The End...

Hello everyone,

I would first like to say sorry for falling off of this after my spring break ended. The last week of my spring break I went to Prague and Amsterdam (both young fun towns, with tons of history especially in WWII). However due to the volcano eruptions I was stranded at a friend of mine in the Netherlands for 6 nights before I got back. Then once I got back (19 hour bus ride) it was exam time and I had a lot of work to do.

I was able to do a quick weekend trip to London. It was everything I expected. To me it was an American city with a British population. But the weekend we went there all the drama with the election for the next prime minister was going on, so it was exciting.

After my finals ended about a week ago I met up with my cousin Elizabeth in Spain for 2 days. There we relaxed and hit the beach for some sun(burn). As always it was great to see a familiar face, and her friend did a great job of showing us Alicante. Thanks aunt Jeanie for putting it all together for me.

I am currently sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight home. As expected its bittersweet in that I'm going to miss Europe but am definitely ready to come back to real life. I would like to thank any and all who checked this blog. It meant a lot knowing there were people back home interested in my experiences and willing to deal with my sometimes questionable grammer and attempts to be funny.

If anyone ever wants advice on how to /where to / when to go anywhere in Europe please contact me and I'll fill you in on what I may know.

Thanks again it was the trip of a lifetime, and I can't wait to see you all back in the States, where text messaging, free water, driving, Chipotle, friends, and family all await. (importance in that order)

God Bless,
Joe

SB Week 3

I'm having the most amazing time of my life, and aside from the fact that I'm sick of wearing the same 4 things on repeat from living out of a backpack, I can’t imagine any other complaints.
*note- I am actually back in Leeds now, but I will continue to blog with a week delay.

Interlaken, Switzerland:
Literally in a valley of the Swiss Alps it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Things are very expensive, most likely due to it being hard to get things in and out of the mountains. Because of this we cooked all of our own meals at the hostel, this time taking care to using tomato sauce for pasta. The second day there we took a lift up into the mountain and hiked all day. We saw some amazing views. If anyone is familiar with the Narnia stories (nerdy I know) I literally felt like I was in Narnia. The ground was covered in snow, but it was 65-70 degrees and everything was melting (like when Aslan comes to kick out the White Witch, ha). Due to all the melting there were fresh streams and waterfalls all over the valley, amazing.

Munich, Germany:
Obviously all of Europe, Germany especially, are still working through the history of WWII. Munich however was the start of the Nazi movement, and so we learned a lot about the early history of Hitler and the Nazi’s. Because Munich was the center of Nazi’s it was heavily bombed in the war, and aside from 2-3 tall landmarks that American bombers used to navigate the sky, the entire city was entirely destroyed and since replicated. There are two main experiences we had here. I would like to forewarn that I didn’t even attempt to be brief in the following stories, only because they deserve to be fully explained.

First we went to the concentration camp known as Dachau. It was the first camp built and the one all others were modeled after. It was a bit hard to take everything in, but we stood in a gas chamber (although it was never used), walked through a crematory (which was used heavily), and in general witnessed the life of what thousands of people lived, but very few survived. There is no words to explain what is was like, but I will say it is a memory we’ll all never forget.

Afterwards we wanted to lighten up the mood so we went to grab a bite to eat at the Hofbrauhaus. Imagine a restaurant that seats 8,000 people. Anyways this is the largest and most famous bier hall in all of Germany. First of all it is where the “Beer Hall Push” took place. If you don’t know what that is, it is basically the starting of the Nazi’s and also the reason Hitler got arrested, he then went on to writing Mind Comp while in prison and the rest is history. You can still see where swastikas used to be painted on the ceiling; they are now covered with German and Bavarian flags. Anyways we went there, got a bite to eat, and then noticed these two older men sitting next to us. One of them was drinking out of a special mug which we were told meant he was one of a few hundred deemed regulars of the hall, and thus had his own table and special service. We decided to go talk to the two men. One of them spoke little to no english, but luckily the man next to me was fluent. After a while talking I couldn’t resist asking him how old he was during the war. He then went on to explain that he was a sergeant in the Hitler Youth. He fought for the Nazi’s on the Eastern front and was captured by the Russians. They held him captive for 9 years, 7 of which was after the war ended… It was a bit hard to take in after spending the day at the concentration camp, but what made it most difficult was that these were two of the nicest old men you could ask to meet. Again hard to explain the resulting feelings, we were all in shock for the rest of the night that we had a beer and chatted with two Nazi’s. Again that is something I will never forget. It’s hard to imagine that Americans were fighting and killing men like I met the other day.

Things I Learned:
-Fresh spring water should only be called so when your drinking it out of a river.
-Germans serve beer by the liter, even to 5 twenty year old college students that seemed like a bad idea.
-In Germany they give you a bowl of baked soft pretzels instead of bread at meals. It is amazing, they’re not free, but still awesome.
-We are extremely lucky to live in a world that fights against persecution and injustice like in WWII. We owe our vets, like my Grandpa Rick many thanks.

God Bless,
Joe

Joe's first half of SB

To touch on my first week of vaca, which I never got around to blogging on.

Barcelona:

A very fun city, I met up with 15-20 other University of Illinois students. Besides that it is a little dangerous (lots of robberies and such – we stuck to taxi’s at night) it was a lot of fun. Sagrada Familia (a Catholic church they’ve been building for over 50 years and still have 20 years to go) may be the coolest man made thing I’ve seen on the trip. Google it.

