaper places. Our room has already been established a hang-out place, which is convenient, and also hard to get a moment's silence because we don't really have anything else to do as of now.

6.19-22 Last London Adventure :(

My mom told me before she'd even arrived that she had a surprise for me that I would love. My mom has surprised me several times and usually it's with something I had asked for on a whim and then forgotten about, so I was a little wary of what was to come. When she arrived she told me we were going to see the Phantom of the Opera matinee on the 20th. This ended up being one of my favorite London days.

I didn't even have time to think of Phantom until the day of. After coming back from Dublin so late, the next day we spent relaxing and we were still in my dorm room so we had to try to pack up everything from my five months there as well as all the souvenirs and new things that we had, we donated a lot of my books that had accumulated, my bedding, and anything else that wasn't really important. We packed a bag for our last few days in London and everything else was carefully packed in the larger bags in preparation for the trip to America. We left on the bus that morning and found the hotel by noon. Checking out of accommodation went easily.

This is where things got crazy. We wanted to dress up some for the play. I had forgotten to put nylons in my little bag so we had to tear apart three of the big bags to find them. My mom needed some little thing then I needed another thing. By the time we left in a hurry for Phantom, the hotel room was a mess.

Phantom was AMAZING. I am not usually emotional, but I actually wanted to cry during the play. It was all surreal. Not only that I was there, but that it was so good. I'm used to going to those small-scale productions put on by high-schools in Boise, this play actually had costume changes and the chandelier in the theater actually began to swing at that part (for anyone who has seen the play/movie) where it comes crashing down on the audience. The voices of the singers were amazing. It was just all around wonderful.

After the play we wondered around London for awhile and wanted to go out to a fancy (maybe that's not the right word... different maybe?) dinner. There are so many options in London that it makes it hard to find one. We ended up picking a Thai restaurant. Now that I've tried Thai food, I love it as long as it doesn't taste like peanuts. We had cocktails and chicken satay for appetizer and I had pad see ew. It was so good and in true European fashion, we ate for at least two hours. We went home and crashed.

The next day we were determined to go on the walking tour of London. Turns out it's by the same company that did the walking tour that I loved so much of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was Emily. She was a theater/drama major and she worked solely on tips so she was very animated. You'll have to check out the pictures for the run-through of the tour. We ended up seeing a lot of really random things. There was a parade of veterans where they laid wreathes on a war memorial. We couldn't get close enough to see which memorials specifically. It made me really sad because they had them divided by marines, air force, etc. and after those walking there were men with canes, and then at least half of teach group was in wheel chairs and they were followed by oxygen tanks and medics. It was really sad that those that risked their lives had to suffer old age. They also had a small group of nurses. We also saw the band that does changing of the guard at Buckingham paraded down the street which our tour guide says she's never seen them do before.

After the walking tour, my mom and I walked around to finish my souvenir shopping list. We stopped and had a tiny lunch at this amazing cafe. We split a ham and cheese croissant. I wouldn't mention it, except this was the best best cheese I've ever had in my life! It was a hybrid between butter and cheese. It was amazing. We didn't realize that it was Sunday and that everything was going to close early (man we could have used Barcelona's time table right then) so we were wondering around town planning on spending the last of our money on shopping and maybe eating out somewhere for dinner when we started noticing all the shops closing at 5pm. We wanted to make one last run to Primark but we were out of luck. All the stores on Oxford street closed. Put out, we went back to our hotel, ordered room service and undertook the major task of repacking.

My mom had to leave the hotel at 3am while I had to leave at 12pm so she headed to bed. I followed soon after. It wasn't too long before we met up again in Boise for another whirlwind. I will always remember the time in Europe traveling with Stacy and Jansher, Carly and Kaylin, Britney, and with my mom. Thanks to all who supported me.

6.18 Dublin

Are we there yet?!
After returning from Barcelona at 7pm, we were off the next morning at 3am on a two hour bus to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight to DUBLIN. I remembered that my mom mentioned wanted to go there. Since it hadn't worked out to take a weekend there in the short time we had, I thought a day trip could be fun. I didn't realize how strenuous it would be, especially after coming back from Barcelona late the day before. I got an amazing deal, the plane tickets were only about $30 USD per person. What a steal!

We arrived in Dublin exhausted! First we checked out Trinity College. We got a Hop On Hop Off bus (the red, double-decker ones you always see in London) ticket and rode that throughout the day. We did a little shopping. Coming from London where the fashion is expensive casual and Barcelona where the fashion was varied but people really worked their style, Dublin was kinda a dud. People were wearing bland clothing all in the earth tone family.

For lunch we went to an amazing little pub where they had live music (which sounded so Irish) and good roast beef. It was a quaint atmosphere. At this point I was wearing down. It started pouring rain. I put my scarf over my head and ended up looking like a beggar child.

