sarah camille [lancaster.UK]

Barley Works

2006-04-23T23:01:00.000-04:00

After a painful ECON exam, we celebrated the our last exam in uptown Waterloo at Barley Works. Some unexpected surprise guests were also present, notably Mag, who I probably wont see after this night.

Michelle, DJ and Chris looking very very happy to be done exams.

DannyCBC, myself and Rohit.

Somehow, beer messes me up no matter how little of it I drink. Tonight was no exception.

The Three Little Asian Girls; Michele, Michelle and not Michelle.

We're all just a little bit crazy.

Just cause the bar closes, doesn't mean the fun stops. It just spills over to the street.

What can be said about this?

The party people.

Rosie and Chris.

There's always time for dancing on the street. Especially when it's Serbian music. And Serbian dancing. With a Serbian girl.

Easter w-end

2006-04-17T19:49:00.000-04:00

Easter w-end started off with a yummy BBQ at Pauley's - on Good Friday. If there's any day on the Catholic calendar when you should definitely not eat meat, it's Good Friday, so Bev and I joined Rohit and converted to vegetarian for the day. And man, was it painful, seeing everyone eating their hamburgers and, me, munching on a veggie burger. Yuck. We're gonna chalk veggie burgers up to "never again." Veggies are just not cut out to be imitation meat. Let them just be.

Chillin out on Pauley's back porch, with the super bright patio light illuminating us, and the rest of the Waterloo.

Liyan showing me what was on the menu. My favourite: the beer-battered shrimp. Mmmm!

Chris, Andrew and Rohit getting some grub.

The birth of Team Pauley Ting. Proof.

George, Michelle, Bev, Arvind and DJ enjoying Pauley's yummy food.

Afterwards, I headed back to 318 with the 318ers, minus Bev (who went home to Ottawa for the w-end) and Michelle (who left with Andrew) for a super fun slumber party with the boys, but not before freaking me out as I walked out of UW Place.

TBC

Voodoo & Cesar's

2006-04-15T19:04:00.000-04:00

After a day in Toronto with the girls, we quickly drove back to Waterloo trying to make it for the last Cesar's night.. and we almost made it. At 8:30pm, we passed by and there were a few people outside, lingering, so we figured it would still be alright at 9:00pm. 8:45pm, I get numerous phonecalls from 318 telling me to run to Cesar's cause it's gonna get packed. Karim and I finally arrive there just a bit after 9:00pm, and the freakin line for Cesar's is super thick and all the way around to Lester. Insane! Apparently, this night was the busiest clubbing night in Waterloo. Crazy!

We weren't about to wait in a line that wasn't moving, so we made an executive decision and headed to our neighbour, Voodoo, for drinks, before trying to get into Cesar's again. And we made good timing for Voodoo, cause the line-up for it got insane 10 minutes after we got in.

THE Clubbing Buddies at Voodoo. A little over-dressed for Voodoo, but we were originally planning on a classier Cesar's night. The dresses work though. A little too well....

The happy couple, Dan and Arvind. What will DJ and Rohit say about this??

Arvind, myself and Chris enjoying the many, many, MANY drinks at Voodoo.

Bev and Rohit - also enjoying the effects of the many drinks at Voodoo.

I just really like this picture. Because I look good in it. I am also very modest.

Bev and Karim at Voodoo.

Party people at Fubar.. this must have been after I left for Cesar's.

An Oreo.. cause, hey, let's face it - I'm white.

Story time with Aliya.

Wessy! And he's actually smiling in a picture! Did all hell break loose or something?

Post-Sumit Pizza Nova.

And on that note, it's story time.

A night at Mongo's

2006-04-13T23:15:00.000-04:00

This random night at Mongo's has to be one of the most random, unexpected and super fun nights of the semester. Originally, I was supposed to save Rosebir from her "date" at Mongo's and we'd go to Phil's to meet up with Bev and the Systems people. Conveniently for us, they all ended up at Mongo's anyways.

Cheap pitchers and cheap drunks make for a cheap night of drunken stupor. Rose, you and I had way too much fun. "Sar.. he's looking over. He's looking over. I'm gonna kiss you right now."

Kissy faces are always indicative of extreme intoxication.

My partner in crime (at least for that night), Rosebir, and stupidly super drunk, DannyCBC.

"Dan keeps hitting on Rosie. I don't even know where he's taking her!"
"Don't worry. Let them go. Oh.. look, they're just outside for a smoke."
"I swear, if he tries anything, I'm gonna jump through that window and kick his ass!!"
"Or, you could just use that door."

GQ, and in black & white. HOT.

Just to add to the randomness that was that night, see that Asian dude in the back with the long hair? I worked with him at Health Canada and he messaged me a couple days later, telling me he saw me at Mongolian Grill that night. Such a small place.. I'm surprised I didn't see him. Although I was pretty predisposed and preoccupied the entire night...

What is Chris doing to Pauley??

Bev was there that night. How come she's hardly in any pictures? Occupied, perhaps???

As per what I remembered from Arvind's account....

"..so, all night, Rohit and I were buying each other rounds, and I had finished my drink and it was Rohit's turn to buy. So, I see Rohit at the bar getting two drinks, but I know one of them is for Ankur, so I'm annoyed that he'd get Ankur a drink and not me, so I go over to the bar and buy myself a pitcher. And then, I go back, and Rohit's like, 'Dude, why'd you get a pitcher? I was just gonna go get one.' And I go, 'Well, somebody had to,' all annoyed. And Rohit kinda gives me a strange look. Later on, I found out that Ankur had bought Rohit and himself those drinks when I saw them at the bar.."

And from Rohit..

"..I was sort of jealous that Arvind walked you home.. and that he didn't walk home with us. I mean, we could've all walked you home and then we could've walked home together. I kept complaining to Aasthaa all the way home about why he couldn't walk home with us.."

Oh my, you two. And here we though Dan and DJ (the Ambiguously Gay Duo) was more gay than you two. I was mistaken.

Random Interconnected Story #2.

Randoms...

2006-04-09T20:48:00.000-04:00

Engineering Gradball: Saturday, April 1st, 2006

No, I didn't go to the Eng Gradball, but I was there for the prep and fuss beforehand at 318. I even made a couple vital contributions without which not one but two attendees would have stick straight hair. You're welcome.

Super hot Beverly Bradley with her two Jack Bauer-esque bodyguards. They even match. On purpose.

No make-up and half asleep. I'm certainly ready for the ball.

Hot stuff.

---
Castle Crèpe Party: Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

The last and only crèpe party I got to attend in all my university career. I guess this is what I've been missing, being off-stream.

Chef Anja, who started making crèpes early that morning. She even made a crèpe cake. Unreal.

Michelle, Bev and I tasting the goods. And man, was it good! Especially that Graham Cracker Crumbs and almonds thing.

---
Front Row: Thursday, April 6th, 2006

Random night out at Front Row, instead of wings at Morty's, was well-deserved after 2 back-to-back exams.

Bev, Mary, Rosie and I at Front Row, waiting for our food.

Rosie: Hey, Soulmate, do you want some bruschetta?
Me: So now he's your soulmate too?
Rosie: Sure.. I just didn't know his name.

Mary: (after taking the picture above) Oooohh... you're Soulmate!! I didn't recognize you until you did the peace thing with your hand!

Mary, Rosie and I were not about to end the night early, so after a costume change, we headed over to Cesar's for some chillin, dancing and martinis. It was a good night. Cesar's wasn't super packed, what with it being exam time and all. But here starts the interconnected stories of randomness..

At the end of the night, Rosie, Mary and I went to the couches at Cesar's to get our jackets that we had left there, and to our surprise, not one but all three of our jackets were missing. It would've made some sense that someone grabbed one of our jackets by mistake, but three?? It was too bizarre. If that wasn't the major downer and that it was freezing outside that night, Mary had her house and car keys and a watch in the pockets of her jacket. She did manage to get in her place in the end, and had some pizza while we waited for her don to open up her suite.

I'm talking to Bev the following day, and..

Bev: So, are you gonna tell me about last night?
Me: Uhh... sure. There's not much to tell. Mary, Rosie and I went to Cesar's after Front Row last night. It was alright.
Bev: I heard you got your jackets stolen. Did you see Michelle's friend Joel there?
Me: Oh yeah..... did I tell you that? Have I talked to you today? Who's Joel?
Bev: Your jackets were here. Joel brought them over.

WHAT?? Hold on.

Rewind.

This is what we think happened.

Joel, Michelle's Swedish exchange student friend, was at Cesar's last night. Hammered. At the end of the night, he walked over to 318 to see if Michelle was up.

Michelle, who's not usually up at that late hour, saw a white hoodie outside the door, assumed it was Bev, and gets ready for bed. After a while, she doesn't hear anyone come in, as she expected, so she goes out to investigate and finds Joel at the door.

Joel is wearing 4 jackets.

Michelle invites him in, assuming he's over to crash for the night. A drunken Joel comes in and starts showing Michelle his "friends'" jackets that he had. One by one, he takes off the jackets; one was Mary's green pouffy jacket, another was Rosie's fitted jean jacket.

"And this one's my favourite..." Underneath all the other jackets, is my white pouffy winter jacket. How he managed to get them all on, and on top of the other, we'll never know.

The next day, Mary calls the manager at Cesar's, and lo and behold, someone had left our jackets on the patio.. and, somewhat oddly, they were left nicely under the awning, so that they wouldn't get wet from the rain.

Thanks, Joel. And I'm flattered that my jacket was your favourite.

Last Bomber of 4B

2006-03-30T20:06:00.000-05:00

The last Bomber night of 4B, of undergrad.. forever. As with the first Bomber night of the semester, we got there early; not quite as early as the first night (which was at 6:45pm), but we figured 8:00pm would be decent, and early enough to beat the line.

Boy, were we wrong. We still waited for an hour before we got in, and we had been close to the front to begin with. I heard people were lined up for 3 hours and didn't get in. Suckers.

The final Bomber for THE Clubbing Buddies. Wessy and I converted you girls. Thank us.

Melo and the happy couple, pre-nuptuals.

The Roomies, Bev, Rohit and Michelle, enjoying the last.. time.. ever.

Here's my soulmate and I at Bomber. And here, I was converted, back to my fob days. Thanks, soulmate. And a special thanks to Melo for giving the world a nice good look at my underwear. It's for just such an occassion that my cute underwear was strategically planned.

Aww.. doesn't that look like so much fun??

It's too bad I missed most of it, and left at 1:00am. Thanks for all those concerned. No legs need to be broken, but thanks for the offers.

The night continues with DJ and I outside the math building, on the bench by the fountain, followed by a nice tour of the dinosaur museum. Even in 4B, there are parts of the university I've never even been to. We somehow ended up in the basement level of RCH.. napping.

Thanks for bringing me home, DJ. And I am not like any other crazy girl. Just sometimes. Maybe.

AHS Gradball

2006-03-27T18:56:00.000-05:00

Last minute chocolate mousse cocktail dress: $50
Night-before Walmart shoes: $15
Curly Marilyn Monroe-esque hair-do: 2.5 hours
A date: Almost.. but not quite

First, last and only night out with all the Health girls: PRICELESS

An unexpectedly GREAT night at the Delta Hotel in downtown Kitchener for the 2006 AHS Gradball. AHS really is a good-looking faculty. These pictures don't do my Health girls justice. Everyone looked absolutely beautiful! And so did the hall, and the New York cheesecake was the best I've ever had. Cheers, AHSsies!

Myself with Tine, who's looking so very cute.

The Health girls from my year, and my table for the night. Marlies, Alicja, Laura, Maggie, Marion and Andrea. Myself, Nicole and Sarah V in front.

Team Sara(h). Waltho, Little Sarah, McQueen and Big Sarah.
Missing: Best and Nose-ring Sarah.

Brown was the big colour for the night. And it totally works.

...
Flashback to the night before..

Me: I bought my grad dress! It's cute. It looks like chocolate mousse!
Chris: Mmmm.. I wouldn't mind if it was chocolate mousse......

With my flip girl, Jen.

Jess, Sara and I. Where's Waltho to complete our group picture?

My fellow Ottawa girl, Mag and Laura.

So, being that gradball was on a Saturday night, where else would we end up but Bomber. The girls and I left grad early to get backdoor at Bomber and meet up with the Systems people. Notice how only now do I have pictures with guys. The all-girl-class rumour about Health is quite true.

A brownie. To match my dress, no less.

A little happier, now with drinks in our hands and in our second home.

A Maggie and two Sarahs.

Aliya, Chris, Arvind, Aasthaa, Bev and Mike.. all happy now that I've finally arrived.

No caption needed. Use your imagination.

Sunil, Wessy, Rosie and Melo. Yay! Thanks for coming, girls! And well worth it!

Again, the Sara(h)s, and a little happier this time around.

B.D. Bradle! In brown as well!

And no better way to end a great night than with - you guessed it - BigMacs! I'm lovin' it.

Take note: Dresses at the bar really do make a difference. Never have I been approached, chatted up, or touched by so many people than this night. My favourite, however, would have to be..

.. as I'm leaving Bomber, looking for Melo and Rosie, Random Brown Guy stops me and..

RBG: You look hot tonight. Can I have your number?
Me: I don't have a number.
RBG: Who doesn't have a number??
Me: You don't even know my name.
RBG: Okay.. what's your name?
Me: Dude, you asked for my number before you asked for my name... (walking away)

The best part would have to be retelling this story to my Mom, to which she replies, "What?? You didn't give hime your number?? Why not??? That's how you meet people!"

Yes, people, that is my mother. He was ugly. But I think that's understood.

No ordinary Thursday night

2006-03-24T16:36:00.000-05:00

This unusual Thursday started off with me actually waking up and getting to school, checking out the SYDE symposium in the fishbowl, DC-ing it (and an nice unexpected chat), and poutine with Wessy.

Since we all skipped our regular Tuesday ECON class, Bev, Derrick, Dan and I went to ECON that Thursday together. I can say with certainty that the Thursday class is probably just as boring as the Tuesday class.

Pictures as proof. I can barely stay awake, and, you can't tell, but Bev behind me is already asleep.

So, to pass the second half of class, after a nice long trip to Timmy's at break, out comes the Imprint, and thus began the CrossWars. A crossword battle of the sexes, if you will (although, where does that put Dan at 5.5 gay?). It really was no contest.

The winners...

..of course, were Bev and I. And to quote the losers, "We started making up words! We panicked, okay!!" Derrick and Dan with an autographed copy of our finished crossword.

End of the night, you think? No, no, no. What was supposed to be a quiet night in at 318, with, perhaps, a movie or a board game, turned into a great night at the bar, with the receipt of a few texts and phonecalls.

After Bev and I quickly got ready in lightning speed, we met up with Hutch, Eric and Dave, some mec guys, at Voodoo for some drinks, before meeting up with the Systems crew at Cesar's.

We all might as well be connected at the hip, here in Waterloo. Karim knows Steph from Health through UHN. Small, small world.

Such pretty girls, yeah? I concur.

And the boys, just as pretty.

Now Liyan's in the mix. And so is the double Sex On The Beach Martini in my hand. It's what pushed me over the edge.. among other things.

Pauley Ting! He's super hot.
See Dave and Eric behind us? Where's Hutch? ADD, as per usual, I'm sure.

And this was the end of me that night. I love you, Arvind, for taking me home that night ..more than you know.

Bomber #9

2006-03-23T18:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Tine, we have pictures from the second last Bomber Wednesday of 4B. It was, once again, a Clubbing Buddies Bomber night.

Tine and I.. likely by that Asian Crew area. You know the one.. right on the outside of the dance floor, and filled with Asian kids too cool to dance. That's the one.

Due to the lack of available dancers, as per usual, Wessy was our muse. Well, except for that on dance with that one guy that one time...

Rosie.. always with the hats. It works like a charm.. especially since she picked up a - get this - brown boy that night. There's a first for everything. I tell you - Ottawa's where all the cool kids are from.

And what a way to end the night than with McDonald's. It's the key to my heart. Honestly.

St. Paddy's Day

2006-03-19T23:50:00.000-05:00

After an early group meeting with the Sara(h)s and Jess, and an attempt at getting into Bomber at noon, Waltho, McQueen and I went for green drinks at Eastside's, before I selflessly volunteered to take one for the team and go to 444. Boy was it worth it. The Imprint was especially good that week. Nap time before the festivities that night...

St. Paddy's Day was brought to you by the letter A, for Aasthaa, and by the number 17.

The festive hostesses, Aliya and Aasthaa.

Bev and I chillin out.

Derrick's green suit (that sometimes looked brown, depending on the lighting) deserved an honourable mention and display of some sort.

Liyan and I.

Pauley, Dan and Karim enjoying the privacy of Mike's room a little too much. What were you boys doing in there, hmmm??

Oh, a little insight, a little revelation.. a short chat, and it was off to Bomber. A super empty Bomber, that is. I've never seen it so dead. Another offer and an even faster decline of movie-watching, cause I had watched too many movies over the last 3 weeks. And they are trouble.

And from here on in starts the downward spiral. Boy, was that MSN name so right. On so many levels and for so many people for so many different reasons. It was generic. Universal.

Pink-a-thon

2006-03-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

One drink an hour. For 24 hours.

Are you even surprised that this is another Systems concoction? Coincidentally, it was the same day that Jess and Mariese came down from Ottawa, so they got to sample some of the craziness, before, shall we say, a little REVerie.

