I've got some catching up to do

So I know it's been forever since I last posted. I'm sorry, but I really have been extemely busy, but mostly in a good way. Here's a little something to keep you going until I can finish the epic spring break post!

I have been so busy and done so much since the last time I wrote. To give a brief overview for those who don't have the time to read this monster, I went to Winchester on a day trip, a retreat to Walsingham, Spring break trip to Pisa, Rome, Garmisch, Munich and Prague, and all kinds of little stuff sprinkled in between. So buckle up, get your cup of coffee and prepare for grand tales of epic proportions!

Part One : Winchester

Ok so this picture is just of London, but it was such a beautiful day that I had to snap a quick picture as we crossed the Thames on the way to Waterloo Station (which gave me a flashback to the Bourne Ultimatum - very cool). So we - Dan, Pat, Will and I - hopped on the train to Winchester for a Saturday trip. We arrived and were pleasantly surprised by the town. It was the weekend when all the schools were on break so we expected little kids running around everywhere (like in London at the time) but were pleased to find it uncrowded and relaxing. First we found what we came here for - the great hall of King Arthur! There was a museum with a history of the city of Winchester which at one point was where the Royal family lived. There was a huge castle here - so big and so well built that parts of it were impossible to destroy. However, that jerk Olliver Cromwell did his best and there's hardly anything left of what was told to be one of the most impressive fortresses ever built. But anyway, at the end of the museum you walk through the Great Hall, complete with King Arthur's round table! It's actually the thing hanging on the wall in the picture below. They thought the table to be so impressive that it should be hung on the wall so that the painting on it could be seen easily. They've done studies on it and the painting has never been altered, only restored from time to time, so it looks the same as it would have to the knights of the round table! I found that to be pretty cool. It's also kind of hard to tell from this distance, but it is actually pretty big too. 

So after that we walked down into the town center and went through another museum, and grabbed some lunch. It was such a nice day that we ate on the lawn of the Cathedral and just enjoyed the sunshine. Winchester Cathedral was so cool. It was huge (at least I thought so until I got to Rome) and very cool to see. We checked it out for two to two and a half hours, just admiring the architecture and presence it had. It was originally built in the Roman style with large round arches and all, with a wooden roof. In one of the most spectacular architectural feats of its time, the nave was rebulit in the gothic style. Sometime in the 14th century, the arches were completely reformed while silmultaneously replacing the wooden roof with stone. It has to be seen to be fully appreciated, as I don't really have a great understanding or appreciation for architecture and I was baffled by how they did it. Anyway, we were extremely lucky in that we just happened to be there during one of the two 2-hour showings of the Winchester Bible that occur per week. The Winchester Bible was made in the 12th Century (sounds right, I don't really remember) but it was the most ornate and greatest work of its time period. It is in three huge volumes full of gold leaf, some blue coloring from the middle east that is even more valuable than gold and beautiful penmanship and drawings. There was a historian there to tell you all about it and answer questions - very cool. Sorry no pictures of it though, they weren't allowed.

From there we walked back through the town and stopped at what could possibly be the greatest thing of all time - a shop that makes milkshakes... in 150 different flavors! It's called shakeaway and they have every possible flavor you could imagine, and then some you wouldn't. I was a little wary of the cucumber flavored one. Anyway they just have containers lining the walls full of every kind of candy, cookie, brownie, flavoring sauce, etc. I got a hobb nobbs milkshake - which are cookies very similar to digestives (very popular over here) just a little sweeter. It's just a lightly sweetened cookie biscuit with the bottom dipped in chocolate. It was so good - one of the best milkshakes I've ever had if not the best. But Dan got a very special Milkshake named George. The George was so full of chocolate and peanut butter that it was nearly intoxicating just to smell. I had a small taste it about knocked me out... imagine eating about a jar of peanut butter and about 4 chocolate bars in the form of a milkshake and you get the idea. Dan got a large. Here's a visual of the place.

So after that, very wisely, we decide to climb the big hill to get a view of the town. By the time we get to the top we are all holding our stomachs and feeling queezy. Massive amounts of diary, sugar and climbing up a steep incline do not mix well. We did, however, get some nice views of the city. The big thing in the middle is the Cathedral.