We went to the Guinness factory as well. I had been to the Heineken factory before, so all beer is pretty much the same. It was interesting to see, much like how Detroit was built around factories, Dublin was built around the Guinness factory. The entire town revolved around this beer making industry. Also, I loved seeing the old advertisements. One said that pregnant mothers were prescribed a pint of Guinness because it makes you "robust" and healthy. How time have changed. Also the political incorrectness of racism apparent in the ads is also interesting.

We continued to the airport at about 7pm, exhausted. We got back to London at about 11pm, exhausted. We took the bus home and got back to Hatfield at 1:15am, exhausted. As tiring as it was, I was so happy to go. We were planning on going (once again) to the walking tour in London the next day. That didn't happen. We slept in and read our books all day and relaxed after two days of intense traveling. This is the point I realized I would have been in Barcelona, London, Dublin, London, Boise, and Hanover, NH all in a seven day period.

6.07-6.17 Barcelona

There is so much to say about Barcelona. We left early Monday, June 6th. We got to the Girona airport which, much to our chagrin, is not the same as Barcelona International, and is instead a tour hour bus ride away from where we were supposed to be. It was more expensive than we imagined so we didn't have the correct cash. We tried to use the phone for about thirty minutes and it wouldn't work. The vacation wasn't starting out so great. Although, compared to the fifty degrees and rainy weather we had just left in England, arriving to 80-90 degree weather was really nice. Things started looking up from there.

My mom and I rented this amazing little apartment which actually ended up being cheaper than a hotel and it allowed us to cook our own meals. We didn't feel too comfortable going out at night so we spent a lot of time playing Gin Rummy. My mom always won :(. We really enjoyed watching Spanish TV because we had no idea what they were saying, so my mom and I made up complete back stories for the characters.

We got our groceries most of the time at the "Big Store" actually named El Corte de Ingles. It was a department store, hardware store, and grocery store all in one eight story building. Don't even get me started on the fruit man there. I stood there, looking stupid, catching his eye multiple times and trying to order fruit. You can't touch it. It is all in a pyramid around the fruit guy, and you have to order it from him. However, as it turns out, you have to take a number. By the time I realized this, I had tried to order at least three times and he just kept turning away right before I could get the words out of my mouth. I gave up and opted not to have any oranges because by this point I was so embarrassed, my pride wouldn't let me order anything. He was probably thinking look at this girl, she's so stupid, she needs to take a number. When I went back and saw there was a new fruit guy, I took a number and ordered like I was a pro- tres naranjas por favor!

And on that note, after 3.5 years of Spanish, I can't say a thing. First of all, Spain has two strong dialects of Spanish, only 1 of which is the Spanish I've learned. The other almost looks like a Spanish/French hybrid. I didn't even recognize some of the letters. Spain also has a few Portugese speakers and of course Basque is totally different as well. So part of it wasn't my fault as I didn't speak the same Spanish as half the population. Also, it was that Spain Spanish has different pronunciation than South American Spanish. "C"s sound like "th"s. The other part is just that I clearly haven't learned anything in class. I could read subtitles (like in the show my mom and I watched about families being sent to live with indigenous tribes) and figure out what was going on, but as far as listening to people speak, I could only make out the general idea.

The set up of Barcelona is amazing. It is all alley-ways surrounded by tall buildings with stores on the bottom story and housing up above. If you passed a store you were interested in, you better shop then because there was no finding that same store again. It was amazing just to wonder through the maze of alleys finding eateries and shops. My mom and I also did some retail therapy. My favorite purchase- a new leather jacket!

I could really be happy in Barcelona. You can walk everywhere in the main downtown. My feet were hurting by the end of some of the days. The nicest thing about Spain was siesta. Stores open late, 10am, and they close for lunch 2-4pm. Then they open back up from 4-9. In a complete reversal from the rest of Europe, stores open later in the day and they stay open later. My mother and I, even though we weren't working, went home and had lunch and a nap everyday at about 2pm. It was so relaxing. I was exhausted and ended up sleeping for almost the first two days.

I can't include or even remember every little thing so I will highlight a few of my favorites.

My first experience with tapas- My mom and I went to a tapas restaurant. I loved the atmosphere. It was on an island in the middle of the road. We ordered wine (yes! I can drink wine now, although in Europe I could have been drinking it 3+ years ago.) Sipping wine, people watching, and having little, inexpensive dishes brought out every so often was enjoyable. They had the best cheesecake ever and their four cheese risotto was amazing. I also tried croquettes for the first time. It was really fun to share with my mom and get full off of several different things.

The "Naked Man"- must see photo on Picasa. A 60+ year old man was walking around with a Speedo swimming suit tattooed on his bum and a face tattooed on his front. He was walking down the main street in Barcelona. My mom and I walked behind him for at least ten blocks. I don't know what was more amusing, the sight of him, or watching everyone triple blink when he walked past and start laughing. It was hilarious to watch people eating at restaurants or walking the opposite direction to do a double take.

