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.