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.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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 :)
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 :)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
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!
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