Day lights savings was today so we ended up getting up at 7:30 am...ew that was early. We went into town and went to the same little breakfast place that we have all fallen in love with. Hopping on the tourist bus again we went and saw the old Jail which was pretty cool. It was very similar to going to Alcatraz but way older. We learned that the green on the irish flag stands for the people who want a free nation and orange for the people who want to be part of the United Kingdom and white for unity. We then saw the general post office which was a beautiful building and we went to the Castle. It was interesting history and it is still used for a lot of parliament. Finally wanting some good food we got Japanese at an AMAZING restaurant! I hadn't had sushi since I left the states so it was a good change in the food. We spent a little time walking around in Temple Bar and went to a pub and watched rugby. That was the first time I have watched mens rugby and it was REALLY intense. Geese! We we leave tomorrow very early so Im off to bed!

An Irish Saturday.

Today was amazing! I do not want to leave on monday! We took the bus into the city center and found a great little coffee shop where we had amazing muffins and! an actual cup of coffee!!!!! I havn't had a normal cup of coffee since I left. For some reason it just doesnt exist, but I guess it does here! After fueling up we walked to Trinity College, which is absolutely gorgeous!!! They have this piece of art outside of their Berkley Library and there is a replica at UC Berkley as well as at the vatican so I had already seen it, but I thought it was cool. Then we got to see the Book of Kells which was especially amazing to see as I JUST learned about it in my art of the Anglo-Saxons and Celts module (class). We then got to walk through their older library, which was a GIGANTIC room filled with over 200,000 hundreds of year old books. We walked from Trinity to temple bar which was a fun place to go in some shops and pubs and eventually ended up on a tour bus and got off at the Guinness Stockroom. It was a really fun tour and ended with a free pint of Guinness. After asking a few people we ended up finding our way to a traditional Irish restaurant and I had chicken and ham, but I think the chicken was filled with white pudding...I dont know what that is and honestly I dont want to. Well we are back in the hotel now and have a wake up call for 7:30am because of the time change. Ew. Well Im excited for another day of romping in Ireland!!!

IRELAND HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know I havn't bloggled in a while, but I knew I had to today. We arrived in Ireland last night after 9 hours of traveling to a place that really isnt that far away...we had to go the long way because we are cheap. But it didn't matter once we got here because even though the traveling sucked our hotel is AMAZING!!!!!!!! I have never seen a hotel I have liked this much. It just opened to it was really cheap. WOW! There is even one of those rain showers in the bath room. There will be pictures. Oh and! The mattress...is memory foam!! We just woke up and I'm waiting to use the shower, the only thing is the cleaning people came before 9am! Who comes before 9 am? I mean really! I just got out of the amazing shower and it is pouring outside. Boo...good Irish weather eh? We are off to start our day! We have to take the bus into the city center, but it is worth it for having this amazing hotel for so cheap!

UEA

Well orientation was fun. We did wayyyyyy too much though. There was hardly anytime to just take a breath. We went to a couple of pubs and got to see the Tower of London! Mmmm blood and guts!!! Its rather morbid there...I think my favorite part of the orientation in London was going to the globe theater and seeing a Shakespeare play that I had never seen before. The Merry Wives of Windsor, and at the end of the play they sing the most amazing song which just makes you want to dance and so most all of us danced the way home! Oh but at intermission I turned around....and I saw someone from KRESGE!!! It was very cool, and Genni, Im telling you I can't go anywhere!!
Now I am in Norwich finally and all settled into my room at the University of East Anglia. Im less than impressed with the rooms here though. I have my own bathroom, but I could pee, shower and brush my teeth all at the same time! Icky. But Im making the most of it! The more I get to know the people here the more I am realizing that it is a completely different language. We do not speak the same language...its a lie. American english and British english....two COMPLETELY different things. Its interesting being on the otherside and being told you are the one with the accent. And actually I have been having to resist talking in a british accent, or at least using their intonation. However I have been meeting and incredible amount of americans here...which I wish I wasn't. There are 2,500 international students at UEA so its kind of hard to get into the british culture with all of the international students around.
My classes started this week and they are VERY different than american classes. I knew that it would be more private study time, however I didnt understand how much. I only have about 7 hours of class a week however I am expected to be reading from 9am to 5pm. And then go out and get sufficiently sloshed and come back and do it again! I can't keep up with the Brits! Did you know that Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches is an american thing? I don't know why but I cant get over the fact that when my house mates see me eat that they think its disgusting!
Jacob, you were right. He told me that I should bring my bad clothes that I wouldnt mind throwing out and buying a new wardrobe here. I wish I could do that! I wish I had the money to do that! Not only does my accent stick out, but the way I dress does too. Santa Cruz style does not fly here. I am trying to find a way to make a little money so I can get some clothes here, because everything is amazing!
Well I think I am off to fight the rain and get to campus. Its society day...(club day...not greek day)...so I am going to go find something I can do with myself for the next three months besides sitting in the library!

