Being back in the US

After being in a different country for a year, going back home was sad and a little bit shocking even though I've lived there for 20 out of the 21 years of my life. I was excited to see my family and friends, sleep in my own bed and eat some home-cooked food. But, I knew I was going to miss my new friends from England and all the places I had been and traditions I started getting used to. The first thing I did after I got back (after hugging my family for ages and catching them up on what I've been doing for a year) was make a scrapbook of all my favorite memories from aboad. I kept a lot of little bits of tickets and receipts and brochures that I put next to some of the pictures I took. I think this helped remind me of fun things I got to do over the past year and in a way it was comforting to know that I could look at it whenever I missed it and remember everything.

Starting school again will be interesting since I will have to remember what things are different here and reconnect with my old classmates. People have already asked me questions about where I've been and why I've been gone for so long. I am also aware of the differences in workload and exams between Manchester and Michigan.

Overall, I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to spend a year in a foreign country and adapt to a new culture. Learning about the interests and beliefs of others whose are totally different to mine has made me think about and question my own. It taught me to be more understanding of people who are different to me and appreciate their ideas even though they may seem 'weird' compared to what's accepted generally. I loved meeting new people from all over the world and going to so many countries in Europe. I hope to go back again sometime to visit people and see new places I didn't get to see while I was there.

Only one month to go...

After Easter break finished, it was back to university and back to studying. I have already had one exam earlier this week, I have two in the coming week and my last one isn't until the 7th of June! The semester goes on so much longer here! But I can't complain about the 3 weeks off at Easter! :)

On the 6th of May, our Hall hosted a May Ball at the Hilton. The Hilton is the tallest building in Manchester and it's gorgeous on the inside. The JCR was responsible for organising the event so I helped with some of the planning and ticket selling. It was supposed to rain, but we got lucky and it was sunny when we were outside and getting ready to leave. There was a red carpet and a spiral staircase to enter the upstairs bar area. We had champagne when we first arrived and a bit of time to chat before we took our seats for dinner. They served tomato soup, chicken with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes, and for afters we had a raspberry cheesecake and coffee. They had red and chilled white wine on the tables. A jazz band played during most of the dinner and later on we had a DJ playing some music and we danced for a while until we were ready to leave. It was a really fun night and a nice break from revision.

Yesterday, some of my friends and I went to Nando's for dinner, which seems to be a popular place to go to eat here, even though it seems a bit overpriced to me. But, they do have nice chips there and spicy 'peri-peri' sauce to dip the chicken and things in. Also, they serve tap water in wine glasses which is kind of fun.

With exams looming, and not too many exciting stories, I will keep this one short. See ya!

Easter Holidays

Bath Abbey; The Roman Baths

Over the Easter Holiday, I had many fun adventures. I went to Bath in England, Berlin in Germany, and Sicily in Italy. It's been an exciting couple of weeks and in a week, I'll be back at uni to start revising for exams. But until then, I will just be relaxing and enjoying the rest of the break.

The Royal Crescent-Bath; The Pump Room for Afternoon Tea

Bath is a city in southwest England which is famous for its natural hot springs (the only ones in the UK!). It was originally established by the Romans in the 1st century AD where a spa house and temple were built around the natural springs. I went with a friend to the city for a few days and stayed in a bed and breakfast. We did a walking tour of the city and went to a charity comedy show in the evening on the first day. The next day, we visited the old Abbey church and then later went to the location of the first Roman Baths which was set up like a museum so people could learn about its history. We walked by the Royal Crescent, across the three-arched Pulteney Bridge, and had posh afternoon tea in the Pump Room. Jane Austen lived in Bath for a few years and set some of her novels in the city. Being a Jane Austen fan, it was exciting to visit the city she knew and wrote about. On the last day we did some fun shopping!



The Holocaust Memorial-Berlin; A painting on the East Side Gallery

The next day, I got a 6am flight to Berlin and stayed in the city with a friend who's studying there for the year. We went to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche which is a church that was bombed during WWII. A new concrete church with blue stained glass windows is next to the old church. After that we went to the East Side Gallery which is a section of the old Berlin Wall that is now painted by several artists from around the world. Then we went to Gendarmenmarkt which is meant to be the most beautiful square in Europe. It consists of a performance theater flanked by two identical churches (the French and German Cathedrals). After that we made our own bars of chocolate at the Ritter-Sport shop. In my bar I put strawberry pieces, cocoa nibs and roasted hazelnuts with a milk chocolate base. It was delicious!! Also on the trip we did a walking tour of the city and learned about the history of the city. We started at Brandenburg Gate, to the Reichstag building, to the Holocaust Memorial, to Hitler's old bunker where he committed suicide, and then to the only remaining building of the nazis-the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) base. We saw Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Island, the TV tower and a few other bits. It was really interesting to learn about all of the history of the city-such a great experience!



