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[May. 30th, 2007|04:02 pm] |
its official. i'm coming home this saturday.
whereto and exact time are yet to be determined |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2007|01:02 am] |
double decker tour bus outside the horse guards. i learned what it was!! they are the highest order of guards to the queen, and the regiment william & harry serve in
salute to carolina
driving!
dont be fooled, i actually drove the most, but the first 2 days were more frustrating than anything so there are no photographic pieces of evidence
highlands!
loch ness cruise, the monster is there, they just keep the tourists coming. 18 total.
loch ness
small hike on the scenic stop of glencoe (glen means valley) where harry potter & braveheart were filmed some... and ps most of braveheart was done in ireland
this is why i want to go back!!
canon & view of edinburgh from the castle
english country from the motorway
river tour in canterbury
considered stealing the lilies for granny
view of canterbury high street from the top of the west gate tower
interior of the cathedral
where the saint died!! monument is symbolic of the faith (the cross) and the 4 swords that killed him - to on the monument and 2 in the shadows
thats all for now... its late! |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2007|12:50 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blank | ] |
mom made it here safe and WE WENT TO LOCH NESS! and ps, we saw the monster!! there are 18 altogether! the loch is 23 miles long and all the lakes in britain & wales combined could not fill loch ness (there is a lake district in britain with many lakes.. and loch is gaelic for lake)
i want to go back to the highlands.
what we did was a one day tour from edinburgh that was just under 12 hours where we made a circular tour of the area with many tourist/scenic stops including a one hour cruise of loch ness. it was a dreary day but it was still beautiful
and we drove to edinburgh from south london! that was an experience! it was nerve wrecking for the first few hours.. dark, getting low on gas... not sure where a gas station is... but we made it! and it was fun. i only turned into the right lane once. only one oncoming car so that could have been worse.
saw the crown jewels of scotland in the edinburgh castle - the oldest in europe. also saw where many american pows were kept turning the revolutionary war, but never got home.
learned where 'bite the bullet' and 'useless git' come from - scottish musketeers. bite the bullet to make it fit in the barrel, it was made of lead and very unpleasant to do. a git is the excess lead from pouring it into the mold to make the bullet, to much makes the bullet useless b/c it wont go down the barrel.
yesterday we drove all the way back down to canterbury from edinburgh (8+ hours w/o stops) and we started at 2pm. we got to thinking and changing our weekend plans and ended up turning the car back in 3 days early to save nearly $400! smart move.
today we toured canterbury. it was good to back in a place i knew and was comfortable in. mom got her first fish & chips, saw some old roman stuff, the cathedral, west gate towers, a river tour, etc. twas great.
tomorrow its back to london for the london tower for the english crown jewels and such, then mom is off monday morning.
pictures to follow. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 21st, 2007|08:11 pm] |
so today in london has been... interesting? eventful? stressful? maybe a little of each rolled into one.
i left canterbury early today to make it to a small town on the other side of england to get my military id renewed with my medical insurance (blayh blah ran out on my birthday.. .needed proof of school...) #
turns out that the people i talked to on the phone here (that told me to go to RAF Daws Hill) were WRONG. daws hill has never done ids. i had to go to a special little place 30 back towards london, which i could have gotten to via the tube.
the days events|:
coach to london
check in to hostel to put down bags
back to central london
train to high wycombe
walk to bus station
missed the once and hour bus to the RAF base by 10 minutes
got taxi to base
talk to gate guard police man
police man made a call
i talked to josh fawcett on the phone, he laughs at the situation.. and tells me i need to go 30 miles down the road
josh meets me at the gate to give me directions in person
guard man tells josh i came from kent
josh realizes i dont have a car
josh makes phone call and gets a charity ride for me to the other base/office
30 minute write with white reveals he's from james island, a huge gamecock fan!
get to the office, their swamped, i'm the last person they want to deal with
dont have a parental permission form i 've never heard of
they give me the id anyway b/c the chief is out.