Rob, Al and Fifty!

This trip so far has been very exciting! Today, we are now in London by the way, we went to go see buckingham palace and it was so exciting because the changing of the guards was going on.  I got to see a whole bunch of those crazy get ups with the bear skin  hats!  We didn't see the queen though. :(  But we went to the National Museum, which has a free admission which was really cool.  And I got to see my favorite painting, Rain, Steam, and Speed by J. M. W. Turner.  I had no idea it was there.  It was so incredible to actually stand in front of it.  Wow!  I have to go back just to see that painting again.  Well after that we went outside and they were having a big Jewish New Year festival...which was fun and we got to hear a bunch of jewish music!  Then we needed to waste sometime before we went to go see The Dutchess...the movie...not an actual dutchess...but then we saw this crowd gathering...and it was a red carpet opening for Righteous Kill and so we waited and we got to see Robert De Niro and Al Pacino...and 50 cent!!! They were 2 feet in front of us!!! So cool!  Ooo! And! while we were waiting some guy pinched my moms butt!  Haha!!!!!!!!  What can I say?  My mom's a hottie!  But after all that excitement we went to see The Dutchess which was reallyyyyyyy goooooodddd! But the theater we went to charged you more for where you wanted to sit...and the seats in front of ours were the most expensive...19 pounds which is about $40!!!!!!  Could you imagine paying 40 bucks for a movie!?!?!?!?!?  Oiy!  Before we went home we stopped and did the good british thing and got fish and chips in a pub.  I have to say it was pretty cool to be able to walk in there and order a beer!    Well tomorrow I leave my mom and go to orientation for school.  We will see how that goes!  

Venezia!

Sorry for the late post, but I will just have to put all of our venice trip in this entry. From Rome we had to take a 6 hour train ride, which surprisingly flew by. We ended up sitting next to this couple from L.A. most of the way there and just talked politics the whole way! Venice is beautiful and it so great to be some place completely different. The canals and the old buildings are so wonderful! On the first night we walked into a store and kind of talked to the guy working in the store as much as he could as he didnt know much English and he says to us as we are leaving *in a strong Italian accent* "Yes, si, I like this...we have mother and son...very nice very nice..." hahahhahahahahah oh man! Yes...mother and son...But Venice is very different than Rome as in Rome you go visit all of the old monuments and here well, you shop. They have all of the designer stores and so much Murano glass! But I have to say I have not seen anything I like nearly as much as the necklace Dima got me. GO DIMA! Yesterday we tried to get lost...and I have to say we did a good job of that, haha. And today we went to Murano in the morning and got to see all of the glass blowers and that made me really want to start doing glass work again. Well after that adventure, we went to an Opera. It was rather small and I got kind of bored, but mi madre loved it. It was hard to follow because...well we dont speak Italian, but I was extremely entertained by the Pianist. He got so into it and would kind of conduct with his head. Haha!! Well I put up some pictures on photobucket, I have been having a hard time putting much up...so there will be more but here are some for now! http://s512.photobucket.com/albums/t326/saraem3915/Italy/?albumview=slideshow
I hope that works for everyone.

Oh lord...literally!

Another long day in Rome! Well today was not nearly as eventful as yesterday, however we got to see some of the most amazing art I have ever seen. We went to the Vatican and if you have never been, you better get your butt to Rome to see it. Its the smallest country in the world and so incredibly gigantic. The Sistine Chapel was even more incredible than I had heard. I wish I had words to describe it. Michael Angelo was a complete genius, the way he makes all of his art come to life is like nothing I have ever seen in my life and pictures don't do his work justice. Apparently the Pope wanted gun to paint the Sistine Chapel, but Michael and the Pope did not get along so there are two places in the ceiling fresco where it is flicking off the Pope, however in the way they did it in their time with a thumb between two fingers. Ooo! Also there is gods butt! hehehe...oh Anna I thought of you when I saw that!!! We also went to the St. Peters Basilica which was nothing less of amazing. Every piece of art was either marble or mosaic and I have never seen mosaics like the ones in that Basilica. Wow you see these 40 ft high pictures and you swear they are oil paintings and when you get up close you can see that they are actually all mosaic. There were not only wall pieces but also the ceilings were completely mosaiced. However the whole idea of the Vatican made me kind of angry. Most of the stuff in the Vatican was stolen and the marble sculptures of the popes in the Basilica were so grand and god like...bleh! It was so incredibly god fearing, but I guess that is the way of the catholics....Well Im exhausted and I think I am going to go take a nap!