Day 80, 4/10/2010
This day started much the same as the others in Berlin we got up, got ready and then came out to the lobby to eat breakfast. Then, catch the tram that runs in front of that hotel to our destination. Today we would be going to a concentration camp in the morning. It took us a while to get there because it was outside of town a little ways and we had to take a Regional train to get there then a bus a short distance. Once we got there we gathered into our tour group and started the tour. There really isn't much to say. Mostly because most of the camp is gone and a lot of it was changed by the previous government basically to be anti-fascism propaganda. They also left about a big part of the history when it was open to the public. They left out the part about it also being a Russian war camp after the Concentration Camp. I can't tell you much because we didn't really learn much except the way the camp was set up and why. The tour guide wasn't incredibly good and she had a weird fetish with groping the models. Well the weather was very cold with occasional rain. None of us had a heavy jacket so it was like setting the mood for how the prisoners felt as they entered this place. When we entered the camp we went in the same way the prisoners would have when they came to the camp 60-80 years ago. I can't remember the exact years that this camp was used. The saying on the original gate as you entered said in German "Work makes you free," just like Auschwitz. It was set up as a model camp for all the other concentration camps only later it wasn't used because of the impracticality of the triangle layout. It was impossible to add more to the camp in the current layout so they changed it into straight line barracks when they added other barracks later. It was laid out in an equilateral triangle so that one main guard house could guard every row of barracks cause they could see down every row. The gunner in the tower could shoot the machine gun that used to be mounted on top to any part of the camp with accuracy. There was a 'No man's land' line of about 4 meters along any of the walls. If one of the prisoners entered that space they would be shot without warning. Many would step into it as a form of suicide. Many were forced by the cruel SS guards. Others had to make a choice of whether to die or not because the SS guard would have take they're hat which was a required part of their uniform and thrown it into this area. If they didn't have the hat they would be punished with a beating to the lower back which would kill them anyway. Many chose to be killed by the bullet, because it was quick and relatively painless. This was a working camp not an extermination camp so there weren't many Jews in this camp. Most of the prisoners here were political prisoners. Other prisoners included Jews, Gypsies, POWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gays and many many others. Most of the people who were killed there were Russian prisoners of war however. I really don't want to talk about much of this because its just way too sad so I'll leave you with a list of the things we saw. After going in the gate and seeing the main triangle and the ring wall that marked the first line of barracks (In front of that was the open area where they had Roll Call) we walked over to a couple of reconstructed barracks so we could see what the inside looked like. Most everything in this place was torn down for use in rebuilding the town because it of course was destroyed during the war just like practically everything else. These barracks were numbers 38 and 39. They were reconstructions of reconstructions. The originals were of course torn down and the other ones were burned by an anti-Jewish arsonist. These were the Jewish Barracks, so it would make since that they would target them. So we sat in there for a while talking about the living conditions of the prisoners in this camp. About how many people slept in the beds and how the hierarchy worked within the prisoners themselves. It was very interesting. Another thing that we saw was some of the punishing devices as well as one of the contraptions they used to trick the Russian soldiers into thinking that they were getting a medical exam, when instead they would be shot in the back of the head. I shudder to think that so many people died in this place. After the barracks we walked over to where they would have killed people by shooting squad and where a mass grave was located for those bodies. On the way we stopped at one of the barrack markers and the guide explained why there were rocks on the barracks. It has to do with a Jewish tradition of placing small stones on a person's grave side out of respect. After that we walked over to the crematorium which was very close by. When we arrived at the crematorium I was a little freaked out. It just gave me this feeling of foreboding. I guess it would be something like what the prisoners felt about this place. It was were most of them were killed if they didn't kill themselves on the electric fence and it is where they burned the bodies. I took pictures but it felt wrong to do so, almost disrespectful. So after that and after she talked about the building we walked out again. It was the end of our tour at this horrible place. I couldn't wait to leave however since I knew that mom would like a book from this place and