Mariese and Jess at 318. Jess is festive in pink. Perfect for the occasion.

Chris is also very festive in pink.

Me: Did you see Chris?
Derrick: Yeah. I recognized your pink pants.

Brown is not the new pink. Sorry, Arvind.

Blissful illusion. And then the sad reality.

George, DJ, Rohit and myself - on drink number who knows... They've been transhed for a good 14 hours at this point.

Stopped dancing only for a second to take a picture at the infamous Rev.

Three of only 5 survivors of Pink-a-thon. Congratulations, Arvind, Rohit and Ankur! I think the other two were Derrick and Ryan. Good job, boys.

It was a late Friday night after Rev, what with talk of and talking with boys keeping us awake. Mariese, at 3:30am. Me, at 4:30am. And Jess takes the cake, at 6:00am. Had a late lunch at Mel's, before stopping by Lester for one last goodbye, and the girls were off to T.O. for the rest of the w-end, and I was off to bed for a nap.

We didn't quite make it all the way inside Bomber that Saturday night for Derrick's actual birthday bash, but Bev, Rohit, Arvind, Dan, DJ and I spent a good portion of the night chillin out at Timmy's, before heading to McDonald's, and then back to Lester. Potentially awkward situation averted at McDonald's thanks to their closing hour at midnight. Phew.

Late night talk with Rohit was refreshing, where we realized just how oblivious we both were, but especially me, and that his kids will be donning shirts with "I was conceived at REV" logos on them. Good times.

Bomber #7 & Post-birthday bash

2006-02-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

I don't think these pictures even need captions. They're pretty self-explanatory. It's my party an I can drink if I want to.

Three Butterscotch & Cream shots with Bev at 318.

Polar Bear shots with Rosie at Bomber. And then a Raspberry Smirnoff.

Raspberry Smirnoff and a Smirnoff Ice. Double-fisting the whole night? Noooo.......

Trying to conceal the drinks from the camera.

Those are still the same bottles as above. I swear!

The result of all those drinks and a tiny little asian girl = red kissy faces.

Derrick, wearing the Montreal shirt and Arvind wearing the shirt of my future home. Love it!

Lerman, Bradley, Bury and Bristow after how many drinks?

Three-somes and other such trash-talk, brought to you by my one and only roomie.

Who, out of these two lovely ladies, do you think was the most hammered that night? So much so that she got kicked out of Bomber?

If you say the birthday girl, you'd be wrong.

Beep.. beep.. beeeeeep. 24

2006-02-13T21:21:00.000-05:00

Food, Friends and twenty-Four. It was a nice, chill day for my 24th, starting off with breakfast at 318; but only after some strangely unexpected MSN birthday wishes.

Our chef of the morning, Michelle. A vegan vreakvast, if you vill.

Pancakes-a-la-Hur. More than three different kinds, with fruits, and sauces, and toppings - OH MY!

The hungry people. Michelle and myself, Arvind, George, Bev, Chris's back and Rohit's back.

You can't see it, but that coffee cake looked and sounded like 24, thanks to the ingeniuity of CMBlake. I love it!

After a day of phonecalls, emails and MSNing, it was off to Mediterraneo for the non-vegan portion of the day: RIBS.

The Yellow Side; Kat, Melo, myself and Mary - before the feast.

In the middlde of brownies; Wessy, Judith, Rosie and JaiDhar.

On our way home - no, back to the library for these geeks. Work doesn't stop for birthdays.

Time also doesn't stop birthday wishes. Thanks to everyone for all the sweet birthday wishes that lasted everyday until I went home to Ottawa the following Friday. It was a great birthday week!

11th: William's date with Bev, complete with apple crumble cheesecake.
12th: My actual birthday and the aforementioned gatherings.
13th: A super-fun all-nighter for my 372 presentation.
14th: My super-fun 372 presentation which sucked ass, but I was rewarded with a super-yummy BigMac, super-pink crepes and a super-chocolate flower with my super-fun Valentine's date, Jeff.
15th: Pho dinner with Mary and a second apple crumble cheesecake. And my Bomber Birthday (see next post).
16th: Snow Day.. or any other regular Thursday cause I have no classes on Thursdays.
17th: Home to Ottawa. Finally getting to open my SUPER HUGE PACKAGES from Anne & Essi. Sweet Thai Chili crisps! Food is definitely the key to my heart.
18th: First time at The Drink with the girls.. and some pleasantly unexpected guests...

.. and many more surprises and good times during reading week. I love it.

Bomber #6 & Pre-birthday bash

2006-02-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

Trial No. 2 of bringing the girls to Bomber, and SUCCESS!! It was good times. A slightly different crowd; less Systems, more.. other people. And I guess we could also call this night a pre-birthday bash since some made it out who wouldn't be able to make it to next week's more official Sarah's-Bomber-Birthday bash.

THE Clubbing Buddies + 1 . Thanks for the many drinks, girls! It was an awesome night of drinking, dancing and all that good fun.

Things started to get crazy when we somehow won (?) these black Columbia toques. Where did they come from anyways???

If you think this is bad, it was 10x worse live. Melo's actually really crazy.

Wessy! Proof that I was actually in this picture. Before you cut me and my hand out.

Sy and McQueen. 2 of 6 Sara(h)s in Health.

Mag, one of my very few Health buddies. And also from Ottawa! We are a rare breed.

Some of my favourite girls in Waterloo: Bev (the only non-Healthy), Mary, Sara, Maggie and myself.

Oh, but the night doesn't end here. AF crew outside Bomber, MSNing at the terminals in SLC, MSNing from Bev's, McDonald's delivery, a late-night trip to the Castle (complete with a BigMac, chicken nuggets and Family Guy), and severely insufficient sleep for my grad pics the next morning. I still looked okay though, yeah? What do you think?

If this picture doesn't prove just how big my head is, I don't know what will. Oh no, wait - my baby pictures. Hot stuff.

Wine & Cheese

2006-02-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

Although I did hear the crazy stories from the Wine & Cheese of 4A, this was my first ever Wine & Cheese with the fourth streams. Good times, pretty people, lots of wine and a little Rev. This was also the night I learned the true meaning of a grenade and that, as a filipino, I am considered a nigga of the orient.

Boys at the party. Boys at Rev. That random asian guy at Rev. The grenade guy. And even when I got home.

This is pretty Bev. Not a boy.

This is a brown boy.

These are boys; Cow and regular.

He's havin a heel-clickin' good time.

Brownies in the oven.

Believe it or not, they hadn't had a single drop of wine to drink when this was taken.

Boys who like boys who grab a boy's boys.

Boy. Not a boy. And boy.

Bomber #5

2006-02-02T15:02:00.000-05:00

Haven't skipped a beat on my Bomber nights, regardless of how many papers I have to finish. I am quite proud of my 3 papers done in a day an a half though. After handing in yet another at 9:30pm that night, a trip to the Castle, then to Mongo's, and finally ending up at Bomber was warranted.

Since we were late arriving, those that got there at 8:00pm were already completely trashed, ie. Aasthaa, above, who practically tackled me to the ground.

Semi-Jack Bauer pose with a not so semi-drunk Arvind.

Secret pictures taken are always fun: I belive we're listening to Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy on Jeff's super fun mp3 player/cell.

Graham: I'm leaving a message. Sarah, who do you love?
Me: You, Graham.
Graham: No. Who do you love??
Me: YOU, GRAHAM.
Graham: NO. Who do you love??
Me: YOU, GRAHAM! Who the hell do you want me to say?
Graham: We're leaving Jeff a message. Who do you love???
Me: Ahh.. JEFF!

Cameras come in handy for just such occasions; the Systems incest goes far and beyond.. all the way to three-somes in SLC.

Ottawa for the w-end

2006-01-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

An impromtu whirlwind w-end in Ottawa for a) Ate's birthday and b) Chris's last w-end in the country before heading off to Australia for med school. Who knows when I'll see this guy, so luckily, Mag was also going home that w-end and I got to spend some time with Chris (while they were playing video games in the other room and I did my essay) and with Ate (at the Lawyer for some good dancing action).

Ate, myself, Cheryl and Elaine stuffed after dinner.

Anton and I with some crepe dessert stuff. Filipino parties have the best food. Love it.

Me and the guest of honour. You probably can't tell, but he had just finished bawling in front of a room full of people. Who's a wuss now?? And no, I wasn't... uhh.. crying. I'm stonecold.

No party at the de Jesus's is complete without the 8-screen video gaming, poker, and endless rounds of karaoke. Mike, you are forever branded Mr. Lonely. This is what happens from poor song selection.

Bomber #4 and Bev's Birthday Bash

2006-01-27T14:24:00.000-05:00

A birthday isn't complete without a celebration at Bomber, so waiting in line for almost 2 hours was worth it to celebrate B.D.Bradle's 24th.

The birthday baby and.. wait.. no, that can't be... is that Jack Bauer or Butch??

The party people ready for a good time. Chris (sometimes known as Christ, who show people The Way), Rohit Camera-happy Sharma, birthday Beverly, Arvind aka Butch, 5.5 Straight Dan, and Just Aliya.

Rohit and I so very happy to finally get in at almost midnight.

Matching Baby Blues, that hardcore brown guy Wessy and myself.

If anyone deserves hugs on this day, it's the birthday girl and one from none other than Graham Cracker.

Counterparts of the two in the picture above.

Everyone, meet my soulmate. We're bound by the cosmos. And a scarf.

Is the night over for the birthday girl?? Not without a little slice of heaven.. and by heaven, I mean pizza.

Photo op with the Campus Pizza man. And a long, cold walk to the Castle, then to Lester, then on home.

Bomber #3

2006-01-20T02:11:00.000-05:00

A different spin on Bomber that night: Melo, Rosie and Mary were in attendance. Systems people, not so much. Interesting night, as it was the celebration of the COMP/ECE Symposium held earlier that day, so a lot of Wessy's brownies were present. Also, remember Simon who Melo thought was Steve who wanted to "get with all of us"?

This is my awesome new roomie, Anna, and myself before heading off to Bomber.

Okay, so have no pictures actually at Bomber, but at least you know what I looked like that night.

Bomber #2

2006-01-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

Picture-crazy Rohit captured pretty much every minute before, during and after Bomber this second week of classes.

Bev and I: Bomber #2. Take note of the shirt. It was HOT STUFF all night. I kid you not.

Bev and I with the one and only Derrick. I saw this guy a lot that night. Maybe it was the yellow shirt I couldn't miss.. or perhaps the beer belly.

DJ and Bev. Remember in the summer on Canada Day when a bunch of the Systems people came down for the w-end and we all went out and I beat DJ at air hockey THREE TIMES IN A ROW?? That was awesome!

You know you're a Waterloo geek when you're all wearing matching UW sweatshirts at the bar. Here's Ankur, Rohit, Ganan and Aasthaa displaying their UW pride. Arvind and Anja are not properly dressed for this picture.

First Rev of 4B

2006-01-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

First week of school, second night of partying. A fitting last first Rev with the original first rev ever crew; Melo, Rosie, Jamie and I.

Pre-Rev pictures.

I can always count on Tine to be at Rev. Yay!

First Bomber of 4B

2006-01-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

Zero problems getting in cause we arrived at about 6:45pm to beat the line. And that we did. Apprently, people that got there at 7:00pm waited for TWO HOURS! Insane! First night was great; met some nice new people, mostly from Bev's SYDE class, and seeing some familiar faces after a year off of school.

Rohit, Aliya, Arvind, Aasthaa and Dan.. Bomber regulars.

Birthday girl, Maggie, myself and Mag's roommate Andrea.

Tine! Another Healthie in the mix.

Slightly scandalous, but a sign of good times...

New Year's Eve

2006-01-03T00:21:00.000-05:00

Second New Year's Eve spent at Gell & Kat's. And here we thought it would be just us... ahh, but does it matter? Still the same crazy barkada.

There's no such thing as a decent picture with these boys. Honestly.

No barkada event would be complete without matching shirts. Look carefully. Even the shirts underneath match.

Family Feud-ish, don't you think?

Fitting, especially after Yanni's Professions-of-love-for-Freya display last New Year's.

Chit-chatting with the ladies; Kat, myself, Jan-Jan and Sheila.

Last day in London

2005-12-23T01:34:00.000-05:00

london.ENGLAND thurs.DEC22/05-fri.DEC23/05

Jen, Maricris and I at Jen's hotel. One last meeting of the Ottawa girls before we all come home.

Kensington Palace.

Signs in Leicester Square.

My freakin awesome hotel room in the Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace Road. No more hostels!

Heidelberg, Germany

2005-12-22T01:26:00.000-05:00

heidelberg.GERMANY sun.DEC18/05-wed.DEC21/05

Beautiful Heidelberg.

2 for 1: a chocolate and a real Studentenkuss.

Heidelberger Schloss illuminated, with the Christmas Market in front.

Yummy and HUGE breakfast for Anne and I at KaffeeHaus in Schweitzingen.

Mannheim Adler vs. Dusseldorf. Victory for Mannheim 5:3.

Anne and a kartoffel-puffer (a potato pancake). Yum!

Me and Santa in Mannheim at the Weinachtsmarkt.

Berlin, Germany

2005-12-19T01:19:00.000-05:00

berlin.GERMANY fri.DEC16/05-sun.DEC18/05

Brandenburg Gate from the east side of Berlin.

Me, in front of Brandenburg Gate.

The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.

The Berlin Wall.

Charlie's Angels's Christmas

2005-12-15T02:07:00.000-05:00

Lancaster's Charlie's Angels celebrate Christmas wed.DEC14/05

Opening my beautiful gift from my 2 beautiful friends. I love you girls! You're amazing!

Essi and Anne opening their gifts.

Cheers! A drink before our movie and a little Liquid.

Check us out: we were in http://www.facesinplaces.co.uk.

Lancaster, England

2005-12-14T01:11:00.000-05:00

lancaster.ENGLAND wed.DEC14/05

Room 201 Gressingham Hall at the end of the term.

St. Martin's College.

My second home, the Lancaster Train Station. I spent many days leaving and arriving at these very platforms.

An 80's Christmas Party

2005-12-11T00:59:00.000-05:00

80's Christmas Party sat.DEC10/05

Me, Anne and Essi all dressed up for the 80's Christmas Party.

My beautiful best girls, Essi and Anne.

Presents! From my Secret Santa, Nora! Wine gums, coffee-scented candles, Guatemalan worry dolls and Union Jack socks from Topshop.

The Neon International Gorgeous Girls of 2005-2006.

Dancing in the kitchen.

Beatlemania!

2005-12-09T19:20:00.000-05:00

liverpool.ENGLAND wed.DEC07/05

Liverpool Cathedral, which is, I belive, the largest Anglican Cathedral in the UK.

Penny Lane.

Strawberry Fields. (Can you tell I went on a Beatles tour? The Magical Mystery Tour, actually)

Statue of John Lennon in front of the Cavern Club.

Manchester

2005-12-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

manchester.ENGLAND sat.DEC03/05

Finally found Old Trafford Stadium. (And not Old Trafford Cricket Grounds).

Ana and I behind Arndale Shopping Centre in front of the Wheel of Manchester.

Mimi, Ana and Anne pooped and shopped out with all our goodies from Primark.

Happy birthday, Mom!

2005-12-03T15:14:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER! To the person who gave me life and also the only person who reads this website, hope you have a great birthday, and I am thinking of you and wish I was there to celebrate because I know you miss me. I love you! I will be home very soon!

Stockholm & Brussels

2005-11-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

stockholm.SWEDEN wed.NOV23/05-fri.NOV25/05

Street in Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Stockholm, Sweden.

One of many H&Ms in Stockholm. (Yes, I went into all the H&Ms that I saw)

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brussels.BELGIUM fri.NOV25/05-sun.NOV27/05

Mannekin-Pis. Translation: The Little Peeing Boy. No, there weren't any statues or monuments to Jean-Claude Van Damme.

L'Hotel de Ville de Bruxelles dans Grand Place.

A yummy strawberry Belgian waffle in Belgium. Life is sweet.

"Movies in London are FUN!" - Jen Park

2005-11-21T17:38:00.000-05:00

london.ENGLAND thurs.NOV17/05-mon.NOV21/05

Harrod's in Knightsbridge.

The infamous zebra crossing at Abbey Road.

Tower Bridge over the Thames.
(Not London Bridge, and it's pronounced tems).

Bella Italia

2005-11-16T12:35:00.000-05:00

All I can say is beautiful. Italy is definitely the most beautiful country I’ve visited here in Europe, although I’m only basing that on three cities that I saw; Rome, Pisa and Venice. With so much to see and so much history, you can’t help but be in awe with everything around you.

This Italy trip started off last Monday night when I took a train to Wigan, a train to Liverpool Lime Street Station, then a nice scenic bus to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which made me wanna come back and see the sights of Liverpool (not that I wasn’t gonna go – hello, The Beatles). Definitely a first, but surely not the last, sleeping at the Liverpool Airport was not as bad as I thought it would be. Tons of people were already camped out when I arrived there at 11:30pm, but I luckily found half-a-bench and a chair that made for a semi-comfortable sleep. I think the girl on the other end was regretting not stretching her legs the length of the bench when I came and sat down beside her.