After this we walk back down the hill and all the way across town to the train station to make our way back to London. It was a great time and the perfect day trip.

Part Two: Walsingham

So the next weekend I went on a retreat to the tiny little town of Walsingham on the east coast of England. It is home to both a Catholic and Anglican shrine which was the destination of many pilgrims dating back to Medieval times. It is known as "England's Nazareth". Evidently, a nun experienced a vision from Mary and was told to build a house in the form of the home of Mary. So she built a house and according to historians is likely very similar to the actual thing. Anyway, the orginal building from 1200 or something no longer survives, but a replica (of the replica house) was built and then surrounded by an Anglican Cathedral. The town itself is tiny, absolutely miniscule. Seriously, there's like three streets in the town, it can be walked in 5 minues. It was so nice to be in a quiet area and be able to relax and reflect on what I've done the past two months and how blessed I am while also looking ahead to how I can improve myself and my relationships with others, especially God. This is hard to do in London, where there is a constant stream of noise and distraction. Even in the middle of the night the sounds of cars, motorcycles, sirens etc goes through our thin windows. It was an extremely worthwhile retreat and I got to know some people very well and made some good friends. But let's start from the beginning.

There was only a small group of people going as most people in the program didn't want to give up a weekend of travel to go on a retreat to some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. But actually, this meant that the people that we did have on the retreat were great and really wanted to be there. There were only 8 students along with Fr. John (our Scottish Chaplain), Vito (Fr. John's Italian friend who is studying in London), and the guy from ND campus ministry who ran the retreat. All 8 of us knew eachother which made the retreat a lot of fun. So we met on friday at King's Cross station, and I have a picture for the Harry Potter fans out there. King's Cross is where all the little wizards hop on the Hogwarts Express at platform 9 and 3/4. So they put up a little plaque between platforms 9 and 10 with a trolly halfway through the wall (the wizards have to walk through the wall to get to the platform).

So we hop on the train which was about 2 hours. We then had to wait for a bus to take us the rest of the way so a couple of us walked to a department store nearby where I was very excited to find some slippers for 3 pounds! I had been wishing I had some slippers but didn't want to spend a lot of money to get some. So as soon as I got out of London I saw some cheap slippers and snatched them up. In hindsight I can confirm that it was definitely a good purchase. So our bus finally arrives, its a mini bus so we cram all 11 of us into this van thingy for an hour long ride through the country side. Here's a nice countryside visual for you.

In Walsingham we stayed at a little guesthouse run by the shrine people. It was nice and perfect for the retreat - it was so quiet, there's no way anyone else was staying there at the time. So we did a lot of talking and reflection - you know, retreat stuff - and got to see the town a little bit (it didn't take long). It was on this retreat where I was introduced to the game Mafia - if you don't know it, ask me and I will teach you, it is a lot of fun to play with a group of people. On saturday we checked out the Anglican Shrine and then walked out to the Catholic Shrine and the outskirts of town. Traditionally, pilgrims would go to the Catholic Shrine first, then walk the last mile to the Anglican Shrine barefoot. So we kind of did it in reverse, but most of us did the walk barefoot, which got you into the right frame of mind, I think - especially during Lent. We had mass at the shrine and then we all piled back into the mini bus to go out to the beach nearby for a little fun. Oh... My... Goodness... I have never seen a beach so big! The pictures I have don't even capture the vastness of it. We really enjoyed ourselves though - we found a little ball to throw around and it was a nice day to run around a bit. Here are a few shots - if you can believe it, the sea is out there in the distance in those pictures, they were all shot facing the sea except for the one with the trees in it.

After that we went to the train station and back to London. And don't worry mom - I've gotten my hair cut since then.