I've gotten a book at every museum I've visited I had 10 minutes to go to the book store and get the books I wanted and to get back to the bus stop. I made it with plenty of time and we were on our way back to Berlin. I don't remember exactly where we ate lunch. I believe it was at the train station before heading over to Museum island for the rest of the day. At least for me it was the rest of the day. We had to walk quite a ways from the train stop to get to the island museums. About half of us went to one museum while the other half went to a different one. I started this part of the day with the Pergamon Museum. This one I was the most excited about because it had the Ishtar Gate and the Altar of Pergamon inside. I really wanted to see this so this is where I went first. I checked out the book store while the rest of the group waited in line. I had a minor scare when I left my camera in there and didn't know where it was a for a few minutes. I ran all the way back to the book store and the shop keeper had it. Phew! scary moment. Well I walked through the museum and in the first room it was the Altar of Pergamon. This thing was huge. I knew it was big but this thing was huge. I walked around the room and got the best pictures I could with the sheer amount of people in that room. I looked at all the sculptures and the reliefs from the Altar that were lining the walls all around. Then I moved on to the next room. I saw several different really cool things through out the day. The next one was a rebuilt facade of what I think was a temple but it was unlike anything I've ever seen but since this thing wasn't really something I knew about I didn't spend much time there. After a while I came around the corner and there was the Ishtar Gate. I just stood there and gaped, much like I did at all the other museums I'd been to. I rather wish someone had been there to take a picture of my face cause I'm sure my mouth was open. I took a ton of pictures. Well, correction, I took as many pictures as my full memory card would allow. (Yes, I forgot to empty my memory card). I went through and deleted any pictures I didn't absolutely want and took more pictures. I think I might get a book specifically about the Gate when I get back to the states. So I looked at this thing for quite a while walking around and studying it. Then I moved on and kind just breezed through the rest. I'd seen what I wanted to see. So after that I headed to the book store and grabbed what I was interested in like a book then Trisha, Garrett and I headed to the other museum to see it as well before the end of the day. I had to get a ticket with a different group. I believe it was Jacob, David, and Tyler. We weren't allowed to go in until 5:30 After that we only had an hour to see the entire museum. So we waited in line and screwed around until it was our time to go in and off we went into the museum. Of course, I ended up doing the whole thing by myself. I was ok with it there was only one thing in the whole place I was really interested in anyway. That was the Nefertiti bust. It was really neat but it turns out that your not suppose to take pictures of it. I just got one really really blurry picture before I was told no. Its stupid because your allowed to take pictures of the entire rest of the place. So I walked through this place. I don't really remember anything else specific because that was the only part that I wanted to see of the whole thing. I of course bought myself a good book before I left. Then I was all alone. Everyone had left to meet up with Lars and go to a bar. I wanted to go but I wasn't in a hurry because I prefer the museum over a bar. So after that I had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I knew I needed to go to Alexander Platz but first I needed to find a bus stop/tram stop in order to get to where I needed to go. I had to walk around for quite some time till I found a place then I just got overly frustrated because the maps weren't legible I had no idea where to go or what to do. Eventually I just ended up going on the underground which was out of my way to the platz. It took two train switches to get there too. Finally I was at the platz but yet again I didn't know where I needed to go. So I just walked around trying to figure out what I needed to do. I was too afraid of getting on the wrong tram and I had no idea which one we had been using this whole time. So I called Lars and he told me which train. There was some minor confusion for me because one of the lines at the Alexander Platz stop wasn't working and I didn't know if it was the one going to right way or not. Finally I just decided to get on one and I made it to the hotel. It was lucky of me because I was so afraid of not getting there. When I got there it was over an hour after I left Museum Island. Everyone had already left to eat or go to a bar so I just decided to stay in the room and mess with my comp. I didn't want to get lost trying to find them. That was ok with me. I talked to Sean and wrote in my blog for about 4 hours till I was too hungry to wait anymore. I decided to head out and get some food. I asked the man at the main desk what would still be open because by then it was past 11. He pointed me around the corner. I just walked till I found a nice Italian place called, oddly enough, 'San Angelo's.' Well that made me laugh to myself a little bit and I went in to eat. After that I walked back to the hotel. By this time Lisa and Allie had come back and were in the room with Jason and Jake. So I just messed with my computer and bit longer till the guys left and we went to sleep.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Day 90, 4/20/2010
