Post #10 London part 2

My favorite part of our trip to London was, without a doubt, going to see 'Wicked'. Jeff and i stood in a, surprisingly, very short line at 8:00am and got center, front row tickets for only 25 pounds a person! It was such a deal! i had heard all sorts or reviews about the show but non of them were bad. Some people weren't huge fans of the show, but no one hated it, and most loved it. I could not have been more excited going into that night. The sets were amazing! They were so intricate and being that close to the stage we got to see all the details in the costumes. This is my new favorite musical and i would love to see it again here in D.C.. We met some great people at the hotel in London. All of the staff was really great and we actually became friends with them. We must have spent at least four nights partying with them in lobby. They loved learning all of our American drinking games. Getting to know the staff so well made it harder to leave. J hugged us all good by and stood by the bus until it pulled away. We truly had a great time in London and i would love to go back for a third time in the future!

Post #9 London part 1

I think we may have seen every single tourist attraction there is in London. I got to see things that i did last time i was there and i also got to experience a couple of new things. The first night we went to an amazing Mexican restaurant. Weirdly enough, England actually has some pretty good Mexican food. It's not quite as good as the stuff in the sates but it holds its own and they definitely know how to do the drinks. We had one of the best sangrias i've ever had! After dinner a group of us headed off to try and get into the ultra exclusive Mahiki night club. We got all the way there, with our names on this list, only to realize that you had to be 21 to get in and half of our group wasn't. oh well it was still a good experience. A couple days later we did the changing of the guard. I got to do this last time i was in London but i really didn't remember it. It was definitely a unique and very touristy experience. Another fun day was when we spontaneously decided to venture to Greenwich. We actually stumbled on the movie set for Guliver's Travels. We talked to one of the guards who said that Jack Black was starring in it but we didn't get to see him. It was still a really neat experience though! Next we hiked up the hill to the Royal Observatory to see the Prime Meridian. We got to straddle it and took all kinds of pictures. This turned out to be a great day even though we didn't have any plans originally.

My Advice for Next Year's Trip

1) what you enjoyed most about the trip
I really like having the Britrail pass and being able to take little trips on our own. I also really like the themed parties that we had and would definitely suggest that as a cheap alternative to going out. I really liked our trip to Scotland. I wish we had more time in Edinburgh and that we had the chance to explore the countryside a bit more.

2) what you enjoyed the least
I wasn't crazy about taking the bus to Edinburgh. If you can take the train next year i think that might be a little easier and faster. Other than that i really can't say that i have disliked anything on the trip.

3) suggestions for next year
Maybe next year you could try Paris again? i know the class before us didn't have a good experience but i would have really loved to go. Also having maybe 2 more Britrail passes would have been helpful. A couple of people have already run out and i know there are a couple of trips i would still like to do the week we are in London.

4) advice for next year's students about what to do, not do, what to bring, etc.
*Bring clothes that you would wear for a Florida winter. It's cold and wet here.
*Bring lots of rain gear. Umbrellas are useful but only if they are super durable otherwise you might as well just not bring it. The winds are really strong so they break easily. Bring a warm waterproof coat of you can.
*Cash is way more important to have than credit cards. A lot of the little castles and cathedrals that you tour only take cash so i would make sure that you have access to a good amount of it. *Bank of America is definitely the bank to have over here. Barklays are everywhere and you don't get charged to take out money.
*When in Grantham use Can Cabs at night because they do a low flat rate to get back to the manor
*In the manor, avoid spaghetti and sweet and sour chicken. They both taste like chef boyardee gone bad.
*Try everything once! whether it's new experiences or new food in the manor, everything is worth a shot and it makes the trip a lot more fun
*meet as many new people as you can. sometimes they surprise you.
*Videotape everything you can! We have some videos from are trip that abosultely hysterical.