Five days, Five Pounds

No, that's not five pounds sterling - although I wish it were that cheap - that's how much weight I gained on my recent trip to visit family in Italy. I had lost about 5 pounds since I got to London just from having to walk all over the place and prepare my own meals (which means I eat less). I had no problem getting the weight back after eating at Zia Idin's for the long weekend. I got up at about 4:30 am after going to sleep at 1:30 am and headed out to catch the tube to the bus stop to stansted airport. I flew Ryan Air so of course it was delayed and I ended up arriving in Pisa a little after 1 pm Italy time. My Aunt Margy and her co-worker Mary met me at the gate and we hopped in the car for the drive to Mercallo - a small town north west of Milan - where we have family. My zia Idin and zio Luigi live there with their daughter Grazia. Zia Idin is my great-grandmother's sister. I visited them once before during christmas my freshman year of college and I am so happy I had the opportunity to go back. We ran into a lot of traffic going through Milan but finally made it to zio and zia's house. 

We were greeted by a dinner of Rissotto and Ossobuchi. It was amazingly delicious. My zia Idin is a fantastic cook and always yells at you to keep eating! So I ate, and ate and ate... We talked for a long time - although only Grazia speaks english and she has to translate for zia and zio. My aunt Margy also speaks Italian so she was able to help translate too. The next day Grazia, Margy, Mary and I went to the nearby town of Arona. They told me it was one of my great-grandmother's favorite places to go. I was lucky enough to know my great grandmother and it was very cool walking around her favorite town. We stopped at a little cafe and had pastries and coffee and stocked up on sweets for the weekend (they made some great Canoli). We walked around a while then headed over to the Esselunga, a big grocery store, to get some food. We got three types of cheese from the alps which were very very good and I was able to bring some back with me to London! We ate lunch at the cafe in the store - i know what you're thinking, hmm eating in a grocery store, that sounds questionable at best. But no, it was amazing. I had one of the best ham sandwiches ever! We then went back to the house for a little bit then went over to the convent to visit with Sister Raphaella (the picture above). I met her the last time I visited and I was really nice to see her again, she is such a sweet lady and has a great sense of humor. We stopped back at the house for a little while and zia had made fritelle, a carnival dessert that was absolutely amazing:

 

Then we came back and went to mass at the church in Mercallo, it was all in Italian but it was cool to be there with my family. It's such a small town, that everyone in the church realized we were there and a lot of them came over to say hi and about half of them ended up being part of the extended family! After mass we came back and had dinner of cheese filled crepes, veal steaks, french fries, roasted carrots and cheese. It was all so good, I kept eating even though I was full. It's hard to stop with zia yelling at you to keep eating after she had served you a ridiculously big portion of everything. She also won't let you out of the house with your hair wet and will smack you on the arm if you walk downstairs in shorts and a t-shirt (my pajamas) because she thinks you will be too cold, as I found out. 

The next morning we took the train into Milan. We hopped on the underground and went to see the Last Supper. It was amazing to see the actual painting and was much bigger than I expected. After that we went to the Piazza Duomo to see the church which was huge and beautiful and then walked around the Galleria and the Rinascente - two big shopping centers right on the square. Everything was ridiculously overpriced but it was fun to walk around and look. We ate lunch on the top floor of the Rinascente, looking straight across at the Duomo, which was pretty cool. We got some Gelato, which was amazing - I got creme caramel and amaretto. Then we tried to catch a train at Milano Centrale and missed it by mere seconds - we watched it pull away from the opposite platform. So we took the tube to a different train station and caught a train back to Mercallo. 

When we got back, Aunt Margy and I helped zio set the time on a pen that had a built in clock. It was fun trying to communicate with him and eventually he was able to do it. Zia and Grazia went to mass and we were supposed to turn on the oven and get things ready for dinner. We were distracted by the pen and forgot to do it and we all got slapped by zia when she got back and it wasn't ready. We eventually had dinner of lasagne, veal roast, roasted cauliflower, stewed peppers, cheese and canoli.

On monday I woke up, had breakfast and visited with everyone for a while. I was really excited to be able to understand a few sentences of Italian and communicate directly with zia and zio. I really loved being there and it was hard for me to leave. It did help that zia made pizza for us to take back. They packed up the car with an insane amount of food and we headed back to Pisa.