Day 79, 4/9/2010
New day in Berlin. It wasn't that hard to get up this day luckily. I got up around 7ish. This was a fun and yet another busy day. We went to a lot of places today and two of those places were for just a few hours. So we started the day walking down the East side gallery. Of course, after riding all the trains and what not to get over there. So we spent part of the morning walking down this wall and looking at the art work. This is the famous piece of the wall that was rebuilt later for a memorial and art gallery. Right after that we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. So this time we could see the front of the gate and to take a few pictures. I liked getting to see the Star Wars Storm-trooper standing right there in front of the Gate. I was kinda disappointed in the Gate especially after seeing all the arches and architecture in the ancient city in Rome. Well we took pictures of the gate and I got to see the United States Embassy as well as the window that Micheal Jackson held his baby out of. Right after that we walked to the Chancellery. We were invited to see the inside of the building and to see the architecture of the building, also so maybe learn a little bit about how the country works. So when we got there we had to go through airport like security to go inside. Once inside we were taken to all the different places and shown the different parts of the building as well as what they were used for. Like the meeting rooms and the place that they give television addresses, as well as the place where they greet important people as well. We also saw the back garden. I don't think many people, who don't work there get to see it. After that we headed back through and saw a few more rooms that were important to the government that I kind found boring. Then we were done at the Chancellery. This was when we had our free time for the day mostly so we could go eat some lunch. We rode the train all the way over to a larger shopping area near a church that was bombed during WWII. I hung out with the other group today. Allie, Lisa, Jake, Kevin, and Jason. It was a rather nice change from Trisha and Catie. So we walked down to the Ka Di We. Which is suppose to be one of the most famous if your in the fashion industry, which I'm not. We decided to go eat lunch on the top floor in the restaurant area. It was a buffet style meal which ended up being really good. After that we headed right back down to walk around the street level. Allie and Lisa stopped at one of the levels to look at Bathing Suits while Me and the guys went on down. While the guys shopped for shoes I looked around and found a few souvenir shops that I looked into but didn't get anything. I got a few squished coins in the area, so that was cool. Eventually I left the guys to seek out the Hard Rock Cafe. I didn't have too much time to find it and I really wanted to get that pin for Sean. So I walked down the street that I thought it was on looking for the famous sign just hoping it was sticking off the building far enough for me to see it. Well eventually I felt like I had walked way too far so I talked to a kiosk worker. He told me to go two blocks back and it would be to the right. Well I walked back and there was a Hard Rock on the corner... but this one was being built. I looked inside, trying to figure out where the other one was because I know he wouldn't have told me to go back if it wasn't there. A police officer walked up to me and asked me if he could help me. I asked him where it was since this one was under construction. He pointed me down the street. I found it and got my pin and turned around to head to the nearest underground station. I had to be at Alexander Platz by 4:30 and I only had an hour to get there and with how fast the underground took it would take me that long to get there. So off I went through the underground after figuring out where I needed to go and changing where necessary I got to the platz. I wondered around this place for a while searching for the group but I couldn't find them. Alvaro called me to asked where I was I told him I was in the platz but I didn't know where they were. He gave me directions over to the train station and I found them right as they were leaving to go to our next destination. Lucky again. We were heading to a convention called Pictoplasm. It was suppose to be in English and we had tickets to go watch one block of lectures. Sadly, it didn't turn out to be that invigorating. I fell asleep during the first lecture but the second one was ok because of the interesting images not exactly because he was a good speaker. The poor guy was so nervous. The host tried desperately to get him to talk with some ease but like I said he was so nervous. A couple of our group went to talk to him in person and came back saying that he was normal when talking face to face he was just too nervous talking to a crowd. This farther emphasizes the fact that artists shouldn't talk to crowds. Right after that we decided to go over to the Parliament building again to see if we could go up in the dome. We took the underground to get over there. This was to see if the line wasn't too long. Turns out it was. So we just decided to screw around in the Jewish Memorial. It was worth it. We had so much fun running through there and taking weird pictures. I got some pretty cool pictures of me and the gigantic blocks. Eventually it started to rain and we were getting tired of messing around so we headed toward an out of the way bar and art place that we looked at some pretty cool art work and home made jewelery. