Trying to get home from Spain......

I woke up at 6am to start gettin got the airport. I had to walk a ways, take a bus to the train station then a train the the airport. We took off just in time and headed for Glasgow. We were just above Glasgow when the pilot came on and said there was too much snow to land so we landed at Prestwick to wait for "a half hour". I sat at Prestwick for almost 3 hour...s trying to get to glasgow then had to stand in the rain sorting our soaking wet bags out on the taxiway THEN took the train into Glasgow where it got stuck a half mile down and we had to walk back to the airport where they got us busses. Was going down the carrigeway just fine, then we went off the road and turned on our side. sat in a freezing cold bus with a lady who had a broken arm, two kids, and tons of old people for two freakin hours. spent the next hour in the hospital.
My nice three hour journey turned into almost a 24 hour disaster. Ignas
and I made cookies and it made me feel loads better. Then he helped me pack for Newcastle. I am glad nobody else got seriously hurt but gosh it was a terrible flight.

Spain Day 5

This morning I woke up and met Arian to go to his leather-booth. Hung out there trying to chat to customers for a while then decided to take Seville by storm! I went to the bull ring, and the waterfront. When I was at the bullring there were a few other girls there and an elderly couple. There was a worker who was cleaning and askedif we would like to go inside the bullring. Of course we said yes and so he let us walk around when it was empty! He also said that we shoudln't take pictures because he is not supposed to let anybody into the stadium and if the pictures were found then he could lose his job. I'm not sure if the consequences are that serious but regardless I did not take any pictures :'( I really should havelooking back on it ugh, now I'm kicking myself for not :( I got to go by the waterfront and see some rowing teams. That was neat and gosh are they ever fast! Just four of them fly down the river.

After a relaxing morning I hopped on a bus and headed back to Malaga. I got here around 4 and started heading to my hostel. Showed up and found that a french guy who was here last time I had gone through was till here! So we had a nice chat. Went to go get free Spanish lessons at this certain school but it turned out that the spanish class was at a party and we couldn't find it so I went swimming! It was awfully late and cold but I can now say I have swam in the mediterranian! Two days before Christmas that is! Tomorrow morning I fly out to Glasgow. I am excited to go back because Lauren and Ignas and I are making cookies before I go to Newcastle but I will be sad to leave Spain. Ahh, all good things must come to and end eh?

Spain Day 4

Arian was the name of the boy that had helped me out the day before and he agreed to help me find my way to city center in the morning.He met me at my hostel in teh morning and walked me to his leather-booth that he worksfor his dad in this gigantic crafts fair. He showed me around the city a bit and gave me some breakfast that his grandparents had given him. I had allready made plans to go climbing in teh Sierra Nevadas with some people from my hostel so I met up with them and we went for a climb. It was perhaps the best climbing experience of my entire life. My first time climbing with belays and ropes and harnesses on rock. I would say it is the best place to learn too. The people I was with were quite good and they helped me out a lot.

We went back to Seville and I went to Arians leather-booth. He asked if I would mind watching it for a minute while he used the bathroom so I got to work a leather booth in Spain! THe leather work was all done by his dad and he did the painting. Some of the best leather work I have ever seen. Sold for absolutely nothing too. Arians grandparents came by and told me that I had to come to their house for Spanish dinner. I agreed and they told me when to come back to the booth. I went to look around seville. Got to see the cathedral and city center. I found out it is the biggest city center in Europe. It certinally is massive. Arian lent me his familys bike card which lets them rent the city bikes so I biked around for a bit. I also got to see a lot of street performers and a small parade going around the city center. I went back to the booth and met up with Arian and his grandparents and we headed to their flat. It was quite late when we got there. They had some mystery-soup and chicken, rice, and corn tortillas. THey also had loads of fruit and veggie dishes. It was a fantastic dinner with a traditional spanish family. even though I could not speak SPanish well and Arians grandparents spoke no english at all Arian translated when needed, I loved it!

Spain Day 3

SO excitment in Spain awaited me little did I know. I was getting ready to leave Malaga which was amazing. I woke up and headed to the cave dwellings. They are the biggest cave dwellings in Europe. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of a trailer park in Alaska. Loads of couches that are mostly broken sitting around everywhere and tires. Everybodys entrances to their caves are made of broken beds, fences, and cabinets. It was still incredible seeing people living like that. They have no running water, electricity, or sewage....bleh! There was an unbelievable amount of dogs running around too. My friend CJ and I joked about how Grenada is separated by this one little stream. On one sideof it is all teh cats and the other side is all the dogs. It is pretty much true too :) We hiked around the cave dwellings and over onto La Alhambra. An epic castle! I got a beautiful view of it from the back of the valley behind it that I hiked into. So I walked around town for a bit. Noticed that the streets are unbelivably little and hardly ever marked on a map. I went to the train station and asked for the next train going to Seville because I had heard that it was just beautiful. I got the ticket and then went to an internet site to look for a hostel. On the way to the train station I got 50 euroes taken off of me by a true-to-form pickpocketer. This left me with next to no money. I figured that since I had allready gotten the hostel it would not be a problem.