4:00am on Tuesday morning, I was third in line to check in to my 7:00am flight to Ciampino Airport, which is just outside Rome.

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rome.ITALY tues.NOV08/05-fri.NOV11/05

I woke up on the plane just in time to peek out the window and see the first amazing site of the trip; as we’re flying over Rome, I could clearly see the huge Roman Colosseum, smack in the middle of the city. It was so cool! And a minute later, Vatican City in all its glory comes into view, and I could make out St. Peter’s Square and the Basilica. All of these up close would not disappoint.

My flight arrived at Ciampino at 10:45am as scheduled, and Jen and her two friends, Andrea and Yunyi, came through the arrival gate less than an hour later. Jen, I’m still impressed that you survived the entire week on just one small-ish backpack. You’ve changed. But Yunyi definitely takes the cake with her school bag that’s smaller than my red MEC backpack. I don’t know how she managed.

On the bus to the metro station, Jen and I caught up and compared notes on where we’ve traveled so far. It was so nice to talk to someone who can relate to being on exchange and traveling and, most importantly, to the food we missed back in Ottawa. Really, how is food in Ottawa better than in Europe?

After a metro ride on the most ghetto subway (we have ghetto pictures to prove it) and a short walk, we finally arrived at our hotel (yes, I said hotel and not hostel), Hotel Papa Germano. Since the girls are a little more high class than I am, we splurged a little on accommodations on this trip and got 4-bed private rooms. It was so nice to have my own bed for once, where they actually come in and make the bed for you every morning, like a real hotel.

We freshened up a bit and then walked into the first real restaurant we saw for an early dinner of pasta. Afterwards, we headed to Termini Station, where a) we had to take the tube and b) got the first of many gelatos. Well, I didn’t exactly get one then cause I was full from supper, but I more than made up for it through the rest of the trip. We took the tube a couple stops to one of Rome’s major sights. There would be no dilly-dallying on small, side sights. We got out of the tube station and, wow…

Yes, I freakin saw this. The Colosseum. So cool, huh? It really is as amazing in real life as you imagine it. It wasn’t crowded around it all either, so we easily walked around it, spotting all these dressed-up gladiators and caesars posing for pictures with people. We had hesitated too long on taking the tour of Colosseum that day, and by the time we had walked all the way around and back to the entrance, we had missed the last admission, which was at a fairly early 3:45pm.

Oh, and did I mention the weather in Rome was awesome? Warmer than Barcelona. Sandals and t-shirts during the day. It was great.

We walked down Via Fori Imperiali, and everywhere we looked, there would be ruins or ancient buildings of some sort or monuments surrounding us. It was hard to pick what to focus on. Walking down Via Fori Imperiali, to our left was the ruins of the Foro Romano, the Mercati Traianei on our right and up ahead was the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, for the first king of Italy.

This picture was taken quite far from the monument, from the other side of Piazza Venezia, but you can see just how big it is as you can see how small the people in front of it are.

We headed up Via del Corso, which cuts the centre of town in half, with the intention of finding the famed Fontana di Trevi. On our way there, we took some stops; into stores for some shopping, and into a gelateria for – what else, gelato. Life is definitely good when I can eat gelato while sitting in front of the Trevi Fountain. Good times, good times.

As the official navigator (aren’t I always?), I directed us through the city to eventually end up the Pantheon, as per Andrea’s request. If you’re an Angels & Demons fan, you’ll undoubtedly know that the Pantheon is one of the settings in the book. And speaking of Angels & Demons, I had definitely wanted to go to all the major sights from the book, but I wasn’t expecting there to be a tour of it, since it wasn’t as popular as The Da Vinci Code. I was so happy that I was wrong about that when I saw a pamphlet for and Angels & Demons walking tour at the hotel, but it was quickly shattered when I read that it was only offered on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; every freakin day that we’re not in Rome. Sucks.

Side note: How annoying is it when the random person you ask to take a picture of you in front of some sight actually just takes a picture of you and completely misses the sight in the background? And you can tell when this is gonna happen cause they start fiddling with the zoom or they start to come closer to you. Obviously, we’d like the background to also be in the picture. I thought this was a given when you ask to have your picture taken. The girls and I had one such picture in front of the Pantheon.

We continued on to our next destination, passing the Tempio Adriano and the Palazzo Madama, entering into the Piazza Navona, which is a trendy square, surrounded with cafes and restaurants and is a nice place just to chill out. It is also another sight in Angels & Demons, and of course I took pictures of Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers, in the middle of which stands an Egyptian Obelisk. Most of the pictures we took after the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II are pretty dark, but we returned to all the same places and took proper pictures during the day.

Here’s a story, and probably not one you’d wanna tell the kids. So, the girls and I are walking towards the Tiber River and from Ponte Umberto I, we could see the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the distance, so we start making our way towards it, passing by the Palazzo di Giustizia and the Castel Sant’Angelo along the way. We’re walking down Via della Conciliazione, which runs like an entranceway into St. Peter’s Square, and this man in his car slows down beside us and started asking us something in Italian. After we tell him we can’t understand, he starts asking for help in English. So, we think he’s asking for directions and he was trying to show us a map cause this other guy had just asked us for directions. We all kinda walk over and Yunyi and I were the oh-so lucky ones that got close enough to get a full view of his Italian sausage sticking straight out of his pants. Freakin disgusting! I’m scarred for life. We were all so grossed out and quickly walked into a store cause he kept yelling over to us. This is exactly why you never talk to strangers. That rule should also apply to adults and not just to kids. So gross, goodness. Good thing we were headed to the Vatican so I could be cleansed.

All disgustingness aside and after he finally sped off, we got to a deserted Piazza San Pietro. Amazing. Seriously, everywhere I went, I couldn’t believe I was even there. We took some pictures before heading back down into the city centre and taking the tube to Termini, stopping off for a shawarma (and not a proper one like back in Ottawa), and retiring for the night in our fancy hotel.

After a decent breakfast at the hotel, we took the tube to the Vatican to catch the mass/blessing that the Pope does on Wednesday mornings in St. Peter’s Square. Rows of chairs were set up in St. Peter’s Square, as we saw the night before, and today, these were filled with hundreds of people awaiting the Pope’s arrival. It was a bearable crowd; not too crowded, but I can only imagine the crowds during the summer. We were a bit too far back to be able to catch Pope Benedict XVI on the Popemobile, but we eventually made our way to the back of the seated area, where we could get a full view of the Pope, although we were quite some distance away. I zoomed in with my camera as much as I could. We were close enough though to have a good view of the Jumbotron and that was probably as close to the Pope as we were gonna get; hence, I have tons of pictures of the Pope displayed on the Jumbotron, as follows.

Cool, huh? I would have liked to see Pope John Paul, but I got here a few months too late, I guess. For the most part, the blessing consisted of the Pope addressing the various pilgrims to the Vatican in their respective languages, which I thought was pretty cool. There were even people there from Halifax. The Pope blessed the crowd in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Italian (of course), and there may have been a few more. It was a pretty cool experience in itself and we have tons of pictures to prove it.

Like this one. Kinda hard to see, but if you zoom in by the man in black standing up walking out, you can see the Pope to the right of his head. And you can also see some Swiss Guards there.

After the hour-and-a-half long blessing, we went to the Vatican Post Office off to the right of St. Peter’s Basilica and Jen mailed her postcards with Vatican stamps and into the Vatican Post. We then followed the crowd to the Vatican Museums, with its entrance at the back of Vatican City. We didn’t wait too long in line, and made our way through the Museums. We didn’t have a guide of any sort, so I really can’t tell you what I saw. It was pretty amazing though and huge. Really, we were making our way towards the pièce de résistance, the Sistine Chapel. I’m not exactly sure what I expected from it, but it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Not that I was disappointed, but I guess I just had no idea what it looked like. The paintings on every surface of the interior were pretty impressive. Even though picture-taking wasn’t permitted, pretty much everyone disregarded it and took pictures anyways. Some dumbasses even used their flash. I at least tried to be discreet.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with the infamous Creation of Adam in the centre of the Central Stories, which are the paintings in the middle. The 12 Sibyls and Prophets are seated on thrones around the outside of the Central stories, and are countered lower down by Christ’s forefathers portrayed in the Webs, which are the paintings in the ‘triangles’ in between the Sibyls and Prophets. The four corner Pendentives of the ceiling illustrate some episodes of the miraculous salvation of the people of Israel.

After a visit to the Vatican gift shop and a few more pictures, what better way to end the tour than with some gelato. They honestly have a gelato place at every other store down any street. Ottawa has – what? – 2 maybe 3? Every time I got gelato, it was always coffee and either chocolate or crème caramel. Yum. Some of the fruity ones were also good, but ice cream to me always has to have some sort of chocolate in it.

A little bit of a ways away, but the day was beautiful anyhow, we walked back to the other side of the Tiber River to Piazza Navona to see it properly during the day. Still lively and filled with people, Piazza Navona was alive with vendors all over the square and people in the small cafes on the perimeter which we could now see better in the light.

Also better in the light was the Fountain of Four Rivers. The fountains scattered throughout Rome are absolutely beautiful. Apparently, Bernini had a hand in creating pretty much every fountain in Rome.

We also went back to see the Pantheon in daylight and shopped on our way to see the Fontana di Trevi.

All along the outside of the Trevi Fountain, where I’m taking this picture, there are steps that people are sitting on and the fountain is actually surrounded by buildings. I’m happy that I could get a nice picture of the fountain without other tourists and people in front of it.

We ate dinner – pasta, of course, at this little restaurant a few blocks away from the Trevi Fountain, where this little Italian waiter man kept hitting on Andrea and his little brown buddy kept asking her to please, please go on a date with him. Creepy. We walked to the north of the city, as per usual shopping and buying souvenirs on the way, towards the Spanish Steps. There were tons of people sitting on the steps, and it was really dark, but I tried to take some pictures. But the church at the top of the steps, Trinità dei Monti, was also under some construction so it was covered. From the Spanish Steps, we walked down Via Condotti, which is this somewhat high-fashion shopping street with stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton all down the street. We didn’t really go into any of these stores, let alone buy anything, but we did take pictures in front of some of them, like proper tourists.

On our way to Piazza del Popolo, we happened to run into Magic Fingers, this Asian man on the street making something that I won’t say cause I bought a bunch as pasalubong. Anyway, so he’s making these things and it takes a little while to make each of them, and Jen’s got one, I’ve got one, and while I was deciding who else I wanted to get them for, Andrea was gonna get one, but then suddenly, Magic Fingers started packing up and these cops were telling him to leave, I guess cause he was an illegal street vendor. We were a little bummed that he had to leave, but we decided to come back down Via del Corso, where he was, that next night and hopefully find him again.

We walked to Piazza del Popolo, which was pretty desserted and then just took the tube from there back to Termini Station, and walked up to our hotel, getting some gelato on our way home.

With nothing concrete planned for the next day, we decided to go back to the Vatican and see St. Peter’s Basilica and hopefully get into the Vatican Gardens. Unfortunately, the Vatican Gardens were closed, but we did get to see St. Peter’s Basilica and all its glory. Probably no other church that I’ve ever been to can hold a candle to St. Peter’s. It was absolutely magnificent and enormous! There were sculptures and paintings everywhere, and of course, Michaelangelo’s La Pietà. La Pietà is a marble sculpture depicting Jesus’s body in his mother Mary’s arms after the Crucifixion.

Jen, Andrea, Yunyi and I right outside St. Peter’s Basilica. We’re standing right where the Pope was just the day before.

From there, we took the tube to the Colosseum, where we finally got to see the inside. We didn’t take a tour, and the walk around the inside was short and sweet. It was definitely cool to be in there, just imagining how it was when it was functional centuries ago.

What better way to have lunch on an unusually beautiful November day that outside the Colosseum. Cause we’re poor backpacking students, Andrea and I had made ham and cheese sandwiches from the breakfast buffet that morning. Hey, you gotta use what you get, right? And here’s a little ingenuity; we obviously didn’t have any Tupperware so we used the plastic cereal bowl and stuffed our buns in it and covered it with napkins. Creativity at its best, people. Jen and Yunyi ate some snacks they had, while Andrea and I feasted on our ham and cheese sandwiches. They were pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Included in the admission to the Colosseum was admission to the Roman Forum across the street, so after searching for some gelato and coming up empty-handed, we walked around the ruins of the Forum and through the Palatino.

Our next destination was Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where the famed Bocca della Verità resides. Legend has it that people would go there, put their hand in the mouth and if they told a lie, the mouth would close on their hand. Santa Maria in Cosmedin was just on the other side of the Roman Forum, opposite from the Colosseum, but there was no simple way out of the Forum in that direction, so we had to walk all the way around the Forum.

So, it’s Day Three of Rome, and understandably, we’re pooped. On our way around the Forum, we took a nice long break in the ruins and just chilled out for a good 45 minutes or so. We eventually got around the Forum to Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where there was a line-up of Chinese tourists waiting to put their hand in La Bocca della Verità. We had a quick photo-op with the Mouth of Truth, and then walked down by the Circo Massimo, which is behind the Palatino, to the metro station.

Again, on our way to the metro station, we stopped at these benches to take in the view of the Forum from afar. So, we’re sitting there, and we kinda notice this little car parked in front of us and it was rocking a little. A little closer look showed that this couple was heavily making out and were pretty much on the verge of sex right in this tiny little car. Honestly, Europeans – not afraid to show affection. Any time, anywhere. We had to turn around on the bench cause they were right in our line of sight.

After a while, we finally got to the metro and took it Piazza del Popolo, so we could see it in daylight. From there, we walked down Via del Corso, veering off to some side street, where we were once again tempted into another gelato run. The one we stopped at was pretty good – 2 scoops for only €1.50. We eventually hit the area around the Trevi Fountain and, starving by this point, we had dinner at this little café off to some side street before continuing on in through the city.

Once again, we had to stop for gelato, which I think was fate cause as soon as we stepped out of the gelato place, lo and behold, guess who’s sitting right outside, setting up his little makeshift booth? It was Magic Fingers! (Secret word of the day: Ahhhh!) I had to stare for a second, cause, man, what are the chances? After a while of waiting, Andrea finally got hers and I got 3 more, which Jen and Yunyi were left to their own devices and came back with a ton of shopping. I also got a blue and white ITALIA sweater that’s fun from this Filipino girl who worked at a souvenir shop. I thought maybe she’d give me a discount cause we’re practically cousins, but she didn’t.

We decided to walk back to the hotel, and thanks to my awesome navigating skills, we had, at some point, managed to go the opposite direction, accidentally seeing the Quirinale, which was once a summer residence for the popes. We eventually got back on the right track and got to Termini Station and bought our train tickets to Pisa and then to Venice for the next day.

We got up at a painful 5:30am to catch our 6:30am train from Termini to Firenze (Florence), where we changed trains to get to Pisa for 9:30am.

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pisa.ITALY fri.NOV11/05

True to what everyone’s told me, Pisa is this little town with really not much in it except for the Leaning Tower, the Duomo and the Battistero, all within a few metres from each other in the Piazza del Duomo in Pisa.

Only about a 15 minute walk from the main train station, we passed by the Arno River that runs through Pisa, which was a lot like the Salzach River that runs through Salzburg.

With our backpacks and all our stuff, the short walk to the Leaning Tower was somewhat painstaking, but definitely worth it when we got to the clearing.

There weren’t many other tourists there, which was nice so we could get nice pictures of the Torre Pendente di Pisa uncluttered by other people. Of course we had to do the “pushing the tower down” pictures, as was every other tourist there. And there were also the “pushing the tower up” pictures that are a must. Our artistic skills were a little lacking, but the pictures look alright.

La Torre Pendente di Pisa was surprisingly not as tall as I thought it would be, but definitely cool to see. We walked around the souvenir shops lining the wall across the street, and briefly walked around to see the Battistero and the Duomo (Cathedral) before heading back into town for some lunch.

I have absolutely no idea what the name of the place was, but we decided to stop at this small café-cantina-type place for lunch, on our way back to the train station. We would not be disappointed. We only had a panini, and mine had proscutto, lettuce and mozzarella cheese, but it was probably the best panini I’ve ever had. There was something salty in the bread that made it so good. All the girls would agree, so we also all go a panini to go for the upcoming train ride to Venice.

Also nice about the café place was this cute guy that Jen spotted. I swear, she has a radar, cause I didn’t even notice him. Yes, very cute, spoke Italian, and had kinda sandy brown hair. Jen and I both kept staring at him through the mirror in the café. Andrea, however, didn’t notice him cause she was busy staring at the eccentric and eclectic guy serving us. Also cute.

Places visited in Pisa:

The Leaning Tower
Battistero
Duomo
Arno River

We got to the train station just in time to catch the 11:54am train to Firenze so we could transfer over to the train to Venice.

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venice.ITALY fri.NOV11/05-sun.NOV13/05

We arrived at Mestre Station in Venice at about 4:30pm, where, as per the directions from the hostel, we took the number 9 bus that would drop us off directly in front of the hostel. Granted, when I booked the hostel, I knew it was not exactly close to the city centre, but as we passed by this industrial area and we drove down the opposite direction of the sign that pointed towards Venice, we were all getting a little worried. There was just too much land that we were on for this to be Venice. Where are all the cute little buildings and the endless canals?

