As Time Goes By

Ah, Roma.  Such an adventure.

Our excitement began the night before the voyage as Katie and I racked our brains for movies featuring Rome that we might have.  The result: The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Angels and Demons.   So as we watched Lizzie pack for her week of a lifetime in Rome, we joined in and packed our own bags.  We oooh-ed and aaah-ed and laughed at the super cheesy Italian they bothered to include.  Then, for some more historical content we watched Angels and Demons and learned about the monuments and the different churches and sculptures.  Then we realized it was quite late.  So we went to bed.

Now, this trip started as most Villa trips do; all too early.  At 6:00 am we stood waiting for the bus and the tediously long journey ahead of us.  Sleep?  Please. Four hours and a few decent naps later we found ourselves in La Piazza del Popolo in Rome.  I would have just loved to run around and look at everything, but we had a very tight schedule to stick to.  First we were off to see the Spanish Steps where lots of fashion shows are held apparently.  (I don’t see how.  Those stairs are deathly slippery.)  It was here that I saw my first Bernini sculpture.  It was a boat-shaped fountain.  Not all that impressive.  We moved on.  Next we saw the Roman equivalent of the White House. Then we went to the Trevi Fountain.  Now THAT was cool.  And much bigger than I’d expected.  I made sure to throw a coin in so that I’ll be coming back someday. 

After that we saw the Parliament building and just after that, the Pantheon.  So impressive in all its ancientness.  (And just so you know, either ancientness is now a word in the dictionary or I type it so often that Word has decided to officially recognize it, but it’s apparently correctly spelled.) I stared at it for a very long amount of time and on the inside was, I think, Rafaello’s tomb and of course the Oculus.  Awesome.  From there we headed to Piazza Navona which contains one of the great sculptures by Bernini.  The Four Rivers Fountain.  Unfortunately it was under construction much like everything I want to see, so pictures were hard, but it was still impressive. 

Finally it was lunch time, so we wandered past some shoot of a music video to Il Castel Sant’Angelo.  It’s the Pope’s fort.  There’s an underground tunnel that connects it’s with the Vatican.  Cool, huh?  Learned that in the movie.  We didn’t get to go inside which was disappointing, but instead we headed off to the Vatican.  It was so neat to just walk into a completely different country.  In fact, we walked around the entire country to get to the Vatican Museum entrance.  That was one of the most amazing things I’ve done.  So many gorgeous paintings that I’ve been studying this year.  AND the Sistine Chapel.  Oh my is it inspiring.  After a few hours there we chilled in front of St. Peters Basilica, and the hiked back to our bus which took us to a hotel where we ate a lovely three course meal and learned all the lyrics to Soft Kitty. 

The next day our first stop was some gigantic church which contained the chains that bound Peter in prison.  Hence it’s big with the pilgriming Catholics.  It was pretty I suppose.  However, my big interest of the day wasn’t churches, it was Ancient Rome.  The Colosseum.  It was so much bigger than I had ever imagined it!  Definitely comparable in size to any modern-day stadium I’ve ever been in.  Gigantic I tell you!  I could have wandered there for hours, but once again the schedule didn’t permit it, so it was off to the Roman Forum, which was just fine with me.  At the forum we were given maps and told to meet under a certain sign in 2 hours or so.  I originally headed off with Laura, Kate and Jaime, but in a few minutes time found myself alone as there was so much to see you kind of just…lost track of people.  So I saw some cool crumbly stuff and some more and some more, and read some signs in Italian to try to understand their interesting English translations, and walked through some gardens and then came to the most amazing view of the Forum ever.  So …cool? Amazing?  Gorgeous?  Fantastic?  Ancient?  I can’t come up with a word that correctly describes just how cool, amazing, gorgeous, fantastic and ancient it was.  I would have loved to see in its prime days.   

I just wandered down the paths in awe staring at everything I passes with the keenest interest.  I could have spent days there.  However, once again, that darn schedule.  So, amazingly I met under the correct sign at the correct time and climbed a bunch more stairs (Rome is deceiving hilly) and saw this nifty building in Piazza Venezia and then went on to see Il Campidoglio, the biggest, whitest building I have ever seen.  Wonderful architecture.  Gigantic. 