Got to Seville around 5 in the afternoon and started looking for the hostel. After a good hour and a half oflooking I finally came across it and started ringing the doorbell...ten minutes later and no answer I figured it must be closed down. Assumming that they close in the winter is the only answer that I can come up with. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find another hostel because most towns they are sort of all over the place. Turns out that Seville only had hostels upwards of 50 euroes. I started getting pretty worked up when 9 and 10 rolled around and it was dark and I was alone. I was pretty freaked out. I was asking everybody for directions and either nobody coudl speak english or they just didn't care. I had been praying constantly for 5 hours just asking God to send somebody to me that could help me or that I would be able to find a hostel. I was also praying that God would tell somebody else to start praying for me. Turns out that my pastor back in my hometown just got a feeling right then to start praying for me, God is amazing. I was asking a guy on the street for directions and this random other guy starts talking to me in flawless American-accent English. He asks what I am doing, if I am lost, and if I would like him to show me to my hostel. I was so exausted, we, and tired, and desperate that I told him allright and he took me right there. It was probably a horrible idea to trust him but the combo of him speaking perfect english and me being exausted made it seem like a good idea. He ended up being a lifesaver for the next few days and a complete God-send.

Spain Day 2

This morning I woke up and headed out by 10 am. I was well proud of myself. Got a ride up to Granada and ended up arriving at 3:30. It was quite a while. Headed up to a hostel that I had picked up a fliar for at the previous hostel. The scenery was georgeous. We are just on the side of the castle which is totally epic. THe hostel we are staying at has a treehouse, chillout room, kitchen with loads of free food, and they are having a BBQ celebration just because it is Friday. It was slightly pricey, 18 euroes but totally worth it. We went out around 5 and headed up to the castle. It was almost like stepping back in time. There were stray cats everywhere that come up and rub up against you. THere was also a lady just singing in a stone hallway. The acoustics are great but it was just out of a storybook. She was a complete hippie from head to toe. We went around the castle until well after dark. I just keep imagining what it must have been like hundreds of years ago. Stumbled upon a crazy art museum that was attached onto the castle. It had a bunch of modern art that was all about babies, birds, Jesus Christ, and death. It was really quite strange. In Granada all of the pubs serve tapas with drinks. So we got a few mojitos and had a fantastic meal all for 5 euroes. We headed back to our amazing hostel and now I´m sitting here waiting for the burgers to get done cooking then we´re having a party!!!

Spain Day 1

So yesterday I arrived in Malaga greeted with intense sunshine. I was walking around in a tshirt and skirt the whole day! How bout that, it is 7 days til Christmas and I am in a skirt!!! (and not freezing that is). I got royally lost and walked around for about 5 hours before I found my hostel. I found the beach though, and it was beautiful. I am going to go swimming on my way back through. Arrived at my hostel late afternoon, it is the most interesting hostel ever. I walked in and this massive dog greeted me. He is a sheepdog but he is just enourmous. Then while I was checking in I heard a drum circle in the living room that was sort of constant until I checked out the next day. The hostel was just as if I was staying in somebodys house. The people there were all so fantastic and there was murals in every color of every thing you could ever imagine. I went out with a few of the people from the hostel to the Camerata Salzburg Salzburger Bachchor. It was an orchestra with a choir singing in the biggest cathedral I have ever seen. It is Malagas main cathedral. Absolutely Immense! I was just amazed by it the whole time. There were so many people there that we ended up sitting on the floor next to the wall BUT we were also just to the side of the orchestra so we got to have a pretty good view (I am working on that recital attendance even when on holiday!). Then we went back to the hostel for a birthday party of somebody who was there (I think he works there every now and then). Spanish birthdays are hilarious. Loads of singing and dancing. Then a Iranian, Australian, Barcelonian, and I went out to a few pubs around Malaga. We were pretty beat when we got back. Loved it though! I think I´m falling in love with Spain.

Heading to Spain!!!!!

I am all packed and ready to go to Malaga, Spain. Can't wait at all. I'm spending the first day just hopping around the town then I am going up to Grenada. Can't wait!!!!! I'll keep you posted :)

Christmas Travels!!!