About an hour later, we finally arrived at Hotel Vila Dori, a really nice little place and definitely more like a hotel than a hostel, although it was cheaper than our Rome hotel. This entire Italy trip, I’ve been spoiled by the awesome accommodations that were not bunk-bed-multiple-people rooms, but actual hotel rooms. Hotel Vila Dori takes the cake, however, with its queen-size bed and fluffy duvet. They had put in a bunk bed to accommodate 4 people in the room, but the room itself was quite nice, also with a nice ensuite bathroom.

After getting directions from reception, we walked a bit to catch the bus that would take us directly to the city. We were about a half an hour outside of the city, and just looking around us, you’d never know we were in Venice.

Without a map, we winged it and just walked around where it looked like there was something to do. After getting snacks at the grocery, we finally found our way into the edge of Venice and checked out some souvenir shops, most of which sold items made from Murano Glass, which is characteristic of Venice. We walked around as much as we could, but it was already dark, the shops were closing, and the shuttle from the hotel that we had ordered would soon be arriving, so we headed back to the bus station and just waited for the shuttle to take us back.

We took in an early night, just chillin out at the hotel, watching some real TV and figuring out what we’d see the next day.

Saturday morning, we were disappointed to find a crappy breakfast, which we then opted out of, and took the bus to Venice and had breakfast there, consisting of our favourite: panini. At the place Andrea and Yunyi got their paninis from, there was this elderly Italian man having a coffee, and I swear he looked like a mob boss, but like the old ones with the thick black-rimmed glasses named Uncle Vito or something. No joke. He had on the glasses and a black coat, and even when he kinda smiled at us on his way out, he definitely had that mobster-vibe to him. Well, it was more a movie-type mobster vibe than a real scary one.

Again, without a map, we just decided to walk blind through the city and end up where we end up. Venice is definitely a beautiful city. Every street we passed, every bridge we crossed over a canal – beautiful! This is definitely the most beautiful city I’ve been to. And quite romantic, with the gondolas floating through the canals and couples cuddling under their blankets. I’m going back there for my honeymoon.

Here’s my makeshift boyfriend Jen and I in Venice. Let’s just pretend that I’m there with a boy that I love and we’re on our honeymoon. Yes, wake up, Sarah. But honestly, look how pretty? And this was just some random bridge over a random canal, not even one of the bigger more important ones.

We continued to walk around, checking out some souvenir shops and occasionally stopping to look through a map in one of the shops to see if we were going the right way. Apparently, we were cause we eventually came up to Rialto Bridge which crosses above the Grand Canal.

This is the view of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge, which is this bridge that has shops and things on it, leading to a semi-market. Breathtaking, huh? And as you can tell, it was so foggy that day, which added to the allure of the city, however a little cold.

Walking a little bit more, we came up to this fish and fruit market, where, seagulls reside and I got pooped on. I actually didn’t notice until Jen pointed it out later that day, but when those damn bastards started flying over us, I just knew they were dropping bombs. It wasn’t that bad though; I only got a little on my jeans and some on my bag. Some other lady I saw had it in her hair. That would have been gross.

After a while, we finally came up to the beautiful Piazza San Marco.

Yes, people, I was actually in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Directly behind me is St. Mark’s Basilica and then the amazing Venetian tower on the right. Also, do you see all the pigeons? They were everywhere! And hundreds of them! People were being flocked by pigeons cause they’d feed them and the pigeons would just surround them. There was this one toddler that was swarmed by pigeons cause the parents thought it’d be a treat to get a picture of their kid with the pigeons. Evil, evil parents.

Jen was the only brave one out of all of us, surprisingly enough, to venture out and let the pigeons come to her. Just holding out your arm in the square, the pigeons will come to you, even if you don’t have food. We got some good pictures of Jen with a pigeon sitting on her hand. When I tried, we were less successful, however. I stood there with my arm out, and as soon as I felt the pigeon rest on my arm, I absolutely freaked out and scared it away. Jen, Andrea, Yunyi and random passers-by burst out laughing at me. Needless to say, I have no pictures with the pigeons. It wasn’t worth it.

We walked to the far end of the St. Mark’s Square, where we got this brilliant idea to run through the pigeons so they’d all fly away and would provide for a cool picture. Yunyi, who didn’t want to participate, videotaped Jen, Andrea and I in our mission to run through the pigeons. I wish I could post the video. Basically, after I explain to the viewers back home what we’re about to do, you see Jen, myself and Andrea running through the pigeons, and the pigeons not giving a crap about us. They didn’t even acknowledge us, let alone fly away. It almost seemed like the pigeons were saying, “Oh, how lame are you stupid tourists.” And then rolling their little pigeon eyes at us, as they just nonchalantly moved over as we ran past them. None of them even flew away, stupid snobby pigeons. Amuse us a little.

From Piazza San Marco, we hopped on vaporetto, which is a water bus, and took route 82, which circled around Venice through the Grand Canal. It was pretty nice, as we got to see a lot of Venice, but it would have been nicer with some sort of commentary. This was also when Jen pointed out that I got crapped on by a seagull. Birds are evil, I’ve concluded.

After the vaporetto ride, which ended back at St. Mark’s Square, we walked around the city some more, stopping for dinner at this small restaurant, where I made the mistake of ordering a Bellini. I thought it was about €3.00 for the bottle, so I‘m thinking, hey, why not? I’m here in Italy anyways. Let's have a Bellini. Never, never assume drink prices was the lesson learned here. I had gotten a panini for dinner, and when the bill came, the Bellini was not €3.00 but actually like €7.00. It wasn’t even that good. I guess I’ve been lucky at finding money or getting unexpected discounts this entire time in Europe, so this was payback from the cosmos. I can’t really complain. Jen had gotten one of those funky twisty rings from Rome, but then got to Venice and realized that a) the rings she got were plastic and she could have gotten glass ones here in Venice and b) she paid €10.00 for one and here it was €3.00 each.

I hadn’t really bought anything at this point, but I made up for it with a nice picture of the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, some Murano glass Christmas ornaments and a few other pasalubong. While I was buying the Christmas ornaments, there was a huge group of Filipinos in the same store, and, in true form, buying like 20 of the same thing likely as pasalubong. Vienna was the other place that I had noticed a number of Filipinos, although there, it was mostly gay Filipinos. Yeah, I don’t get it either. What’s in Vienna for the bakla?

No, we did not go on a gondola, which sucked, but I’m not so upset as I will be back and take a proper ride with my husband on our honeymoon. We had planned on it, but it just didn’t work out, and each ride can cost anywhere from €60.oo upwards. We’re poor backpackers.

After a quick trip to Santa Lucia Train Station, which we thought was a mall, we took an alternate bus route back to the hotel, chilled out for the rest of the night, watching Madonna on MTV and packing our stuff for our flights home the next day. Andrea also lent me her Europe guide book and I took down some sights to see in Stockholm and Brussels for my upcoming trip.

Places I visited in Venice:

Rialto Bridge
Piazza San Marco
Piazza Ducale

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Sunday morning, we took a shuttle from the hotel to Treviso Airport, which only took about half an hour, but we had left so early as to beat any possible traffic, so we got to the airport at 8:30am. Our flights weren’t until noon and 1:00pm, so there was a lot of waiting to do.

Andrea and Yunyi occupied themselves with their books and things, while Jen and I just stared at each other going, “So… My favourite colour’s orange. What’s your favourite colour? So…” After a while, Jen and I knew each other pretty much back and forth and the conversation ended there.

At about 9:45am, I parted ways with the girls, as they checked in for their flight to Paris Beauvais, and I waited to check in to mine to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The trip back from Italy all the way back to Lancaster was relatively uneventful, from the flight, to the bus to Liverpool Lime Street, on to the train to Preston, and finally the bus to Lancaster, all of which got me home at about 7:00pm. I did receive some fun texts throughout my train and bus rides home, plus talking to Essi, Anne, Mariese and Alex that night was good times.

Ahh.. but the good times don’t end here. So, I get home that Sunday night and I’m unpacking and hungry, so I decided to make myself some hot and sour soup for the night. I’ve never made this before, but it doesn’t look hard. Pretty much just add water and an egg.

So, I’ve boiled the water, added in the mix and I’m mixing in an egg, as per the instructions. I guess I was stirring it a little too vigorously cause it splashed up a little on me, and a piece of egg got on my forehead and I quickly wiped off. So, I continue making the soup, all the while noticing that my forehead kinda burns. After the soup's all made and done, I went back to my room to eat it and I check out my forehead, and oh my good God, the egg has burned through my skin. I have a second degree burn on my forehead from EGG! Who the heck burns their forehead on egg? And damn, how freakin hot was that egg to have burned through skin?

Me against the egg. Skin was actually peeling off. Be weary of eggs. I have a battle scar to prove it.

The next few days were spent going to class and just relaxing before heading off to London that following w-end. Stay tuned… yes, I know I’m behind.

From Guinness to Gaudí

2005-11-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

MSN Messenger: You can now send me text messages through MSN. Yay!

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INSERT: Ottawa SENATORS, you are awesome! Keep it up, boys!

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A good time was had by all this past study week, from my first and last pint of Guinness in Dublin with Anne and Essi to experiencing the incredible architecture of Antoni Gaudí dispersed all over Barcelona with Ate. Early on the morning of the 22^nd, Anne, Essi and I got to Blackpool before lunch to take our 45-minute flight to Dublin.

dublin.IRELAND sat.OCT22/05-tues.OCT25/05

After taking the bus from Dublin Airport to Heuston Station in the city centre, we finally arrived to an unexpectedly ghetto hostel. Come to think of it, this past week’s worth of traveling, I stayed in some of the more ghetto hostels, although the one in Barcelona had some good benefits. The Brewery Hostel in Dublin, however, was seriously lacking, apart maybe from the included breakfast and that it was conveniently located near St. James’s hospital (this came in very handy, we soon find out).

I should have known how ghetto it was when the receptionist (an American guy) reminded me so much of this guy I used to know from Waterloo. This was the first time I was gonna stay in a 4-person private ensuite, and I was expecting it to at least be nicer than my past 10-people dorm-type room. It couldn’t have been worse. We get into the room and there’s garbage on the beds, a wet and very dirty towel on the floor of the bathroom, and a gross unflushed toilet. Apart from that, I couldn’t even sit up straight on the bottom bunk, and if I can’t sit up straight, something’s definitely wrong.

Of course we complained and this other guy, who we later learned was from Orillia, apologized to us, somewhat insincerely, and assured us the room would receive a proper Eric Cleaning. He was Eric.

Eventually, we got into our semi-clean room, freshened up a bit, and went walking into the city centre of Dublin. We walked along the River Liffey, which runs through the city of Dublin, dividing the north and south sides, where we ended up at Temple Bar, a trendy area filled with pubs, clubs and restaurants. We decided to have a nice dinner that night, choosing this restaurant called Trastavere in the middle of Temple Bar. The food was good, but it came at a price, we discovered the next day…

After dinner, we walked around Dublin for a while, getting familiar with the city as we got all the way to Grafton Street, this pedestrian shopping street, St. Stephen’s Green, and seeing the Leinster House, which is, I believe, their government building, illuminated at night. After some coffee at this café, we walked back to the hostel, conveniently located right next to the Guinness Brewery and away from the city centre, in the rain.

After breakfast the next morning, we got on the Dublin Tour Bus and took the tour which took us as far as Kilmainham Gaol and Phoenix Park, and running along the north side of the River Liffey.

Here’s a view of the River Liffey from O’Connell Bridge. The next bridge further up is the Ha’penny Bridge, which connects the Temple Bar area, on the left, to the north side.

After going up Parnell Square on the north side, the tour took us back down to the south side, passing by Trinity College, Merrion Square, St, Stephen’s Green, and us, ending up at the Guinness Storehouse. I think Guinness was everywhere even more so than shamrocks, Leprechauns and anything green.

Did you know that the Guinness Book of World Records was also created by the same man who founded Guinness beer, Arthur Guinness, who kept a collection of records? Fun fact.

Of course we had to do the brewery tour, although I wasn’t all that interested in exactly just how much water, barley, hops and yeast was needed to create the “magic that is Guinness.” That’s a direct quote. Coolest parts about the Brewery tour, however, was the entrance keepsake which is this clear plastic circular thing, which I’m assuming is a paper-weight made to look like a blob of water, which actually has a few drops of Guinness encased in it. Pretty fun. Also pretty cool was the free pint you get at the end of the tour, served up in the Gravity Bar, this circular room with glass windows all around, giving a panoramic view of the city and is the highest bar in Dublin.

Essi, Anne and I with our pints of Guinness in the Gravity Bar. The view from the bar was amazing. The Guinness, a little less so. One sip, of mostly foam, and we were done. I hate beer to begin with and Guinness is just black death on your taste buds.

That was Attempt One of us trying to be Irish. Attempt Two quickly followed in the Guinness Storehouse gift shop downstairs.

Do Irish people even really wear these hats? It’s probably some joke they play on all the tourists.

After some fun times taking pictures at Guinness, we walked down towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle (not at all as impressive as some others I’ve seen), and then to Trinity College, where Essi and I took the self-guided tour of the Library to see the amazing Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Book of Kells is the oldest manuscript, with the most amazing coloured illustrations of the four gospels made by monks in the 8^th century. I can’t even describe how cool this was. Enlarged pictures showed the incredible detail of not only each picture but also of all the text within the book. In the upper floor of the Library is the Long Room, about 65m in length, which houses around 200 000 of the library’s oldest books. I wish I could have taken pictures.

We then headed down to Merrion Square, around which are the Leinster House, the National Gallery of Ireland and streets of Old Georgian tenement houses, where you can experience a display of a typically Irish door.

This, we were told, is the most photographed door in Ireland. Why, I have no clue and I don’t think the tour guide did either, but it’s pretty, no? The doors lining the street are all painted in bright colours, apparently because when some royal (I can’t remember who) died, the Queen of England asked the Irish people to paint all their doors black as a sign of mourning, but being Irish, they all painted their doors bright colours. Another thing with the coloured doors was that they helped the drunk Irishmen find their house when they were coming home from the pub.

Anyhow, after a load of door-picture-taking by Anne and Essi, we went to Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and had supper, during which Essi’s whole body broke out in horrible hives. The night before, she had started itching all over, but had been alright during the day. We quickly took a cab to St. James’s Hospital, with the assumption that it had to be the nasty, dirty sheets she slept in at the ghetto hostel which caused her rash. The doctor assured us, however, that it was not the sheets but the seafood Essi had the night before at Trastavere. Poor girl. Already lactose intolerant and now, seafood was off her already-short list.

I later found out that while in the cab on our way to the hospital, Anne and I were having the exact same thoughts: Goodbye, Backstreet Boys concert.

If you thought that the purpose of this Dublin trip was to see Dublin, you’re sadly mistaken. At least, according to Anne. Kinda embarrassed to say, but this Dublin trip, which happened to fall during our study week, was planned pretty specifically according to the Backstreet Boys Never Gone Tour schedule. Even before buying the tickets, so many bad omens were telling us that we’re not meant to go to the concert, to Anne’s dismay, but Essi lying in the emergency room was the final nail on the coffin.

2 hours later… however…

With Essi’s assurance that she’d be perfectly alright at the hospital and the doctor’s assurance that Essi would be monitored until the end of the concert, this is what Anne saw for the next 3 hours. What I saw was about 9 inches to the south.

After screams of “I love you, Jesse McCartney!” the Backstreet Boys put on a good show for Dublin, although, I’m sure they were a ton better back in the day when they could actually dance. It was a good show nonetheless, although it didn’t help having this giant German girl constantly yelling in my ear “I looove them! Don’t they look so cool?? I loooove Brian! And Nick. But not Hoe-wee.”

An eventful night, but everything turned out well. Essi was released early from the hospital and managed to walk back to our hostel by herself; Anne got to see the Backstreet Boys and left with a free poster she found on the ground; and I got soaked walking for half an hour in the pouring rain to the bus stop. Anne, remember – big GIANT Christmas present. BIG.

Side note: Never, ever call Canada from another country other than in the UK. Collectively, Essi and I spent about £20 talking to family and friends in our respective countries on one phone call each. I guess it could be worse; at least it wasn’t $600+ USD.

The next day was, thankfully, not so eventful and was spent shopping around the north side of the city, discovering and buying a ton of stuff at the cheapest store, Penneys. Clubbing shirts for €3.00 and cute purses for €1.00 – you can’t ask for more. We also had a nice late lunch/early dinner at this place called Sorrento’s, just off of O’Connell Street. All shopped out, we walked around a bit more and then headed off to the hostel, and had a quiet early night of packing and internet.

Places I visited in Dublin:

Trinity College
Merrion Square
St. Stephen’s Green
Christ Church Cathedral
Dublinia
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Leinster Houses
Guinness Storehouse
Kilmainham Gaol
Phoenix Park
River Liffey
Ha’penny Bridge
Temple Bar
Parnell Square
Dublin Castle
The Four Courts
Bank of Ireland building
National Gallery of Ireland
Oscar Wilde Memorial

Tuesday morning, the girls and I parted ways, as I left at 7:00am to catch my 9:50am flight to Barcelona, and the girls caught their flight later that day to London.

