Last Week in Manchy Manch!

Its been a while since I've written and I apologize for that. As many of you know my current chapter of traveling world is coming to a close. I leave in an exact week. Last weekend I went on my last weekend out of town and went back to London to visit my friend Tori once more and also go visit Oxford. Which reminded me a lot of Middlebury, which was a surprisingly nice change from the many cities. It made me really excited to go home.
Before I left so many people said that three months wouldn't be long enough over here, saying that I'd feel like I just got settled in with friends and all and then I'd have to leave. This statement has come back to me quite a lot recently. Because that's exactly how I feel. As excited as I am to go home and see all my animals and family and friends, I'm really sad to leave the people that have become part of my life. What's most terrifying is that I have no idea when I'll see them again. Yeah you say you'll keep in touch and you will for maybe a month and then your old life kicks in. About a month ago I couldn't wait to go home. Now I have very mixed feelings, I think its because I've traveled with these people for the past three months, or a couple people I just met and I want to keep getting to know them, but alas all good things must come to end.
To make things even worse, something seemed to have happened to my ENTIRE photography portfolio that I worked so hard to put together. So my second to last weekend before going home has been a scurry of searching and thinking positive thoughts, which is hard when I'm also getting yelled by one of my two roommates for things I did not do. But I have decided to not give up on my portfolio and just make the best of my last week. I plan on doing this by doing as many fun things as I can, and seeing as many people as possible especially the ones I will miss greatly. One thing I can't to do is go skating with my small group of close friends as a last adventure. It will be interesting saying that I think only three of us know how to skate. But I don't care it will be amazing to get on the ice after a year and half of not being able to skate.
I do hope everyone who is reading this well and I can't wait to see you all next week. love.

Ready for more....

I was lucky enough to get to stay with a friend in Paris. Woooo. It was really interesting and fun to be in a French house. The first day we decided to go to this museum that Mom wanted me to go to, and suprisingly Nathan said he'd go with me. So we went to the Musee d' Orsay where we saw famous paintings from both Monat and Picasso. Everything was amazing. Of course I didn't get as much out of it because I couldn't read any of the captions of the paintings because they were in French. We then got lunch and proceeded to walk to a huge park which supposedly during the summer is a big hit with children because they can play with there boats in the center where there is a huge fountain. From there we went to study in the golden arches..so Nathan could work on a project. So I sat and finished my book in about five minutes and promptly went on a store run for food for dinner. After eating a simple dinner of noodles and sauce. We went to this bridge after with a bottle of wine where Nathan said that people always go to drink. But of course not when it's cold so we ended up being the only people there drinking....we got many funny looks. From there we walked to the Notre Dame. Which was incredible. From there we walked the long way home and just went to sleep. The following day I got up and went off alone to see the Eiffel Tower and again to the Notre Dame to see the inside. The only way I found the right apartment when I got back into the building four hours later was because Nathan had decided to take a break from studying and play the piano. After we had a quick lunch we went back into town and saw an eight story mall, however, supposedly it was the equivalent to black Friday because it was PACKED. However, the view from the top was amazing. Once we left that mob scene, we went back and made food and then went out for traditional French dessert. Which was really delicious. We ended the night with watching French T.V. shows. He translating only the interesting parts. haha. I fell asleep early and woke up early to catch my early train back to London. Once back in London we went on a mini shopping spree with Tori and Monica. My first bus home back to Manchester left without me because England has a communicative problem. So I had to wait another hour and go on the next bus home. All in all it was an amazing weekend. It was incredible to see people who knew me before I came to England, I didn't have to try and impress anyone which was so nice. Paris was amazing. London was busy but great. Reminded me a lot of N.Y.C. Over all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back and stay longer.

Lone Traveler....