My plans for Christmas: Last exam is evening of the 16th and I leave early on the 17th to Malaga, Spain. I'm heading from there over to Grenada (I'm gonna drink a smoothie, there's a s...ong we played a while back in jazz band called Grenada smoothie) and then I don't know what I'm doing after that. Just gonna wait and see. Then I fly back on ... See Morethe 23rd and morning of the 24th I am going down to Newcastle to stay with a friend of mine for christmas. Then we are getting two other friends and we're driving down to the southern tip of England where one of my friends dads lives. I guess it's just georgeous. Then on the 2nd I'm catching a train up to Fireseeds and I'll be there until teh 5th. Then it's back to glasgow. Maybe a day trip to the beach or something before classes start. I'll still have 6 days.See More

New Plans!

So once again I have changed my plans. I decided that I want to go to Spain for Christmas (part of it at least). So I will be catching a plane out of Glasgow right after my last final and head to Malago, Spain until the 22nd of December. I am actually gonna be able to go swimming two days before Christmas!!! How amazing is that? It is going to be around 22 degrees while I am there :D Then I fly back to Glasgow and catch a train down to Newcastle where I'll be spending Christmas with some friends THEN a bunch of us are piling in a car and driving down to the southern tip of England where I'll catch another train up to Fireseeds! whew! I don't think that this vacation is going to be very relaxing BUT it will be loads of fun!

Dublin Ireland Day 2

The next morning Grace woke me up letting me know she was gonna go catch the train and for me to have a good day in Dublin. I immediately went back to sleep :) Woke up an hour later ready to take on the big city. Since it was still 8am when I left the hostel I went for a cup of tea and a read of my book in a cute little cafe. Had the best liquorice-mint tea that left the perfect aftertaste in it. It was incredible. I then went across the street to the Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery. Had a little tour and got to see how some of the finest whiskey is made :) I made my way by the waterfront to the Guinness Brewery. That was INCREDIBLE! The building itself is massive and the exhibits inside are set up so incredibly well that is just amazing. I started sneezing horribly when I walked onto the first level but that soon wore off thankfully enough. I hung out there for a bit and had a bite to eat then it was off to the wax museum! The wax museum was pretty neat. I learned quite a bit about a lot of the people who were active in setting up settlements in Ireland and how that all went about. I went over to Dublina where I got to learn all about the English Invasion, Black Death, and the closures of monasteries in 1540. Dublina was set up really cool and they had a lot of real actors and shows set up that you could watch. Dublina is connected to Christ Church so I went across this covered bridge connecting them and got to see Christ Church. It was one of the most incredible buildings I have ever been through in my entire life dating back to 1030. Every little nook and cranny had a piece of history tied into it. The crypt is the oldest 'building' in Ireland and the cathedral is just massive. After that I went across the street to tour the castle. This was pretty amazing. It has been modernized quite a bit which took away from some of the magnificence of it but it is still completely incredible. I always just imagine a bunch of people in armour or big flowing dresses walking up and down the staircases. I had some time before going to watch the choir at Christ Church Cathedral so I decided to have a walk around the City Centre. The main roads going through city centre are incredible!!!!! They have street performers, people telling jokes and playing music, and loads of stuff to see and do. I did some window shopping and listened to a group from Jamaica playing some music. I made my way back to the Cathedral to listen to the Choir. This choir is just downright amazing. They were the choir that sang Handles Messiah in Dublin in 1742 and have had a resounding rep. for being the best choir in Ireland. Listening to them was like listening to a choir of angels and I'm not even kidding. It honestly has to be the best choir I have ever heard.

I met five dear ladies who were sitting behind me. We got to chatting after the choir and I found out that 4 out of the 5 had been missionaries in their earlier years. We got to talk quite a bit and they invited me to tea. We went to a cute cafe near the train station (I was due to meet Grace soon enough) and we had the nicest talk. I just love meeting nice ladies here and there.

I met Grace at the train station with no time to spare so we ran from one bus stop to the next jumping on and off of trams, getting to the airport, racing through security, and just bearely got to our gate before it closed. It was pretty crazy and we were praying the entire time that we would not miss our flight. As much as I loved Dublin I would not have wanted to miss my flight and had to stay and extra day but I cannot imagine a more magestic city to have to be delayed in :)

*pictures coming soon!!!!*

Dublin Ireland Day 1

The plan was as follows: wake up at 3:15am and have PLENTY of time to shower, finish packing for going to Dublin for the weekend, and get a nice hearty breakfast then be ready to leave at 4am with a taxi already ordered. The plan came off as follows: Phone rang, I picked it up and was slightly confused as to why Grace was telling me to get up (after all, I had set 3 alarm clocks making sure I woke up on time). She then informed me that it was 3:58, the taxi was probably outside and that I needed to get down there post haste! Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself. In two minutes I was in the cab, clothes on, backpack with me (no knowing what I had packed but certain I had a passport and wallet with me), and was waiting for Grace. She was woken up by the taxi cab driver telling her she had 5 minutes to get to the cab or he was leaving. haha, that was the start of our trek to Dublin :)

We got to the airport fine after discovering that airport security is not too fond of people trying to bring lethermans onto airplanes. Fortunately I apologized profusely, explained that I am not a terrorist and have no intentions of becoming one, gave them my puppy dog face, and convinced them to let me mail it back to myself. We finally got on the plane and made it to Dublin without a hitch.