Then, we were free.  I grouped up with my usual peeps and we headed back towards the Trevi Fountain to find somewhere to eat.  After settling down in a small trattoria and ordering some good pizzas, we joked a bit with our waiter who was impressed with our Italian, and then talked some with the Greecian girls sitting in the table next to us.  Very friendly.  (Clue as to how our Athens trip would go had I recognized it.)  After dinner we took a metro to the main station to meet our bus and found a book market nearby where I bought the books I will use for my Year Abroad  scrapbook.  Finally our bus came and I engaged in the ever-popular bus activity of attempted sleep.

And so ended my two-day Roman adventure.  I can’t wait to go back!

So, on the 28th of February, the school is took us to Rapolano Terme a natural spa and whatnot.  It reminded me of Berkeley Springs that I used to go to as a kid.  I would dangle my toes in George Washington’s tub, run around in the sinking sands pool and catch little minnows in the canal, but my favorite part was the castle.  I always wanted to have my birthday party there.  Oh, childhood memories. Now some rich snob man has taken away that dream by making the “cottage” his personal residence.  Jerk.   However, I think a trip to Berkeley Inn and Spa might just do the trick for my 22nd Birthday…

Christmas Break Part 3:  Dublin, Ireland
By the time we found ourselves in Dublin, the sun had long since set and the chilly weather that we thought only pertained to Norway, had increased five-fold with the Irish wind.  We had gotten ourselves through the overabundance of checkpoints and lines in  a decent amount of time, even being officially welcomed by a not un-attractive Irishman at the immigration desk.  It was still unbelievably good  to be spoken to in English!  The other highlights of our arrival?  I was finally able to withdraw money from an ATM, and once we asked where to catch the bus to our hostel, we also asked where there might be some cheap food around and were told that McDonalds was just upstairs.  Hoorah!

After eating more of McDonald’s  warm and homey food we shouldered our bags and headed outside to wait for the bus. It was cold.  And the bus was sitting there, but without a driver.  So really we weren’t exactly waiting for the bus… The driver finally arrived once we had just about reached the point of real frustration and when he told me he had no idea which stop the Dublin International Hostel was at, that was the last straw.  It was late, we were tired, and although our bus had finally begun it’s voyage, we had NO idea where to get off…  So I pulled out various maps and the directions the hostel provided and alerted the others to the landmarks we needed to keep an eye out for…but the bus was so warm and the air outside so cold, that the foggy windows mainly obscured chance of seeing things.  There was only one spot I could look out of and that was the hand-print drawing of a young child who had just left.  I was terrified that we wouldn’t be able to see any of our landmarks and would just ride the bus pointlessly. I was praying fervently that this would not be the case when all of a sudden I glanced up though the handprint to see exactly the thing we were looking for.  We pressed the “I want off” button as quickly as we could, but ended up getting off a stop later than needed, and hiked back to our landmark; the Guinness Time clock. From there we walked slowly, following the printed directions until finally we found our road and our hostel!

The staff were exceedingly nice and gave us all kinds of information and our sheets, and we went up to our room, made our beds and fell right to sleep.  In the morning we went down to breakfast at 8, and had some orange juice, toast, coffee, milk and cereal.  A very decent start to the day.  Then we asked the guy at the desk where we should to go buy the tickets to the hop-on hop-off bus tour of Dublin.  He told us we could by them from the hostel, which we did and then headed out to find the bus.  A little ways past our first landmark we found it.  We were the first people  on board so we headed up to its second level and straight to the front.  All the better for taking pictures.  After a friendly chat with the bus driver and the arrival of many other passengers, we were off.   We saw the Spire, some important statues, Trinity College and more, and finally hopped off at the stop for Dublin Castle.