Hello All,
I got back today from a five day trip to London and Paris to see friends from dear old Vermont of all places. However, first off, I successfully cooked a Thanksgiving feast for my friends who don't live in the states!!! this was amazing saying that it is rare that I cook. Mom sent me verrry specific email on how to prepare the turkey. Instead of turkey i did Chicken because my oven is super small. But I did what the instructions said, including homemade stuffing. It turned out amazing. My friends showed up at 7ish, bringing salad, scalloped potatoes, homemade ice cream sandwiches and apple pie, and of course tons of wine (that seems to be a pattern of ours). We were all happily full of homemade food. It was a great send off to my travels alone to London and then Paris.
I got up early the next day to get an early bus to London where It took me and my friend Tori and hour to find each other because there are apparently two Victoria's Stations. Ugh. However, it all worked out and we then went back to her house to drop off all my luggage. We then went and got Indian food and found really cheap Pashmina's wooooo. Where we both bought more scarves then we needed :) From there we went to Leister Square where we sat in line at a comedy show to get cheap tickets where we then met up with Harry and watched the most amazing comedy show i've ever seen. I laughed myself silly with good friends. it was one of my favorite nights while traveling so far. What was also really exciting was that one of the actors of the show was a starter of the whole comedy store and we got to see him act and his name is Neil Mullarkey. We got the amazing opprotunity to meet him after thanks to harry. He was really nice and we talked and took pictures with him for a good five minutes. it was really cool.
The next day I took the train to Paris!!!! However, I will tell you that epic tale tomorrow! For now I must sleep!!! goodnight all. xoxox

Dublin Ireland

I got the lovely opportunity to go back to where my relatives lived and go to Ireland. However, I was unable to connect with my family. I had never been to Dublin before, but after finding a five pound ticket, said why not. So myself, Jenn, Pip and Anna all made the half an hour flight to Dublin on Thursday evening. We found our hostel and just hung out the rest of the night, had some tea, and talked over what the next couple of days would bring. We got up bright and early on Friday and got our surroundings and walked the city. Looking at cute little places, passing by the famous Temple Bar and the famous Trinity College. Trinity was amazing. There was some sort of graduation going on and so there were a lot of people milling around the breathtaking campus. We also went and saw the Book of Kells, which was really interesting. It was good, just the lighting was a bit dim, so I of course had to work extra hard to read it, but the history the book and how it was put together along with the alphabet it self was incredible. We then got to go into the Library which is the size of a ballroom with two story high books filling its shelves. Mom I thought of you the whole time, the books were not organized like they are in the states. The biggest books went on the bottom and the smallest on the top, and there were letters on the shelves starting with AA and going on the Bb. It like you look for the author , it correlating to something else that slips my mind at the moment, but basically the book you are looking for could be in three different places. The books that fill this library are still in use today, however, you have to have a very good reason for using them. They have thousands of first editions of books from famous British authors that every two weeks they change what are in the disply cases the run up the middle of the ailes. Seeing Trinity was one of my favorite things about the trip.
Saturday we had planned on going on a tour to Wicklow where Brave Heart was filmed, unfortuantly we didn't get intouch with the tour service early enough and had to go on Sunday. So instead, we went to a ruby game in an Australian bar because Anna and Pip are both Aussies' and this was unbelievable. I've never seen a bar so full. That following night we met up with a guy we met in Rome and did a bar crawl with him and his friends. Which was really good but very tiring.
Sunday we got up and went to see Wicklow, which was a lot of country side and really a lot of sitting, i think it would have meant more to me if I hadn't already been to Ireland but it was still really beautiful to see the many secret Ponds and waterfalls that are hidden just outside the capital of Ireland.
Pictures will follow this, but I'm about to go meet a friend for lunch. So i must go a little quicker then planned. I am finding myself missing home when i found out my family is having thirteen amazing people over for thanksgiving :( but alas there is always christmas!
Always Love.