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting a catalog for Sean cause one of the artists there had some really awesome art that I know he would like. I also found an arm cuff I really liked but they told me that it was more money than I had and so I started to leave but they called me back and showed me others that were cheaper so I looked at those for a while and I found one I liked but it didn't fit as well as that first one but I still really liked it so I bought it. Later I kinda wished I hadn't but I can't change that now. I get weird when it comes to purchases like that sometimes I just can't say no and I later regret it. I've had that happen a few times when I'm purchasing clothes. So after having a beer at the bar we all headed back do to go our separate ways for dinner. First we all headed back to the hotel area then we went to dinner. I wanted to get something other than a doner which is where everyone was eating. So I ended up walking down the street with Trisha much to my dismay but I wasn't surprised to sit there and have her bitch the entire time yet again. I finally decided on Chinese food. I sat with them the group that I hung out with earlier that day. Trisha joined us but we didn't really care. After that we all headed back to the hotel for the night again. Nobody wanted to go out so we just went to sleep. Oops I think this was the night that Allie and Lisa decided to stay behind because of a coin toss. Oh well. After talking for a while we all went to bed.
New day in Berlin. It wasn't that hard to get up this day luckily. I got up around 7ish. This was a fun and yet another busy day. We went to a lot of places today and two of those places were for just a few hours. So we started the day walking down the East side gallery. Of course, after riding all the trains and what not to get over there. So we spent part of the morning walking down this wall and looking at the art work. This is the famous piece of the wall that was rebuilt later for a memorial and art gallery. Right after that we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. So this time we could see the front of the gate and to take a few pictures. I liked getting to see the Star Wars Storm-trooper standing right there in front of the Gate. I was kinda disappointed in the Gate especially after seeing all the arches and architecture in the ancient city in Rome. Well we took pictures of the gate and I got to see the United States Embassy as well as the window that Micheal Jackson held his baby out of. Right after that we walked to the Chancellery. We were invited to see the inside of the building and to see the architecture of the building, also so maybe learn a little bit about how the country works. So when we got there we had to go through airport like security to go inside. Once inside we were taken to all the different places and shown the different parts of the building as well as what they were used for. Like the meeting rooms and the place that they give television addresses, as well as the place where they greet important people as well. We also saw the back garden. I don't think many people, who don't work there get to see it. After that we headed back through and saw a few more rooms that were important to the government that I kind found boring. Then we were done at the Chancellery. This was when we had our free time for the day mostly so we could go eat some lunch. We rode the train all the way over to a larger shopping area near a church that was bombed during WWII. I hung out with the other group today. Allie, Lisa, Jake, Kevin, and Jason. It was a rather nice change from Trisha and Catie. So we walked down to the Ka Di We. Which is suppose to be one of the most famous if your in the fashion industry, which I'm not. We decided to go eat lunch on the top floor in the restaurant area. It was a buffet style meal which ended up being really good. After that we headed right back down to walk around the street level. Allie and Lisa stopped at one of the levels to look at Bathing Suits while Me and the guys went on down. While the guys shopped for shoes I looked around and found a few souvenir shops that I looked into but didn't get anything. I got a few squished coins in the area, so that was cool. Eventually I left the guys to seek out the Hard Rock Cafe. I didn't have too much time to find it and I really wanted to get that pin for Sean. So I walked down the street that I thought it was on looking for the famous sign just hoping it was sticking off the building far enough for me to see it. Well eventually I felt like I had walked way too far so I talked to a kiosk worker. He told me to go two blocks back and it would be to the right. Well I walked back and there was a Hard Rock on the corner... but this one was being built. I looked inside, trying to figure out