The day after my return from Berlin, I left with a friend to Palermo in Sicily. Palermo is a pretty big city and very busy with traffic. The motorbikes are always zooming past, the polizia sirens and horns always blaring, and people's washing hanging out in alley ways. Although the city itself felt quite stressful, the little towns outside were really relaxing and pretty. The ones we went to were Cefalu and Mondello. The weather was great for the whole time we were there and the sunshine felt so nice!

Fontana Pretoria- Palermo; Mondello

The Lake District

Last weekend, I went on an International Society organized trip to the Lake District, which is England's largest national park. It's about a 2 hour drive away from Manchester and we took the coach there early Saturday morning. The first stop was the Aira Force Waterfalls, which is the most famous among the Lake District waterfalls. The walk to the falls was about half a mile through the woods. We saw a massive tree along the way as well that seemed to be at least 5 ft in diameter. After we got to the falls, we kept walking along a little footpath up the hill and through the fields of sheep. The views along this hill were beautiful and there was a pretty lake at the bottom of a mountain that could be seen at the top of this hill. Also there was a dead log near the entrance of the park filled with coins. Apparently, people hammer them in for good luck!



Our next stop on the trip was at Grasmere, a little village in the Lake District. The famous poet, William Wordsworth once lived here. We visited the church and cemetery where he and his family are buried. In his poem Daffodils, he writes:

'I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze...'

The cemetery is surrounded by lots of daffodils and the words of this poem are inscribed in a path around the cemetery. Also in Grasmere is where Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread shop is located. Of course, we had to try some of the homemade gingerbread and it was indeed very tasty. :)

The last village we visited in the Lake District was Ambleside. The history of communities living in Ambleside dates back to 4000 BC where the remains of an axe factory were found under Langdale Pikes. The Romans also settled in Ambleside in the 1st century AD and had a fort along Lake Windermere. After the Romans left, the Vikings inhabited Ambleside in the Middle Ages. A certain breed of Lake District sheep is said to be created by the Vikings as well as the actual name 'Ambleside' itself. Historians say that the name is derived from a Norse word for farm or pasture.




Beatrix Potter, the author of the Peter Rabbit books, lived in Ambleside and wrote many of her children's books here. It's easy to see why the scenery in the Lake District would be inspirational for writing and drawing. We walked along the lake and watched the sunset before heading home on the coach. All in all, it was a fun experience and a great place to relax and enjoy the countryside.










http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/history.shtml

Fun in Manchester

Wow! I can't believe how fast those last 3 weeks have gone by! I've been busy going to lectures, studying, etc. as well as having loads of fun! The weather is starting to warm up. We didn't have a very long winter which is a nice change from Michigan. The flowers are starting to bloom and it's usually around 40-50 F during the days and it's actually been sunny for the past few days.




A few weeks ago I went to a geek-themed 'silent disco' at a club called Revolution in Manchester. I'd never been to one before but I've wanted to go to one at some point! In a silent disco, everyone wears headphones and can change the channels on the headphones to change the music depending on what they want to listen to. It's kind of funny because if you take your headphones off, there's no music playing, but everyone is still dancing and singing really loudly! My friends and I enjoyed going to it and will probably try to go to more in the future!

Last night, we went to an 'I Dare You' event that was raising money for charity. We got a list of dares of different risk levels and point values and tried to see how many points we could get. Some of the easy ones were like 'video of piggyback with a stranger' or 'a picture with a cabbie' whereas some of the hardest ones were about getting a new piercing/tattoo or to come back with a different hair color! It was really fun and even though our group didn't end up getting very many points, it was still a blast trying!

In April, we have a three week holiday for Easter and I'm planning to go to Sicily for a week, as well as Bath in England and maybe Berlin for a few days! I'm excited already!





This picture is legendary because the lady in the middle is called "The Crazy Bus Lady" because she always tries to get on the buses at night and hand out these illegible sheets of paper protesting the government. Everyone at Manchester knows her! One of the dares was actually 'picture with crazy bus lady.' haha

Ribena and Haggis...