VT in England

This past weekend I went to the Lake District with five friends and what I found made me so happy. it was Vermont...except not. We went to Lake Windermere. It is a common tourist attraction with many cute market towns to see. My friends and I rented a little cottage for the weekend and greatly enjoyed ourselves with lovely Halloween party spent in front of a fireplace and laughter. The next couple days consisted of viewing the lake towns near by, we went to Keswick where we viewed all the markets that were displayed on the street. One thing I really enjoyed was that there were dogs everywhere. However, they aren't very friendly. Alas, it was fun to be around them anyway. Our first day ended with a gorgeous view of one of the lakes over looking the mountains. Our second day there was my friend Anna's birthday so we had a morning party with presents and scones. it was delightful. We then drove in the car and went to Coniston which is another near by town, and we proceeded to go on a hike up a small mountain walk, which ended in the most amazing sight of the mountains. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to finish this post when I figure out my computer its broken. hope everyone had a fun weekend and GO OBAMA!!!! woooooooooo.
Love

Happy Halloween from Manch

Happy Halloween!!!!! I know it's not until tomorrow but, I'm heading to the Lake District tomorrow to lake Windermere. It's supposedly really pretty! I'm very excited to be in the country and out of the city. I'm being a duck for halloween this year. Inspired by my bright yellow raincoat that I wear often because it rains daily.
The past couple weeks have been jam packed with a lot of social events. I recently experienced a Roller Disco, which is where you put on roller skates and skate in a circle to techno. However, at this disco there's a bar. a little bit more dangerous this way. No one was badly injured in this endever.













Last night I started Halloween a day early and helped celebrate my friend Tasha's 20th birthday. Where she hosted a Halloween party. It was some of the best costumes I've seen in a long time. Not as inappropriate as normal. We hung out there listening to music and dancing and of course taking LOTs of pictures.














I will post pictures of this weekend on monday! Have a great and safe Halloween:)
love to you all

Ciao Rome, Hello Reality

This past weekend my two friends Jenn and Pip and I all made the two hour trip to Rome Italy! None of us had ever been to Italy and were all very excited about what we were going to encounter on this adventure. We left Thursday night and took a bus to Liverpool where we stayed in a cheap hotel, which was actually very nice. We then got up at 4am to have to time get to the airport for a 6:30 departure. It was brutal but we all caught some sleep on the flight. We flew with Ryanair which is the cheapest place to get flights. We arrived on time and the moment the aircraft stopped a song blared through the speakers all about Ryanair and there ontime flight yet again. This was a very surprising and funny thing to hear, as none of us on all our travels had never travelled with an airline that had its own theme song.
We then took a bus to the city where we walked to our Hostel called Yellow. This was a nice hostel that was in the middle of the city so it was easy to walk to all the places we wanted to go without needing to take a bus. It rained for the first hour and then turned into a beautiful day that was in the 60s this is amazing saying that it rains in Manchester literally all the time. Seeing sunshine was amazing and uplifting.
After the rain stopped we went and explored the city and planned our next couple days. We decided to do a bar crawl with night scenes of the city, including the Trevi fountain and a few other sites. This was all through our hostel. We met one of our roommates at the hostel who was from Ireland named Conner who also went on the crawl with us. Once in the Yellow bar we met Vesko who was from Belguim. The tour was given by an already drunk guy named Tad from Iowa of all places. Now this seemed very odd that our tour guide of Italy was from the U.S. However, he proved to be a great tour guide who added funny lines about the city. Over all the night ended at three am, which was full of a lot walking and laughing our new friends, many of who drank way too much at the open bar portion of the night.
The next day we spent on a tour of the city seeing the main attractions. To save some space I'm going to link you all to my Photo page where you can see all of these adventures.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/home

This also has pictures from Wales and Manchester. If it doesn't work I'm also sending out an email that should let you have access.