We walked to where the entrance to the grounds was, since this is supposed to be a very popular pedestrian hangout, but to our dismay, the grounds were closed that day.  So we pulled out the map and headed in a prosperous looking direction where we eventually found a market and a cheery man who sold me a dress and gave us a long list of places we needed to see as first time tourists of Dublin, and how to get to them.  So we left in search of Temple Bar.  Following both the written and verbal directions we found ourselves in a very colorful street full of pubs and restaurants.  Probably the most colorful place I’ve ever been.  We took a lot of pictures and then after failing at finding Christ Church Cathedral, made our way back to a bus stop.

The second place we hopped off at didn’t look like much, but it was indeed a goldmine of goodness, for we had spotted a sign for Subway and exited immediately.  After following several arrows we finally reached subway and ate our first meal of American food in 5 months.  I love America.

As we waited for our bus to pick us up again, we had an interesting experience which involved watching two hobo-esque men climb over the wall which, we understood from our tour, was containing the Dublin Mental Institute.  We’re still not sure whether or not we were witness to an escape, but we were a bit terrified nonetheless, and our bus could not arrive soon enough.  Once we were on the bus again, we rode it all the way back to our original street since it was dark now, and we decided to watch a movie at one of the theatres on O’Connell St.  We bought some candy and watched Avatar and loved it and deemed it epic, and went back to our hostel, e-mailed our families, and went to bed.

The next morning, after another decent breakfast, we hopped back on our tour bus and hopped off at Grafton street to do some shopping.  After both Laura and I were in possession of IRELAND bags we found ourselves again waiting at a bus stop, but this time, in the rain.  Oh yes.  It was freezing rain.  We even sang about it in a parody of Potter Puppet Pals.

After seeing the equivilant of the White House in Dublin, we saw the zoo from a good distance and some other stuff that was a bit blurry due to the rain, and then headed back to O’Connell St to hit up a gigantic book store we had spotted the other day.  I love books.  We all love books, so three and half hours later, we finally and forcefully removed ourselves from the thousands of wonderfully shelved books and made our way up the street in search of food and an open post office.  McDonalds we found, a post office, we did not.  So we walked in the rain back to our hostel with the wind making the journey particularly difficult.

After we had warmed up a bit and napped some, we were again hungry and headed down to ask the helpful staff where the nearest Thai food restaurant might be.  He told us, once again, that we could order right there.  So after a quick look at the menu, he handed us the phone, and one slightly confusing conversation later, we were in the lobby waiting for our curry to be delivered!  Yay for curry!!!    With our stomachs full of pure deliciousness we decided to head out to the internet café the man had told us was nearby and there we spent a good hour talking to our families and being creeped out by the overabundance of Nigerians and then finally we headed back to the hostel and to bed.

The next morning was our big touring day and we were hoping for a good bit of sunshine.  Unfortunately, however, it turned out to be the worst day yet with ice for rain and hurricane force winds.  So we bundled ourselves well and set off for the lobby  where, once again to our amazement, our tour guide would be picking us up.  After not too long, we found ourselves in a van with Aymen, our Irish guide, and some Spanish girls, and a group of French students, all headed off into the mountains and lakes of Ireland.  Except not, because, on arrival to the official departure station, we were told that the weather made driving on the icy mountain roads impossible, so our tour was switched to the lakes and shores tour.  Blah.  So instead of magical Irish hills we saw humongous waves crashing over walls, and got a lot of pictures of raindrops on the windows instead of the wonderful things beyond them.

However, the tour was still enjoyable.  Our guide spent a little time speaking to us in Gaelic which I can’t compare to any other language I’ve ever heard.  Then we saw a Neolithic burial portal which sort of looked like a mini Stonehenge, and had some tea on a lookout of the Irish Sea.  By this time the rain was pretty bad so we all piled back into the van and headed into the hills.  After some time shivering and a freezing bathroom stop, we arrived in Glendalough; one of the glacial lakes decently high up in the mountains.  It was gorgeous.  But we were drenched and freezing, so one could only stay outside so long.  After we finished there we were taken on a tour of an ecclesiastical village from the 600’s and we got to see TONS of ancient stuff, but none of us were too excited about it at that point in time because I was literally able to ring ice water out of, not only my hat, but my jacket, and the sweater UNDERNEATH my jacket.  My boots had become a mini waterfall for my feet, and my camera was slowing down due to the cold just like my hands which were becoming far too white to be healthy.