Putting the freshness back into markets- Barcelona also has (sometimes disgustingly) fresh materials, fruits, meats, breads, etc. I loved the fruit market. It was indoors and you could get pureed fresh fruit juice or a huge container of strawberries or 1/4 a pineapple for just 1 euro. In the same market, they had skinned rabbits, a fish bigger than me that they would cut a hung off of, eel, stingrays, and every other kind of exotic meat you could think of. My mom and I ate at least 10 baguettes while we were there. We felt very European stopping every day on the way home from lunch at the local bakery and getting a baguette for sandwiches. We stayed away from the butcher though and opted for prepackaged meat.

The Arc and Park- The location of our apartment was amazing. It was in the Gothic quarter and the architecture is amazing. The Arc of Triumph leading to the big central park was only a five minutes walk away. At about 5pm, the old men congregate there to play Bocce ball. We watched for over an hour and things got really intense. Some men had a long string with a magnet so they didn't have to lean over and pick up their ball. They had little fancy bags to put their balls in. Some had little rags to wipe their ball off with after each turn. The kicker came when some men were contesting something and one of them whipped out a measuring tape! My mom and I are thinking, "it is not that serious." Apparently it was, they had to call over someone from the adjoining pit to come make the ruling on who'd won. That wasn't the last time the measuring tape made an appearance. Very few young men, mostly older men played. We wondered where the old women were and turned to find they had set up card tables and were gambling. The whole scene was so quaint, yet hilarious. We continued on to more to the athletic park area where running teams were getting their workout as well as individuals. There was a platform set up where dreadlocked people were doing yoga and in every quiet place there was a couple participating in inappropriate PDAs. The whole scene was so relaxing and low-key.


Blood and gore galore- We went to the famous bullfighting arena. We were under the impressions that it was banned. Even now, searching the internet, I see many articles from 2003/2004 saying Barcelona planned to ban bullfighting. We spent a lot of time goofing around, as you can see from the pictures, and taking photos in the arena. However, bullfighting is not banned. While at the stadium, we saw the bulls being held there. I was thinking to myself, that's weird, until I saw the blood streak from the arena to this garage looking thing. GROSS! It was interesting to see the tiny museum that they had there which had old outfits that they wore. We also saw the chapel right before you enter the arena, for bullfighters to pray for their lives. What a cruel sport, but it was pretty intriguing to see the timeline of something that was such a huge part of Spanish history.

Ca-ble-car! Ca-ble-car! We took a cable car up Montejuic which is a big hill. At the top was a castle, one of many that was saw in Spain. It was set up entirely for defense. There weren't even rooms in it, it was like a big fort. It made for amazing scenery to take photos of though. The castle overlooked the port to ward off sea attacks and it had a view of the whole city. My mom was really excited to do the cable car. That also had a view of the whole city. Check out the pictures on Picasa.

Gaudi is not overrated- Antoni Gaudi is a famous architect who designed a lot of things that look right out of Babes in Toyland in Barcelona. He designed la Sagrada Familia. I can't even describe it. He really believed in mixing art and architecture. Every little detail means something symbolic. You'll have to look at the website as I don't have enough time to even begin to describe it http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php. The main thing is that it still won't be finished for 30 more years. Building began in 1882. Think about that. It has these huge spikes out the top and you can see it from anywhere in town. At first I wasn't that impressed, I was thinking oh great! Another church. After listening to the symbolism of each facet of design and after seeing the museum of how he did the architecture using small scale models instead of mathematical equations, I couldn't help but be impressed. I also made my mom trek all the way to Gaudi's park. It was so worth it. It was the weirdest thing. I can't even describe it. Check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_G%C3%BCell

I was so happy there. Each time you walked up the stairs or up a path, there was another strange structure to check out.



From the lady urinating on the main street at 7am, to meaning to jog but instead waking up at 11 am, to the unspoken memo that I missed about all the beaches being topless, Barcelona has left its mark in my heart.

6.01-06 Mom Arrives

My mom got in a few days after my last final. I was busy cleaning my room, saying bye to people, and getting rid of stuff that I knew I wasn't taking home. It was amazingly hot the days before my mom came, and the actual day she arrived. I met her at the airport. We took a 2 hour bus which wound around corners a lot and was far too hot for two girls that get car-sick. My mom was not feeling so great. We unpacked, and I showed her around a bit before we headed to Kashu (the place with the good garlic/mozzarella bread). Paul, the waiter that knows us students by name now was like you dragged your mom here the first few hours she's in England!?

She was a champ and adjusted to the time change immediately. Actually, we both woke up with the sun (which is at about 5:30 am). The first full day she was there, we went into London. We took the bus. As I haven't been to London very many times, I didn't exactly know if it was better to take the bus, which is cheaper and has more stops, or take the train which is quicker by about 40 minutes and gives you access to the Underground trains all day. We arrived late because some street was shut off. We had agreed to take the walking tour the first day because I told my mom that it's better to see the sites with a guide then see them by yourself or see them by yourself and then with a guide. Since we missed the tour, we walked around by ourselves everywhere. We did some shopping. We went to Harrod's, walked around by Big Ben, shopped on Oxford street, and lunched in a park. We went back to where the bus was, exhausted, and realized that the bus comes less often at night and wouldn't be coming for two more hours! At this point, even though we had purchased a round-trip bus ticket, that we would take the train home. This would be the first of three or four days we missed the walking tour. We finally caught it on our last day in town and we were so happy we had.