Granada:

Very nice change of pace after the up-tempo Barcelona. I got to try Tapas (free food with drinks) and in general relax. This was also the first time I’ve been able to put my four years of Spanish to practice (they speak Catalyn in Barcelona – who knew?). I was pleasantly surprised at how well this went. Despite my Spanish skills, I still had one main miscommunication for the trip - at McDonalds. I ordered a cheeseburger, and was given a McChicken with only half a bun (picture below). Not sure why me and McDonalds are not seeing eye to eye, but at least this time I got something to eat and not 3 large cokes.

After this week I left for Leeds, where I met my family. Luckily for me and any of the readers out there, Evan and his journalism prowess blogged on all that for me. I’m doing my best to pick up on some of his styles, but it seems I will remain the Engineer of the family. I am working on recruiting him to write for me the rest of the trip.

I have to say it was a vacation of a lifetime to have the family out here with me. I am extremely privileged to be doing all this and am particularly thankful I was able to share that with them. It happened so fast it seems surreal, but my mom and Aunt Jeanie really did have everything planned out to a T. I would like to thank them and anyone else who gave advice or a little convincing to get them all here.

Things I learned

1.) Sleeping on a hard wood floor for four nights is not recommended if you don’t like neck, back, hip, or shoulder pains.

2.) Carrying your wallet in your front pocket is safer and a must for some European cities. Just be prepared to have a mini heart attack every time you reach to your back pocket and your wallet isn’t there.

3.) A couple of us guys were going to cook for the girls in Barcelona. We attempted to do Uncle Pat’s pizza recipe, only to realize that we didn’t know the names of half the ingredients in Spanish. We made pasta instead, but we accidentally used tomato paste instead of sauce. This is a definite no, no, if you’re attempting to impress ladies with cooking skills.

4.) Savor that in American water and bread at restaurants is free. It’s not like that in Europe.

5.) Having the family come was not only an opportunity of a lifetime; it also meant real hotels, restaurants, transportation & preordered tickets. Best of all they were free (for me and Evan at least)

God Bless,

Joe

The Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Machester, and Home

Posts by Evan Part Three...

THE CINQUE TERRE

Joe really wanted to go to the Cinque Terre because he had friends who had gone there. We all figured we'd just go to appease him and weren't expecting too much- it turned out to be the most amazing day of the trip. Everything about the place is incredible!

For those who don't know what it is, the Cinque Terre is 5 villages (I guess there's six, but there's 5 main ones) built on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it is as breathtaking as it sounds.

I don't even know how to recount anything from our time there except to say we all loved it. You can take a train, take a boat, or hike the distance between the villages and, according to the lady at our hotel, the hikes get progressively easier ranging from a 2 hour "very difficult" hike to a 20 minute "lovers stroll." We opted to take a train, hike, take a train, and then hike the final leg.

The first of our hikes was pretty difficult but we managed to all 6 do the hike. We were hiking over narrow, steep, jagged rocks with no ledge on the side of a mountain but the views over mountains and the sea made it all worth it and were the most beautiful sights any of us had ever seen and are beyond words or pictures (but we still have lots of pictures).

The final leg was the second hike we took and it was really easy as they had built a walkway with lots of graffiti all around. We were all exhausted but when we came across some huge rocks, Lauren, Shawn, Joe, and I found the energy to go climb out onto them. It didn't seem nearly as dangerous as the pictures would suggest.

LAKE COMO: DAYS ONE AND TWO
After that, we headed to Lake Como. We were all really looking forward to Lake Como but unfortunately, it rained all day both days we spent there. We stayed at a nice family-run hotel with an old elevator that screeched to a halt and led to lots of laughs (which then resulted in us getting yelled at for being too loud.. oh well).

Day one we ended up sleeping in due to the rain and then went to get something to eat. After we ate, we moved on and ended up at a different restaurant for dessert where Joe ordered the best dessert I've ever seen. It was a strawberry banana concoction of sorts covered in fresh strawberries and bananas (below).

Day two was Easter Sunday and we woke up early to go pick up Joe's friend, Haley, from the airport (they were leaving for their next leg of the trip on Monday). We visited Piacenza, where Mom's grandma Ernestine is from, quickly before looking for some food. After being shut out of about 3 restaurants who were booked for Easter lunch, we decided to go wherever we could find. However, we unknowingly ended up in some weird Chinese-Italian restaurant where nothing aside from plain old cheese (I mean margarita) pizza tasted at all how we expected.

The next morning, the sun was shining just to mock us for being in Lake Como on such lousy days. With the sun shining, the area looked amazing and I'm glad we at least got to see how amazing it looks!

We then dropped Joe and Haley off at the train station and we said goodbye to Joe for another two and a half months.

MANCHESTER

Our trip was essentially over aside from a night in Manchester and a flight home. In Manchester, we (now just Mom, Dad, Lauren, Shawn, and I) went to the mall for the night. We ate some dinner (shockingly, English food tasted really good) and did some shopping (hooray for Manchester United sales!) before heading back for our last night abroad.