breath out. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 19th, 2007|08:37 pm] |
| [ | Posting from: |
| | canterbury | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | Currently Listening to |
| | matt wertz | ] |
2 days later... THE EXAM WENT WELL! well, as far as i can tell. It was one of those "pick 2 of the 19 questions and write!" which i knew was the format, but the questions could have been about ANYthing. Thankfully, the major question was exactly what i wanted - the Faerie Queene and its reflections of queen elizabeth and england at the time. they give you 3 hours and i only took and hour and half. could be good or bad. the unfortunate thing about essay exams is that you dont know what you dont know... if you missed something, you have no idea because you dont know the information. but itll be fine i think.
i started packing today. nothing big, the room looks the same, just got the winter clothes put away and some extra shoes. i'll be postponing changing the look of the room as long as possible since i have 2 weeks left.
i'm actually going to an american friend's going away party now... and bronwyn left yesterday morning. it's getting real. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2007|01:21 pm] |
OH PS!
marisia, sorcha (her friend from london, and a fun girl!) and i are going to roadtrip the last week i'm here! which is after mom comes next week.
mom and i will probably rent a car (which is exciting b/ci really want to drive on the left side, in a car with the wheel ont he right side... i'm prepared, i've biked through traffic for 2 months)
anyway, i found out i'm old enough at 21 to rent a car, just an extra charge for being under 25. but its still cheaper than i thought it'd be. i think 5 days for a compact automatic is roughly 100lbs. split between 3 of us, nooooot bad! plus marisia has wanted to roadtrip for a long long time, but she can't drive, which would leave sorcha with all the driving. so this works well! petrol is expensive compared to the states, but we'll save a ton of money not using trains or coaches.
this means iceland and copenhagen are out. but just for now. i can always comeback to europe. i've lived in england for almost 6 months and i've still only seen london & canterbury. i think this is more appropriate.
although, i am very disappointed ireland is so expensive to get to! a ferry is 60lbs per person w/o a car (144 with a car), but to get to the ferry is another 35lbs and 15 hours in a coach or 68lbs and 6 hours by train from london. flying, even with the 33lb flat tax, would be so much cheaper! so ireland may not happen. sad that i've been here so long and cant get to a country so close. eh. oh well. we'll see. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2007|01:16 pm] |
in exactly 24 hours i will be headed to my exam.
i'm feeling better about it. I just needed to change my mind and attitude about it. There is no way to know all the material. the lecturer knows that. so i've picked three major themes out of 6 or so from the course, which are the 3 with the most material/poems to read, and also what occurred on previous exams consistently. (we have access to past exam papers on the library website. pretty useful)
studying for it is a foreign task - no memorization, no repetition. just ideas and concepts and analytically thinking.
peppermints are still going strong. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 14th, 2007|05:33 pm] |
| [ | Posting from: |
| | library | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  unmotivated | ] |
i've reverted back to SAT taking strategies like eating peppermints to stay awake while studying... which is all reading.
BLAH
and i remembered quickly why I dont like this library:
its crowded and its always hard to find a place to sit! and when you do, that place sucks. too many people, too close to someone, in the a major walkway (where i am now) and an outlet for the computer? never. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2007|02:06 pm] |
| [ | Posting from: |
| | canterbury | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  grateful | ] |
FINLAND!!
kaisa & me at her dad's place (he's in the back!)
the balu (thats how it sounds, probably not spelled right). basically a hot tub with water from the lake heated by burning wood
9pm! and the sun wasnt down until 10pm then started coming back up at 2am! pretty crazy
large church - actually very simple and elegant inside, with a modern twist
kaisa & me at the church/steps
strawberries from the small tourist market. they're spanish b/c the finnish ones aren't in season yet
on a typical ferry (15 min, no shows) to an island swedish & russian forts
red fingers from the strawberries! they were so good, no white in the middle at all! and dark red
sitting in the widow of the forts/dungeon
crazy jesus lady! they're not limited to the bible belt!!
amusement park! free to get in and she had left over free ride coupons from last summer!
more to come later... |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2007|02:00 pm] |
photos from stockholm!
could be sweden, could not be sweden.
roof tops from the roof of Roman's workspace
city hall with the three crowns, the symbol of sweden
one of the big churches in Old Town, near the royal palace
tiny alley in old town
7-eleven in stockholm! the nice area!
my bed!
the ferry to finland aka mini cruise
sweden from the ferry
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