We got back to Aunt Margy's house in Pisa in the early afternoon. It's a really nice place, not as big as the house in Germany, but still nice. We went down to the leaning tower and walked around a bit. It's really striking to see it in person. I mean, you know it leans but when you actually see it you're like wow, it really is leaning a lot. It's also a little weird to be there after seeing the place on tv and in history books, it's kind of surreal. The weather was really nice the whole time I was there. I am already missing the sunshine and warmth. Later on, we went down to the coast and the sunset was amazing. 

When we got back to the house, Aunt Margy made banana nut pancakes and we watched Gladiator - one of my favorite movies of all time. We also had some amaretto cookies which were unbelievable. We got them from an Italian bakery and they were seriously some of the best cookies I've ever had. On tuesday, I slept in a bit and then my aunt picked me up and took me to the military base. It was a lot smaller than the base in Germany - the commissary was like 4 aisles wide - but the office was a lot nicer than her old one. I got a genuine american hamburger - which was delicious - and we headed off the base to the airport. The rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful. 

It was so nice to relax with family and I miss them all already. As for now, I will think of the trip every time I sit down to eat, wishing that my meal of frosted flakes was zia Idin's lasagne and veal steaks.

Venice!

I got back on Sunday from a spectacular trip to Venice. I went with three good buddies and we had a blast. Things got off to a rocky start as our flight was delayed two hours and we couldn't find our hotel when we did actually get into the city. Venice is a maze - we got lost about everytime we tried to go anywhere, but that was part of the fun and when you don't really have a schedule for the day except finding fun things to do, getting lost can actually be great. We ended up getting to our hotel about 3 am saturday morning. We got up early the next day, ate our amazing free breakfast at the hotel and then headed downstairs to leave the hotel. We had been wondering what the awful smell in the hotel was that morning and we found out when we got to the bottom of the stairs and the ground floor of the hotel was flooded with about a foot of water. Luckily, the hotel gave us boots to wear around the city so we could still get around. Evidently, about two weeks out of the year in the winter, the high tide will flood the streets of Venice. So we were just that lucky to be there at that point in time. So we waded through the streets until we got to St. Mark's Square, the main point in Venice, but also the lowest point in Venice. The water came up past my knees and started filling my boots and it was really cold! So we found our way to the other end of the square where they had some elevated sidewalks to keep you out of the water. We ended up taking a tour of the Doge's Palace which was really cool. I learned a lot about the government of Venice. By the time we finished there, the high tide was over and the water was almost completely gone. We walked next door to St. Mark's Basilica and toured that (the picture above is from the roof of the Basilica on the side facing the sea). By the time that was done, the flooding was completely gone and we were able to enjoy the city completely. 

It also got a lot warmer and the sun came out, so we figured it was the perfect time for our Gondola ride! It was really expensive (20 Euro each for a 30 minute ride) but it was probably the highlight of the trip and definitely worth it. Our Gondolier was named Roberto and he was cool because he made his dislike of the French known, which resonated well with all of us. We went through a few small canals, then out into the grand canal up to the ponto rialto then backtracked to the start. It was really cool.

From there we wandered from pastry shop to gelato shop to pizza place to another gelato shop and just enjoying the uniqueness of the city. Here's a picture from the ponto rialto (a bridge) looking down the Grand Canal.

After walking around most of the day, we found a little place to sit an get a glass of wine and relax for a little bit. After that we went in search of a good place for dinner. We decided that we should find a nice place where we could get a meal that we would remember. We picked a place off the beaten path and we very happy with our choice. It was pricey (40 euro for my dinner) but tasted great and was a lot of fun. We split a decent bottle of white wine to go with our seafood. After a very light swordfish appetizer, bread, and some strange orange drink they gave us, I ordered the grilled Scampi. Although it looked a little intimidating, it was so good and I am so glad that I ordered it. Here's a visual for you:

After our meal we sat for about an hour and finished our wine. They even gave us some free dessert, some type of donut things they make for Carnival. However, we noticed that the streets were starting to flood - it was high tide again - so we headed out. We had gone back to the hotel to swap our boots out for our shoes earlier in the day, so we wandered the dry streets we could find and even managed to find a place making crepes on our way back. (I seriously ate so much this weekend). We went back to our hotel after that as the city pretty much shuts down at 11 and we were all tired.