Now is where I get the days mixed up. So I'll just describe the fun activities we did in the week before we went to Spain. We ate at Nando's, which is amazing. They only serve chicken and they marinate it in Peri-Peri sauce at different levels of spicy. It's right by my school and students have been telling me to go there forever. We went shopping in Watford and checked out the Galleria which is near my school as well. I showed her around my campus. She met one of my flatmates, Patrick and his friend Fabio who was Italian and spoke little English. That was a hilarious dinner! My mom and I cooked at my dorm as much as possible and tried to pack a lunch.

Once again, we meant to get to London earlier, but by the time we got there, we went to the British Museum and then we had to go. I could go on for hours about the British Museum. I thought it was British history, but since basically everywhere has been a British colony at some time, it was everyone's history. Highlights:
Cleopatra and about 10 other mummies
From Egypt, a list of all those that had died and survived a war, on a pebble the size of a silver dollar
All kinds of artwork, from African headdresses and swords, Greek terra cotta pots, to batiks, to metal figurines from Asian countries
In the African art section, the Tree of Life *http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/t/tree_of_life.aspx), formed from old gun parts. It was my second favorite thing, next to the Egyptians keeping records on tiny rocks

Later that day, we went to the Globe Theatre and saw Romeo and Juliette. I didn't know that was something my mom wanted to do, but bought tickets just because. I really wanted to go to Phantom of the Opera. It turned out R&J was something on her to do list. I got us the $7 USD tickets which were standing. There is a big pit down from that stands at least 400 people. By intermission, I was ready to go. After walking around London all day, my feet were tired, but my mom was really really enjoying it. The play got out at about 11pm and it was somewhat scary walking through London at night. We got home at about 1am. Needless to say, the next day we slept in.

We also went to the market in St. Albans. They had everything from fruit, clothing, and jewelry, to rugs. That was a really fun and relaxing day. I love perusing farmers markets, it's one of my new favorite things.

After the first few days of good weather, my mom was like why do you complain all the time? This weather isn't bad. From then on, even the few days we spent in London after Barcelona, it was dreary. So after the first few days, we stayed inside more and read our books. We had a few "down" days where we just relaxed. We also went to Windsor Castle. By the time we left, we were both pros and figuring out train maps.

Windsor Castle was amazing. Everything was crushed velvet. Inside the walls, but still outside the buildings was gorgeous. I'll put those photos up on Picasa (we took a lot). It was perfect scenery for senior pictures or something like that. When we were there, the Queen was in. She is there most weekends. We learned a ton about the history of the castle. It is like its own little city. There is such beautiful artwork and you could see how each monarch had added their own little touch. Also, the royal art collection has some works by some very famous artists. Once again, it started pouring rain and we cut our trip short and hopped on the train.

We were off to Barcelona on the 7th!

Scotland

Sorry I haven't written in so long. I've been so busy! I'm in NH right now and loving it. I'm going to try to write in sequence with a series of blogs about what I've been up to.



I had my second final on May 18th and then my last final was May 27th. In that gap we decided to go to Edinburg, Scotland with a group of about eight. It was somewhat more expensive to get there considering that it's part of the United Kingdom. We took an overnight bus from London on Saturday. We didn't get very far before the trouble started. After driving for twenty minutes, there was a comotion on the bus, and the bus driver stopped. Turned out that a child on the bus had a fever and the ambulance had been called to meet us. Grrrr. We sat there for at least an hour before completing the 12 hour drive where I slept a total of 2 hours. Sunday morning we met the other half of our group that had come from Liverpool. We were exhausted but wanted to catch the walking tour at 11 am. We checked into our hostel and found that split between 4-5 people, cabs were the cheapest way to get around.

The walking tour was amazing. It took us up to the old castle. There were many (unprovable) folk tales that the tour guide told about each little landmark that made them more memorable.

Greyfriar's Bobby was a dog so loyal to his master, that after his master died, Bobby sat on his grave 24/7, through good and bad weather, until he, himself, died 14years later.

Deacon Brodie was who Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde book was based on.

Maggie Dickson, a widow, was accused of hiding a pregnancy resulting from an affair and hanged. Five minutes later, she knocked from inside her coffin demanding to be let out. Seeing as she had died, then she was nolonger married and remarried and opened up a bar.