Our guide knew we were miserable, so we cut things a bit short and he took us to the restaurant on the stop which, I’m sure he thought was very nice (as did everyone else really), but we felt that 22 euro each was a bit much to pay for a meal, so we stayed in the tiny gift shop so as to be out of the wind and rain, and complained about being hungry until the nice lady at the counter informed us that there was an older woman who lived across the street that sometimes served food to passersby.  Not wanting to lose out a chance like that, we scurried across the road to knock on the door of the home.

After a bit of nervous waiting and not knowing whether or not we should indeed ask this lady if she had food, the door opened to reveal a young man.  We were all taken aback and stuttered for a while before managing to ask if the woman of the house was serving food that day.  He disappeared for a minute before coming back and welcoming us into the house, assuring us that she was indeed serving food.  We were ushered into a little room with a few tables and one large window, where the young man took our coats and draped them over the feebly productive heater and handed us menus.

At that moment, I’m not sure if life could have been better.  We had ordered vegetable soup and a pot of tea and the food that was steaming before us was some of the best I had tasted in life.  The soup was thick and hot and the homemade brown bread was cut into heavy slices which we topped with fresh butter.  The tea was delicious and soul-warming, and all in all we were delighted to be in Ireland.  We spent a good deal of time chatting and laughing and eating more happily than we had in a while, and when we paid our measly 6 euros each for the meal and left, we thanked the blushing woman profusely for our meal, saying it was the best we’d ever tasted and wishing her a Happy New Year, and on our way back across the street the young man waved to us out of the upstairs window and we shouted thank yous to him as well.

When we got back to our hostel we were again so cold we were gasping for air in our rooms and shaking uncontrollably.  We each got into our beds and it was the warmest thing we could think to do, but we didn’t have long because Laura and I had seen an open post office on O’Connell Street and planned to send off our Norwegian reindeer skins since they didn’t fit in our backpacks.  So, 40 minutes later we threw back our covers and, still shivering, put our dry-er clothes on and headed back out into the worst weather ever recorded.  We practically ran the entire way to the post office with the wind pushing us at top speed and the rain soaking our faces.  My hair actually froze into its ponytail shape!  Nevertheless we made it to the post office and managed to stuff our furs into the correct box and pack it off for a mere 13 euros.  Thrilled as we were, we were also hungry, so we braved the weather once again to run to McDonalds and pick up some of their poor-college-child-friendly food and started out on the far too long walk back to our hostel, yet somehow the forceful wind was still at our backs and helped make the uphill journey somewhat easier.

Once we arrived back at the hostel and had begun to wring the water out of our clothes and place them on the heater, we also began to pack since we were going to have to take a taxi to the airport at 3:30 AM that next morning.  So as we finished stuffing our bags with slightly damp clothing we went to bed and sure enough, “morning” came too soon.  We stumbled down the stairs to the lobby to turn in our keys and made sure to thank the ever so helpful staff before running out into the rain to get in our taxi.

The airport was nice and warm, and we thanked the man for his early morning run, and made our way back upstairs to the McDonalds we had eaten at our first day.  There we ate some good ole egg and cheese biscuits and drank some orange juice in order to fortify ourselves for our tightly packed day.

The plan?  Board flight from Dublin to London Stansted and 6:25 am.  Land in Stansted at 8:25 am.  Board flight from Stansted to Pisa International at 8:45 am.  Land in Pisa at 10:45 am.  Sound Impossible?  It pretty much was.

Christmas Break Part 2: Arendal, Norway

The morning of the flight had been early, and as the plane soared high above the ocean we tried to nap so as to catch up on our sleep.  The results were mostly fruitless.  So instead, I watched clouds go by out the window.  With about 15 minutes of flight left to go I looked down to see the outlying islands of Norway.  I suppose I’d never thought of Norway as having islands.  Actually, I suppose I’d never really looked at Norway on a map before.  As I watched the shapes slide past, I noticed the white sheen blanketing the coastline.  Maybe we really would have a white Christmas!