On sunday we donned our boots again and went to 8 am mass at St. Mark's Basilica. Strangely, there were only about 15 people there in this pretty big church. I figure that there aren't that many tourists right now, the locals probably go to their own churches near their homes, and the flooding kept some people away. But after that we came back to the hotel, ate our breakfast and then I took a nap before we checked out. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the boots with us, and the water was still high so we went barefoot and rolled up our jeans. We waded through a foot or more of ice cold water in the lobby and out onto the streets. We were headed to the other end of the island to catch our bus to the airport and by the time we got to the rialto bridge to cross the grand canal, we put our shoes back on and found enough dry streets to get to the bus stop. After that it was an uneventful trip back.

I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed Venice, hopefully the rest of my trips will be as successful as this one!

Snow Day!

So what if I didn't have class today to begin with, it's still a snow day! London got about 6 inches of snow and the whole city shut down, no buses, limited underground use and Heathrow airport has also shut down. I was actually out in the worst of it last night, not fun - blinding snow and winds whipping through the streets - it felt a little too much like South Bend. But I need to write a paper today so it's not really much of a break for me, it actually just ruined my plans for going to the class building so I could concentrate better. There is no way I'm walking half an hour in this mess - it's still snowing by the way and the sidewalks are full of nasty slush. So I'll just sit here alongside my bedbugs and write an incredibly boring paper on Accountancy in the UK.

AHHH!!!!!

I may never sleep again. It has come to my attention that my bed - that I sleep in every night - has bedbugs. I am terrified, nervous, scared, angry, shocked, bewildered, and indignant all at once. I don't really know what to do about it, but I am washing all my bedding in hot water and then drying it on the hottest temperature. I hope that takes care of it. But I don't know what to do about my pillows and mattress. I get all weirded out whenever I think of little bugs sucking my blood all night - I have bites up and down my arms, on my neck, and some on my legs. They are red dots and blotches that are itchy and annoying. So I don't think I am going to sleep tonight, and if I do, I think it will be on the couch. Hooray for new international experiences!

Something struck me today

No, it wasn't a bus. I just realized something and it was one of those things that make you go... woah. Here it goes: I am getting used to living in London. However anti-climatic that may seem, it hit me like a ton of bricks and made me realize what an amazing opportunity I have and how lucky I am to have it. It's just a strange realization for a kid who grew up in a township thats half corn fields. I took this picture today, its from the steps of the National Gallery overlooking Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background down White Hall. I walk by this at least twice a day and it never gets old. When the sun is setting its the best view I've seen in London. This weekend I'm going to Stonehenge and Bath so I'm sure I'll have an update after that. Cheers!

One week down...

It is now Thursday and I have been in London for a full week. I can't decide if it feels longer or shorter than that. Kind of both I guess. I don't feel like I've been here that long but it feels like a long time since I left the states, if that makes any sense. This has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. I have spent very little time in my flat, and most of it is sleeping. I have been out in the city most of the day every day or hanging out with friends in their flats. I feel like I know my part of the city pretty well now and I'm proud to say I have never really been lost yet. A friend and I lost our way for a breif moment the other night but we still knew which direction we wanted to walk and got we we needed to be without any problems. I have a lot to talk about so you may want to read this in shifts.