We started the day by trying to arrange a train for Grace to go to Cork on Saturday so she could kiss the Blarney Stone. We spent the better part of two hours going from one bus stop to the next to the next. Finally got it sorted and headed to Trinity University. The uni. was absolutely incredible. The architecture is just plain magnificent. We got to go to the book of Kells exhibit that they have there. I did not know what it was and almost did not go it. I actually started crying when I saw the manuscripts :') We found these girls wearing red bull costumes and so we got some free red bull and got our picture taken...for their calendar....haha, we definitely do not live in their country, go to their Uni, or anything of the sort but we're in the calendar! I am going to try and track down one of the calenders so that I can have a little souvineer :) we went to an archiology museum next and got to see loads of artifacts that dated back to before Jesus time. Honestly, it was a slight letdown after seeing the book of kells. We decided to make a quick stop by the castle and look at the gardens and just have a small walk around. The castle was just beautiful. By this time we were both pretty beat so we stopped in for some epic lentil soup and headed to the hostel for the night.

*pictures coming soon!*

Rain Man

Last night I got to go see Rain Man at the Royal Theater in the City Center of Glasgow. It was incredible. I loved seeing it on stage sooo much! It was incredible. The acting was magnificent and the orchestra was amazing. It was not a musical but it did have a few songs in it. I thought it was great how they dipicted a man with autism so well and the compassion people really ought to feel for those sorts of people.

New Travel Plans

I changed my mind and I think I am going to travel around the UK during my break. I couldn't find a travel buddy during the Christmas holidays so UK it will have to be! A girl, Ashley, is going to be my buddy around the UK. Should be fun. I just have to figure out where we want to go and when. Thinkin I will probably spend Christmas day in Glasgow then head south to Newcastle because they have an amazing new year party in the city center. If anybody has ideas on where to go/what to see let me know!

Stirling!

Today my mate Will and I decided to make a treck to Stirling to see the castle. We showed up at 9am to begin exploring. Only problem is that neither of us knew anything about stirling in advance...so we started walking! We saw a turret and assummed that it was the castle. After about 45 minutes of walking we finally arrived and found out that we had walked to the Wallace Monument :) We had a fantastic time going around the monument. We went up all 276 steps to the top where we could overlook Stirling. We also got to watch a guy dressed in period garb do a reinactment of William Wallace and the history behind it. It was quite incredible. We figured out where the castle actually was and started walking toward it. We realized after about a half hour of walking that we had been walking in the completly wrong direction so we had to turn around and backtrack and go a different direction to try and find the city center. Finally made it to the castle two hours later. It was quite incredible. We got to learn so much about the military and the history of Scotland. It was quite incredible. It was the first castle that I have ever been to so it was quite a novelty. We stayed until the castle closed and got to see Stirling at night from a seat on the castle wall. We caught the train back and crashed back home in our beds. It was exausting after hours and hours of walking but it was so amazing. I wish that my family and friends from Ak could have been there to see it with me. Whenever any of you want to come visit me I will definitely give you a tour!

Last weekend was incredible. I went to whales with the mountineering club. We climbed a mountain in Snowdonia the first day. It was quite rough because it was raining and windy. Everybody in my group got pretty beat up. My knees were feeling just awful by the time we got to the bottom. Then right at the carpark I slipped on a rock and just fell straight onto my back. That evening I spent just laying around trying to recouperate (and working on a composition haha...band geek). The next morning my plan of just going to a pub and hanging out until we left did not work so well. I heard the bus going to Snowdon was leaving and I just figured I had to jump on it. I heard the walk up snowdon was an easy one and figured I could do it. Well...the group I went with was a group of super experienced climbers. We climbed along the ridgeline of the mountain next to it going over to Snowdon. We were climbing on a peak that was about 6 inches wide If you were to fall one direction you would go down a 100 meter drop or the other side where there was a steep shale slide for a couple hundred meters. We would come to huge pillars of rock and so we just climbed over them....don't even think about going around....or ropes....or the fact that there was TONS of wind, wow. So we made it alive (much to my suprise), summited, summited again and got a picture this time, then had to run down the easy trail to get to the bottom in 40 minutes. It was crazy to say the least. The picture that is with this post was taken by a guy in our group who does photo editing and photography for a magazine. It's pretty neat some of the ones he took :)

Travel plans!