where the other one was because I know he wouldn't have told me to go back if it wasn't there. A police officer walked up to me and asked me if he could help me. I asked him where it was since this one was under construction. He pointed me down the street. I found it and got my pin and turned around to head to the nearest underground station. I had to be at Alexander Platz by 4:30 and I only had an hour to get there and with how fast the underground took it would take me that long to get there. So off I went through the underground after figuring out where I needed to go and changing where necessary I got to the platz. I wondered around this place for a while searching for the group but I couldn't find them. Alvaro called me to asked where I was I told him I was in the platz but I didn't know where they were. He gave me directions over to the train station and I found them right as they were leaving to go to our next destination. Lucky again. We were heading to a convention called Pictoplasm. It was suppose to be in English and we had tickets to go watch one block of lectures. Sadly, it didn't turn out to be that invigorating. I fell asleep during the first lecture but the second one was ok because of the interesting images not exactly because he was a good speaker. The poor guy was so nervous. The host tried desperately to get him to talk with some ease but like I said he was so nervous. A couple of our group went to talk to him in person and came back saying that he was normal when talking face to face he was just too nervous talking to a crowd. This farther emphasizes the fact that artists shouldn't talk to crowds. Right after that we decided to go over to the Parliament building again to see if we could go up in the dome. We took the underground to get over there. This was to see if the line wasn't too long. Turns out it was. So we just decided to screw around in the Jewish Memorial. It was worth it. We had so much fun running through there and taking weird pictures. I got some pretty cool pictures of me and the gigantic blocks. Eventually it started to rain and we were getting tired of messing around so we headed toward an out of the way bar and art place that we looked at some pretty cool art work and home made jewelery. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting a catalog for Sean cause one of the artists there had some really awesome art that I know he would like. I also found an arm cuff I really liked but they told me that it was more money than I had and so I started to leave but they called me back and showed me others that were cheaper so I looked at those for a while and I found one I liked but it didn't fit as well as that first one but I still really liked it so I bought it. Later I kinda wished I hadn't but I can't change that now. I get weird when it comes to purchases like that sometimes I just can't say no and I later regret it. I've had that happen a few times when I'm purchasing clothes. So after having a beer at the bar we all headed back do to go our separate ways for dinner. First we all headed back to the hotel area then we went to dinner. I wanted to get something other than a doner which is where everyone was eating. So I ended up walking down the street with Trisha much to my dismay but I wasn't surprised to sit there and have her bitch the entire time yet again. I finally decided on Chinese food. I sat with them the group that I hung out with earlier that day. Trisha joined us but we didn't really care. After that we all headed back to the hotel for the night again. Nobody wanted to go out so we just went to sleep. Oops I think this was the night that Allie and Lisa decided to stay behind because of a coin toss. Oh well. After talking for a while we all went to bed.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Day 88, 4/18/2010
Day 75, 4/5/2010
Last day in London. :(
This was a very fast moving day. I had a list of things I wanted to see and do in the three hours I had to do it in. Gladly, I pulled it off. Although I didn't get to really enjoy the sites much because I was moving so quickly. So I got up and pretty much got ready and left, checking out on the way out. It was the beginning of this long day. The first place I wanted to go was Abbey Rd. The famous Abbey Rd. Only famous because of the Beatles. It was a long way away from any tub station so once I got to the closest one I still had to walk for quite a ways to actually get to the famous crosswalk. The only reason I knew it was the famous one was because Beatles graffiti started show up everywhere along walk next to the road. So I found the cross walk. I also took a lot of pictures of it. There was a really nice Asian girl there also and she offered to take some pictures of me on the cross walk so I got a few of me doing the famous walk across the road. It was cool, but there wasn't much there. Immediately after that I went straight back the way I came all the way down the road back to the tub station. The next place I went was Bakers Street. This was to see Sherlock Holmes's 'place of residence.' He's fictional so there isn't actually a place to see; I just wanted to say I'd been there. I walked all the way down the street to the park. I took a few pictures of the park. While I was doing that an old English lady walked up nearby and her dog came and greeted me. I don't remember her name but the