I ate HAGGIS. Yes haggis (pronounced hog-gis most of the time), esentially the national dish of the Scots. The ingredients vary but it's basically sheep's brain, heart, liver, kidney, and bladder cooked in the stomach and then ground up with oats and seasonings. It tasted a lot like game meat, just a really meaty meaty taste mixed with way too much salt to be healthy. I'm glad I tried it but I will not be eating it again.

Everyone is Scotland is very supersticious. They also had a huge problem with grave snatching, as they burried people at six, four, and two feet below, stacked on top of eachother and a huge medical college opened in Edinburg which began paying out large amounts for each corp brought in. It was interesting to see all the methods people had come up with the protect their loved ones' corpses. William Burke and William Hare are famous serial killers. Besides grave robbing, they decided they could make more money by just killing people, so they did. Only people that wouldn't be missed. Well they messed with the wrong person when the lady they killed was missed. Hare turned on Burke and he was hung... and ironically, donated to the Univesity Medical School.

On the main bridge in town, apparently many people try to commit suicide. The bridge is over the railways and it is a crime to try to drag someone down. Originally, the town got so fed up with dead bodies going splat on the trains that they put up a net over the tracts. Eventually the firemen got so tired of dragging drunk guys out of the net, they took it down. I'd hate to be the first drunk guy to jump after the net came down. So now, there are just advertisements for call-in counceling. However, suuicide is legal in Scotland, so if you stand up there for a long time but don't ever bite the bullet, you may be charged with obstructing traffic. We learned this on the Ghost Tour that we took later in the night and learned about the gory past of Scotland. And trust me... there was a lot of gore.


Scotland is the only country where a Coke or Pepsi product is not the leading soda. Irn Bru is and it tastes like cream soda and Tang on crack. Unfortunately... it is not available for sale in the US as one of its dyes is banned. What do you want to bet that the FDA had monetary encouragement by both Coke and Pepsi to come to that ban. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, and therefore has the same Queen, but, fairly recently too, they do have their own Parliament now to make local laws. It's basically a federal government/state government relationship. They also mint their own money, it's the same as "English" pounds, the Scottish pounds just have a slightly different coloring to them and a different picture. Also, the Queen's palace, the Hollyrood House is in Edinburg. She occasionally travels there. We tried to tour it but the Duke of something-rather was staying there. My respone- "Oh, we don't mind if he's there." Surprise, surprise, they still didn't let us in.

I feel like I got the ultimate Harry Potter tour after seeing platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station, which is an actual place and seeing the dining hall in Oxsford where the "Great Hall" scenes in the movies were filmed. In Scotland, we saw the graveyard where J.K. Rowling spent time and she herself has stated that she took the "four towers" idea from this private school there that has four towers as the four corners of the school. Also, right next to it is a graveyard where one of the headstones says "... McGonagal" and "Thomas Riddle" like Tom Riddle. Later we went to the Elephant Bar which is the place where she said she was so poor that it cost her less to write there and order a cup of coffee there every few hours than to write at her house and have to pay to heat it. So that was pretty cool. Besides that, the entire coffee shop has elephant everything. The chairs are African relics. There are wall-hangings of elephants.

We also took a day trip all around the countryside in a bus. It took us to Loch Nest, where we didn't see Nessie- the Loch Nest Monster, but it must exist because it's protected by the Scottish government and you are not aloud to touch it. Highlights:............... and Hamish McKay Donovan, the yak (or Highland Cow as they call them). It was pretty boring driving around in the bus and looking at open fields and more open fields for 10 hours. The next day we visited the Scottish Museum as well, which was amazing to see how Scotland united from a bunch of individual tribes into a country. We also went to the new part of town, with the Parliament buidling and climbed this amazinly high mountain. It overlooked the entire town and it was so gorgeous. That a photo of me on the top of the mountain at the beginning of this post.



Did I mention Edinburg was BEAUTIFUL! See more photos on Picasa. I think Edinburg is one of my favorite European cities

Oh and last thought, they really, truly wear kilts there.

I haven't written in awhile because there has been nothing to report. I am still recovering from our Easter Break. In fact, I still have the cough that I was struggling with at the end of it. I have my first final tomorrow, and then one on Monday and the 27th. A few of the study abroad students and I are going to London in a week and staying a few nights. It's really sad, as Jansher pointed out, we went as far as the south of Italy, and yet we've seen very little of London and other things in our close proximity. In fact, I've only been to London twice.

Today a representative from San Jose State came to look at the school and further build San Jose's relationship with Hertfordshire. He also wanted to talk to us about the good and bad of our experience here. Nothing is more honest than students that have actually gone through the school system here. Our report was about 90% bad and 10% average. Although I like to think that no one could ever be like me, it was funny to see how different Jan, Stacy, and I are. I'm unimpressed with the location of our school, and often think, if I wanted to be in an agricultural area with nothing to do, I would have stayed in Idaho. However, Stacy was raised in San Jose, so she thinks that the surroundings are a nice change of pace. I was unimpressed with the two inches of snow we had here, and shocked that it was called one of the worst disasters in British history, but Jansher had never seen snow, so he thought that it was amazing. Stacy is a history major, so she hasn't had any trouble picking classes and transferring them back to San Jose, whereas I'm basically taking classes here that are counting for nothing at San Jose State.