Today I started looking at train tickets and flights for my Christmas Break. It looks like I will have about three weeks. I am thinking of starting in Italy and traveling around there a bit before going to France and then heading over to Spain for my first warm Christmas break. I'm still not sure where I'll actually be spending Christmas or New Years. If anybody has ideas let me know!!!

:D ahhhhhhh I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Greetings from Newcastle

I don't think I'm too great at this whole 'writing on blog' thing...haha. I'll get better I promise.

I am now in Newcastle. It is pretty magnificent. My friend Robin had an extra ticket to watch Ludovico Einaudi and considering I am a HUGE fan he offered it to me. We drove down from Glasgow Friday evening. I really really really hate the road system in Glasgow. It makes no sense and took us about an hour to get out of Glasgow. Saturday we woke up and went with a group of people from Robins street for a hike out in the country. We hiked around peoples fields, a stream, in a valley and ended up at a pub for lunch. The pub was so cute! The little village that it was in had one road that wound through it and we were the only people at the pub. We walked back and got home just after dark. We then got ready to go watch Einaudi which was absolutely incredible! I was totally blown away. If you have not heard him then youtube him and listen. It is SOOO much better live. He had a cello player (who I thought was the best player), a viola, a violin/percussion, a violin/guitar, and a mixer. It was so incredible that I don't even have words to say how amazing it is. The building that it was in was amazing aswell. The sound quality was immense. After the concert we all walked down by the waterfront and through town. I have to say that the nightlife is really crazy. Considering it was halloween and there were a lot of drunk Uni. students everywhere I think it was slightly abnormal but incredibly entertaining. I have to say that I fell in love with Newcastle. It is sooo beautiful!

Looking forward to another weekend with not internet...

So today marks the second week of Hadassah not having internet in her room (Thank you Glasgow Housing Services...) and no bank account (Thank you Bank of Scotland for taking over a month to make my account active). Arg!

Other than that the weekend should be fun. I will be heading to Stirling on Sunday to play in an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament against a few other universities which should be quite fun. Other than that (and Ultimate Frisbee practice tonight) I have absolutely nothing planned for the weekend. I am thinking it will probably be time to catch up on reading and get in some good practice time.

Last night me and four other girls went to Kathrines house for a Jane Austin movie night (since we have to read the books for English Lit. anyways). We had pizza, hot chocolate, IRN BRU!, icecream, popcorn with...sugar?, and a yummy crisps. We watched the movie in our pjs and then just laid around and talked until we had to head home somewhere around midnight. It was absolutely incredible girl time that was much much needed.

Something Blot-worthy

Sorry for the month-long delay between blogs. I have been having the time of my life here in Glasgow. This last weekend I went up to Glencoe, Scotland with the Mountineering Club and did some climbing.

Day one of climbing was not exactly the best hiking trip I have ever been on. We went up to Lost Valley just past Glencoe Valley. It just so happened to be pouring down rain the entire time with 40 mph winds constantly. That changed as soon as we started reaching the summit of a Monroe (the name has slipped my mind) where it increased to 80-90 mph. It was quite terrifying actually. There were a few girls with us who were not prepared and apparrently do not do so well with high places and they were in tears before we even got up to the top. The fact that we were all soaked and freezing and facing a 4 hour walk back to the road. I actually had to hold a girls hand the entire way down the mountain. She would not move an inch if she was not holding somebodys hand. The weather improoved for the last hour of the hike though! It was quite an experience I'll tell you what!

Day two was magnificent. We drove to Glen Nevis early in the morning after a long night of funness including games, stories, and lots of food! Going through Glencoe we saw the Hogwartts Express!!! It was amazing and actually looked exactly like it did in Harry Potter. So that was fun. When we got to the mountain we had the option of going up Glen Nevis either on the walking trail or up te face of the mountain. So me, a girl, and three guys decided to tackle the face. The instructors that had told us where to go said it was scrambling and there was no need for ropes. Well...we definitely could have used ropes. The climb was amazing. We had the best weather you could ask for. It was sunny but slightly chilly to keep you from overheating. We saw a rainbow halfway up and you could just see for miles and miles (or meters and meters ;) haha). When I was just coming over the last rock at the summit of the monroe I got pelted with A SNOWBALL!!!!! Yes...I'm an Alaskan and I love snow...we had a snowball fight, built a mini-snowman, whitewashed each others faces and ate a little bit of natures goodness. After a while of sitting it started snowing!!! It was just the most amazing thing that I have seen since getting there. We got our own little snowstorm for about ten or fifteen minutes. It started raining on the way down (we were able to walk down on the walking trail) and so we spent the last three hours in pouring down rain. Then upon arriving at the car park we found that the mini-bus had left without us...so I got to experience hitchiking in a foreign country. We went in pairs and actually made it all the way back to our home for the night. I have to say it was the most incredible weekend since arriving here.

