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!

Dick Cheney?

Today started out with my mom and I in fits of giggles. We both woke up this morning after going to bed around 8:30 and it was still dark outside. Wondering what time it is I open my computer, 5:26 it says. Well, why don’t we get up and start our day. My mom hops in the shower, I post my blog I had written the night before, I get in the shower, and finally we are all ready to start our day. Making sure breakfast is open downstairs my mom looks at her watch. “Uhh…Sara? You said 5:30?” “Yes.” “Its 3:45, we got up at 2:45.” “Oh. I was wondering why it was still dark.” So we crawl into bed fully clothed to sleep for a couple more hours, however we did not fall asleep for another hour, as we could not stop laughing about the fact that we had no idea what time it was. It was our first night abroad and after traveling for a day our clocks are a little off.
After a nap we roll out of bed and are off to find a tour bus to take us around Rome. After walking about a half a mile in the wrong direction and bickering at the map we finally figure out where we are going. The Tour bus was fun and we got to see a lot of Rome. At the end we get off and go into St. Mary’s Basilica, were as it is Sunday a service was going on. I was wearing shorts and forced to tie a cloth around my waist before entering. It was my first church service and all in Latin! I couldn’t stop wishing Dave was here to translate for me. For lunch we got Paninos at Dimas suggestion and then headed over to the Colosseo.
We got a tour guide and got to cut the lines..hehe..But did you know that the Colosseo isn’t the stadium, but actually was a statue that stood beside it, it was just as tall as the stadium…wow it must have been amazing! But so our tour started off as most tours with a little info on this and that…we see the inside, which it AMAZING! And there will be pictures to follow. But then, wait. Why can’t we get to the second floor? Dick Cheney? Coming to the Colosseo? NOOOOO!!!!!! We can’t get away!!! HE FOLLOWED US TO ROME! Well our tour decided to wait to see him come, I mean how often do you get to see Dick Cheney? Well, he comes and definitely not discreetly. About 10-15 Italian police motorcycles escort about 5 cars, not to mention all of the police and secret service that was already there. “Oooo look! He’s in the blue shirt!” I swear every person in the crowd of people who knew who he was hated him and thought it was so rude that he made that entrance. No wonder he needed so much protection. I counted over 30 secret service just around him, not to mention all of the secret service in the crowds and all of the Police outside. In fact they wouldn’t even let us out of the stadium until he left. I thought they were going to reenact the gladiator fights and we would all have to fight to the death to be let out.
After all that excitement we had some gelati and we went up to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. WOW! …that’s the only word I have…that and pictures!!!! We are back in our hotel and took an amazingly cold shower, it is so hot here, even though it is drizzling and thank god for that. More later!

Finally in Roma!

It is about 8:30 PM Italy time and after 27 hours of traveling, I'm wiped. You already heard about my fun sleeping pill adventure. Well after waiting six hours and walking all over Heathrow Airport (which we now know extremely well) we are about to board the plane when the speaker phone crackles “Sara Mooodlin, please come to the front desk immediately.” Uh oh… “Is there something wrong?” “Well it appears that there is a problem with your chair…someone may have thrown up on it and they are trying to clean it up, but we don’t know if it will be workable, we will do our best to get you on the plane.” Of course I would get the vomit chair! That’s only fitting. Well after another time of waiting to see if my chair is cleaned up and if I have to sit in the vomit chair, it apparently wasn’t vomit at all and it was just that the table is broken. Bah! I don’t care! I walked onto the third and final plane and passed out until landing.
The taxi ride over was definitely a good introduction to Italy. The driver cut off the same guy twice and when they honked he just swore at them in Italian and threw up the Italian Gang sign…(the pursed fingers and the little shake of the back of the hand…you know what Im talking about.) Yes, Dima they are all VERY relaxed, I don’t know what to do with my uptight American self.
We finally got the hotel and I cannot tell you how amazing it felt to get out of those nasty cloths. Our bellies were aching for some real food so we went out for a walk and found this cute little place to eat up an alley. I got the freshest Gnocchi I have ever had and I ordered my first glass of legal wine!!!! Walking back we found a gelato place and I got a cup of bacio and raspberry gelato…mmmm….well back at the hotel now about I can barely keep my eyes open. I will write tomorrow!
-Caio!
P.s. They drive on the right side of the road! Who knew?!

Hellllllloooo From London!

Im currently sitting in the airport in London waiting for our connecting flight to Italy. This has already been an interesting trip so far. Go me, I misplaced something...again...(Ill tell you more about that later...) and then I took two sleeping pills on my 7 hour flight from JFK to here thinking it would just knock me out, instead I spent the whole flight hallucinating and getting sick to my stomach. DAMN YOU SLEEPING PILLS! I have been walking around the airport with slanty and red eyes because Im still high off of them...I must look so suspecious. Since I have bascially been stoned for the entire time I have been in here it all seems so surreal and keep loving all the little eurotrash boys with their skinny jeans and funny shirts. I also cant get over the accents! Oh man!
Well Im going to catch my next flight!