We all agreed that really we have learned nothing. But, clearly it works for the English, they have trained professionals that are equivalent in knowledge to those in the States. This school system just doesn't really work for us. The teachers don't seem to teach a lot. It is very strange. After class we always try to tell each other what we learned, and it seems like nothing. The teachers rely on you to learn on your own, yet don't have a text book for the class, tests or quizzes, sample questions, office hours, or any assigned reading... so I don't know where exactly we are supposed to be pulling this information from. It was just kind of nice to talk to someone asking the right questions to help me reflect over the past semester and form an opinion about my time here.

If I did this over again, I would not have come to England. I picked this school based on the notion that I would be fulfilling my Biology requirements here, however, that was not the case when I got here. If I knew that I would have to be taking a massive credit load all senior year to make up for this glitch in plans, I would have traveled to South America (which was my dream freshman year). But what you plan is not always what happens, clearly.

My advice for anyone studying abroad would be that if you plan travel to other countries, you might want to plan any trips you want to take the first month before you go. I waited because I thought I would want to get adjusted first, but when you have to book things about a month before travel and you spend the first few weeks getting adjusted before you even think about leaving, you realize there are few weekends in between then and when you leave. At the meeting, we all agree that as much of a letdown as the school is, being able to travel all over Europe has been amazing. Our slogan at the end of our meeting was "Study abroad. Just do it! Doesn't matter where you go, just make it happen!" England has ended up being the hub for my Euro-experience.

Many people I know that are studying abroad this semester are packing right now to go home. Even some people from our program are leaving as soon as this week. I'm pleased that I still have five weeks in Europe!

Mom countdown: 19 days!!!! My mom is officially coming in 2.5 weeks and I am so excited.

A lot of people have had their parents, friends, or boyfriends come visit while they were here. I've actively discouraged at least two of my friends from the U.S. from coming to visit. I'd just feel bad if they came here on vacation, because there would be nothing for them to do here.

4.22 Hatfield, England

After getting home at 2am on Thursday morning, we woke up early on Thursday and had to go buy groceries. I needed basically everything. Then I had to de-bed-bug my bag. I washed some things, dried everything else, washed my shoes, and put my bag in a garbage bag until I can deal with it. Otherwise I've spent the last two days sleeping and recovering.

My camera is still deleting my pictures so I stopped taking them the second day of our trip. It's ok though because Jan and Stacy took enough for ten people. I have posted albums from our trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/brianacoles

I have finals beginning on May 11 until the end of the month. My mom is coming at the end of May! We are going to hang out in London for a week. This is good because I haven't really seen London. Between trips out of the country and schoolwork, I've only been to London twice, even though we are 20 minutes away. So, we will see some of the English sites. Then we are going to go to Barcelona, Spain for a week and a half. I have to come back to check out of my room at the university and then it's home for a few days before heading off to New Hampshire. A year ago I would not have seen my life following this path, because I have NO idea where it's taking me.

4.18 Rome/Roma

"Roaming around Rome"- Jansher

We arrived at the Termini train station, which is the main station in Rome. Thanksfully our hostel was only a two minute walk from the station. Once again we lucked out, we had a four person room, with just us three. My first impression, this was the land of the Vespas and Smart Cars. About 50% of the vehicles were Smart Cars, they were everywhere! I remember when my mom came back from Italy, she wanted one. Now I want one. We decided to walk around and find some dinner.

We found the Colosseum and were shocked to find that it was surrounded by stuff. We thought it would be more like Stonehenge, out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a field of grass. That's not the case, it's surrounded by restaurants and stores. We found a restaurant for dinner. We ordered a green salad which is apparently just week-old lettuce on a plate. Granted, we weren't eating at expensive places, but they weren't really cheap either. It would be the equivalent of eating at PF Chang's or something, and you can expect good food there. Not at this place. After realizing that you make your own dressing using oil and vinegar, and eating almost my whole salad, I found a snail in my salad. Stacy, a vegetarian, started freaking out. She doesn't touch anything that has even been around meat, and yet I'd found a snail in my salad. I was unappetized as well because I don't eat snails and I don't like surprises at all but especially where food is concerned.

Then they brought out our pasta. Bad. Whoever said Italy is famous for its food, lied. Or maybe you just have to spend an arm and a leg to get decent food. I had tortellini. My plate consisted of about seven of the noodles and the rest was just sauce. Immediately after dropping 15 euros on the meal I was like I'm starving. However, Jan ordered something amazing, cacio y pepe on noodles. Cacio is some kind of strong cheese from southern Italy and it is served with pepper to bring out the flavor. Stacy liked it too. We should have ordered that.