I need to run to class. Posting pictures soon!

Arrived in Glasgow

Yesterday I arrived in Glasgow Scotland after quite an ordeal at the airport. The next morning I woke up at a bright and early 3am and started the trek back to the airport at 4. I guess I was becoming a pro at it considering it was my third time making the commute...lol. I showed up at the ticket counter and the guy throws me a curve ball by telling me that I was not in the system because my ticket had been cancelled at some previous time. WHAT! I have no idea how it happened or why it happened. After a full hour of crazy running around trying to figure out what to do I was able to reschedule without having to pay an "at counter" ticket. I had allready paid the fee for my bags on my ticket that had been cancelled and so they made me pay that again because they had no proof that I had paid it. That made me extremely angry more than anything. That was a large sum of money that I did not need to spend! Anyways, the rest of my flight was lovely. I landed in Glasgow safely later that day. I was greeted at the gate and wisked off to my dorm. It was really weird getting at my dorm. The bus that is driven by Uni. volunteers just dropped me off on the street in front of my dorm...no explanation of what I was supposed to do...or where to go...it kinda freaked me out when I just saw it drive away. I figured out which dorm was mine and find out how to get my key and such. I set up my room (which basically means I dumped all of the contents of all my bags onto my bed), found out where I could buy some food, and walked around the area of town my dorm is in. It was interesting but since orientation does not start until Monday I did not meet anybody or anything which is slightly disappointing. I am hoping that will change on Monday.

Germany Day 5

On Thursday I was basically in a frenzy to get ready to leave. I spent the entire morning at the Hamburg History Museum. I had gotten to briefly glance at it earlier that week but not actually look and I was astounded at how big it was! I couldn't even believe it! It is the biggest museum in Germany so I guess it would be big. There was every display from the earliest settlers of Hamburg, to the Victorian era up until the Jews and the reign of Hitler. It finishes off with a boat that they had rebuilt INSIDE the museum! It was totally gigantic and actually slightly creepy. Then it had a lot of models of boats and things like that. I just couldn't believe how huge it was!!! So that was an awesome experience.

After about 6 hours in the Hamburg History museum I went to the spice museum. It was the strangest place I have ever gone. It was up two rather sketchy stairwells in a building that is a storage center for old broken stuff. If there were no signs for the museum ever 3 feet I would have been scared for my life ;) lol, not really but it was not really the kind of walk to a museum you would normally experience. The museum itself was one room and smelled magnificent. It had over 500 displays of different spices you could smell, touch, and taste (if you like tasting raw spices...) and gave the background history to a large number of them. There were also other displays like "things we have found in bags of sugar" and in the display would be flipflops, childrens toys, a snake, a rat, things like that. It was so crazy! Not exactly the average museum. OH! And they gave me a bag of pepper as a thank you for visiting their museum...guess they were hard up for customers. I enjoyed it and I would definitely suggest it for a future traveler to Hamburg.

The rest of my day I went back and packed up my stuff. At Hamburg airport there is a cool system where you can check your bags in a day early if your plane leaves before 8am so I thought this would be a fantastic deal! I drag all four of my bags all the way down to the airport (took about an hour between the two buses and two subways I had to take), arrive at the desk that says "early check-in" and find out that British Airways is the only airlines that does not have an early check-in service. Needless to say I was disappointed not only that I wasted three hours of my day but also that I would have to drag all my bags back home and then out again at 4am. I went home and just took the rest of the day easy, quite tired from my last week of running around.

Germany Day 4

There is only one word to describe today and that would be courageous! I feel fairly confident that if someone were to put me in any spot in Hamburg I would find my way home by the days end. I used directions printed off the internet to go downtown so I could find the Brahms museum. Upon my arrival in the middle of this gigantic city I found out that the directions were wrong...uh oh...There was a very nice park right near where I was so I walked over to it and laid down in the grass for the next few hours. Then I found a map and I found out that I was pretty near to the Hamburg history museum so I walked over there. Turns out this park is like 2 miles long and the museum was at the other end so I got to see A LOT of the park. Slightly exausted when I arrived I looked around briefly but couldn't stay long because it was getting kind of late. I had free admission so I am thinking of going back on Thursday. I don't think it is possible to see the entire museum in just one day, it is by far the biggest museum I have ever been to in my entire life.
When I got back I went to Hamburgs biggest shopping mall and gosh was it huge! Hamburg makes this special icecream that is kind of like gelato so I got a fruit parfait sort of thing with tons and tons of fruit in it. It was quite amazing. I am excited because tomororw I am going to get a chance to speak to and English class about UAF, foreign exchange, Alaska and that sort of thing. I am pretty excited.