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barcelona.SPAIN tues.OCT25/05-fri.OCT28/05

I arrived at Reus Airport at 1:30pm and took an hour and a half bus ride to the city of Barcelona, passing through the Spanish countryside. I got to Barcelona-Sants station and after being told that I was further from the city centre than I originally thought, I took the tube to Liceu, which is a stop right on Las Ramblas. After a couple wrong turns, and finally asking for directions, I found my way into Plaça Reial, which is this courtyard with a nice fountain in the middle and palm trees scattered throughout, surrounded by restaurants. Our hostel was conveniently located at the bottom right corner of Plaça Reial.

Luckily, I had exchanged some money before I checked in cause the hostel only took cash and I had to pay for mine and Ate’s beds for 3 nights each. Ate was quite set on staying at this hostel cause a bunch of her friends had stayed here before and recommended it. A week ago, it looked like we wouldn’t be able to stay at the Kabul Hostel cause they were all booked, but through some creative internet searching, we managed to book all three nights through separate websites. The location was perfect, right in Plaça Reial, and there were tons of benefits with it. It was also quite social, as their dining room was also the pub at night, and most people just chilled there.

After dropping off my bag into our room, which was not up to par with some others I’ve been in, however, I chilled out in the dining room for a bit, checking out some brochures and waiting my turn for the free internet. While waiting, I also spotted the second good looking guy I’ve seen since I’ve been here in Europe. This one was a little more ghetto than I usually like, but he had a really sweet face. He looked South American, maybe Mexican. Very nice. Apparently, he left the next morning. Too bad.

Anyways, Ate wasn’t scheduled to arrive at the hostel until about 7:30pm, and I had really no choice but to wait for her cause I had no more Euros after having paid for our hostel rooms. It was still only about 6:30pm when I was done with the internet and all that, so I walked down Las Ramblas a little and just chilled by the fountain at Plaça Reial, hoping to spot Ate coming to the hostel.

This is the view of Plaça Reial from our hostel room. So nice, with the patios/cafés all along the sides, and the palm trees scattered about.

At some point, I saw this Asian girl walking in front of me, which I thought was Ate, but she was a little ways away, and with my lack of glasses, I couldn’t be sure. I walked a little closer to her and thought I saw her wearing the blue U Waterloo coat, but the real tip off was the orange backpack she had on. That was definitely a Walmart bag.

So happy to see her, Ate and I checked in and went up to our room for her to get settled a little. As I was collecting the pasalubong she brought in her orange Walmart backpack, this girl in our room asked if we were Canadian, likely cause she spotted my Ontario Health Card that Ate had brought for me. She was from Gatineau and went to Ottawa U, and some of the girls she was with were from Belgium. She gave us some shopping tips, and confirmed what I thought I heard the receptionist say: free dinners at the hostel. Awesome – this is the first hostel I’ve stayed at with free dinners. Usually, it’s free breakfast, if that.

Ate and I chilled for a bit in the room and caught up until dinner, which was served at an early 8:30pm - early for the Spanish, who usually eat dinner at about 10:30pm. While in line for the cold, but free spaghetti bolognaise, we chatted with this Australian guy, who’s name we never got. I also saw and pointed out to Ate the cute South American-looking guy from earlier. Also while we’re talking to the Aussie, I get a text from Anne and Essi saying they saw Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth going into a show at Leicester Square. Yes, gullible me actually believed it and I so wished I was in London at that moment. I would have honestly believed it if they kept playing along, but they texted me back the next day saying they were kidding.

After dinner, Ate and I walked down Las Ramblas and had some yummy gelato, while catching up with what was going on back home and here in Lancaster.

While getting ready for bed, we discovered that the showers did not have shower curtains, to our surprise. Ghetto. Each stall, however, was strategically placed so that it was possible to get in and out without really being seen naked by everyone in the bathrrom.

The next morning, we walked down Las Ramblas after breakfast at the hostel consisting of bocata, a baguette with ham, and some tea. The breakfast was definitely a lot better and fresher than the dinner. We walked down Las Ramblas, which is this tree-lined pedestrian street filled with cafés, street performers, shops and wandering pedestrians, ending at Plaça de Catalunya which links the Ciutat Vella with the grid-like streets of Eixample.

From Plaça de Catalunya, we hopped on the Bus Turístic and first took us up Passieg de Gràcia, on which are Domènech i Montaner’s Casa Lleo Morera, Puig i Cadafalch’s Casa Amatller and Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Battlò. We also passed by another one of Gaudí’s famous creations, Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, in which Gaudí apparently avoided all straight lines when designing it and, consequently, it looks like it’s melting. We came back to properly visit La Pedrera on Friday morning, but at this point, we were headed for the famed Sagrada Familia.

This was the best picture I could take, but pictures don’t do it justice. Every aspect of this unfinished church has so much attention to details, from the carvings on the outside to the ceilings inside. I have a ton of pictures from La Sagrada, so check those out to get an idea of the incredible architecture.

Ate and I decided to have lunch around La Sagrada, and after walking down the nice pedestrian street Avinguda de Gaudí, we settled at this small café and had some decently-priced tapas, although they could have been better. We had a Spanish omlette, shrimp in garlic, and grilled cuttlefish. It could have been better, I think.

Afterwards, we hopped on the tour bus again and got off for some more Gaudí at Park Güell, named after Gaudí’s patron Count Eusebi Güell. Gaudí’s main source of inspiration, nature, is amazingly displayed throughout this park.

Ate and I, and many other tourists, at the front entrance of Park Güell. Also, if you can’t tell from the picture, we were blessed with beautiful weather for our entire time in Barcelona. It was about 23-25°C the whole time. It was awesome!

We spent a good part of the afternoon walking (or hiking, according to Ate who was going to wear her sandals, before I advised her that Park Güell is more like Algonquin Park than Silverbirch Park) throughout the park. There were so many artistic and architectural elements all over the park, as well as a great view of the city of Barcelona.

Ate and I enjoying the architecture and the weather in Park Güell.

After walking through most of the park, Ate and I got back on the red line of the tour bus, and took it all through the north of the city, passing by Sarrià, a small town which became a part of Barcelona in 1921; the Monestir de Pedralbes, an example of great Gothic Catalan art; Palau Reial-Pavellons Güell, a royal palace standing on either side of Avinguda Diagonal; and ending at Francesc Macià, a square in a shopping and business area, where we hopped on to the blue line of the tour bus, which heads to the south of Barcelona.

The bus headed down south and we got off at Plaça d’Espanya, where two Venetian towers stand on either side of the Avinguda Maria Cristina, which is the gateway to the park Montjuïc. At the end of the avenue, on Montjuïc, is the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) Palau Nacional de Montjuïc.

This is Avinguda Maria Cristina, with the Venetian Towers at the entrance, taken from the front of the MNAC. The next stop off the bus was the Anella Olímpica, which was the main site of the 1992 Olympic Games. Beside the stadium is the Palau Sant Jordi and the white communications tower.

The rest of the blue line tour took us by Fundació Joan Miró, a collection by the Catalan artist; the World Trade Center on the old port; the Colom-Museu Marítim, where the Columbus monument stands and is the opposite end of Las Ramblas; Port Vell, the old port filled with shops, restaurants, cafés and vendors; and the Museu d’Història de Catalunya.

We got off at the next stop, Port Olímpic, the Olympic Village during the 1992 Olympics. Ate and I walked down the marina, where there are restaurants, shops and cafés that line the beach. We couldn’t exactly find where the Olympic Village was, but the docks and the beach were beautiful, especially at sunset.

We finished off the blue line tour, through Parc de la Ciutadella, Pla de Palau and Barri Gòtic, ending up again at Plaça de Catalunya, where we got some groceries and other food pasalubong from the department store El Corte Inglés.

We made it back for dinner at the hostel, again of spaghetti bolognaise, and Ate and I went walking down Las Ramblas again, veering off to some side streets and looking through some shops, before heading off to bed at the hostel.

Thursday was a little more relaxed with the sightseeing, as we spent most of the day shopping down Passeig de Gràcia. We first walked through La Boqueria Market just off of Las Ramblas, which was a big market with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats and fishes for sale. We didn’t buy anything, but Ate and I had a good time looking at all the half-dead-still-flip-flopping-around seafood.

We then walked passed Plaça de Catalunya towards Passeig de Gràcia, and shopped at a few stores, namely H&M, and passing by and taking proper pictures of Casa Lleo Morera, Casa Amatller and Casa Battlò, before having a nice cheap lunch.

As planned, we went to La Pedrera, but decided not to take the tour then, and continued to shop a bit more, and then head over to Barri Gòtic and then Parc de la Ciutadella. On our way to the Parc de la Ciutadella, we went through Barri Gòtic, passing by the Palau de la Musica, which I wanted to go into, but it wasn’t open to the public at that time; the Catedral, which we also didn’t go into cause there was an entrance fee and the façade was under construction; the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat; and Santa Maria del Mar.

We took some pictures by l’Arc de Triompf before walking around the Parc de la Ciutadella. After a while, we finally found the famed fountain of the park, which was made the trip worth it, as the park wasn’t all that impressive.

This fountain seriously looked like an oasis in the desert that is the Parc de la Ciutadella.

We walked towards the harbour and walked through Port Vell towards the IMAX theatre by the aquarium, hoping that we’d be able to see an IMAX movie. Unfortunately, nothing was showing at that time, and it would have probably been in Spanish or Catalan anyways, so we headed to the mall Maremàgnum for, yes, some more shopping.

We went back to the hostel afterwards to rest and fixed up our stuff, before heading out for a late and nice dinner. Ate and I decided to go back to El Corte Inglés to get some pasalubong before going to a café on Las Ramblas for our nice dinner.

After getting a bunch of Spanish sweets and Filipinos cookies (not Filipino cookies; cookies that were named Filipinos. Strange, no?), we chose this small restaurant called Café Lirica on Las Ramblas for dinner. Of course, we were going to have paella. We had one order of paella and some calamari, and we were not disappointed.

Mmm… Look at how good this looks. Paella is rice simmered in saffron and, in this case, seafood, but it can be in any kind of meat or vegetables. Ate and I had a nice time, eating yummy food and having a nice conversation. After dinner, it didn’t take much for the waiter to convince us to get a dessert, so we got this ice cream pie thing, that was just alright, but it topped off the nice meal and got us all nice and full for a good sleep that night.

If Thursday was nice and relaxed, Friday was the exact opposite. After waking up late, breakfast, and check out, Ate and I took the tube to La Pedrera to get one last tour in before we had to leave for the UK that evening.

We spent a good hour and a half walking through the apartment, the attic and the terrace of La Pedrera, which is currently the headquarters of Caixa Catalunya’s Social Work division. The apartment of La Pedrera displays corner-less rooms and recreated as an apartment of the beginning of the 29th century. We then climbed up the stairs to, first, the Espai Gaudí. The Espai Gaudí is an exhibition of Gaudí’s innovations through drawings, models and audio-visual presentations in the attic of La Pedrera. The next and final stop was the roof terrace, which was full of architectural elements of staircases (badalots), ventilations towers and chimneys.

This is Ate and I on the roof terrace of La Pedrera beside one of Gaudí’s structures.

Side note: So, did anyone else notice that the Canadian flag on my bag is upside down? Cause I only noticed a couple days ago. This is what you get for frantic sewing half an hour before I had to leave to catch my flight back in September.

Speaking of being frantic, we had spent more time at La Pedrera than originally planned, and we scrambled to get to the Port Olímpica by tube to get some souvenirs before heading back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks. At this point, it was already almost 2:30pm when we got to the hostel, and it was going to take a little while to get to the bus station, to take our bus to Girona Airport.

It doesn’t end there. We get to the bus station at 2:55pm and, with my luck, you can’t buy the bus ticket on the bus; you have to buy it upstairs. So while Ate waited at the bus with our stuff, I ran (seriously ran) up the stairs to discover the longest line in the world for tickets. I knew I couldn’t just patiently wait in line or I’d miss my bus, so I pleaded with the people in the front if they’d let me cut in cause my bus was leaving in 5 minutes. The first lady wouldn’t let me through, but these two girls who looked like backpackers were nice enough to let me through. Turns out there’s a separate window for buses to Girona, and 3 ticket windows later, I finally got a ticket and ran down to catch the bus. I had 2 minutes to spare.

After checking in for our flight at Girona, Ate and I had an early dinner, and took our 6:00pm flight arriving at Blackpool at about 7:30pm. Slightly delayed at immigration and then again at the baggage claim, we just made it to Squires Gate to catch our train back to Lancaster.

Places I visited in Barcelona:

Plaça de Catalunya

Casa Battló

Casa Amattler

Casa Lleo Morera

Casa Mila / La Pedrera

Las Ramblas

Barri Gòtic

Catedral

Gran Teatre del Liceu

Ciutat Vella

Port Vell

Colom-Museu Marítim

World Trade Centre

La Sagrada Familia

Park Güell

Sarrià

Monestir de Pedralbes

Palau Reial

Futbol Club Barcelona Stadium

Francesc Macià-Diagonal

Plaça d’Espanya

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Anella Olímpic

Palau Sant Jordi

Fundació Joan Miró

Port Olímpic

Parc de la Ciutadella

Pla de Palau

Santa Maria del Mar

Museu d’Història de la Ciutat

Palau de la Música

La Boqueria

Plaça Reial

Casa “Les Punxes”

Arc de Triomf

We arrived earlier than expected at Lancaster and spent the rest of the night going on the internet, unpacking my stuff, packing Ate’s bag and talking to Mom and Dad.

The next day, Ate and I walked through the shops on Penny Street in town and shopped a bit. We went through these side streets that even I had never been to. We also had a nice lunch at this Chinese buffet, Bamboo Garden, and we stuffed ourselves good. I’m definitely going back there. It’s the closest thing I think I’ll get to home cooking, although, despite what I look like, I am not Chinese.

Again, overestimating the time we had, we got back to the halls a little past 3:00pm, which is apparently too late to call a cab if you need one for 3:40pm, so we had to walk all the way down to the taxi place by KFC, and poor Ate, who we discovered this past week is not cut out for backpacking, was dying from the heavy backpack I packed. Needless to say, we missed her 3:40pm bus to Preston. We chilled out at the train station until 4:30pm, when she caught the next bus, and we said our goodbyes in the rain. Thanks for taking all my stuff, Ate. You’re awesome!

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The last few days were spent cleaning up and doing laundry, apart from actually going to classes. Highlights, technologically speaking, of the last few days would have to be discovering my free minutes on my phone (and actually talking to people on the phone unrestricted), having something to watch on my laptop – Ate brought me Lost dvds (I have Season One of 24, but I can’t bring myself to start watching it cause I know I'd be hooked and have to watch them all in one day), and the ultimate – I hooked up my laptop to the internet at the library. Yeah, I’m a nerd, so sue me. I’m from Waterloo. I stole internet from the school, ooh.. rebel.

“I’m an international student. I didn’t know better.”

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Friday night was Ana and Anna’s birthday party at Anna’s place in town with a bunch of the international students and some of Anna’s friends. Anne and I had spent the day shopping for presents (some for Ana and some for ourselves), and chilled out with everyone for some drinks and snacks before heading off to – yes, you guessed it – Toast.

Here’s one birthday girl Ana, myself, Anne and Essi at Anna’s place before a little Toast. After having been gone for a week or so, it was nice to get back to Toast, as we arrived with 10 minutes to spare to get £1.00 drinks. Music was good and everyone had a good time. Especially the Anas.

“Remember, remember
The fifth of November…”

Although we didn’t exactly remember the 5th of November, we were told that it is this celebration all throughout England that celebrates Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. Apparently, from what I understand, in the early 1600s, a group of conspirators, one namely Guy Fawkes, plotted to blow up the houses of Parliament by putting gunpowder underneath it. But the plot had been discovered and it never happened. So, every 5th of November, there are celebrations everywhere to commemorate this occasion with fireworks and bonfires.

So yesterday, after Anne and I cooked lunch (yes, I said cooked – my first time since I’ve been here) Ana, Anne, Essi and I headed into town in the afternoon and walked through the shops. We didn’t exactly find the events and things that were going on especially for that day, but we met up with Essi’s friend, Ollie, and he explained the holiday to us. We went to a pub at the bottom of Lancaster Castle and had some drinks and fun talks before going back up to the castle for the fireworks at 8:00pm. The fireworks were pretty nice, and the music playing was a nice touch. Afterwards, we saw some of the other girls, and then Anne, Essi, Ollie and I headed off to, first, The Friary, for a drink, but it was too crowded, so we left and tried The Lounge. Nice place, but we couldn’t get a seat, so we finally settled on Hustle. It was a pretty funky place, that was decorated all retro-70’s, with its pink, yellow and orange psychedelic walls. We had a good time, just making fools of ourselves, and ended the night at about 10:00pm, when Anne, Essi and I had another apple strudel and movie night, watching Spanglish.

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Tomorrow night, I’m taking a train to the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, where I will be spending the night in order to catch my 7:00am flight to Rome on Tuesday morning. So excited for Italy! Especially since I’ll be meeting up with Jen. Someone familiar! We’ll be in Rome from Tuesday till Friday, when we head off to Venice, passing by Pisa on the way. At least, that’s the plan.

The following w-end will be spent finishing off my London touring, clubbing, clubbing and lots more clubbing. Or so I’m told. We’ll see how that goes.

Still got one more week at the end of November available for a trip, so that is still in the works. Also gotta book flights to Berlin, then to Heidelberg and then back to London on Dec22/05. I can’t believe how fast this is going! I’ll be home in less than 2 months! Crazy!