This morning, we flew home and landed in Chicago about 3 hours ago. All in all, the trip was beyond all expectations and completely amazing. I thank God for the amazing opportunity I got to do all these incredible things. As a finale of my posts, I present a short list of things I learned in Europe:

1. Trying to catch a taxi in Paris is impossible: Once, we flagged a guy down, he nodded, told us "one minute," and proceeded to drive away and never come back... what?
2. Italians do not care about making money: About 5 times, we walked into a resturant and were told to leave since it was time for siesta. Who turns down customers at 3 in the afternoon? Apparently, tired Italians do!
3. Chinese food + Italian food = Bad: "Weird" is an understatement!
4. All the planning in the world does not mean a flawless trip: See Hotel St. Honore- ridiculous.
5. America's policy of free water and bread is amazing
6. Americans have earned their rep: I've never understood why everyone says Americans are so loud and obnoxious.. we were easily the loudest people everywhere we went!
   

Okay all, that's the trip. Thanks for reading.

God Bless,
Evan

Rome, Florence, and Pisa (and lots of pictures!)

Hey all, still Evan here...

ROME DAY ONE

So, we fly from Paris to Rome next. This flight was AWFUL, we got to the airport and immediately joined a really long line, only to be cut by about 10 people who were then pointing at us, laughing, and speaking Italian. Lauren and Mom were NOT pleased, so they tried to cut them and regain our spots in line while Dad, Joe, Shawn, and I stayed back and watched the really awkward interactions for about a half hour. Then the airport made an announcement that we didn't understand (it was in French or Italian.. we don't really know which) but luckily Dad asked a guy in line and he said they were calling everyone en route to Rome to go to the front of the line. Ha! Karma got us back in the front of the line. So we then stood around FOREVER for spots on a flight with no assigned seats (terrible idea.. lots of pushing and hurrying for good spots on the plane was involved..) but eventaully, we got on and flew to Rome!

Once we got to Rome, we found our driver, a nice old Italian man named Franchesco who spoke no English but managed to become our favorite person on the trip by pulling tricks on us, giving us all our Italian names (Joseppi, Maria, Laurenza, Shawnee, Joseppi, and Evante) and giving us a free tour of the city (he is the one with us in the picture above!).

After that, we got to our hotel and realized how nice our rooms were! After that, the day was quickly ending so we figured we should go knock some tourist attractions out. First up was the Spanish steps. I won't lie, at first I thought it was going to be really lame since they were just steps with nothing cool about them but once we got to the top and the sun started setting above the Vatican, I realized they were pretty cool steps after all.

Next up (I'm telling you, this trip was NON-STOP.. just wait until Rome day 2!)was the Trevi Fountain. We all really liked that as it was bright and beautiful.

After, we went for our first dinner in Roma! It was delicious and our waiter was really charasmatic (our favorite comment was his response to whether he would make seafood linguine on a Monday even though the menu said it was only available Tuesday and Thursday: "for you, I do anything"). Long story short, dinner was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed back to our rooms and once there, Mom, Dad, Joe, and I walked around to try to find a gelato stand that wasn't closed. We eventually stumbled upon a closed resturant who gave us 2 lemon sorbets and 2 chocolate gelatos in glass containers and told us to leave... this isn't really an important piece of information but c'mon.. who gives dessert in glass and then tells the people to leave? It just seems like a waste of glass to me... Then it was bed time.

ROME DAY TWO

Maybe the busiest day of the trip, I'll try to keep it shorter than Day One.

We woke up and had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, which was nice and outside in the garden. After that, we went to the Vatican where we walked through the museum, looked at the Sistine Chapel, and then went out to St. Peter's Square. The Sistine Chapel was (obviously) amazing, I really can't even imagine how difficult that must have been to paint! St. Peter's square was also really cool just because of how must history it holds. It was all set up for Easter, so the chairs were everywhere!

After that, we went to the Pantheon. Long story short, it's the most perfect dome ever made to the point where we don't even have the technology to make it now in 2010. Somehow, they figured it out and made it a perfect half-sphere... crazy! (Thanks for the history lesson, Joe!) After that, we went to the Colosseum and the ancient ruins of Rome. That stuff was all really cool because it's all so famous and so old. Insane to think how long they used those buildings and how well-built they must have been to still be around today! After all that walking, we were all EXHAUSTED and Shawn was actually sick. Still, we had to eat. When in Rome...

This was my favorite meal... but you probably don't care. We went to a resturant called Rendevouz and had the world's best lasagne, the world's best tiramisu, and ice-cream filled chocolate/stawberry/vanilla-covered desserts.

After that, we went back to the rooms.

FLORENCE

We rented a car (actually.. more like a bus, please see the picture!) and Dad drove us (safely! despite the fact that Italian drivers are the CRAZIEST in the world.. and people think Chicago is bad!)to Florence where we spent one night and 2 days. First night there, we saw the Ponte Vecchio and just walked around. There we saw another amazing sunset over the Ponte Vecchio, thus making it the fifth-straight amazing sunset we came across on sheer luck (the first 4: Eiffel Tower, Mount Mart, Spanish Steps, and the Colosseum). We slept, we woke up, and we went by the Duomo (which was closed because it was so close to Easter). Then we saw the mock David before going to a store called David 2, a leather shop with the most AMAZING leather jackets. The prices were outrageous, but that didn't stop us from trying the jackets on!

After that, we walked around some more and shopped a LOT before bidding our farewell to Florence.

PISA

We then drove to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We didn't stay for over 2 hours in Pisa as we only went to see the tower, but I think it was worthwhile for nothing other than the ridiculous pictures we took there, I attached one as an example.