After filing through all those restless lines, we exited into the pick-up area where we were met by Laura’s Uncle Per (pronounced “pear”, like the fruit).  Katie and I immediately recognized him as Santa Claus.  He was round and jolly and definitely welcoming.  We liked him immensely, and all the two and a half hour drive to their house he told us many interesting stories.  There wasn’t a dull moment to be had.

Finally we pulled into their driveway and no sooner had we gotten ourselves out of the car, than Laura’s Aunt Monica was hugging us and showing the way into the house.  After brief introductions we were settled down at the dinner table and served the most delicious roast!  It was very similar to special K loaf, so needless to say, we were thrilled!!!  After a few more stories and a slightly more-successful-than-average bout with our utensils, we headed up to be shown our room, readied with hot water bottles for our chilly feet in bed.

The next morning was Saturday, so it was up early to face the crisp air as we went off to church.  Per and Monica sang songs, some in Norwegian and some in English, for everyone and played so many instruments it was hard not to be impressed.    The sermon, however, was fully in Norwegian, and therefore we didn’t pick up on a word.  Now, lemme tell you. It’s very frustrating to encounter a language and not be able to speak it when that is precisely what you’re abroad for.  Even though I know I shouldn’t be expected to speak Norwegian, it was very frustrating to not be able to do anything but smile and shrug my shoulders.  I literally could not communicate with others, and that is a very strange feeling seeing as how I’ve pretty much been able to speak in either of the two foreign languages I’ve encountered for a long period of time, no matter how poor the conversation.  Blah.

After the frustrating worship, Per and Monica drove us out to our first real glimpses of frozen sea.  It’s strange.  All the boats still in the water, but unable to move.  From the bay we went back home where Per fixed up the curry soup Monica had prepared for our lunch.  The sun set shortly afterwards, and we turned on the TV, eager to learn about things going on in the world.   (As a side note, the sun sets around 3:30 pm in Norway and rises at 8:30 am, therefore I was always confused and started to let myself feel sleepy as the sun was setting, only to remember that my day was barely over! As a result, I have a hard time recalling exactly which day we did what activities…)  After a little world review, we bundled up and went for a nice frolic in the snow.  I’d never seen so much snow before, and we spent a good deal of time rolling around in as much of it as possible.

We came inside dripping and frozen but once we had changed into dry clothes, we sat down at the table to play a game to which Laura introduced us which involved nothing but creativity and nonsense, so it was perfectly suited for us.  After laughing ourselves out of breath, we bade Per and Monica goodnight and headed up to bed with our refilled bottles.

Sunday morning we woke to a breakfast of what could have passed as grits.  Well, actually, we woke rather to lunch, not breakfast, but that’s beside the point.  However, shortly after we finished our lunch and set about trying to communicate with our families via Skype, dinner was served, after which we had been invited to the house of one of the church members we had met the day before.  So off we went to Raiden’s house.  She is, of course, Norwegian and after we had a tour of her shop, we were invited inside where we had a lovely discussion with her English husband about Handball and politics and were encouraged to try ginger snaps and Gløgg, a traditional Norwegian winter drink that tastes similar to spiced apple cider.

It was nice to get to visit people, even if we didn’t really know who they were.  However as we sadly parted ways with the cookies and Gløgg, we weren’t to be sad for long, because we were then taken on a tour of the most impressively lit houses in Arendal.  Apparently covering every inch of your house in lights is really only an American thing, so mostly only Norwegians who’ve spent a year or two overseas come back and uphold this “gaudy” tradition.  For us, though, it was like being that much closer to home!

The next day we were up at a more decent hour and after long, off on a walk down to the shore of Veg.  It’s quite beautiful there.  Unfortunately the cold killed my batteries which, admittedly had done well to survive London.  So once again I was cameraless for a bit of my journeys.   But just a few hours later and we found ourselves at a mall, and I was able to buy both batteries and a Christmas gift for myself.   Upon arriving home Monica made us mugs of hot cocoa as we watched the last half of Mamma Mia which we had started the previous evening, after which we ate tamale pie and began Pride and Prejudice ( with Colin Firth.  Laura’s a P&P fan too!)