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Food for thought: What do you think about this pick up line (or as they say here, chat up lines)?

To an Asian girl: Hey there, can I kiss you? You probably taste like sweet and sour noodles?

To a German girl: Can I kiss you? You probably taste like schnitzel.

Personally, I would give points for creativity.

Happy birthday, Mariese!

2005-10-21T13:31:00.000-04:00

I hope you have a great day and a fun party. I soo wish I could be there to celebrate with you! I don't even remember the last time I was home on your birthday. I miss going out with you!! Going dancing, clubbing, chillin - EATING! Pho, thai, indian, sushi - anything! Even if I had food allergies, I'd go eat with you! Hope you have a great day, and I am thinking of you and the food that you will be eating! Miss you!!! Happy birthday, Mariese!

Haggis and bagpipes and kilts – oh my!

2005-10-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, so maybe I didn’t try haggis (apparently, it’s a huge sausage made from sheep’s lungs, liver and hearts mixed with spices, suet, oatmeal and onions – I’m sure it’s as good as it sounds) but I did see some bagpipes and kilts while I was in the capital of Edinburgh, but not so much in the more metropolitan city of Glasgow. As I had no class last Thursday, I decided to spend the rest of the week in Edinburgh, which is only a 2.5 hour train ride away from Lancaster, and Glasgow, which is an hour away from Edinburgh. First trip alone and I think it went well, except for getting lost and getting sick

edinburgh.SCOTLAND tues.OCT11/05-thurs.OCT13/05

Right after 312, I rushed to the train station just in time to make my 2:00pm train, arriving at Edinburgh at about 4:30pm. Edinburgh, by the way, is pronounced Edinborough, for those of you who didn’t know. Cause I didn’t.

Just my luck, I arrive and it’s pouring rain, which did not stop for the two days I was there. Trying to tough out the rain without my umbrella, I walked all the way down The Royal Mile, which is four streets starting at Edinburgh Castle, successfully missing my hostel twice and successfully getting soaked. I finally found my hostel, checked in and was happy to see that it was really clean, fairly modern and generally very friendly. I think this is my favourite hostel yet.

While unpacking and drying my things in the room, I was talking to this one guy from France, and this Asian guy came in and started talking to the French guy in French. Somewhat logically (or so I thought), I asked the Asian guy if he was also from France.

Asian guy: No, I’m from China. And you?
Me: I’m from Canada.
Asian guy: (Surprised) Oh. I thought you were Asian.
Me: (Confused) Umm… I am Asian. I’m Filipino…

I didn’t know whether I should explain further that I moved to Canada from the Philippines, so I left it at that. I couldn’t think why he would think that Asian and Canadian were mutually exclusive nationalities. Maybe me being soaking wet threw him off??

It was still fairly early at this point and I hadn’t eaten supper, so I changed and went out walking – with an umbrella this time. I walked down Grassmarket, which is this street with a bunch of pubs and restaurants, and ate at this small Italian restaurant, whilst (I thought it would be appropriate to use 'whilst' here) I went through my brochures and things, figuring out what I was gonna see the next day.

I spent the rest of the night chillin out at the hostel, going on the internet and watching the most ridiculous game show, which was like an adult spelling bee, except they couldn’t spell most of the words. This night was also Night One of me being sick. Good timing.

The next day, I went out into town despite the cold and the rain, and Asian Guy, who was half-awake when I was getting ready, could not believe Little Canadian-Asian Girl was going out into the rain. He went back to bed after I left, I think. Armed again with my umbrella, I walked back down The Royal Mile, which is comprised of Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street and Cannongate, and I ended up at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is at the end of Cannongate and was once home to Mary, Queen of Scots.

Unimpressed and soaking, I decided, what the heck, I am already here in Edinburgh, I might as well walk up Holyrood Park and go to Arthur’s Seat, which is a hill in Holyrood Park that gives a great view of the entire city. Thirty minutes later, dripping wet and on the side of a mountain with nowhere to go but down, I regretted that decision. I walked up the gravel path as far as I could, passing by this local man, who gave me a look like, Good luck getting up that hill, Little Asian Girl. I don’t know how far away I was from actually reaching Arthur’s Seat when I decided to turn around, but this was the view I was awarded with after my trek.

Just to throw you off, you can’t tell it was pouring from this picture. Maybe I should have taken a picture of myself instead. In the distance, you can see Edinburgh Castle and the tall peak beside it is Scott Monument, built for the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. After taking a few pictures and videos, I quickly made my way back down, got back on The Royal Mile and treated myself with a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato and 10 minutes under the hand dryer, trying to dry off my pants, socks and shoes.

I also treated myself by heading off to Princes Street, which runs parallel to The Royal Mile, sandwiching in the Princes Street Gardens. Where The Royal Mile was once the main backbone of the Old Town, Princes Street is that of the New Town, and filled with blocks of shops and malls.

This is pretty representative of the day I had in Edinburgh – dreary rainy day in an otherwise beautiful city. This was taken on Waverley Bridge, right when you come out of Princes Mall, which leads to the Waverley Train Station.

Buying mostly pasalubong (gifts for other people), I exited Princes Mall, and walked through Princes Street Gardens, passing the Scott Monument, the National Galleries of Scotland, and getting a view of Edinburgh Castle from below.

I walked all the way around Edinburgh Castle and rewarded myself with a nice nap at the hostel, and finishing off the night with some awful British TV show, Super Nanny and Lost. Sick Night Number Two.

The next day, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Edinburgh (go figure) as I walked to Waverley Train Station to catch my train to Glasgow.

Places I visited in Edinburgh:

Edinburgh Castle

National Galleries of Scotland

St. Giles Cathedral

The Royal Mile

Grassmarket

John Knox House

The Scottish

Parliament

Palace of Holyroodhouse

Holyrook Park

Scott Monument

Princes Street Gardens

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glasgow.SCOTLAND thurs.OCT13/05-fri.OCT14/05

Just coming out of Glasgow Central Station, you can already see how metropolitan and more modern Glasgow is compared to Edinburgh. Right away, as I passed this street full of people and full of shops, I designated that Thursday as a shopping day and Friday would be for sightseeing. I checked into my hostel, which was the hugest one I’ve seen with 9 floors, but not the nicest.

I walked down Argyle Street, ending up at Buchanan Street, which is this long pedestrian shopping street. Something I’ve noticed with all the shopping areas I’ve been to here in Europe is that there are 4 or 5 of the same shops down one street or even within a 5-minute walking distance from one another. And also, all the shopping areas are always packed no matter what day of the week or what time of day it is. Europeans love to shop. It reminds me of St. Catherine Street in Montreal, which is not surprising since Montreal is very European.

It was about 6:00pm when a lot of the shops closed, and not wanting to go back to the hostel just yet, I went and watched Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage at some local cinema. It was the only recognizable movie title that was playing, and it was Nicholas Cage, but I had no idea what it was about. It was an alright movie. Afterwards, I went to Borders and flipped through some books before heading to the ghetto hostel, and calling it a night. More specifically, calling it Sick Night Number Three. I was miserable.

I also realized that girls, particularly Asian girls, in hostels that I’ve been at are freakin loud. I don’t think they realize that other people are in the room. They don’t talk all that loud and I don’t understand it anyways, but it’s more when they’re packing or moving their stuff around. I think I’ll go with the mixed rooms next time.

Friday morning, after buying these fun runners for only £13.00, I went to George Square, where the Glasgow City Chambers are, and also where the City Sightseeing Bus Tour began. The hour-and-15-minute bus tour took us around to various sights around Glasgow, most notably, St. Mungo’s Cathedral built for their patron saint, the People’s Palace & Winter Gardens, the Glasgow Harbour, Glasgow University, and Kelvingrove Park.

After the tour, I walked back to some of the sites to take some proper pictures. My first stop was St. Mungo’s Cathedral and the Provand’s Lordship, built for a cleric of the cathedral, right across the street from one another. I then walked down High Street into Merchant City, to Tollbooth Steeple, where Glasgow’s four oldest streets, High Street, Gallowgate, Saltmarket and Trongate, converge.

Off of Gallowgate, I walked through the Barras Market, which is apparently bustling and lively during the weekends, to the People’s Palace & Winter Gardens on Glasgow Green, for a short but sweet tour of the Winter Gardens.

This is the People’s Palace, built for the industrial workers, with the Winter Gardens behind it. Walking through Glasgow Green, I’ve never seen such a nice park be so deserted. Everyone was probably too busy shopping.

I took the tour bus back up to Kelvingrove Park, which is this beautiful park up northwest of the main city centre, where Glasgow University, the Hunterian Museum and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum are.

This is the visitor’s centre of Glasgow University, which also accommodates the Hunterian Museum. If you could only see how amazing this campus is; Waterloo couldn’t hold a candle to it, I’m afraid. We should all be so lucky to go to a school in this kind of environment. Other universities in Glasgow are Strathclyde Univeristy and Glasgow Caledonian University, which are a 5 minute walk from each other and closer to the city centre.

Pooped, still sick, and tired, I took an earlier train back to Lancaster that night, getting home at 9:00pm instead of 11:00pm. I even walked up the hill back to school and did not take a cab. That probably didn’t help me being sick.

Places I visited in Glasgow:

George Square

Glasgow City Chambers

St. Mungo’s Cathedral

Provand’s Lordship

Merchant City

People’s Palace & Winter Gardens

The Barras Market

St. Andrew’s Square

Glasgow Harbour & the Tall Ship

Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (aka The Armadillo)

Glasgow University

Hunterian Museum

Kelvingrove Park

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

The Tenement House

Tollbooth Steeple

I would have liked to spend more time in Edinburgh and, of course, in better weather, so I can get up to Arthur’s Seat properly, but I enjoyed what I was able to see. Glasgow, on the other hand, was also nice and Kelvingrove Park was definitely a favourite, but a more modern and shopping-oriented city.

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Last Saturday afternoon was spent preparing for Anne’s birthday party that night with the international students and her friends from Germany, Joe and Markus. For once, Mario (who was nicknamed Rodriguelez that night) wasn’t the only guy in the group. I think he was happier to have more guys with him than were Joe and Markus to be in the group of 25 girls.

Me, Anne and Essi finally chillin out after baking and preparing food all day for the party. At about 10:30pm, most of us headed down to Toast, which wasn’t that great because they played crappy weird oldies until midnight, when the “black” music (as Joe and Markus put it) came on. Anne, Essi, Joe, Markus and I left just as it was getting crappier. Joe and Markus left for London the next day, and apparently took my voice with them cause I have lost it and not gotten it back yet, almost 5 days later.

Monday night was Lena & Mario’s birthday party at Lena’s, so after some unofficial Moulin Rouge karaokeing, we went to Toast (can you tell it’s our favourite place?) for Rock Night. They actually played some good music that night, and everyone had a good time.

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Seeing as how it’s study week next week, everyone but Anne, Essi and myself left yesterday for their respective trips. Camille, Nora and Jana will be heading to Germany for the week, to visit Jana’s hometown, after which, I believe, they’ll be going to Norway to Nora’s hometown. Lena will also be going to Germany to her own hometown. Ana, Mario and Maria will be going to their hometown in Zaragoza, Spain for the week, while Jenna and Christina will be visiting Barcelona and other cities in Spain.

Left in Lancaster for the next few days, Anne, Essi and I will be heading to Dublin on Saturday until Tuesday, when we will split off; me, to Barcelona with Ate and the girls to London with Joe.

Dublin promises to be good partying and pubs, while Barcelona is promised to be simply beautiful, according to everyone I’ve talked to.

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Speaking of travels, plane tickets are booked for Italy trip with Jen in November. Plans are also underway for trip to Germany in December before returning (already so soon) to Canada. Still got a 6-day trip available in November, but gotta figure out where to go. Nice and Paris, maybe? I should also look into Stockholm. Decisions, decisions. Am I really here for school?

Happy birthday, Anne!

2005-10-16T08:45:00.000-04:00

"...these boots are made for walking. And that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over YOU."

We partied already. We danced already. We drank already. What is there left to do for your birthday? Food and presents, of course!

The boots are kiddy, but very cute. Now if only you wore them in public...

Happy birthday, Anne! Hope you had a good w-end's worth of celebration - especially with your surprise guests!

Life in Lancaster

2005-10-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, CANADIANS!

Hope you’re all stuffed with yummy food. And eat a bit for me. Please. I am thankful that there is actually yummy food somewhere out there...

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INSERT: I just fixed them all, so you should be able to click all the pictures to see it in full size. Knowing HTML does come in handy.

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In case you wanted to see what I’ve been living in for the last month, here’s what my res room looks like:

Welcome to Room 201 in Gressingham Hall. It’s a pretty decent-sized room, and I lucked out with one of the corner rooms, which is set up a little differently than the rest of the rooms. In the other rooms, the sink and the closet are across from each other and the door is on the wall in between them. They’re a lot like the V2 rooms, only they’re single rooms.

There are 13 of us on this co-ed floor, and the floor is divided in half, with a toilet and a bathtub on each side, and a kitchen separating the two halves. When I say toilet, I mean there is this little room with literally just a toilet in it. I don’t think they believe in full bathrooms here. The bathtub is also in a separate room from the toilet. I’ll have to take pictures of both of these one day. The kitchen is decent, with a little eat-in area, but there is only one fridge and freezer to share between 13 people, so you can imagine it’s pretty packed. Most people on the floor, myself included, have meal plans, but only during the week, so we are all cooking during the w-ends.

As you can see, yes, I do have a sink in my room, which is odd, but comes in very handy. My favourite part of my room would have to be the nice big windows, which lets in a lot of light. Downside would have to be that there are only 2 electrical outlets in the entire room. My room is also pretty bare since I didn’t bring any pictures or posters with me, apart from my Beckham poster that you can’t see in the pictures and the picture of Prague that I put up after these pictures were taken. It’s pretty cozy, and they had even provided us with new sheets and a duvet.

I have also finally started classes here in Lancaster. I am currently registered in the Health Development Program at St. Martin’s College. St. Martin’s is what they call a university college, where they offer college as well as university courses. This also means that there is a wide age-range among the students, depending on which course they are in. Apparently, and correct me if I'm wrong, college here is kind of like cégep in Quebec, where you go to high school for something like grade 7-10 and then go to college, which is like grade 11-12/OAC. In so saying, it is not uncommon to see 16-17 year olds running around campus here. And most especially in the pubs cause hey, there’s no minimum drinking age here.

Also something else I learned was that whenever you say or refer to “school,” as in “I go to school in Lancaster,” they take it as high school or primary school. Literally, school. You have to specify and say that you go to uni (as in university).

All technicalities aside, here’s my class schedule for the next 3 months:

And that is it, my friends. AND – here’s the kicker – my Thursday class, 305, is only on alternate weeks, which means, every other week, my w-end starts on Tuesday at 1:00pm. I’m sure everyone in Waterloo, or any university for that matter, probably wants to kick me right now. I’m in England for an exchange, getting to travel all over Europe and meet all sorts of people, and on top of it all, I have almost no lectures. When life hands you chocolate cake, savor the taste while you can. And I am doing just that.

I’ve already got my next three months of traveling planned, according to my class schedule and those weeks I have no Thursday classes. This is so unlike what I’d be doing if I was in Waterloo right now. In Waterloo, every week in October and November, I’d have a midterm, until the good graces bring on finals in December.

Side note: Speaking of Waterloo, how annoying is it that they changed 444 to MWF instead of TTh? Only Health people will know or care about this, but dammit, I could have had such an awesome schedule for 4B. Now, instead of Fridays off, I have Thursdays and Tuesday s during the day off. What the heck can I do with that? Unless, Mary, what you said is right about being able to switch 444 with a 472, which would work so much nicer. Especially since 444 on MWF conflicts with my plans to take JAPAN101. And now that we have a choice to substitute 445 with a 472, I’m torn on which one to take. I wanna take 3 of them. Ahh.. good schedule this term; sucky schedule next term.

So back to my current schedule, the classes I’m taking at least seem very interesting, and I’m lucky I could take whatever I wanted. Their teaching methods here also seem so relaxed, and much more discussion-oriented than just teaching us the material; something I’m so not used to. Other things I am also not used to: having the same prof for all of my classes, and calling said prof by his first name. Vince (cause I’m allowed to call him that) is my tutor (they don’t call their profs profs; they call them tutors) for all my classes. Apparently, due to staffing problems, he has to teach a bunch of the courses. Too much for one person to handle, you think? Not for Vince, and this is mostly due to the fact that there are only about 3-8 people in each class. My Thursday class has only 3 people in it. That’s me and two other people! I know – why even bother offering the class? But I think it’s pretty common here cause it’s a small university. There’s no walking in late and unnoticed, no trying to keep quiet during discussions, no yawning in class – there aren’t even clocks in the rooms, and with such few people in the classes, it’s hard to nonchalantly glance down at your watch to see if class is almost over or cover your mouth when you yawn.

Also interesting to note would be how they’re grading (or as they say, assessing) us. For pretty much all of my classes, I have to hand in a 2000-4000 word essay at the end of the term (end of term here is end of January, but December for me). This is worth 50% of my mark. In one class, my 4000-word essay makes up 100% of my mark. Kinda daunting, but I’ll deal. The other 50% of my mark comes from either a presentation of some sort or a take-home (seen) exam. Presentation, in this case, can mean anything from a poster board of pictures to a portfolio of articles. Use your imagination.