dogs name was Deedee. If you haven't noticed I'm really bad with names. Anyway, I walked down the street and talked to her for a little while as we walked. We parted ways at the entrance to the Bakers Street tub station. Right after that I decided it was time that I should go get Sean's pin from the Hard Rock Cafe. I've gotten him a pin from ever major city that I've found a Hard Rock in. I feel special because that is pretty much the only souvenir's he's asked for. I'm an awesome girlfriend. Teehee. The walk to the Hard Rock was long because I didn't know exactly where it was. It actually wasted a lot of my time. I might have had time to go into Westminster Abbey later if I had known where the Hard Rock was. Well I got off at the stop I should have and then tried to figure out where to go from there. I ended up asking a person selling tours where to go. By then my feet were hurting like usual. He told me to go straight down the street and I would get there. Well needless to say that took FOREVER. I walked and walked. And when I finally found the place that he told me I had to use the address the Canadian men told me the night before. I eventually found the restaurant, but it was closed. I got pretty upset because I didn't know when it would open and I didn't have the time to come back or wait. I just kind stood there trying not to get upset when a worker came out of the door. I asked him when it opened and he told me eleven. Then he asked me if I was going to eat or I just wanted to go in the store. I told him I just wanted the store. He made me feel so much better when he told me that the store was in a different place because it was so big and that it was open. I wanted to hug him, but didn't. He pointed me on my way. I got there got the pin and then went to the closest tub station which was way closer than the one I came from. Then it was time to take a step into Harry Potter by heading to King's Cross and hopefully find the sign for Platform 9 3/4. Sadly when I got there it was under construction and I had no way of getting to the platforms... I was kinda sad but I could change it. After yet again wasting my time I headed to the tub station and on to the next place, Parliament buildings and Big Ben in the day time. Mostly, so I would have pictures of it as well. So I went all the way over there via tub station again. I pretty much followed the exact same path I did the day before. I came out of the station then went out on the bridge for pictures. I took a few there then back to the same place I took pictures of the London Eye. Then I went to the other side of the Parliament Buildings and toward Westminster Abbey again for pictures. This time I was able to go inside St. Margaret's Church. Its a smaller church right next to the Abbey. I went in briefly because like I said before I didn't really have the time to wonder. So I went over to Westminster. Debating the whole time whether I should go in or not. Sadly I decided against it because I still wanted to go see Buckingham Palace and I had less than an hour to see it. So I walked around the exterior taking pictures then stopping briefly in the shop to grab a book about Westminster Abbey. Then off I went to Buckingham and my last rushed stop of the day before I had to catch a tub over to. I pretty much got out at St. James park and headed toward the palace. I walked quickly despite how my feet hurt so I could get there with enough time to get pictures and leave. I was already past the time I planned on leaving so I was rushing. I took some pictures of birds and scenery in the park as I walked to the palace. I didn't have the time to make sure they were good pictures sadly. So once I actually go to the palace. I took the pictures I wanted and turned right back around to go to the tub station. It was past the last alarm I set to get to the airport. I was so late. I practically ran to the tub station. I could really because my feet hurt so bad. When I got there I already knew how I needed to get to Victoria. When I got there I bought my train ticket to get to the airport and then got on the train. Not long after the train left. 30 minutes later I was at the airport. Luckily I didn't have to check in because I didn't have any bags to check. I ran the entire way. I got to the airport and it turns out I needed to go to the other terminal so I found the buses that were going there and got on one. I got there and ran all the way to the other side of the terminal to finally get to my plane. When I got there they were already in line for boarding. Phew!! I made it just in time. That could have been so bad. I will never ever ever do that again. If I'm going to see something I'm going to fit it into the days BEFORE I'm going to leave. So finally on the plane. It took us about an hour and a half to get back. I had to listen to the couple next to me argue the entire way there. That sucked but I could do anything about it without being rude. So I just played my gameboy till we landed then I immediately went to the skytram to go to the trains to get home. When I got to the train station the train didn't come for an entire hour so Yay more waiting and playing my game. Finally the train came and I was on my way home. When I got back to Bonn I got on the usual UBahn to get home. Finally at home I immediately crashed. I fell asleep at 9. I was an incredibly long day.