After that late night we had another late morning, and came down to warm rice pudding with cinnamon.  YUM!  Around sunset (aka 3:00) we headed out to the main part of town to see the harbor and the city at night.  We wandered around and took many pictures and froze very thoroughly  and returned home a few hours later to wrap our presents to ourselves and end the evening in Balderdash

Wednesday is very much a blur of relaxation and all that I can say we did with assurance is that we discovered that their TV got the Disney Channel.  Oh, happy day!!!  Hours of entertainment and feelings of home!  Other than that I think it’s safe to say we ate some food, drank some tea, rolled around in the ever-deepening snow and talked to our families.   Actually, I think might even be the day we turned into daredevils and made some killer sledding trails.  One even dropped off a large rock.  I caught some decent air..

Christmas Eve we left the house at 2 o’clock to go with Per to the nearby Lutheran church.   There was a band of small children with their out-of-tune instruments and some Norwegian carols whose American equivalents we sung, and what I’m sure was a rousing Christmas sermon.  As I could not understand a word that was being spoken, I contented myself with staring at the rather attractive ginger boys across the balcony.  At 5 as everyone was departing from the church, the bells began to clang, officially ringing in Christmas!

Christmas day dawned very non Christmassy due to the lack of family, but definitely white.  We had opened our presents from Per and Monica (Reindeer skins!) and the surprise ones from Laura’s mom (fuzzy pajamas and other goodies!!) , so most of our spirit was already gone, but there were still wonderful things in store.  On this particular freezing day, we got to go to the beach. I’d never seen a snow covered beach before.  It was an odd sensation to smell fish and see snow…  So did what any other baffled person would do and walked around taking pictures of the fishy smelling snow and icy moss-covered rocks.  It was even more astonishing when the surfers turned up.  Crazy people!  That evening we ate our Christmas dinner with Per’s parents at their house nearby.  The father didn’t speak a lick of English, but kept talking to us.  We smiled and kissed him on the cheek when we left and wished him a God Jul.

Our second Saturday, we spent at different church and this time Monica sat between us and translated the sermon.  We also met Marta a very friendly girl our age who Monica invited to spend Sabbath with us.    We ate delicious mac and cheese for lunch and then took another walk down to Veg.  It was a sparkling wonderland with the 3 foot snow!  As we walked we talked and sang our Italian worship songs for them and when we got back at sunset, we watched one of Marta’s favorite Christmas movies:  Home Alone 2.  Then we moved on to more Disney!  Eventually she had to leave, but not before we all become Facebook friends.   Then we played a game of Scattergories with Monica and went to bed, ready to fly off to Ireland the next day.

Our final morning in Norway dawned bright and clear.  We packed our bags with as much as would fit and wore as many clothes as still permitted movement and headed downstairs to watch the beginning of the Sound of Music before we headed off.  It was sad to leave, but we were also quite excited about Ireland.  We all dozed off on the 2+ hour drive to the airport and when we arrived we said our final goodbyes and ate the lunches Monica had packed for us.  More lines, more security and eventually we found ourselves flying across the ocean on our way to Dublin!

Christmas Break Part 1:  London, England

It was a magical trip all around.  I knew there would be times when it would be a bit stressful, but overall, it was far more spectacular than I ever imagined!

Okay, so on the 12^th of December, Laura Jacques, Katie Freeland and I started off walking toward the bus stop—one part of the journey we were very familiar with.  From then on, it got a bit rougher.  We took the bus to the train station and after a bit of trouble. and triple-checking we boarded our train to Pisa.  Two hours and a short jaunt later, we found ourselves at the Pisa International Airport and burning up inside our many layers of clothing.  Reason?  We were flying Ryanair; the cheap-ticket-yet-you-pay-in-other-areas airline that requires that you bring only one piece of tiny hand luggage, or check your bag for 35 Euro at every flight.  We chose hand luggage and therefore, were forced to wear multiple layers of clothing so that our bags would be the specified miniscule size.