Sorry if my posts are long and boring, we just all decided I should write out all the things we want to remember. I only have one more post left on our visit to Europe, then it's back to Joe's much more concise and readable posts! Next up is my favorite stop on the trip, the Cinque Terre!

Until Next Time- Ciao and God Bless,
Evan

Leeds and Paris

Hey everyone. First, this is Joe's brother, Evan, not Joe. I guess he's too lazy to write this blog post so the duty has been passed to me for the week. I've been meaning to do this earlier but it took me a while to find the time without falling asleep. Sorry...

Seven days. Three European countries: Chicago to Manchester. Manchester to Leeds. Leeds to Paris. Paris to Rome. Rome to Florence. Florence to Pisa. Pisa to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre to Lake Como. Wow that was tiring just to type.

LEEDS

So Thursday, we (Mom, Dad, Lauren, Shawn, and I) headed to O'Hare and, after an hour long delay due to a broken door, were headed off to Manchester. It took a while, but we got to Manchester pretty early in the morning. After a good 2 hours of train rides (which included stopping on the tracks? I guess they do that in England..), we got to Leeds and met up with Joe. We had arrived! From there, we had a pretty relaxing day- we ate, we shopped, we toured Leeds, we ate some more (fish and chips are delicious!), and we all crashed after a long day or 2 of travel.
The accents were another highlight.

Sorry, not too much to report from Leeds since we didn't do much.

PARIS DAY ONE

Joe and I were put under a lot of pressure to be (he and I stayed away from the other four at his dorm room while they stayed at a hotel) on time in the morning. Naturally, we were the first ones ready- Lauren and Shawn's wake up call never came, so I guess they had an excuse. Eventually, we all gathered our things and we were off to Paris!

Here's where the trip started getting c-r-a-z-y! We landed in Paris and took a metro to the station nearest our hotel. From there, we were on our own with a map and 6 huge luggage bags and 6 carry-ons. It seemed like we were wandering around aimlessly for a while and we had no way to communicate since everyone spoke French! There were so many people and so many stories of pick-pocketers we were all getting really anxious. Somehow, Joe and dad navegated us to our hotel. We were all extremely excited.. until we walked in the hotel.

Some shady hotel manager hands us keys to 2 rooms 3 stories apart and we headed up the old, narrow, creaky stairs to the first room. We looked around and it was dingy, dark, tiny, had no electrical outlets in our room, and no room to move around in the bathroom. Needless to say, it looked NOTHING like the hotel mom saw pictures of online! Despite how bad the room and the service seemed, we figured we'd grit it out and enjoy Paris all the same. That was, until we saw Lauren and Shawn's room. Up 3 more flights of stairs with broken lighting, we walked in to their room only to see it's size was smaller, it's lighting was darker, and the paint on the ceiling was peeling- now, we had a problem. After an hour or two of looking for a new hotel and the most ridiculous argument I've ever witnessed (it involved the hotel worker laughing at us and Lauren getting extremely upset), we had decided to spend one night in the original hotel and the second night in a MUCH nicer hotel down the street.

After all that, we were running a little late for our reservations for the Eiffel Tower so we grabbed some crepes and sandwhiches on the go. I know Joe already explained how amazing Banana Nutella Crepes are but I would like to second the notion; they are AMAZING! Then, we went to the Eiffel Tower. I'm going to be honest, I've always thought the Eiffel Tower was kind of stupid because I never thought it looked very tall. We pulled up the tower, and I was amazed for mutliple reasons. First, the tower was insanely big and breathtaking. Second, we immediately saw a man with about 20 purses running away from the police and plowing people down. And third, as soon as I stepped out of the cab, I had people approaching me asking me for money and harrassing us into buying stupid things that we would, under no circumstances, ever buy (cheap plastic models of the Eiffel Tower or other things of the like).

Once I got over all that shock, we went to the top of the tower. What an incredible expirience. The view was amazing and we saw our first awesome sunset in Europe. I'm sure you will all see pictures, but really, it's something I can't explain and pictures can't really justify.

After the Eiffel Tower, we ventured to the Bastille area to get some dinner and crepes. After that, we went back to our hotel and, given how much we all hated the hotel, went to sleep as soon as possible.

In short, day one in Paris left me in shock and awe.

PARIS DAY TWO

Trust me when I say the FIRST thing we did on day two in Paris was change hotels. Once that was all done, we went to Notre Dame. It was a really cool church but I felt kind of weird walking around while a service was going on. I felt insanely rude and intrusive but still enjoyed how ornate and detailed the whole church was. Next we visited the Louvre which I was really looking forward too. I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to expectations mostly because the Mona Lisa was so small. Interestingly, one of my favoryite things in the Louvre was the building itself. After the Louvre, we went to the Arc de Triomph and Champs Elysees- I'm kind of running out of adjectives to describe things with but the arc was impressive and the Champs Elysseys had a lot of cool stores and items but cost a lot of money. We were doing really well on time so we firgured we'd go to Mount Mart and watch sunset from there. We now had 2 straight days of really cool sunsets. (this is going to be a common trend on our trip. So far we have sunsets from the Eiffel Tower and Mount Mart) We watched some street performers while Joe ran into someone he knew from U of I which we all found to be really strange and cool at the same time. His friends are officially global.