It is now the 3rd week of the semester and I'm beginning to settle in again. I like my classes so far. One of my favorites is 'Architecture in Early Modern Europe 1450 - 1750.' We've learned about why the Renaissance is said to have begun in Florence and what made Florence special. We talked about Brunelleschi and Alberti - two very different architects from different backgrounds who both contributed to the revival of classical architecture in the 1400s . It's really interesting! I'm glad I got to go to Rome and Paris over the holidays as well because the professor has referred to some of the buildings in those cities (i.e. the Pantheon, Colosseum, Notre Dame). My other classes are Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer, Distillation and Absorption, Heat Transfer and Process Integration, and Laboratories 2. I like Heat Transfer and Process Integration because it's about how to make processes more efficient and choosing the right heat exchanger for a specified temperature change.



Two weekends ago, I went on the Ferris wheel in Manchester which was exciting. Haha. My friends and I would always walk by it and want to go, so I'm glad I finally got to ride on it! In the picture above, you can see the Ferris wheel and part of the Manchester Cathedral on the left. I also went to Lyme Park in the Peak District with a few friends. Apparently, Lyme Hall was the background for one of the old BBC Pride & Prejudice films!


We walked around the countryside a little bit and it was nice to get some fresh air and see the deer. I tried haggis this past weekend, which is a traditional Scottish dish with sheep's heart, lungs, and liver in it. It's mixed with oatmeal, onions, and spices. If you make yourself forget what it's made out of, it actually tastes pretty good. It was definitely a new experience! I also went to Maldon with some friends. It is a city along the coastline with estuaries. There are lots of old sailboats there, chirping birds, and little cafes and shops. I like how it's fairly easy to find a town on the coast in England-you're never too far away from the Sea!



All in all, things are going well. I've become a fan of 'Ribena' (a type of 'squash') or concentrated fruit drink. Basically, you buy a big bottle of this concentrated juice and then you only use a little tiny amount each time and fill most of your glass with water. Everyone loves it around here and drinks it frequently. My favorite flavor is blackcurrant but there's loads of different kinds!

Exams are OVER!

This past month has been super crazy, but I finally feel like things are starting to calm down. Over Christmas holidays, my family came to visit, we celebrated Christmas together and I showed them around England a little. It was so nice to see them! We saw a Pantomime on Boxing day which seems like a popular thing to do for families with young children or anyone really.

We took the Eurostar to Paris for 3 days and it was amazing! I really loved Paris and hope to return someday. We went out to eat on our first night there and the food was absolutely delicious, especially the creme brulee. Our second day, we went to the Eiffel Tower and had breakfast at a little cafe near it. We had scheduled a bike tour for that day and it started mid-morning. The bike tour was really cool because we got to see most of the famous sights in a short amount of time and our tour guide knew a lot of fun facts. We saw Napoleon's tomb which has a dome covered in real gold, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine was-lots of people killed there!), the Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame.

The Arc de Triomphe

My family and I in front of the Eiffel Tower

On our last day, we actually went inside the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and many other beautiful pieces of art. It was huge and we could have spent the entire day there, but we had to catch our train home in the afternoon. I highly recommend seeing Paris-it was a lovely city.


My sister and I in front of the Notre Dame in Paris, France




After we got back to England, my family and I went to London for a day and saw some of the the famous sights like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Trafalgar Square. We got to do a 'River Cruise' on the Thames which was fun. We were going to stay for the fireworks on New Years Eve, but it was kind of cold and cloudy and we didn't want to stand outside waiting for hours. My parents left on the 2nd of January but my sister stayed for another week. We had a day in London and saw the Tower of London with those oh, so pretty crown jewels and we went shopping on Oxford St. a little bit as well.

Me with the 'Harrods bear' in London

The next day was our flight to Rome. Rome was also amazing and I hope to go back at some point. We went to the Vatican and saw St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and other art by Michelangelo and Raphael in the Pope's art museum. We had a guided tour by a nun and learned so much about each painting and their meanings. St. Peter's Basilica was huge and beautiful-very ornate. On the days that followed, we saw the Coliseum, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and Palatine, and different Plazas and Museums. The food in Italy was absolutely delicious! The pizza was outstanding, the wine was great, all pasta dishes were spectacular, and the coffee was yummy too! I think I got pizza almost everyday; it was soooo good! We had 4 nights in Rome and had to leave early the last day. My sister went back to the US two days after we got back and now I'm back in Manchester. I finished my last exam today and am ready to start the next semester next week! (Haven't uploaded Rome pictures yet...)

Paris!!