On our wanderings we saw many side streets that at night were the home to many outside seatings of resturaunts that were so cute and we really wanted to enjoy the same experience. So we decided to splurge a little and go and have a late dinner (which is the norm in Italy) and ate at about 10pm at a little place that had candle lit tables. The food was amazing with great service. However, to take advantage of the time before dinner we decided to try and find this Gelato place that was reccommended by our tour guide called Old Bridge. We expected it to be over priced with not that much ice cream like we'd experienced before. However, this was not the case at all. I got three choices of flavors for 1.50 euro's. AND free whipped cream. On top of that the ice cream was unbelievable and left us wanting more. We then went to a Wine Bar that included free food, kind of a surprise when they were really good. I also had fried peanuts for the first time. Dad I thought of you while eating them, thinking about how much you'd love them:) From there we dashed off to our amazing dinner where we were the last table/people on the whole street, which to passerby's seemed very weird and we got very funny looks. We ended the night at the Trevi, by this time it was midnight and we just sat and took in the site that was before us, the beauty. No one spoke we just relived the best weekend of our lives. My mind drifted to everyone at home wishing I could show them what I was seeing, wanting to run the cities with them. But alas that is not possible so I took pictures instead. So please take a look at my pictures, I hope you love them. Happy Fall to you all. I miss you all.

Love

Do Like the Romans Do!

Today the weather was surprisingly nice in Manchester! It was sunny! I celebrated it and went to a near by park and just sat and read a book and took pictures of who passed and my surroundings. It was lovely, it felt like fall for the first time since I've been here. I've found that I miss the fall and the changing leaves and the cider drinking that one finds in Vermont. The only cider they have here is hard cider. Not a big fan I must say.

This past weekend was very nice, went and shot for the Nikon shoot around Manchester and had quite good luck surprisingly. I have found it hard to back into the state of being injured, its hard to have a creative mind. Alas, the outcome as been quite good I feel. I will post pictures later.

Livia in response to your comment I met someone who met someone who met Alan Rickman! wooooo. But if I happen to see him I shall give him my regards:)

I got the amazing opprotunity to go and see a show at a local theatre called the Palace and I saw Cabaret. This was quite exciting because Johnson did that show last year. It was really fun to identify the differences in the two shows.


















This following weekend I will head to Rome, Italy. I cannot wait to go to the famous sites that are there to see and take a million pictures of everything. I want everyone to drink lots of hot cider and donuts for me. I love and miss you all.

love

The British System!

The British academic layout is so different from the U.S. Yesterday I went to meet with my Tutor (prof.) about a number of projects he assigned...(kill me now) and he asked me if I was going to come for drinks at 2! I said sure? but didn't know what to expect saying that the last time the class met for drinks we were at a pub. I went to the classroom at 2 and was greeted by two tables full of beer. It was the weirdest thing. We proceeded to mingle and have a few drinks and take advantage of the free food.

The work load is mounting in my classes. What with the huge competition, which I'm freaking out about because I these great ideas, and then when I try to get it to work it doesn't. I'm using the past year as my sequence of photos, trying to include the big ordeals in my life, how I felt personally, as well as including the people that helped through that hard time. I just passed the year anniversary of me tearing my ACL. kind of crazy. We were also asked to show HOW TO... using a camera, and then building off of it. It's hard because the tutor wants it to be super boring. I chose to do how to swing on a swing. I haven't figured out if its working yet.

This past week I played football with the true footballers. When asked if it was ok that i had cleats i got blank stares looking back at me. "what are cleats?" i pulled out my shoes and they said "oh you mean boots" i was like sure. they loved hearing the different words we used in the U.S. After playing around for a couple of hours, I was told that i had to come on Wednesday for drinking games. That was insane. I'm going to spare you all the details, because it was unbelievable. Nothing happened to me, thankfully. After that we went to this huge club called Varsity! where we all danced the night away, at one point getting hold of a traffic cone. This among other things happened.

Tomorrow I head to Wales for the day! I'm really excited to keep traveling. Also because I barrowed a digital camera from the school, and its amazing. On sunday i am going to my dear friend Kathryn's house to have dinner, watch movies and steal her internet. Happy Birthday to my Brother Wesley. Hope everyone is doing well! i miss and love you all.