After all those festivities, we did some street shopping and ate dinner before visiting Moulan Rouge and the whole strip. For some reason, the most memorable things from that portion of our dat was a really colorful candy tent that we bought gummies from. I know all Joe's friends were making fun of him for focusing on the food, but I think I may be worse.. we ARE brothers after all.

Okay, the computer is dying and I'm taking a long time to write this so I think I'll wrap this post up here. Next stop: Rome!

I know I ran through all those really quickly, but trust me when I say even the most dull things we saw were breathtaking. The entire trip is increible and I'm so lucky to be able to go on it! Already, the trip had been more than I could have ever hoped for and we still hadn't even begun our Italian adventures. I especially want to thank my Aunt Jeanie and my mom for spending so much time planning this whole thing. It's been awesome and, aside from a few inevidable bumps when you travel this much, has gone without a hitch. I couldn't ask for a better tour guide than Joe Rook (even though he takes us the wrong way a few times in every city).

Alright, I'll try to write again tomorrow night. Until then...

God Bless,
Evan

St. Paddy's in Dublin

All I can say about Dublin on St. Patricks day is that it was "the cat's pajamas", also known as the "dog's ballacks", or in layman terms - I had a lot of fun. I'm starting to pick up this British Lingo. I even started saying I need to take a "Jimmy Riddle", which is the same as taking a piddle, or going to the loo, - going to the bathroom.

Anyways it was a quick and easy 45 min flight. The seat belt light went off and 5 minutes later was back on for landing. I guess that's why round trip was less then 30 quid (pounds).

I went with one of my roommates essentially just for the day. We flew out late Tuesday and came back early Thursday. Luckily we found a really cheap room at a nice hotel on hotels.com, it was amazing after becoming a routine hostel user. They even provided towels for us, crazy. We started the day off with a Full Irish Breakfast. This included both Black and White Pudding, which I really liked, despite being informed what they're made from. Not at all what I expected it to be like.

After breakfast we headed to the parade. Soooo many people everywhere all the time. We could barely walk on the street from 11am until we went back to the hotel at night. Long story short my day went something like this..

food, parade, Guiness, Guiness, food, Guiness, start to feel sick, Guiness, Food, Sleep, queesy flight home.

Everything was kindof a Blur, sorry I don't have many interesting stories, it was only a day trip. They were offering free samples of Vodka at the Dublin airport, but I was in no mood to try at 8am this morning. Anyways the pictures will do the parade and crowds more justice than my words. I also am putting my pictures from Verona/Venice that I didn't have before.

Check back in a week to see how Spain goes.

Ireland Pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623521537965/detail/

Verona & Venice:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623644627592/detail/

Verona / Venice

I just got back yesterday from my trip to Verona and Venice. I stayed with my friend Erin who is studying with a group of 50 University of Illinois students. They have an awesome program. They take classes in Italian history, art (they draw and paint), and food (they cook). Yes it is official I think they have the easiest curriculum ever. They also have a program director named Claudio and he plans weekend trips for all of them. Everywhere we went people knew him, and his trips are awesome, I was lucky enough to attend his trip to Venice.

The entire group has two motto's that I kept hearing everyone say. First that "this is not real life". All this means is "this is so surreal". The second motto is "my life is a series of miscommunications". I would have to say that I completely lived both these mottos for the 3 days I was there.

I found myself saying "this is not real life" when the following happened...

- Erin's crazy landlord put all my belongings in a cardboard box, remade both our beds differently, and she threw away the ziplock back my tolitries were inside of, leaving its contents on the counter. I also woke up in the middle of the night, at 4am, with her standing in the dark in our room, she was presumably sleepwalking (hopefully).

- At our lunch for the Venice trip we had a 4 course meal, Compliments of Claudio the program director. The first dish was a pasta with three choices, lasagna, pesto, and black squid. Expecting spaghetti with squid I ordered the black squid. 3 bites in I was informed the sauce that makes it black is simply the ink from the squid. After getting over my initial disgust I ate the rest and actually liked it (kindof).

- When we went to catch the bus boat going back to the train station in Venice we were running a bit late. Claudio informed us on the way we'd need to run once we docked. so as soon as the doors opened 54 American Students were running and weaving down the streets of Venice to catch our train. It was hilarious to hear people yelling at us in Italian as we all went flying by. One of the girls took a video of it, I'll try and get it up on here.

- After celebrating one of Erin's roommates 21st birthdays my first night there, I woke up (with a slight headache) to the option of either having a mimosa or Baileys and Coffee for breakfast. This was the beginning of Verona's version of Unofficial St. Patricks day (a mimick of a holiday celebrated at U of I). It was a long day.

- I took a train to Bergamo, the city I flew back out of, where I needed to catch a bus to the airport. I walked out of the station only to see that there was a parade in the city that day and the entire street was closed off. There were 50-60 floats that I could see all setting up right where the bus I needed to take was supposed to come. They included but was not limited to Spiderman, Alladin, Wild West with a cow, and clowns on bicycles. They were all setting up their floats, and grilling out and drinking as they did so, apparently drinking and driving floats is not illegal. They were also all pumping music so I was rocking out to Lady Gaga and Akon as I was trying to read the map to find the next bust stop. This would have been a really cool experience if I wasn't alone and worried about catching my flight.