Day 76, 4/6/2010
Well the beginning of a two day week which is so nice considering. The whole end of the week was completely devoted to yet another trip. Well on Tuesday we just had a game class and nothing for the rest of the day. I don't remember if we had a presentation that day but if memory serves me right we didn't. I enjoyed the day because we didn't really have much class. Yet again, most of us just worked on our final projects for most of the day. I don't remember anything specific happening. So I guess it was an un-eventful day. The usual for the evening before going to bed.
Day 77, 4/7/2010
The really nice thing about today is that it didn't start until 1 in the afternoon so I was able to sleep all morning. When I finally got up it was about 11 I got ready and headed to class. After getting there we had our meeting about Berlin and the pre-departure stuff we needed to know before we left like what time to get to the train station. Right after that we had studio. This time we just went over what we've already done and what needs to be done before the end of the semester. I'm not worried yet about getting stuff finished but I'm sure I'll get worried and stressed before the end. So anyway we showed them what we had and that was about it besides working because we were leaving for the Berlin trip the very next day.
Day 78, 4/8/2010
This was the first day of an awesome four days in Berlin. However, it didn't start very good. First of all my alarm didn't wake me up. It didn't wake me up at all. I was woken up by David calling me on my cell phone to ask me if I was coming. That gave me the biggest heart attack. I had no idea if I would make it there or not. I jumped out of bed and ran around getting dressed. I asked my host mom if she would be willing to get me to the train station. I don't understand why the only days I don't wake up on time are the days that I could get left behind or look the worst to the coordinator, Lars. Well my host mom wasn't actually ready for the day but she threw on some clothes for me to take me into town. I was so grateful because without her twice now I wouldn't have made it in time. Well I grabbed my stuff she threw on some clothes. I'd already done the same thing. I grabbed my tooth brush and we ran down to the car and hopped in on our way to the station. We got there and I had only 5 minutes to spare. I ran as fast as I could to the platform and found the car we were in with just enough time for me to put my bag up in the rack and for me to sit down and the train started moving. I can't believe that I made it in time again. This is the second major trip we've gone on that I almost missed the departure time. So this was an incredibly long train ride. I spent most of it talking and typing on my computer. That was when I caught up quite a bit on my blog. Finally we got there and we had to ride several trains and trams to get to our hotel so we could drop off our luggage. First however when we got to the Hauptbahnhof we grabbed some lunch. Silly me grabbed some sushi which I had be craving for a while. After we ate and met up in the designated meeting place we grabbed the tram to the different places we needed to go to get to the hotel. Once there we dropped off our stuff. Hung out for about an hour, (I was roomed with Lisa and Allie this time) then we headed back out to go to the Bike Tour office. We were about to go on a bike tour of Berlin. We started the tour in an old brewery that has since been changed into a culture center. After that we rode all over town. The first major place we visited on this tour was a replication of the wall and the former neutral zone between the two walls. The Berlin wall consisted of two walls and a 'No Man's land.' Then we visited a same location as a church that was right on the wall boarder that they tried to prevent from being torn down but it still was later. This was a rebuilt modern church and an observation tower with an exhibition. You could see a completely rebuilt and replicated area of the wall and the 'No Mans Land.' It was just like it was when the wall was at its height of security. It was kinda weird to see. After I was late again because I had to go to the restroom we started riding along to the only tower left in its original location from the Berlin Wall. This was a little more moving because the guy who gave us the tour was the brother to the first person shot trying to get over the wall to freedom. It was weird seeing this location and how the towers worked along the wall. We didn't stay there long, but I was still moved by the brief time we were in there. Mostly because of the cruel ways they used to keep people from escaping. One of the worst was a large mat of foot long spikes that they would place just over the wall so that any one jumping would fall on these and basically bleed to death depending on if the soldiers decided to come help them or not. After that we headed to the next place on the list which was the Chancellery and the Parliament Building with the modern day glass dome. All we did was ride past it. Right near here was the field