Germany Day 2 and 3

On Sunday CIndy and I ended up sleeping until 3:30 pm because we were both so exausted so we went to a festival downtown and walked around there then went to a water\light show later that night. It was pretty neat. At the festival there was a German metal band singing country music playing a banjo, guitar, and upright bass. They had pretty strong accents too so it was quite hilarious. I kept laghing and people thought I was a little strange because it wasn't actually that funny but being from America where country music is suppposed to be sang with a western accent it was quite funny.

Monday was my first day out on the town alone. I got pretty good at asking people for directions because I got lost three times before I got to my first stop. I started out the morning by going to the biggest train set I have ever seen in my life.I had to make an appointment to go in and so I walked around before that. I found St. Nikolais church, the oldest, tallest, and most prominent church in Hamburg. It has gotten bombed multiple times during its history and always got rebuilt until the last time it was bombed and they only rebuilt the steeple to remember what it has gone through and remember those who died. There is a museum underneath it that was pretty neat but then I got to ride in a glass elevator to the top of the steeple. It was totally incredible and a sight to see, you could look out over all of Hamburg as far as youl could see. I walked back to the train set after a quick lunch. It was 5 rooms on two different stories of the building. So incredible, and every ten minutes they dim the lights and make it appear as if it is nighttime. They not only have trains but busses, cars, dancers, hot air balloons, pirate ships, and anything else you can imagine. They took different areas of the world and make replicas of it. Even the pyramid from Las Vegas. I sat down by the waterfront doing a Bible study and drinking a coca-cola for a few hours then it was off again. I went to the museum of work where I found out that there was a pin plant that made all the metal swasticas and pins that the military used during the war. There was also a lot of stuff about how people used to have to work and what the conditions were. I would call this day a win. I made it back home and did not have to sleep on a bench because I was lost. I had fun :)

Germany Day 1

Just on the upswing of recovering from jet lag and it's off to Germany. After 36 hours of traveling I finally made it to Hamburg. My first day in Germany was absolutely incredible! Cindy and Lara met me at the airport and we took a bus to Cindys house and I got a shower and had a chance to rest a bit then we went down to the waterfront. It just so happened that we got there on the day that the world championship diving competition was taking place. The divers would jump off of the mast of a ship into the water doing flips and spins. It was absolutely incredible, much better than watching it on TV during the olympics. We walked around town for quite a while, had some coffee and then went home to rest. We slept for about four hours and then went out again to get falaffles at a little walk-in resturant followed with a tour of downtown at night. Do I hear culture shock? Haha, needless to say, the nightlife in Hamburg is much different from Valdez and a LOT different from Indonesia considering that neither of those places even posess a nightlife. We had a great time and, well gosh dad, you were right and flaffles are incredible!

Made it home safe!

Dad and I made it home two days ago safely. We had the opportunity to do so much work while in Indonesia. Customs in Manado swiped two of our suitcases filled to the brim with medical supplies we were going to use while over there so we had to refocus. Dad mainly taught the dentist at the IFC base about dental work. Her name is Neni and she is 19 and just incredible. She knows a huge amount about dental work and is so ready to learn anything she can. She is a real joy to work with.
I mainly worked in the Ward doing medical work. I did everything from bandaging burn wounds to fixing machete wounds, and helping comfort hurting children. I also did a lot of work with the kids in the Childrens home. I played duck duck goose, tag, went swimming in rivers and the ocean aswell. Also just got to build real loving relationships with some of the older children and entertain some of the younger ones.
The only downside to the trip was that Dad and I got quite sick for most of the time. I didn't eat anything for three days and he didn't eat much. I threw up all night one night and continued variously for the rest of the trip. I also got a pretty good gash/puncture wound in my foot which bled for quite a while. The kids I was playing with at the time were quite concerned and all 15 of them accompanied me on the one mile walk back to the Clinic. It did not get infected and for that I am thankful.
The spirit of the people there is just remarkable and the kids there are so tough. I was amazed with how strong each one of the Christians that we encountred was in their faith. The way that they automatically turned to God at every turn is inspiring. Also, the suffering and danger that they face on a daily basis really puts my little inconviences of life into perspective. I was just in awe by the people we met.
I had the best time taking a long trip with my dad and doing so much for God in the process. I loved it more than anything. I leave for Germany tomorrow night which is quite exciting. I can't wait!!! Please pray for my saftey :)

Much love
Hadassah

First Leg Valdez to Seattle

This morning dad and I woke up at 3am to get to the airport in Anchorage. We flew into Anchorage last night and grabbed a few nights sleep at a hotel. We became slightly confused when the airlines we were flying with didn't have anybody at the check-in desk I mean come on, isn't everybody up at 4am? We ended up checking in a total of 4 times before we found somebody who would let us check our bags. I am also learning that we do NOT have very good luck with security. We got searched and they confinscated shampoo, conditioner, lotion, hair gel, hand cleanser, and sunscreen...we really need to perfect our method for checking through security cuz so far we do not have a great track record. We will be taking off to Seattle shortly. A full fledged cowboy took a picture of us at the Anchorage airport and my mom took one of us at the Valdez airport. Singapor here we come!