The next motto, "my life is a series of miscommunications"

-After landing I had to take a train to Verona. I knew the one at 12:05 was going to be 18 euro whereas the one at 12:25 was only 8. So when I ordered and he gave me the 18 euro ticket I tried to explain and get it changed. Eventually I just gave up and gave him a 20.

-At McDonalds I ordered a number "three", asked for it to be supersided or "grandi", and then asked for a coke with it. I then got "3, Large, Cokes" for 7.20 Euro. I tried explaining that wasn't what I wanted but eventually gave up and sat down, drinking 3 cokes for lunch, alone.

- Attempting to talk to Erin's Landlord, who knew I didn't speak Italian, but continued to try to talk to me without slowing down or dumbing her conversation down was just one big failure.

-Eventually I learned my lesson and heavily relied on Erin's friends to order and communicate for me. However, I'm sure there will be plenty more "miscommuncations" when the Rooks hit Italy in 2 weeks.

It was a great weekend, I owe Erin Leahy a big Gratzie

Paris

SO, I am going to try and start a new method in writing these blogs. I am going to try and keep them a little more short and sweet. That way they are easier to read and write, and I'll be able to do them quicker and on the run.

A week and a half ago I went to Paris.

Despite being extremely expensive it was well worth it. Here is a list of everything I saw and how cool it was.

Eiffel Tower - lived up to all expectations. When it lights up at night it is awesome. Only draw back is there is these guys selling you stuff and harassing you everywhere. Avoiding eye contact is a must, because if they sense a slight interest they will tail you for at least 5 minutes. One guy from U of I with us got in a fight with one, but he scattered when the cops came running over.

Louvre - Most amazing museum ever. The building itself and it's history may have been my favorite part, but seeing Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and Nike were sweet too.

Mount Mart, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe - Were all sweet. We walked into the Notre Dame and they were in the middle of a service which was interesting since there are tourists and gift shops surrounding the pews.

Despite all the sight seeing my favorite part of Paris by far was just walking down the street, grabbing a baguette or a crepe and attempting to mingle. Its pretty wild when your just walking around and you stumble upon things like Notre Dame or the Pompidue.

Despite all the fun we had there was one thing that stood above the rest, Nutella and Banana Crepe. Better than the Eiffel Tower on top of Mount Mart.

While baguettes are all good, after about 3 your jaw starts to hurt and eating becomes painful.

While there were a lot of beggars and people trying to sell you stuff on the street, some of the street performers were fun to watch. You'll see some of them in my pictures, but my favorite was definitely this guy who juggled a soccer ball while doing acrobatics, and even climbed a lamp post on mount mart while keeping the soccer ball on his head.

I owe a big thanks to Korey White, Maggie Stremmel, and Adam Goldblatt for showing us around and housing us. Based on Paris pricing I probably owe u all about 350 euro.

Since then I've just been bumming around Leeds a bit. I'm getting ready for my 4 week spring break and my big trip to Italy which is a week from today. I took a weekend trip to Nottingham where my friends Haley and Arianna are, and we had a great time. It's another fun city in the UK. However, I am so excited to go somewhere there is sun! Verona and Venice here I come.

Here is the link to my Paris pictures...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623546892500/detail/

Until next time.

The Super Bowl abroad and my first overnight trip.

I have learned one main thing in the past week. Being abroad is more fun when you have things to do...


A group of about 20 of Americans all went to a sports bar to watch the super bowl. A few highlights include standing and singing the Star Spangled Banner while everyone else sat there trying to ignore us. It was also fun to listen to the locals try and talk football during the game. My favorite quote was "challenge the play, that way you'll take a few minutes off the game clock". It was also fun to hear the entire bar sing "Oh when the saints go marching in".

By far the best part of the night, besides watching Drew Brees win, was when The Who played at half time. There were two reasons locals came to watch the game. The first was to watch the big hits in slow motion and yell "OOOOOOO". The second was to hear their beloved band play. It didn't matter how drunk they were, all of them knew every word to the music. In fact half time was when we were all able to get up, go to the bathroom, and order more drinks and food without waiting in line, sweet huh.

The second thing I did was visit Edinburgh, Scotland. I went with 2 of my roomates and one of their friends. Now, I know some of you may be thinking that a semester abroad may change me. Well, here is proof that it hasn't. The bus was supposed to leave at 11. One of my roomates and I hadn't bought our tickets ahead of time so we planned on getting there early. We left our flat at about 10:15 planning to walk there. After walking for 30 mins we decided to call a cab after all, and rode it the last 2 (yes only 2) blocks to the station. While we got in line my other roomate boarded the train and was attempting to stall for us. We got through the line and onto the train at 11:00 exactly. The clock on the bus turned 11:01 before I found an empty seat..... maybe that's something that I should change.

The first thing we did upon arriving in Edinburgh was look for a hostel for the night. We found one recommended in a traveling book I have and got settled. We then went to a "The Elephant Cafe". This is extremely famous for the place that J.K. Rowling created Harry Potter. It was awesome. After eating an overpriced meal we headed back to the hostel for a pub crawl they were putting on. It was us and about 50-60 other backpacking kids from all over so that was fun.