Let's see, on Tuesday, I had my first day of classes. My first class was Christianity and Islam, which I think I'm really going to like. I did the reading for the next class already and actually enjoyed the reading. I knew basically nothing about Islam prior to this class and the more I read the more I notice similarities with Christianity, and many that I didn't expect. Granted, I have noticed many differences but I didn't realize they recognize Biblical characters such as Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as a part of their history as well. Anyway, the class only meets once a week and lasts two and a half hours (not including a 45 minute lunch break). Although we also have class on Friday (Booooo!!!) this week and next week, because our professor won't be here for a couple weeks later in the semester and figured it would be best to make them up at the beginning so that we get a quick start. Yay. So instead of being done for the week at 2pm on Thursday, I now go until 3:45 pm on Friday. But what can you do... My next class was Accountancy in the UK which is going to be very cool. From here on out we only meet 4 times. We have 2 papers (a 7 pager and a 10 pager) and a final project that consists of a 20 page paper and a presentation to Price Waterhouse Coopers managment and some ND alums. It looks like we are going to get some real, practical knowledge though and it will be cool to do some independent research. For the class, we walked to the PWC offices, had a little orientation, and then went out to a pub to watch the inauguration with a couple of workers. (PWC picked up the bill for all of our drinks, which was awesome.) It was cool having the English and Scottish workers asking us all these questions about Obama and the U.S. After that I grabbed a bite to eat and went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised. I went in having no idea what the play was about, only seeing a clip of it from watching Dead Poet's Society. Anyway, it took me half of the play to figure out that the weird clothed actors that sometimes held and moved around creepy baby doll things were actually fairies and the other non-fairy actors couldn't see them. Things made much more sense after I had figured that out. But the play was really funny, actually. I found myself laughing quite a bit, much more than I thought I would. The only bad thing was the seating. The location wasn't bad at all, first row of the balcony (which was the fourth level up, with the ceiling a couple feet above our heads).  But there was NO legroom. Sitting normally in the seat, your knees were pressed firmly against the railing, so your feet had to be turned at a ridiculous angle the whole time. After 2 hours 45 minutes of this, it started to get a tad uncomfortable as you can imagine. But anyway I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to seeing Twelfth Night in a couple weeks. Oh, and I spent this whole day in dress shoes which left blisters the size of half dollars on my heels - not a good decision.

Wednesday was a really long day as well. I had class at 9:15 - Social and Cognitive Development. I am really going to enjoy this class too. The professor seems to be really good and I feel like I am going to learn a lot. For example, she didn't make us buy textbooks but instead gives us everything we need via articles and handouts. She also wants us to be engaged in class while we are there so she's printed out notes of each class for us so we aren't bothered with them and can discuss freely. I'm liking it. We are learning about the psychology behind the formative years between infancy and age 6. She spent half of the class telling stories about her own kids, which were actually helpful and relevant to class as well as pretty funny. The best thing might be our trip to the largest toy store in London to observe and do some research on the types of toys kids are getting. She also brings in her own kids for us to play games with for class, i guess. Should be enjoyable. My other class on wednesday was Macroeconomic Analysis - yawn - that's enough about that one. Last night we had a flat dinner that consisted of chicken parm with spaghetti and mashed potatoes. It was really good and a lot of fun. We had 9 or 10 people and everybody was full. I attempted the mashed potatoes and actually pulled it off. It was nice to have a real dinner like that because I've been eating mostly peanut butter sandwiches and cereal. But the pound has been dropping against the dollar lately, which has made everything a little nicer.

Today (Thursday) I went to my images of britain through the arts which was not very enjoyable. The guy treated us like we were in 3rd grade. We had to draw pictures of what we thought were icons of Britain. I'm serious. Then we talked about them and he would draw a tea kettle on the board and talk about the importance of tea. Mine was James Bond - A stick figure with a bowtie that had a speech bubble that said "Hi, I'm James Bond". He also thought that we knew absolutely nothing about our own country. I'm paraphrasing here but it went something like this - So you guys don't have a King and a Queen, does anybody know what you guys have? I'll give you a hint, its a P - word, it starts with a P... that's right a President. The whole class was just sitting in stunned silence. And it didn't end there - oh no. We also learned that the stripes on our flag represent the 13 colonies and the stars represent the states. But our learning wasn't limited to just that, oh no.. we also learned that Great Britain and Northern Ireland are Protestant and Ireland is Catholic. Oh and that the difference between english football and american football is that in one you can't use your hands. Great class. After that, I had my shakespeare class is pretty standard, although I am looking forward to going to see the Globe theatre. Tonight, we all had to watch The Queen for our images of britain class. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I actually stayed awake. After that I came back to the flat and here I am. Wow, I just realized how much I wrote... sorry about that. 

I'm sure I'll have a lot more after the weekend, take care!