There are also no required readings or even assigned textbooks for any of my courses. Apparently, they don’t like being bound by the confines of a textbook when they teach. Awesome for me so I don’t have to buy anything. Vince also doesn’t like us furiously taking notes while he lectures, which I am also not used to. I don’t think I can conform to this one. I need to take notes.

In a nutshell, classes here, when they’re actually offered, seem pretty laid-back, and even the course material seems fairly easy – although I’ve only had one week’s worth of class, so it may get harder (You think?). The concepts they present in class only seem to scrape the surface, and they never go too in depth with anything. One other thing I’m not used to is having 2 hours straight of class. At the 50 minute mark, I’m already antsy to get out of there. I guess I can’t complain cause at 50 minutes, half that class is already over for the week.

With such little class time, no wonder people can go to pubs every night.

Enter last Friday night at Lancaster.

After a drink at The Friary, Anne, Essi and I headed over to Toast and discovered £1.00 drinks before 11:00pm every Friday night. We took advantage. The clear drinks are Soho-7, half of the other ones are Malibu & Coke, and the other half are vodka & Coke. I won’t say whose drinks were whose, but let’s just say I only spent £10 that night. Highlights of that night included making friends with the two dancers across the table at Toast and finally seeing some good-looking guys at The Friary. We tried to take a picture as proof. Talking to Mary from 2:00-4:00am was also nice and very unexpected.

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Since I’m done classes on Tuesday this week, I’ll be heading up to Edinburgh, Scotland that afternoon until Thursday morning, and I will then head to Glasgow until Friday night, to return just in time for Anne and Mario’s birthday bash on Saturday. So many October birthdays…

Three countries in eleven days

2005-10-05T13:48:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Good job, Sens. Way to open the season. Maybe next time, Toronto. Maybe next time...

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INSERT: HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY, MARY! My little Mary Lam. Hope you have an awesome day and that you eat lots. Wish I was there so we can go out to a buffet. I miss good food! And I miss eating with you! First day back at school, we will go for sushi. My fobby Mary, I miss you. Have a very happy birthday!

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Now, for why you’re really here.

I just came back last Saturday night from an 11-day trip to Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and London, and each city was beautiful in its own way. However, a trip wouldn’t be complete without a going-away party, so the Monday before Christina and I left, a bunch of us went to The Friary and then to Toast for one last night out.

Anne, Christina, myself and Essi at Toast for (horrible) alternative music night. Music sucked cause I didn’t know any of it, but a bunch of the other international students were there, so it was still good times.

Wednesday morning, Christina and I took a train to London, where we got our flight to Salzburg from Stansted.

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salzburg.AUSTRIA wed.SEPT21/05-fri.SEPT23/05

We arrived in Salzburg at about 9:30pm, met some nice (and one not-so-nice-but-good-looking) Australians, and headed to our hostel, which was conveniently located 5 minutes outside of the old town centre. I knew it would be a good hostel and a good trip when The Sound of Music was playing in the common area as we walked into the hostel. It doesn’t get any better than that. Apparently, the hostel plays The Sound of Music every night at 8:00pm, so we watched it the next night.

On the first day, Christina and I spent the morning walking around the old town, which had small winding cobblestone streets, as you would expect, and beautiful buildings, all with white trim. When in a foreign country, you have to at least try to integrate yourself and not look too touristy, so for lunch, we had bratwurst and sauerkraut, which was alright. We were hesitant to try it at first, but this really nice gay man from the States, who’s been to and loves Ottawa by the way, encouraged us to try it, so we did. Afterwards, what better way to integrate ourselves in the culture than…

Christina’s got the coloured pictures of us all dressed up in a dirndl, the traditional Austrian costume. Mine was bright red with a green apron. I looked like a little Asian Christmas ornament. I was tempted to buy it, but that simple one I tried on, which apparently is a casual one for everyday wear, was about €650. Translation: that’s close to $1000 CDN. Do I look like I’m made of money? No, I look like I carve wooden shoes for a living.

Here’s something new I learned: “ß” means “ss.” So Schloß, which means palace, is really schloss. I’m slowly learning German.

That afternoon, we took the 4-hour Sound of Music tour, which went to various locations in Salzburg where they shot the movie, and also where the von Trapps lived in real life. We went into the Schloß Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens, where they shot that part when they’re singing Do Re Mi; Schloß Hellbrunn, where the gazebo is; the church of Mondsee, where Maria and The Captain were married in the movie; and, my personal favourite, Schloß Leopoldskron, which was used for the back scenes of the von Trapp house.

The tour was nice cause, apart from our tour guide knowing all things Sound of Music and them playing the songs on our bus for the entire trip, we got to go up into the mountains and see the countryside. As well, there were the added bonuses of crazy toboggan rides down the mountain and yummy apfelstrudel. The only places we didn’t go to that I wish we did were the Nonnberg Abbey and Festspielhäuser, the festival house, which was that outdoor venue where they sing at the end of the movie. The festival house was closed, but I walked by it.

The other place Christina and I wanted to visit, but we didn’t have enough time, was Festung Hohensalzburg, which is the medieval fortress that sits above the centre of Salzburg and is iconic of every landscape picture of Salzburg. I have pictures of it though.

Places I visited in Salzburg:

St. Peter’s Church and cemetery

Schloß Mirabell & the Mirabell Gardens

Residenz Square

Schloß Leopoldskron

Schloß Hellbrunn

Church of Mondsee and the town of Mondsee

Nonntaler brücke

Festspielhäuser

Altes Rathaus

It’s too bad I can’t put videos up here cause I took a short video clip in most of the places we visited so I can show you guys back home how it actually was (and so some of you can hear the hot London British accents).

The next day, Christina and I got up early, had some good breakfast at the hostel, and left for the train station to catch a 3-hour train to Vienna.

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vienna.AUSTRIA fri.SEPT23/05-sun.SEPT25/05

We got into Vienna early in the afternoon that Friday, and after checking into our hostel, we walked down Mariahilferstraße, which is this long, wide road just full of shops. Shocking as it may be, I did not buy anything. I did, however, spend money on food – a Caramel Frappucino from Starbucks (yes, Clubbing Buddies, you’ve got me hooked), and a puten schnitzel. One thing I really enjoy when I’m in a different city or country is trying their local foods. Opting out of the pork wiener schnitzel, the chicken version was a breaded flat piece of chicken breast, which was deep-fried. It was pretty good, but a little dry.

Also something else I spent money on was my phone. 12 minutes and 12 pounds later, I got cut off from talking to my mom while I was shopping in H&M (H&M, by the way, is not just at every corner in every European country, but there is likely to be at least 2 or 3 on every street. Not kidding. They love their H&M here). Classic example of me not ever having a cell phone, I didn’t realize that (duh) I’m in another country, so I’m on a different network, so I’m paying international calling fees. I ran out of money on my phone, but somehow, I could still send and receive some text messages. People in Canada, don’t ever take free local calls for granted. Believe me.

Going down Mariahilferstraße, we eventually hit the old town, where there were massive museums and buildings everywhere. We walked through the museum quarter, Schloß Hofburg, Rathaus (City Hall), and the parliament buildings before heading back down Mariahilferstraße towards our hostel.

The next day, we took the U-Bahn (the tube) to the beautiful Schloß Schönbrunn, an enormous baroque palace, which was the Hapsburgs’ summer palace. Besides the huge palace, the Schönbrunn had amazing gardens on three sides and a huge courtyard in the front.

So, you can’t really see the enormity of the palace from this picture, but trust me, it’s big. (And no, you can’t tell it’s big because I’m small in the picture. I’m just actually that small). This is the back of the palace in the gardens. Christina and I took the audio-guided tour of the palace, which also included access to the private garden on one side, entrance to the maze garden, and access to the Gloriette. What is the Gloriette, you ask?

Well, you still don’t know what the Gloriette is from this picture, but this is the view from the top of it. It’s this arced structure that gives a great panoramic view of the gardens, the palace and the city of Vienna.

That afternoon, we went back into the old town, where Christina and I split up for a bit, and toured around on our own. I saw the Danube, Staatsoper (State Opera House), and Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), where Mozart’s funeral was held, and which lies right in the middle of the town, amidst all the shops and cafés.

Here’s a tip we got from another backpacker and from my guidebook: you can get standing tickets for the opera at the Staatsoper a few hours before the show starts for only €2.00-€3.50. So we did just that. We got the €3.50 tickets, which had a perfect view of the stage cause we were on the parterre and directly in front of the stage. It was awesome, and even more so that the show playing that night was Carmen. We were just happy that it was something we had actually heard of.

This was our exact view of the stage. Besides being subtitled on these little screens, the opera was in French, so I could at least understand a good portion of it. We would have been completely gone if it was in German. Only downside was that we were standing for almost 3 hours. To compensate though, there were bars for you to lean against and they had an intermission every hour. At least I can say I got to see an opera at Staatsoper in Vienna. I would have liked to see the Vienna Boys Choir, but the mass that they sing at that Sunday was already sold out (yes, they sell tickets to go to mass, but only cause the Vienna Boys Choir sings at it). Maybe next time…

So, I’ve been away from home for about a month now, and, ironically enough, the first and only good-looking guy I’ve seen this whole time was this backpacker from Calgary named Cameron who was staying at our hostel. Go figure he’s Canadian. I might just have to come back to Canada to find a husband. Haha. Ahh.. I’m only half-kidding.

The next day, I went back to Stephensdom for the 10:15am mass. It was cool to attend mass in a different church in a different country, but the experience was less than enjoyable cause a) I can’t understand German, and b) there was a constant stream of tourists coming in and out of the church, taking pictures during mass. I was appalled and a little insulted.

Places I visited in Vienna:

Stephansdom

Schloß Hofburg

Albertina

Parlament

Rathaus

Museumsquartier

Staatsoper

Mariahilferstraße

Donaukanal (Danube)

St. Peter’s Church

Kohlmarkt

Kärntner Straße

Christina and I met up afterwards, got some food and took a 5-hour train to Prague.

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prague.CZECH REPUBLIC sun.SEPT25/05-wed.SEPT28/05

We got into Prague around dinner time, and after exchanging our money into Crowns and trying to do the conversions in our head (it’s approximately 20Kc for $1.00 CDN), and checking into our hostel, I spent a good chunk of the evening catching up on my emails and using up as much of the free internet at the hostel that I could. I also had to sort out my class schedule, which I only got a few days earlier, but I’ll write about that in another entry.

The next day, Christina and I took the tube to the Old Town and walked around to get ourselves familiar with the town. Prague, I noticed, was very touristy, especially in the Old Town, as every other store on the street was selling the exact same souvenirs. The town was very pretty, but it was way too touristy for me, and it didn’t live up to how great everyone said it was, although most things were relatively cheap.

That afternoon, we took a 4-hour guided walking tour around the city, which took us through Nové Mesto (New Town), Staré Mesto (Old Town), Josefov (Jewish Quarter) and Prazsky Hrad (Prague Castle). We started off at Václavské námestí (Wenceslas Square), which was right in front of the Národní Muzeum (National Museum), through Nové Mesto and into Staré Mesto, where the Old Town Square, Staromestské námestí, and the Astronomical Clock are. Just our luck, the Astronomical Clock was under construction until the end of November, so we didn’t get to see what happens on the hour. Apparently, on the hour, statues and things come out and some music chimes, kinda like a huge cuckoo clock.

On our way to Prazsky Hrad, we passed by Josefov, and onto Karluv most (Charles Bridge), which is this 14th century pedestrian bridge lined with statues that passes over the Vltava River, where at any time of the day, it’s packed with tourists, performers, vendors and artists.

This is part of the outside of St. Vitus Cathedral, which is located at Prague Castle. You can’t really tell exactly how amazing this cathedral was from this picture, but this was definitely my favourite. It had these high, high ceilings, and each stained-glass window was styled differently from the other. My pictures inside came out kinda dark, but they’re in my ImageStation if you wanna see more.

Also a highlight of Prague Castle was that I am convinced that I saw Ben Affleck sitting outside on a bench reading a magazine. Christina couldn’t get a good look, but I swear it was him. Well, I’m about 95% sure cause he had sunglasses on, but I was staring at him and he was kinda looking up, like yes, I know I’m Ben Affleck, so take a picture already. I so wanted to, but I didn’t. Note to self: Never, ever pass up an opportunity to take a picture of what could have been Ben Affleck.

After the tour, Christina and I went back to the hostel to freshen up a bit, and then came back down to the Old Town and had supper at a Czech pub that served real Czech food. I got this roast duck with dumplings, cabbage and bread. Food in Prague is definitely cheap. I took a picture so you can see how big the portion was, but along with it, I had soup and bread for an appetizer and 2 drinks, and it all came up to 300Kc including tip. That’s like $15.00! It was awesome! After dinner, we walked around the Old Town Square, down Charles Bridge and then ended up at Wenceslas Square, before we headed back to the hostel.

Prague is definitely different at night. Here’s a view of Prague Castle from Charles Bridge at night. It really is a romantic and kind of gothic city at night.

The following day we designated for shopping, Christina and I split up for a bit, so we could do our own shopping. I got a few souvenirs and things, but my favourite purchase, apart from the photograph of Prague that I brought, would have to be this white zip-up sweater that says CZECH on the back in blue and red. I had been looking at it in a store and the guy asked me what size I wanted cause the one I was looking at was for kids, and I told him I wanted one to fit me, and he gave me the strangest look, like these sweaters are for men, little Asian girl. Oh well. I like it.

I walked around for a bit more, seeing Národní Divadlo (National Theatre), and then met up with Christina and this Aussie Sarah from our hostel, before it started pouring.

This was also before it started pouring. The weather here in Europe is really finicky. This was taken only a couple hours before it started raining. That's Charles Bridge in the back, and you can see Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral right behind me.

Since we couldn't walk around outside in the rain, Christina, Sarah and I decided to go back to the hostel and let the rain calm down and maybe come back later on that day. We ended up getting groceries and just making supper at the hostel, and meeting other backpackers from the States, Finland and mostly Australia. For the most part, the backpackers we meet at hostels are either Australians or New Zealanders.

Wednesday, we checked out of the hostel and headed down to the Old Town again to do the tour of the Jewish Quarter, which included a tour of the Pinkas Synagogue, which had the names of all the Czech Jews that died under the Nazi regime written all over the walls, as well as a collection of children’s drawings during the Holocaust. We also visited the Old Jewish Cemetery, which had the bodies of 20 000 to 80 000 Jews within a one-block area, when the Jews weren’t allowed to bury their dead outside of the ghetto. It was a really creepy place cause there were tombstones on top of each other. The other places we visited were the Spanish Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, the Ceremonial Hall and Klausen Synagogue.

Places I visited in Prague:

Staré Mesto

Josefov

Staromestské námestí

Nové Mesto

Václavské námestí

Karluv most & the statue of St. John Nepomuk

Prazsky Hrad

Klausen Synagogue

Ceremonial Hall

Maisel Synagogue

Old Jewish Cemetary

Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock

Pinkas Synagogue

Spanish Synagogue

St. Vitus Cathedral

Vltava River

Národní Divadlo

Novometská Radnice (New Town Hall)

Prašná Brána (The Powder Gate)

Národní Muzeum

Orloj (The Astronomical Clock

We walked around a bit more and did some more shopping, going back to that Czech pub for dinner, and eventually ending up at Wenceslas Square, listening to a jazz band as it was a national holiday that day. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to pick up our bags and headed to the airport to take our 10:00pm flight back to London.

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london.ENGLAND wed.SEPT28/05-sat.OCT01/05

We arrived at Gatwick at about 11:00pm, and after some problems with the FastTicket machine and missing my train twice, I finally arrived at Victoria Station at about 1:00am and met up with Maricris and her friend, Thomas.

On Thursday, I walked around London by myself, seeing Buckingham Palace, going through St. James’s Park, passing by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Parliament, the London Eye, and the Thames.

This is in beautiful St. James’s Park. I walked to Trafalgar Square and saw the National Gallery, after which I walked up to Piccadilly Circus and chilled out in Leicester Square for a bit. It was a bit chilly that day, so I bought a pink Pashmina, which was only £4.00. I also got some books and talked to Mom and Jamin before heading back to Maricris’s to get ready.

For dinner, I met up with Alex at Willesden Green, which is around where he lives, and we had some good pasta and seafood, and mango sorbet. Afterwards, we walked around for a bit and he showed me his old house that they’re renovating, and then we watched tv (the first real tv I’ve watched since I got here) and talked to his mom at their place.

This is Alex and I on the top of a double decker bus on our way to Victoria. Instead of taking the tube back to Maricris’s, we took the bus for a more scenic view of London. And cause the tube stops running at 11:00pm and we missed the last one.

The next day, I was a bit lazy, so I didn’t get up til late, and Thomas and I went down to Oxford St. for some window shopping (I didn’t buy anything except more minutes for my phone and a Caramel Frappucino), and then to the Canadian High Commission to meet up with Maricris. We went down to The Red Room, which is this small pub in the basement, and had a few drinks with some of Maricris’s co-workers, before heading to Canning Town for a photo exhibit.