We got up and headed out to explore. We got to their downtown shopping strip and walked down the "Royal Mile". At the bottom was the Queen's official Residence in Scotland. After taking the closest picture I could we saw a large hill (or small mountain) to the right of it. We immediately decided we needed to climb it. However, we needed to get supplies first. After equipped with a snickers, a red bull, whiskey (when in scotland), and a cigar for the top, we set off on our journey. It ended up being quite the extravaganza. It started out as a basic hill, but at certain points we were walking on paths a literally foot wide with steep inclines and no rail or anything for the side. Because of this we were extremely surprised to see young children with their families at the top. It was then we found out there was a much easier (and I think shorter) path on the other side. Anyways the view was fantastic and we had a lot of fun. I am attaching a link to a slide show at the bottom for you all to see this and the rest of my trip.

Once back on town we went to a pub to watch a huge Rugby game between Scotland and Whales. Scotland lost on a last minute score so everyone was extremely upset. After that we went out to a few pubs. There was a random man who sat with us and started talking to us. We eventually got around to traveling (he has been absolutely everywhere, including a trip to NY last month when he spent $5,000 in 5 days) so we started asking him for advice. He then rambled for a half hour about how expensive Dublin is and if we really want to see Ireland to go to Belfast (where he is from). After listening to this over and over I finally asked him "Isn't Northern Ireland still at war with itself?". To which he responded "No that's all but over, plus if it wasn't it's not like Americans tourists were targets." Needless to say I didn't feel reassured and will not be going there.

After that we headed in to crash for the night. In the morn' we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the castle. It's built on an extinct volcanic rock, and dates back at least to the 11th century, so that was extremely cool. (check out the link for more pictures)



I leave for Paris/Versailles on Thursday so I'll keep you posted when I get back.

Also, to all the hype about the family Brew. For now I will continue to do investigative research on my end throughout travels, and we'll talk logistics when I get back. :)

Here is the link to photos (same as on my facebook) http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623442759756/detail/

Week 2.677

Sorry for the delay since my last post. Two of my friends for University of Illinois, Haley and Arianna have been visiting so I haven't had as much free time as usual. It's been good to hang out with some familiar faces, even though it has been a bit cramped in my 8x10 room - ha.

The picture is me and two other girls from the University of Illinois at the shopping part of town. Apparently its a big deal that we have a "TopShop" as well as other pricey stores. I was in there for less than 5 minutes before I left for "Primark", the English equivalent to Kohl's. Much more my style.

Last weekend I went on my first trip. I went to Liverpool for the day. It was a really cool town. Less like a city and party town than Leeds, but I think it was a nicer looking more scenic town. It helps that it's on the coast so it has a lot of water and ports. We took 7 coach buses there as a group. I ended up on the bus with the adult students, who were going with their entire families. I ended up sitting next to 4 little kids that absolutely drove me nuts the entire time. They were making paper planes the whole time, one kid cried three times, and another went to the bathroom 6. It was terrible. I felt like a camp counselor for first graders all over again, except this time I couldn't give them pool time to get them to stop. Longest two hours of my life.

Once we got there I met up with my flat-mates and a few other people and we walked around town. The Leeds chapel is the biggest Anglican church in the world so we paid 3 pound to go to the top. On the roof we were on a 450 foot tower, but its at the top of a hill 500 more feet above sea level, so we had a great view.

After the church we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the Beatles museum. Now I have never been an avid Beatles fan but it was pretty cool to see the history of the band. It focused a lot on local places in Liverpool, where the grew up, went to school, and all started playing. Beyond that everywhere we went there was Beatles music playing. Musicians on the street, every store, pubs, etc - all Beatles music. It was fun for a day, but I'm pretty sure that would drive me crazy to live there. After that we headed back to the buses. I grabbed my first McDonalds of the trip, it was as delicious as ever, and headed on the bus (sure not to sit by the little kids again).

Besides McDonalds and pub food I have tried to try some of the local cuisine. Bangers and Mash is terrific. Its just a huge pile of mashed potatoes, sausage, and tons of brown gravy. I tried some some Chicken Tikka Marsala (Indian Food - It's as big here as mexican food is in the states), it was really good but I had no idea how to eat it. My favorite thing so far has been the english big breakfast platters. It is 3 pound (about $5) for 2 eggs, 2 english bacon strips, 2 sausage, mushrooms, half a tomato, baked beans, and chips (french fries). I started getting these meals as a direct result of me getting sick of eating peanut butter and jelly, pringles, cereal, and frozen pizzas.

Organizing trips in itself is a job. Just the few weekend trips I have down are getting hard to keep straight, its going to be really hard to travel for my 4 week Easter Break and keep everything straight. It will help that the fam is visiting during that time, so I can let mom and dad be the organized ones for a week, ha. My first big trip is Feb 18th-22nd I'll be in Paris and Versailles.

I am jealous of everyone who gets to watch the superbowl with the commercials. We have tickets to watch it at this big sports bar, but they have their own commercials so I won't get to have the full experience.

As for the Rook Uncles and their interest in the alcohol class. This week we learned about the different early parts of the brewing processes. First you take the Barley and germniate it, Kiln it, then steep it and based on the temperature and times you get different shades of malts. Little known facts, even the darkest beers like Guiness is 95% pale malts. Also, Barley is most commonly used to make beer because the stem is within the seed, whereas wheat and others have external stems so they are more fragile. That is why until more recent technology wheat beers didn't exist. Anyways I've been thinking that my project to create a beer could be a great opportunity to start a Rook family company. We could base it off of one of Uncle Dave's favorite Goose Islands, grow the barley and oats on the Coulter farm, Brew it at Uncle Pat's Papa Dells Chain in Wisconsin, my dad will be the salesman, and Uncle Bob will design our corporate structure. Deal?