The next day we woke up and went to the Colosseum. Without the Internet, we had no idea what the weather was going to be. There were a ton of people there. I was commenting about this when a tour guide came up and told us that entrance was free because that week was Rome's birthday and most of the stuff was free. We decided to spend extra and pay for the tour, though. Without it, we would have just been looking at the structure, which could pretty much be summed up in one glance.

Interesting facts about the Colosseum from the tour guide:
*That is not the original name, it was originally Flavian Ampitheatre
*It only took eight or nine years to build with slaves
*Right after it was built, there was 100 day party with free festivities to attend at the Colosseum
*Although it seats 50,000, it could be filled in ten minutes- as the staff used incentives (whips and canes) to get people to their seats faster
*Rumors of religious issues are unfounded, only one religious man died there, and it was because he jumped in to save someone
*700,000 people died in there plus at least one of every exotic animal and tons of other animals, however, this was still considered "family entertainment"
*It originally had a canvas covering to block from sun, but it had to be opened a few times a day because the stench of so many things dying was unbearable
*The south side fell down due to an earthquake
*There is no floor which allows you to see the gladiator "locker rooms" and passages where animals were kept underneath
*Gladiators were not usually volunteers, instead they were slaves, forced to train at the training facilities which were much like prisons
*Half time entertainment includes: woman vs. midget or dog vs. porcupine
*It was free... until 1990, when they started charging for admission
*At some point the Romans began stripping it for building materials, in that way, the Colosseum is technically all over Rome

While on the tour it began pouring rain. As in like street flooding, almost washing away the Colosseum rain. I had no umbrella and was quickly soaked. Since I was already starting to get sick, I started coughing and sneezing and shivering. I left early and went back to our hostel where I took a nap. I guess I was knocked out because Stacy and Jan said they came back and turned on the light and I didn't even know.

Later that night, we met up with our friend Julia who studies at University of Hertfordshire and is originally from Rome and two girls from Mexico that are also in our program. We met at the Piazza di Navona. It was useful having Julia because she finally took us to a good restaurant, where Stacy and I promptly ordered Cacio y Pepe for dinner. After dinner we walked to the Trevi Fountain, Fontana di Trevi in Italian. It looks amazing at night. Stacy, Jan, and I made a wish and threw in a coin. Then we saw a bride getting her wedding photos with her groom taken there. It was a whole affair with tons of cameras. Julia told us that it was good luck to see a bride and that in all her 22 years there, she'd never seen one. Lucky us! The fountain takes up the entire side of a building. It is huge. It is significant because it is at the junction of three roads and originally marked the terminal point of the aqua duct, Aqua Virgo.

The next day we were supposed to meet up with the girls and go see the Vatican. I was excited and didn't know what to expect. Julia told us that the lines were going to be hours and they didn't want to wait, and we were indifferent about waiting. So, we decided to meet up at the unfortunate hour of 9am. What do you know? The girls weren't there. Jan called them and they were still asleep and we were at the Vatican. We decided that since it was such nice weather, we'd just see the outdoor sites and do the Vatican the next day.

The first stop, the Spanish Steps. It is the longest and widest staircase in Europe.

I didn't think it was that sensational the night before when we'd seen it because they had removed all the flowers. However, in the daytime, they put out pretty pink flowers and since the steps overlook the Piazze di Spagna, you can people watch. I found out later that the piazza was divided into two parts, the French Square at the top of the steps and the Spanish Square at the bottom. The steps came to be called Spanish Steps because foreigners that trespassed into the Spanish Square were all of a sudden recruited to be soldiers in the Spanish army.

We returned to the Trevi Fountain in the daylight. I liked it better at night. Then we were off to the Pantheon. Everything was pretty close and we ended up walking a lot. It's so funny because I think of the Romans in the sense of the "Roman Catholic Church," but I forget that they were originally polytheists. The Pantheon was to honor the highest gods in the Roman religion although there is a dispute as to who they are. After the Roman Catholic Church came to power, while destroying all things non-Catholic, they decided to preserve the Pantheon. I was somewhat confused because the outside is so old, the brick is disintegrating, yet, the inside has marble that is fairly new but made to appear old and cracked. It also has a hole in the roof/ceiling. Julia explained to me that this is some kind of advancement in architecture for the time. It allowed the roof to be made of solid concrete, and without that circular piece at the top, the ceilings of buildings could be constructed much higher and more elaborately. However, I've read that some also believe the hole was made to be a sundial or an astronomy viewing point.

The next day was really the Vatican. At this point, I am really unhappy with the weather in Rome. Purse contents:
sunscreen
gloves
umbrella
sun glasses
ipod
coat
book
Who knows what weather today will bring. Must be prepared for anything. We didn't have to wait in line at all to see St. Peter's Basilica, which is basically just a huge church. It is also the site of many former Popes' tombs. You can go downstairs and see their graves. Some of them are actually up in the church as well. Like most of the Catholic Churches I've seen, there are alters for the saints, pews for service, a huge alter in the front, and paintings on the ceilings. What I hadn't seen before was that there were about thirty confessional booths. A large area of them were closed off and you could only confess certain hours. It was so amusing that above all the Latin writing on the confessional both it would say "English" or "Italian" or whatever languages that priest could understand. I heard that the Pope makes public speeches on Wednesdays but we were leaving Wed morning so I didn't think I'd be able to see it.