Fall is here!

This past weekend being my first weekend in the city without needing to go to some orientation thing was nice, but I wanted to do something fun, so at 10:30 I got a phone call from my friend Jenn saying want to go to Liverpool tomorrow (Saturday)? I said sure. Liverpool is of course well known because of the Beatles. We got on a bus at 8:45 am the next morning and was there in 50 minutes. The main reason we wanted to go was because there was a huge international art festival called Liverpool Biennial (http://www.biennial.com/). We went to three museums of contemporary artists. It was incredible some of the imaginations these people have. We went to the well known museum called the Tate. We then went down to the water, where we were both surprised to smell the sea. The city of Liverpool has amazing architecture and proceeded to blow two roles of film on the amazing buildings. Those pictures will be up soon. After exploring the city we went out to dinner at China town and then went out with some locals to a bar before heading home.


This weekend I also went to explore a near by
park called Birchfield park. It was a surprisingly
nice day out, so I took my digital and my friend
Jenn and we went and explored this vast
park.


this was the play ground that is at the entrance. I have observed that European play grounds are so much more fun then American. At this particular park, there was a number of things that spun, and those crazy one person sea horse contraptions that are fun at any age I've found.

We found that this lovely place had hidden secrets that you might not see if you just drive by. One was this typical British landscape.
Yes that's right the typical row of trees lining a road. I personally love this landscape. What also made is special was that there were fallen leaves, which reminded me of Vermont again. I miss the changing leaves a lot. Jenn and I made quite a scene trying to make the leaves crackle under our feet. It didn't work out very well.





This weekend we also met up with our Australian friends who had problems finding a home and it had been a long time since we'd scene them. We decided to meet them at a local bar called the Footage. This is a really cool place they have these huge TVs that when they aren't playing sports you can text the number on the screen and text something to someone that's in the bar. Its kind of crazy the things that get written but its really fun to sit and read the crazy and sometimes inappropriate things that get texted.




School is now in session. The official term has begun. However, its not the same layout as in the states I found out when I went to schedule my classes. They are very laid back and just want you to have fun. I was worried about my credits transfering and having a good schedule and they just kept saying, why are you worrying, just have a good time. It will be weird to make that change. But they have already assigned a really intense project. We have to enter into the Nikon Discovery Awards with BJP 2008. We have to enter in a portfolio of 2-20 photos on a disc and the one printed photo. All very professional or they won't look at it at all. they told us to research the judges, what they like, and research the past winners. I also now have to keep a journal of everything related to photography. In terms of potential ideas for shoots and why. This is a new concept, but I'm excited to get started. The image I will leave you with is one at dinner time of Manchester that I took after dinner with Caitlin and Jenn.

Have a great week :)

Love

More pictures

Hello all so I'm going to do my best to put up an array of pictures concering what i've done thus far. First of all is the theme park called Alton towers, which was the most amazing theme park I've ever been too. the pictures will speak for themselves I think.








This ride was called the oblivion, and its a ride were you free fall. It was crazy scary, but super fun. I have a video of this, which I will show you all at a later date.















This is a castle called the Towers. It was hard to find
a history of this but they were working on the inside
to make it into a haunted house type of deal. it's going to be amazing.













These are my friends that I met while at this orientation, we had quite a day of exploring this site.

















We were looking for some more rides and
came across all of these beautiful parks. The next
couple of pictures are of those.

PICTURES!!!

this is a formal entrance into the Art Building. I just thought it was pretty!








this was where i stayed when i didn't have a place yet. They called it a "holding Cell" I of course thought it was a jail. This made me want to live on campus.




first meal. Pizza and beer, how American right?

I"m off to eat sushi with Kathryn. more pictures later tonight.