Post #8 Beer Festival Hopping

On Friday we decided to go explore the local beer festivals. A group of 10 of us went. We started out in Lincoln. This was the smaller of the 2 festivals that we went to but i liked it because you could order 1/3 pints if you wanted to. This turned out to be a blessing because if you got a gross beer you could choke it down no problem since there was only a small amount in your glass. This actually happened to me once. I don't remember the name of the beer but it smelled absolutely rank. I almost couldn't get it up to my mouth it smelled so bad. Ironically, it actually tasted pretty good. It was still hard to drink thought because you almost can't drink it without smelling it too. After Lincoln we moved on to Newark. This festival was a little bigger and had live entertainment. we even ended up saving money because we got to use our wristbands from the first festival to get in. This festival i stuck to ciders. I was feeling a little motion sick from the train so i couldn't quite stomach beers. It was at this festival that i learned how good a Perry could be. I'm not much of a pear person but they make some really good cider! While there, we also sampled olives and listen to a terrible, but very entertaining band. After the festival we went to Zizzis, and Italian restaurant recommended by one of the cops working the door. It was so good and fairly inexpensive!! Sarah ordered 2 bottles of champagne for the table to celebrate her graduating and Wes's birthday. We had a great time just relaxing and enjoying our meals. Eating out turned out to be a great idea too. When we got home we learned that the dinner that night was absolutely disgusting. I almost felt bad for having such a great meal. In the future i would love to go to more festivals. Even if you don't like the beer that much it's still a great time!

Post #7 Bedtime at the Bistro

This week was fairly uneventful. I stayed at the manor Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday we took a class trip to Lincoln to take pictures. Thursday, however, was a little more excited. We all dressed up in our PJ's and went to the bistro for our themed party sequel 'Bedtime at the Bistro'. By the time i made it downstairs the party had already started. To my surprise there was a very interesting game of beerpong going on. Paul and Fenner were beating Jeff and James. The night only got better with more games and more people showing up in their PJ's!! We even met 2 more ZTA's and taught them the line dance. It was a rather rough attempt but we made it through it. We also met Zack's, the autograph boy from the toga party, sister. What a small world. The night was topped off by the fact that not only did Bivens play a game, but he was actually pretty good. I personally think he's been trying to trick us this whole trip by saying he doesn't drink. This was our second themed party and definitely a success! Themed parties in the bistro are the way to go to say money and still have a good time!

Post #6 Edinburgh, Scotland Day 2

Our second day in Edinburgh started out with a bang! Meghan and Emily decided to try blood pudding for break fast! Surprisingly they both actually didn't hate it. After our 'Fear Factor' breakfast, the whole group headed over to Edinburgh Castle. What a view!! From the top of the castle you could see the whole town! After wandering around the castle for a little while we made our way down High street. This is the main shopping area in the city. I have never seen so many wool shops in my life! every store we went in had an overwhelming amount of wool and cashmere scarves accompanied by an array of Scottish trinkets. At the first store we went into Cory was the brave one that sampled haggis. Dakota and i almost gagged just watching him but he loved it and continued to eat it throughout the trip. The shopping experience was topped off by the large selection of funny hats to try on. My person favorite was a highland cow hat that i posed for many pictures in. After shopping we went to a Chinese buffet for lunch. I don't ever remember eating so much food at a buffet before. After lunch we went for a walk up to the top of this giant hill to see the 1/8 replica of the Parthenon. This walk however turned into a mini jackass movie. Bivens was dared to roll down the giant hill and in trying to help him, Jeff accidentally fell down the hill and actually ended up rolling father. he even still had the video camera rolling so we got the funniest angle of the little endeavor. After a quick picture on the 1/8 Parthenon, we went to check out the mall for a little bit. Here i discovered my love for Guinness flavored gummies. After the mall we all went back to the hotel to rest before our ghost tour that night. At around 8 we headed out to get a ghost tour or Mary King's Close. This was the remains of the old city that had been built over. The tour itself wasn't all the scary but everyone being on edge made it a little unnerving. After the tour a small group of us that wanted diner went on a hunt for food. This reminded me of our first night in Dublin when we learned food isn't really served past 9. Eventually we ended up eating at the Italian place that the boys had eaten at the night before. It was sooo good and actually very cheap since they did student discounts. After dinner the same smaller group of us went to a pub for a drink. we all only ended up having one drink though because the pub that we chose turned into a 90's club type place and we all kept dozing off because we were so tired. Overall i really liked Edinburgh but i wish we had more time in Scotland to see more of the city and to go exploring around the country.