Then we went to the Vatican Museum which the Sistine Chapel is part of and the Vatican Museum is a part of the Apostolic Palace, residence of the Pope, and the Palace is part of Vatican City. It's confusing as to what is what. We didn't really want to see the religious art throughout the ages as we were fairly museum-ed out. However, you have to walk through an 1+ long maze to get to the Chapel. Luckily, we did get the half-price student discount to get into the museum.

After walking through about 100 rooms and down and least six flights of stairs and back up again, we finally arrived at the Chapel, expecting to see God reaching out to a man (you know that famous painting) covering the entire ceiling. We get in there, it is a huge panting on one of the short walls, and several smaller paintings covering the other three walls and the ceiling is covered in several rectangular scenes. It's almost an overload of sensations. There are just too many paintings to look at each individually, and yet when you find one and you are looking at it (and you start to get light-headed from looking up so much) and look away for a second, when you look back you have to find it again and refocus. The God/man picture is the center of the ceiling, but still, it is only a piece of the collage, so why is it so famous? We left feeling unsatisfied, why is that so built up. I mean ya Michelangelo painted it.. but still. Only later would I become interested in the Chapel.

We, then had the most expensive, and hilarious lunch... kinda. We were starving by the time we left the Vatican, we hadn't expected to take a huge hike to see the Sistine Chapel. We jumped in the first restaurant we found. We had promised to pay less for food and find a grocery store, but after Berlin, we hadn't been able to find a decent grocery store, so we were stuck eating out. We all decided to go with the meal for 11 euros where you pick a pasta plate, a main dish with salad (we all know how that went over last time), and fruit platter for dessert. Like other restaurants, no tap water served, so we were forced to order Coca Cola. Then our Waiter brought us bread. We were all starving so Jan and Stacy immediately snatched up bread. It was hard so I didn't want to eat more than a bite. But as I put the piece back into the basket, I saw mold. We examined the bread and realized that it was moldy and didn't eat anymore. Then he brought the pasta. I have never had such low quality food. Actually I have, in the cafeteria in elementary school. It was like canned tomato sauce on week old pasta. Then they brought my "main course" which was three, paper thin, post-it sized pieces of pork roast with plain lettuce on the plate.

At this point, even though we were starving, we were over the food, so we asked him to bring out the fruit platter for dessert. He actually brought us a small plate with a whole red apple, a green apple, a tiny orange, and a butter knife. No pre-sliced melons, no fruit salad, it was actually household fruit on a plate... with a dull knife. We were so over this restaurant that we demanded the check. "The check" is apparently some lady who just comes over and tells you your total verbally. Somehow our bill 51 euros. We ask to actually see our bill. So she whips out a pad and starts writing (how professional.) 2 euros for bread, our food, our drinks, and a 15% service charge for eating in the restaurant. We were shocked. He brought us bread without us asking and then charged us for it, and it was moldy at that! We left in a huff. That was a $22 meal per person, in America you could get a lot of good food for that much money.

This was clearly a place for tourists. Not only were we ripped off with the bread, but also, they didn't have to make the food quality because they knew we were never coming back anyway. I guess that's what you should expect right next to tourists attractions. Later in our guide book, we read that it is illegal to charge people for bread, but that beware as tourists because they sometimes do it anyway and you have to ask them to take it off your bill. Live it, learn it. I learned, don't eat in Italy! Bring a suitcase of your own food. It is expensive and not good. We also wanted to go shopping. I wanted a dress from Italy, however we weren't able to find anything. The stores were either designer, and really expensive, or really cheap clothing. Oh well.

After re-packing for our journey home, we wanted to at least attend one of the events in celebration of Rome's birthday. We decided to go see Elena Borelli e la New Band in an outdoor concert. On the walk there, we saw the Colosseum at night as well as the ruins at Palentine Hill. The concert was great. It felt like one of the few things that we had done that was truly Italian. The entire concert and commentary was in Italian so we had no idea what was going on. We stayed for awhile and then left.

On our way home, we stopped at the book store. While Jan and Stacy looked at books, I glanced at one about the Sistine Chapel. It had the paintings separated and talked about each one. Upon realizing that the pictures told a story, I was extremely interested. I want to make it my goal to do more research on that artwork.

The next morning we woke up early and took a train to Pisa. We hung out there all day and ended up going to Bazeel for a second time. Then, we got on our flight, took a bus from the airport and got back to Hatfield on Thursday morning at 2am, exhausted, and with memories to last a lifetime. I'm making sure mine last a lifetime by writing them down otherwise, knowing my bad memory, they wouldn't last five minutes.