Ok I'm back with more pictures :)

this is Piccadilly Gardens its, Manchester's City center. Every store you could ever want is here.

Freshers Week!

It's the first week before classes really begin. We have a sort of intro to what to expect for the year and enroll officially. This week is also "homecoming" but not like that in the states. This week is called Freshers week, where there is a different party every single night. Its crazy and everyone ends up sick at the end because they went out so much. But its fun, the drinks are half off, and you and dance the night away and then go hung over to your classes. I went out once with my other old roomies Sasha and Gabriel and we went dancing. The music was not hip hop but techno and then tunes that came out in the U.S. like three years ago. Kind of odd to be dancing to a song that reminds me of high school.


I found a new home as well. It is a bit further then my other place and with not so fun roomies. But the condition of the house is much nicer and its close to stores, so that's ok with me. I will hopefully keep in touch with the boys.

I have been moved up to second year in the Photography school, which is nice because its it would have been the same thing, this is how you use your camera, this is how you use the darkroom, ect. The second years have a lot of freedom and they basically give you an assignment and you go and do it, and then we get together and discuss our ideas. The facilities are amazing, there's like a wet darkroom, a developing room, a color dark room. A store where you can rent anything, digital camera's, lights, tripods, for a week at a time. there's both a pc and mac computer lab. Each of these groups also have a tech support staff to help you with anything. I think I had my mouth open the whole time I was being shown all of this.

Pictures will be up tomorrow! I hope everyone whose reading this is doing well.

love.

Manchester

I arrived safely to Manchester! woooooo. its been a worlwind since day one, first off looking for a place to live. which is so hard to do, in a city that you've never been to and also don't live in a city. I've have seemed to have horrible luck since the minute I got there. I didn't get picked up from the airport until half an hour after my arrival. Then the apartment that I looked at was crap, I set the alarm off when I accidently leaned against the wall, which did get the attention of the one guy who lived there, who looked like he was hung over and that I woke him up from a deep sleep.....whoops. That room wasn't very nice.

When I couldn't find a place to live that first day I was told by the accommodation people who I know knew quite well that they had a holding cell for me to stay in for the night. I was like a holding cell, thinking like jail cell. But in fact it was not a jail cell but a room in one of the dorms, which just made me pissed that I couldn't live there.


I finally found a place to live, which was in fact the place I wanted to live least. The kitchen looks like it got sludge hammered. the bathroom door won't close and my door you have to slam to close. Also I can't get into the house with my key. I got really lost the first night I tried to get back to it, instead walking around the town for hours trying to find a row of houses that look exactly like with the number 20 on it. I finally found it hours later, and then my key wouldn't work....alas some things are looking up. I got home last night to find the other two rooms of the house filled, one with a guy from Germany and the other from Italy. We had a fun evening of talking and walking to the store to buy them beer and dinner. They hired me as the english coach to perfect there english skills. They have been the people that make feel like I'm at home, which is nice.

The city of Manchester is surprisingly quieter then any city I've been to thus far. The main form of transportation is bus. Which I guess explains the quieter factor. Last night I went to the City Center which is massive and full of shops where you can find anything imaginable. There's a gorgeous park there where there are many statues of well known people. It was kind of crazy, I didn't even know it existed. That was where I saw the first tram of the city. Which I was told was very expensive to ride on. I didn't buy anything on that outing but chose to look around, take in the sights, but I plan to go back and buy things this weekend.

I myself am stressed beyond belief what with housing problems to money and trying to figure out which bus will take me home. It is fun but overwhelming to not have my support system but I am managing and can't wait to travel and take millions of pictures. Speaking of pictures I will upload tons, when i have internet.

That's all for now, I hope all that are reading this are well. I miss you all.

love.

Goodbye to Vermont.

Exactly a week from today I will be leaving for Manchester England to Study photography at Manchester Metropolitan University. This blog is here to keep all you crazy people in on what I'm doing across the pond. I will write in a week.

love.