So we stood in various lines for various amount of time to do various things and eventually we got on our flight.  By this time we were quite hungry, but food on the flights costs a fortune as they have to make their money somehow, so we couldn’t do that. Therefore, once our 2-hour flight landed in London Stansted Airport, we could only think of getting food.  But first there were more lines to stand in, more questions to answer, and more general food-prevention.

Thesis here:  Flying is a hassle.

Once we got through everything, we found Laura’s family: the Fish.  Aunt Jayne and Uncle Steven I believe,… although I could be wrong on that… Anyway, they immediately bought us Burger King!  We wolfed everything down while trying to answer their polite questions in our own American accents and not copy theirs.

After a battle with the parking ticket machine which ate our ticket and asked us for twice as much money as it was supposed to, we were on our way to Watford, England.

It’s an adorable town.  I liked it a lot.  Our first morning there we accompanied the Fish to the grandparents house where we met both the grandparents, and the sons:  James, who was older, and David, the younger one.  (We were staying in their rooms, so they’d been booted to their grandparents’ house.)  From there the whole lot of us walked into town and to church where we sang our first ENGLISH HYMNS.  It’s amazing how your own language makes such simple things so Christmassy.

After church (they’re Anglican) we left the sanctuary for the room next door where they were serving coffee, tea, and biscuits.  We were thrilled!  After being introduced to several friends and devouring our coffees, James took us on a tour of the Harlequin (the local and decently impressive mall) and David and his parents went to…test pianos?  Later we all met up at a very nice pub which I believe was called Moon Under the Water.  James served us our first “proper English tea”, and once the entire family had arrived, we sat down to Christmas crackers and a dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, sprouts and Yorkshire Pudding.  We silently but thoroughly observed the family as we had no idea how to correctly hold our utensils nor how manage our peas, because they eat with the fork in the left hand, and the knife in the right.  It was rather hysterical actually, and though we managed to hide our laughter, more than once our peas fell back to the plate.

The next day we slept in a bit and went down to a wonderful breakfast of toast with Marmite.  YUM! Then we headed back into town and found our way to the Harlequin.  It was strangely refreshing to be in a mall full of English signs and we wandered from store to store for hours, finally purchasing hats and mittens at the H&M.  Then, as the sun set, Laura found a place to pierce her ears, and I got a haircut.  That night, back at the house, we decided to indulge our girlishness and watch The Holiday, so as to satisfy our Christmas Spirit.

The next morning, after another delicious breakfast of blackcurrant tea and Marmite on toast, James took us on our first tour of London, and thank goodness he was there, because otherwise we would have perished in the tourist death-trap that is the London Underground.  He led us from one maze-like tube station to the next.  We visited Kings Cross Terminal and stopped to eat lunch in a small pub overlooking the main square of Covant Garden.  There we ate Cornish Pasties; a very delicious lunch, kind of like potpie in calzone form. Once our stomachs stopped giving us grief, we wandered into Green Park on our way to see Buckingham Palace.  The place was gigantic and surrounded by large gates, but fewer guards than I expected.   We took several pictures, and would have probably stayed a bit longer, but the biting wind was driving us on, so we quickly visited Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, the Prime minister’s house, saw the London Eye, Parliament buildings, Westminster Bridge, and the River Thames.  Then we walked a bit and reached the London Tower and a wonderful view of the London Tower Bridge.  As dusk fell and the already frigid wind got a bit colder we opted to end the evening in a Starbucks. All in all, a very successful day of touring London, even if we DID have to come back during rush hour.  But the very end had not come yet, as we were invited that night to the grandparent’s house for yet another delicious Holiday dinner, complete with Christmas Crackers.  After a more successful round of correct cutlery use, we played the boys at a game of scrabble and laughed the evening away.

Our second day of touring was much like the first.  After a very late and Marmite-less breakfast we headed back into London and again to the West Cornwall Pasty shop.  We shopped for a while in the Covant Garden Market, and then hopped the tube and visited St. Paul’s Cathedral.  By this point, the promising day had decidedly turned bitter, and icy rain was pouring down, so we once again sought refuge in one of the many, admittedly large Starbucks in the London area.  With such a dismal day, we did little else outside, and travelled back to Watford, again during rush hour.  Back at the house we watched a bit of TV or “telly” if you will, and ate a hearty dinner consisting of lamb with mint sauce, Schloer to drink, and sticky toffee cake with custard for dessert.  Quite a fine meal!