Also I found out our cafeteria is the same building where "The Who Live at Leeds" was recorded. Random fact.

Sorry it was long, I'll try to be more regular about this.

Week One... check

Now that my first week and first weekend of being in the UK has passed, I am mostly over the surreal feeling that came upon my arrival.

The last week my life consisted of sleeping, attending meet and greet orientations, trying all the different beers (again legally) and then sleeping some more. It was all pretty relaxing and fun. I have met loads of people. Like I said before my residence hall is mostly all International students so I've met a lot of people from Italy, Australia, South America, Germany, Switzerland, and Americans from all over.

This weekend I thought I would try out the Europe club seen. First of all people here drink... a lot. Just waiting in line to get in you can tell that most everyone else has already had a few too many before even getting in. Slurring, stumbling, and overall belligerence was included. Fashion here is weird, no explanation needed. One of the clubs we went to was "Halo", which used to be known as Trinity Church. That is the attached photo. Needless to say Snoop Dogg music mixed with a bell tower and stain glass windows was a little creepy.

So after a fun weekend I decided it was time for me to move in. I hung up and folded my clothes and officially moved in. It was the first and most likely last time I will clean my 7x10 room. It may have taken me a week, but at least I proved I am not as bad as the people on the TV show "Hoarders" (dad). I also have begun to do other "adult" things like grocery shop and keep a budget. It is harder than you'd think. The first two times I walked into the grocery store I had no idea where to even start and ended up leaving with 2 frozen pizzas. I have also begun to plan some of my trips. For now I only have Spain and Italy semi-planned. With tickets to Ireland for St. Patty's Day.

Classes started this week. I just got back from the best lecture of my life. I know I've told most of you about my "Traditional Alcoholic Beverages" class, but for those of you who I haven't... It is awesome. 10% of my grade is a trip to a brewery. 30% of my grade is a group project where we design and brew our own beer from scratch. After that we have a beer festival to try all of the different groups beers. I don't have it all easy with classes in Geotechnics and Fluid Dynamics, but it should be a good change of pace from what I'm used to at Champaign. And while they may have funny British accents that make me giggle in class, at least they all speak english here (unlike U of I sometimes).

Well I got to go run to another class. Tuesday has 4 of my 8 hours of class a week. I know, it's a rough life here.

I'm either going to Nottingham or Liverpool this weekend, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

Thanks.

Arrived

Wow, it is nuts here. it's only been a day and a half and I already feel like I've been here a week.

On the trip over I sat next to an old couple from Manchester. Their son went to the University of Leeds and so they were full of great advice and we talked a lot. Upon landing the two other girls from U of I and I picked up our luggage (well some of it - to be explained later) and met up with 2 of Liz's (she's one of the girls with me) friends. They both went to U of I their freshman year but both dropped out. One of them is from Israel and actually enrolled in the army there. He is on leave until February and it was crazy to talk to him about being on the front lines there, not showering or even changing socks for weeks at a time, not getting more than an hour of sleep an night, and seeing combat. SOOO weird, especially since he is only 20 like me. The other guy is from Manchester and him and the guy from Israel are traveling while he is on leave from the army.

Thank God that they came with. We would have been so lost without them. We took a train from Manchester to Leeds, which was only about an hour, but it was a pain with all of our luggage. Once we got their the two guys helped us call a taxi, get moved into our accomadation and all settled. My room is extremely small, cramped and downtrodden. The whole building was supposed to be closed down this Frebruary but they extended it until this summer. On the plus side it is the perfect location and also is motivation for me to get out and not just hang out there.

One of the guys had a friend that goes to Leeds, so we met her at a pub (I had my first legal beer) and then she showed us around a bit. The two guys left yesterday and then today the girls and I just wondered around town a little. It's a crazy city. Unlike Champaign this is not a college town. The University of Leeds, along with the other 3 Leeds colleges is a part of the City. There are buses everywhere. Out of all of them I can take, 1, 28, 56, 95, 96, 97 or 128. With all those you'd think I'd have a good chance to find a stop that works, but I haven't. It's been more fun to walk everywhere anyways.

That's about it for now. Until about a half hour ago none of my other roommates had moved in so it's been kinda lonely, but a guy named Adam just got here. He is also from Champaign which we didn't even plan for but that should be great. I'm going to take him around here in a little bit once he gets settled.

so far I have learned a few things...
1. check the name tag on your bags because believe it or not other people in Europe apparently shop at costco (I got it back though)
2. Say cheers whenever you can, it is fun. Sometimes I even throw in a Cheerio!
3. Wearing a peacoat and scarf, while it makes me feel girly, is also extremely comfortable and warm.

Until next time.

Night Before

Well it is 12:53 am the night before I will be taking off for England. I will be flying out of Chicago at 5:30pm and arrive at 7:05am local time time in Manchester. I don't really have too much to talk about yet, but hopefully there will be better material to come. If I have internet up and running I'll be sure to post something monday afternoon so everyone can know I am arrived and situated. Thanks for everyones prayers for safe travels. I know my mom has been praying for 3 weeks straight now, but I think she's more worried that I'll lose something like my passport. While those may be justified fears, I have reassured her and everyone else that I am going to get better with things like that (cross your fingers), ha.

That's it for now. My next post will be from across the pond, yeayeaaaaa.