Leaving for Indonesia!!!

SOOO I'm flying out of Valdez tonight at 5. I only have another two hours in Valdez!!! It's crazy that everything is all of a sudden happening. I'm really excited. I am not sure if Lily and Isaiah really understand that I am leaving for two weeks cuz they both say that they are not going to miss me ;) They will as soon as they realize that I am gone. Please pray for God's will to be done while I am overseas. I'll update you as soon as I get internet :D

The countdown begins!!!

I calculated it out today at work :D

18 days until Indonesia

36 days until Germany

43 days until Scotland

143 days until Ireland

159 days until Italy

I am waaay excited about all of this. Each trip is going to be completely incredible. I am in the process of planning out Germany right now. Scotland is basically done for the moment. My dad has taken care of planning out Indonesia and since my parents are coming to Ireland with me they are both working that out together. I put Joel in charge of Italy since he is who I'll be traveling with while I am there. I am looking forward to this next year!!!

Nebraska!!!

Finally made it out of the bad weather!!! We are in Nebraska right now and the rest of the trip is looking up. The countdown for when we have to get back has been less than comforting. We have been skud running (flying through bad weather VERY slowly) this entire trip.

We spent last night in Branson Missouri. I honestly felt like I was in Disney Land, I kept waiting for a giant mascot to try and give me a hug...very thankful that did not happen. Tourist central for sure! Walked along the boardwalk after having some amazing crab and shrimp. FTW!

Today was the first day that we actually made some good distance, about ten hours of flying which was really great. The place we landed in Nebraska is a town of about 10,000 but apparently nobody ever uses their runway. The girl at the hotel did not even realize that there was an airport. There just are not any planes around here. Seems weird to me but oh well.

Just got out of the hot tub and I'm ready for some ZZZ's.

Goodbye for now :D

Albany, Georgia

So we just made it into Albany, Georgia. I have never seen so much rain in my life. Even the locals say that it is absolutly crazy! We finally got off the ground this morning at about 11:30 only after dad spent about two hours testing the plane out. I talked to one of the guys who's about my age about everything from hunting, to noodling, and just playing with various tropical creatures. Crazy kid...

On Friday night we stayed at a fairly epic motel. It was like something you would pull out of a movie. As in, I'm pretty sure somebody could die there and either nobody would notice or nobody would care. The owner was Indian and spoke bearly a lick of English. The lovely room we got put in was complete with sheets that looked like a black dog had resided there earlier, a giant hole in the wall (from who knows what), and extremly stained carpet. I was kind of afraid that I would catch a disease when I used the shower (of which you could not actually regulate the Temperature at all). It would fluctuate between extreme hot to freezing cold. It woke you up for sure! I have to say I was much more awake after my very "exciting" shower. I don't think showers were meant to be exciting... oh well. Saturday morning when we mentioned to the locals at Browns Seaplane Base where we stayed they were not only astounded we made it out alive but also said "nobody is a patron of that hotel, you are either selling drugs or prostituting". We weren't doing either one, but I have to say that it was an experience to say the least. I think it was an adventure I wouldn't really take back considering I'm alive and still healthy.

Last night we fared much better as far as lodging goes. We couldn't leave on Saturday because of undone paperwork and then weather difficulties starting in the afternoon. We met a German man at Browns who gave us a ride to the hotel that he was staying at. Dad and I spent the evening drinking soda and sitting on the deck watching an incredible lightning storm.

That brings us to Albany, Georgia...and a huge storm that has grounded us for the rest of the day. Wish me luck with the weather. Hoping for sun tomorrow or at least not too much rain and wind to let us out.

The start of my travels

This is Hadassah.

This will be the first of many blogs that I will be writing this next year on my travels. I will be going to Florida, Indonesia, and Scotland. I hope you enjoy traveling with me :)

The beginning of my endeavors takes me to Florida. My dad and I will be flying a Scout up from Tampa Bay, FL for his hunting buddy, Smokey. The trip will take ten days and we will have flown 3500 miles by the end. I would have to say the highlight of our trip thus far would be going through security in Anchorage. My dad had a very interesting idea of taking a handful bullets through security. Needless to say, the security personnel did not see his humor in this situation. I don't think I'll be following his example as far as this event goes. The plane is boarding, getting ready to fly for another 17 hours. Signing out for now.