The next morning we woke exceptionally late, with the plan to head into town and to the Harlequin, followed by a nice tour of the local park, guided, of course, by James.  Unfortunately, the weather did not permit our frolicking and every time we donned our jackets and mittens, the snow would rush threateningly down.  This, the family thought quite ironic seeing as how we spent the few first days in Watford wishing for a White Christmas, and they spent them telling us that it doesn’t snow for Christmas in England.  (We win.)  So, instead we spent a lovely and relaxing day inside for the most part, although the warmth was interrupted for a bit when we went to visit Laura’s Auntie Adina and husband, Douglas.  That night, as our last evening together, we played a bit of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit, and found the boys geekily knowledgeable.  Aunt Jayne kept throwing in her answers (It’s the dribbly one!), but in the end I somehow managed to squeak the win.  Really, I don’t understand how.  They knew EVERYTHING.  Perhaps I’m just an extra lucky guesser…  Whatever the case, it was a good evening which ended all too soon in our eyes.  But early hours were required for departure, so we said our goodbyes to the boys and headed off to bed.

No shock, I’m sure, but morning came all too early and we found ourselves trekking along the snow-covered sidewalks to the closest tube station.  From there we had to switch lines a couple of times which we weren’t prepared for, so thankfully the father was there to help us, and once we reached the train station, he also made sure we had our tickets and were able to find our platform.  From there it was up to us.

It wasn’t a long journey to the airport, but being as bundled as we were (again) we found everything to be a bit overheated; the actual airport most of all.  The lines were a pleasure as usual, but after a two hour delay, we finally found ourselves on the plane and flying off to Norway!!!

meganmyers:

The other day the school took us on yet another trip.  This time to Pisa and Lucca.  Two cities not far from Florence.  Once we got to Pisa, it was suprisingly sunny for a fieldtrip day.  Usually we find ourselves just short of hypothermia in the freezing rain, but this particular day, we instead were able to catch fleeting glimpses of sun.

Pisa was an amazing place to visit. There was shop after shop after trinket-filled shop of wonderfully cheap items.  A true mecca of touristy goodness.  There were leaning mugs, “real” leather purses, miniature replicas of Piazza Dei Miracoli (one of which I now own), badly composed postcards, I HEART ITALIA-wear in every imaginable color, and more scarves than winter in Finland. (Two of which i also own as they were exceedingly cheap!)

There were, of course, other things to look at, such as the Leaning Tower itself.  My friends and I proceeded to take the required touristy pictures of ourselves in front of the tower.  Ones leaning on the Tower. Ones holding up the tower.  Pushing over the tower.  Karate-chopping the tower.  Roundhouse-kicking the tower, and a million other variations of the same person-and-tower duo. It was quite fun.  Also our teacher, Antionetta, treated us to coffee and a pastry, after which we were free to wander for a bit.  This, of course, gave me opportunity to take pictures of the tower at nearly every angle possible to show off its varying degrees of leaningness.

After a while we all re-boarded the bus and headed off to Lucca.  It was a very small town, sparklingly decorated with blinking icicle lights draped overhead at almost every street.  There we spent time in a market in one of the squares, where I bought a hat, found some of the most adorable bunnies and tiny turtles ever, and looked through the world’s second largest collection of cheap scarves!  Also, a group of us went and ate lunch in L’Anfiteatro or Amphitheater which has now been turned into housing, and ascended a very tall tower to discover one of THE most breathtaking views ever.

After that, the day was pretty much done, and we were all tired and complaining about our sore feet.  So that was Tuesday for you.

…In other news, it has, over the past day and half, become so cold that I have recently begun remain fully clad in both jacket and scarf from the moment I throw off my covers, until the moment I must change into pajamas.  I have yet to see my breath in our room, but I’ll bet that time comes tomorrow morning.  Sometimes I even snuggle my laptop for warmth or set it on top of a pillow just to heat it up…

Fun times in Italy!!!