We headed home afterwards for some dinner, and got ready to go out. Maricris, Thomas and I went to this club called China White (yeah, go figure I’m back at China White), which is supposed to be this really exclusive club where celebrities and models go to. I didn’t see anyone famous, but the place was nice. The bigger room played dance music and the smaller room played hip-hop, but the same songs over and over again. It was fun, but we left early and walked down to Piccadilly and took some pictures.

It’s so odd but also comforting to see someone familiar when you’re in a foreign place.

Saturday, I dropped off my bags at London Euston Station, and met up with Karen, my Ate’s friend who lives in London, for lunch. Did I tell you how jealous I am that she lives here? I’m gonna move to London. Seriously. We had lunch at Fifteen, which is Jamie Oliver’s restaurant. It was really cool, cause I had seen the show and the pictures, and then I was actually there. Oddly though, it was located kinda off in this little alleyway. The food was good, and Karen and I had nice conversation.

Afterwards, we walked back to her place, and then headed down to Borough Market, which is on the other side of the Thames. On our way there, we passed by St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Millenium Bridge, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and saw the London Bridge and Tower Bridge from afar. Karen also showed me the apartment that apparently Bridget Jones lives in, in Borough Market.

I met up again with Alex afterwards, and we walked through their little China Town and down to the embankment, where we had drinks on the top deck of this boat called El Barco Latino, which is a club at night. The weather was awesome for about half an hour, until the clouds just came over and started pouring on us. We left and walked down into the city and ducked into the first restaurant we came to. We had supper at this cute Italian restaurant, and had interesting conversations on relationships.

He also didn’t believe that I could eat him under the table, so – and you barkada boys will be proud – I proved him wrong. I had my meal, plus about a third of his. The boy’s a lightweight. I’m definitely gonna get fat while I’m here. They eat tons of potatoes and french fries here.

Places I visited in London:

Buckingham Palace

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

London Eye

National Gallery

Parliament Buildings

Big Ben

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Tate Modern

Tower of London

Westminster Abbey

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

Leicester Square

St. James’s Park

Fifteen

Borough Market

Oxford Circus

Still to see/do in London:

Notting Hill; Portobello Market

Go into Harrod’s

Go on the London Eye

Kensington Palace

Abbey Road

Tower of London

The Da Vinci Code tour

St. Paul’s Cathedral

See a show

Afterwards, I took the tube back to Euston, where I caught my train back to – not Lancaster, but Preston. They’re doing some maintenance on the tracks or something, so the train didn’t go directly to Lancaster. It stopped at Preston, the town before Lancaster and apparently Britney Spears’s baby’s name-sake, and I had to take a coach bus to Lancaster. It took about 4.5 hours to get home.

Sunday was spent in my pyjamas, unpacking, and catching up with Anne and Essi about my trip and what I missed while I was gone.

Monday, I actually started classes, and they’re going well, so far, but I’ll leave that for another entry.

Overall, I enjoyed Salzburg, but I may be biased cause of The Sound of Music, and I am totally going to move to London. I am definitely going back there a few more times before I go back to Canada cause I still have so much to see, among other things. Vienna was also very nice, much more metropolitan than Salzburg, and I think Prague is a little overrated. It was beautiful, but not like what everyone said it would be like.

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No plans for this coming w-end just yet, but the girls and I might take a day trip somewhere close by. I'm thinking of visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow next w-end, and then the w-end after that is our Dublin trip. Anne, Essi, maybe Christina and I are going to Dublin on the 22nd until the 25th, and then I will meet up with Ate probably in Barcelona, spend a few days in Spain, before we head back down to Lancaster for a few days, and Ate goes back to Canada. If I didn’t already mention it, the week of Oct24/05 is a study week, which means no classes. I don’t think they believe in classes here.

Anyways, I miss you all. Wish I could talk to everyone back home.

Rosie and Mariese; you girls are nerds. You both asked about the same thing, and no, nothing. Not yet, anyways. Haha.

I will write about school and classes in the next few days. Let’s just say that I have 8 hours of class a week, and going back to the grind that is Waterloo is gonna be a huge shocker next semester, after having been out of it for a year. It’s okay, though, I’m gonna move to London after graduation…

After the first week… and then off again

2005-09-19T09:24:00.000-04:00

INSERT: HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, GELL. Wish I could be there for all the fun, but I am thinking of you and how old you are, and how I still have 7 more years before I get there. Look at this picture. How are you 30? Really??

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So, from where I left off…

…last Wednesday, all the international students from St. Martin’s went on a “ghost tour” of Lancaster Castle, which could have been good had we actually been able to go into the castle. The tour guide, this creepy old lady, which I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of, looked liked she came back from the olden days, where she was one of those people who probably lived with a lot of cats and made potions and things in her kitchen.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went out to the Walkabout Inn, which is another of Lancaster’s many pubs; they said there’s about 50 pubs & clubs in Lancaster, which is insane cause Lancaster’s about the size of Chapel Hill (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). Here’s a tidbit of info; all the pubs in Lancaster close at about 11:00pm, after which people go to clubs, and there are only about 3 in Lancaster that I know of – Revolution (yes, for you Waterloo people, this is so fitting, but I haven’t been there yet), Liquid (also haven’t been there and will probably never go cause cover’s apparently £6.00) and Toast (so fun – read on).

This is Essi (from Finland), Anne, myself, Jenna (from the States), and Arife (from Turkey) at Walkabout.

Nora, Lena, Jana and Camille enjoying a Long Island Iced Tea.

At about 10:00pm, our group of 9 split off, and Anne, Essi and I ended up first at this pub called The Friary, which is a pub inside what used to be an old church building. There’s something so sacrilegious about drinking and all the related naughtiness in a place where mass used to be held. Nice place, but we were really there for an alternate reason:

Everyone, say hello to Rob, bartender at The Friary, our tour guide and the only guy that all 30 of us international students (all girls but one) have come in contact with in the last week. Probably safe to say that a lot of the international girls, myself included, become putty at the sound of a British accent, so it’s not surprising that many of the girls have taken a liking to our Rob here. I disclude myself from that group, however. Nice guy, always in the pubs, but he’s no Orlando Bloom. And he’s about 19 or 20 years old. He thought we were all about 19, and then refused to tell us his real age when he found out we were all about 23. I’m gonna hold out for Beckham or Orlando, thanks.

After The Friary closed at 11:00pm, Anne, Essi and I headed down to Toast, but the lineup was too long and not moving at all, so we met up with Camille, Jenna and Nora at the Chicago Rock Café, where we walked in to a middle-aged man singing some 80’s song on the stage. Awesome, we think. It’s karaoke night!

A drunken Camille goes to the DJ: We’re singing the next song.
DJ: It’s a singing competition.

So, on Wed. Sept. 28th, Camille, Nora and Anne are scheduled to perform Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for the Chicago Rock Café audience.

I think that people here go out every night of the week, cause regardless of what night of the week it is, the pubs & clubs are packed. Every night in Lancaster is Saturday night.

Friday, we had a day off from orientation, and oh-so-cool me spent the day in the computer room. That night was a party at the JCR (Junior Common Room), a club in the Student Union building (kinda like their version of Fed Hall), where we could actually party and mix with some regular St. Martin’s students.

For a girl that’s 5’9”, Anne couldn’t take more than one bottle of wine. For a girl that’s 5’0”, I couldn’t take more than one vodka cooler. I think this was taken at around 10:00pm. We had only gotten to JCR at about 9:00pm. Lushes, we are.

The JCR party ended at 11:00pm that night, so we headed down to Toast early to hopefully beat the lineup and dance some more, and we did just that.

Christina (from the States) in front, Essi, Lena, myself, Anne, Nora and Jana having an awesome time dancing at Toast. I would even dare to say it was comparable to Rev, in terms of music, atmosphere and crowd. Melo, Rosie, Mariese, Jess – my clubbing buddies, I missed you all. You would have all loved it. Really good hiphop music and no cover. And again, Rob was there, so the girls were happy.

On Saturday, the international students went on a field trip to this town called Chester, which is about 2 hours away by bus from Lancaster, and had a lot of nice German-style architecture. Anne said she felt like she was back at home in Heidelberg.

The buildings all down the streets were of this style. Very pretty. Something you wouldn’t typically see in Canada.

This was also down the street. Also something you wouldn’t typically see in Canada.

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Plans for the next while: I have the next 2 weeks off, so Christina and I are going to Austria on Wednesday to see Salzburg and Vienna. Of course I was gonna go to Austria while I’m down here – hello, The Sound of Music Tour. Need I say more? Afterwards, we’ll head up to Prague for a few days, then spend the end of the break touring around London, before returning back to Little Lancaster to finally start (yes, I said start) classes on October 3rd.

Ate (what I call my sister; pronounced ah-teh) is coming up sometime in October to London, then Lancaster to see ME, and then we’ll be heading down to Spain for a few days. It’s still in the works, but you’ll hear about it soon.

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Note to myself: Gotta make plans to go to France (Paris, Nice, south, etc), Switzerland, Italy (Rome, Pisa, Venice), Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante), Sweden (not likely)
- w-end trips to around UK (Scotland, Stonehenge, around London)

Tomas and Jen, my France buddies, we should travel together.

I’ll see you all in a couple weeks!

Finally in the UK

2005-09-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

MORE PICTURES: I've finally been able to upload my pictures on my imagestation account, so check these out. Also, here are Rosie & Melo's pictures from their trip to Spain - as well as tons of pictures of us before our clubbing experience. (Please disregard the fact that you can see my bra in pretty much all the pictures. It couldn't be helped).

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I don't really have time to write much right now, but let's just say I'm having an awesome time so far here in the UK. I will write more, and more interesting stuff another day, but everyone likes pictures, including me, so I'll use this blog thing to post pictures.

This is Melo and I actually talking on the phones (and not just posing like dorky tourists) in the fun red phonebooths on Belgrave Rd. just a little ways down from our ghetto (but connected internetically) hotel. Phone calls in the UK are freakin expensive, and it cost me around £1.20 and 3 tries to call my friend Alex for just under 5 minutes. Crazy. I am already poor, after having spent a ridiculous amount setting up my cell phone.

Rosie and I at Piccadilly Circus; Melo's awesome photography skills can be debated here - she missed most of the signs that Piccadilly Circus is actually known for. However, she did manage to get both a cab (on the left) and a red double decker in the picture.

Caption: Pre-Clubbing Buddies Gone International.

Rosie, Melo and I before the drunkeness and the dancing. TOO. MUCH. FUN. London, you were good to us. Thanks to Alex and Steven for taking us out. I'll fix this up when I get the chance, and put up some post-clubbing pictures when I get them. Let's just say, walking home at 3:00am from Piccadilly to Victoria Station: priceless. Accidentally seeing Trafalgar Square, the buildings of Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye was a good way to end the night, and a good send off to my two clubbing buddies who left me the next day to go back to Toronto.

Insert: London accents; so hot. British boys; not so much. Orlando Bloom and David Beckham were just flukes, I think.

After a boring w-end by myself in Lancaster (with no phone or internet in the res rooms), I finally met some other international students on Monday during orientation. And yes, we went out that night as well to this pub called Keystone's.

L-R: Lena, Jana and Anne (all from Germany), myself, Camille (Aussie) and Nora (from Norway). The 3 German girls all live off-campus, and the rest of us are on the same floor in res. Anne's page has more pictures, although it's in German, so good luck with reading it. Haha.

I really don't know if I'll be updating this often, but it's the easiest for people to see pictures, so I might just have to. We'll be out again tonight after our "ghost-tour" of Lancaster Castle, so I'll try to post more pictures later on this week.

In exactly 5 weeks

2005-08-03T11:04:00.001-04:00

PURCHASE CONFIRMATION:
Reservation Code: KEUOSU

Order Summary:
Base ticket price: $470.94
Taxes and fees: $119.05
Service fee: $5.00
Total for ticket: $594.99 USD

Ticketing Info:
Electronic ticket will be issued in the name of: Sarah Camille Yniguez Sy
Confirmation email: scsy@uwaterloo.ca

TICKET ITINERARY
DEPARTING
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
American Airlines flight 4744 - Nonstop
Montreal, QU Dorval (YUL) @ 6:22 PM to New York, NY John F Kennedy Intl (JFK) @ 8:00 PM

........................CONNECTION........................

Wednesday, September 7, 2005
American Airlines flight 132 - Nonstop
New York, NY John F Kennedy Intl (JFK) @ 9:30 PM arriving Thursday, September 8, 2005 in London, GB Heathrow (LHR) @ 9:20 AM

RETURNING
Friday, December 23, 2005
American Airlines flight 109 - Nonstop
London, GB Heathrow (LHR) @ 10:30 AM to Boston, MA Logan International (BOS) @ 12:50 PM

........................CONNECTION........................

Friday, December 23, 2005
American Airlines flight 4479 - Nonstop
Boston, MA Logan International (BOS) @ 4:05 PM to Montreal, QU Dorval (YUL) @ 5:15 PM

OTHER THINGS DONE:

no UK Visa needed
acceptance letter & package received from St. Martin's
4 passport pictures taken
Dell Inspiron 700m laptop order & received
paid for Fall 2005 4A tuition
Park Hotel (64 Belgrave Rd. SW1V 2BP; Victoria, London) booked for Sept08/05

One night, 3 twin beds
Confirmation #: 29062023
Check in date: September 8, 2005, 1:00pm
Check out date: September 9, 2005, 11:00am
$134 Canadian dollars (all taxes and service charges included)
Price per person: $44

STILL TO DO:

book train ticket from London Euston Station to Lancaster for Sept09/05 for around lunch time
look for cell phone plans in the UK
get a credit card
go for a physical & dentist appointment
go for a haircut & massage
pay Mom & Dad for plane ticket
renew health card
mail acceptance of offer back to St. Martin's
photocopy and send all documents from St. Martin's package to Sue Grant
outlet transformers from 120 volts (3-pronged for laptop cable) to 230 volts in UK
among other things...

...oh baby, you got what I need. But you say he's just a friend...

Done and done

2005-05-25T11:45:00.000-04:00

STUFF SENT TO SUE GRANT:

01 – St. Martins’ College Study Abroad / Exchange Application Form (2 pages)
02 – International Student Accommodation Request Form 2005-6 (2 pages)
03 – Equal Opportunities Questionnaire (1 page)
04 – Request for Academic/Work Term Sequence Change (2 pages)
05 – Acknowledgement of Risk and Responsibility (1 page)
06 – Emergency Information (1 page)
07a – Application for International Exchange Program (4 pages)
07b – Resumé (2 pages)
08a – Health Development and Promotion – course selection (3 pages, front & back)
08b – Religious Studies – course selection (1 page)

OTHER THINGS DONE:

applied to UW Place for winter 2006 residence (contract in mail 1-2 weeks)

THINGS STILL TO DO:

apply for UK Visa once I get acceptance letter from USCM
meet with Sue Grant (safety de-briefing), Friday, June 17th, 2005 at 2:00pm
get information for Pre-depatrure meeting (either from Sue or online)
get 2-4 passport pictures taken at Price Club ($6.00 for 2 pictures)
get an International Youth Hostel Membership Card ($25.00 online)
get an ISIC Card
get a credit card
get phone cards and/or international cell phone
get an international bank account/card
certified international driver's license
verify extended health insurance from Dad
check QUEST on June 13th if enrolled in HLTH372 - International Exchange Program
get Tomas's (Lyon, France) and Jen's (Rennes, France) contact information

In 3 months

2005-05-17T09:28:00.000-04:00

STUFF TO DO WHILE IN EUROPE:

bring back UCSM transcript for UW
syllabi of courses for transfer credits
one-page summary of experience
register with the Canadian Embassey in UK
watch David Beckham play in a professional soccer game (Real Madrid)
JK Rowling/Harry Potter stuff
buy a real Swiss Army knife (Switzerland)
get Swiss/Belgian chocolates
The Sound of Music tour - Salzburg, Austria
The Da Vinci Code tour - Paris, France/London, England
Angels & Demons tour - Rome, Italy
Orlando Bloom
look up museums in each city
get a Eurail train pass?
go to Fifteen - Jamie Oliver's restaurant
go to Ikea in Sweden
go to H&M in Sweden
go on a gondola in Venice, Italy
see the Coliseum and the fountain in Rome, Italy
go to a mass by the Pope in Vatican City
see the Swiss Alps
take B&W pictures
take a video in each city; upload pictures right away

STUFF TO BUY BEFORE I LEAVE:

4 NiMH 2100 mAh batteries & charger (for digital camera)
get a book on art history
get a travel book on Europe; highlight all the stuff I want to see
get a laptop (early-mid August) [Sony VAIO VGN-T150 Intel Pentium M 735 1.7GHz laptop ($2,700.00) ; Dell Inspiron 700m Intel Pentium M 12.1' screen (very basic $1,460); slightly heavier & larger than Sony; get Intel Pentium M and good warranty]
get phone cards
extra passport pictures
get a bathing suit
get an international cell phone
European transformers for outlets (3)
good fall jacket
get a UW agenda
bigger backpack for traveling? Boblbee??
side bag with zipper for traveling
shower slippers
USB key
travel sleeping bag
locks for backpack
travel alarm clock (bring separate batteries, don't use rechargeable ones)
compression bags with air-release valves
individually wrapped laundry detergent
cup/utensils/bowl?
cable & lock for laptop
Bounce dryer sheets
santiary hand gel