where Hitler had planned on building his Germania. This was interesting because, again, although nothing was there it was the original location of history. We stopped briefly at a shop right next to those buildings before heading one our way to the Brandenburg Gate. Sadly we didn't get to see the front today but we would go to the front later. We continued our tour over to Jewish Memorial again we couldn't stay long. Long enough to talk about it and move on to the next place. The second to last place we went that was a location without anything there was Hitler Bunker. Where he supposedly killed himself at the end of WWII. Nowadays it's just a parking lot with a sign. That was it. After that since it was getting close to the end of our tour we had one more place to go before riding back to the Bike Tour office. This was the location of the book burning during the War. There wasn't much to see except a memorial for the books below ground represented by empty bookshelves. After that we were done with our tour and we had a dinner reservation we had to make it to so we rode back to the office as quick as we could so we could get on our way to the restaurant. This place was called the Kartofelselar, or Potato Cellar. This was the best place I've ever eaten. It was amazing. I loved every bite of food I put in my mouth and sadly I'll think about this place for the rest of my life and I will never be able to eat there again. I also got the best Beer I've ever had as well. Called Berliner Weisse Rot. It was soo good. We talked and screwed around for the time we were waiting for our food then after that we didn't do anything because it was just so good. Then we were done for the evening and we headed back to the hotel. At least a few of us stayed when we got there. Allie, Lisa and I just went to our rooms to talk and wait for the guys to decide if they wanted to go out. Well by the time the guys came by the room we didn't want to go anywhere. Allie and Lisa couldn't decide so I flipped a coin for them and they decided by that to stay. Right after that we went to bed.
Last day in London. :(
This was a very fast moving day. I had a list of things I wanted to see and do in the three hours I had to do it in. Gladly, I pulled it off. Although I didn't get to really enjoy the sites much because I was moving so quickly. So I got up and pretty much got ready and left, checking out on the way out. It was the beginning of this long day. The first place I wanted to go was Abbey Rd. The famous Abbey Rd. Only famous because of the Beatles. It was a long way away from any tub station so once I got to the closest one I still had to walk for quite a ways to actually get to the famous crosswalk. The only reason I knew it was the famous one was because Beatles graffiti started show up everywhere along walk next to the road. So I found the cross walk. I also took a lot of pictures of it. There was a really nice Asian girl there also and she offered to take some pictures of me on the cross walk so I got a few of me doing the famous walk across the road. It was cool, but there wasn't much there. Immediately after that I went straight back the way I came all the way down the road back to the tub station. The next place I went was Bakers Street. This was to see Sherlock Holmes's 'place of residence.' He's fictional so there isn't actually a place to see; I just wanted to say I'd been there. I walked all the way down the street to the park. I took a few pictures of the park. While I was doing that an old English lady walked up nearby and her dog came and greeted me. I don't remember her name but the dogs name was Deedee. If you haven't noticed I'm really bad with names. Anyway, I walked down the street and talked to her for a little while as we walked. We parted ways at the entrance to the Bakers Street tub station. Right after that I decided it was time that I should go get Sean's pin from the Hard Rock Cafe. I've gotten him a pin from ever major city that I've found a Hard Rock in. I feel special because that is pretty much the only souvenir's he's asked for. I'm an awesome girlfriend. Teehee. The walk to the Hard Rock was long because I didn't know exactly where it was. It actually wasted a lot of my time. I might have had time to go into Westminster Abbey later if I had known where the Hard Rock was. Well I got off at the stop I should have and then tried to figure out where to go from there. I ended up asking a person selling tours where to go. By then my feet were hurting like usual. He told me to go straight down the street and I would get there. Well needless to say that took FOREVER. I walked and walked. And when I finally found the place that he told me I had to use the address the Canadian men told me the night before. I eventually found the restaurant, but it was closed. I got pretty upset because I didn't know when it would open and I didn't have the time to come back or wait. I just kind stood there trying not to get upset when a worker came out of the door. I asked him when it opened and he told me eleven. Then he asked me if I was going to eat or I just wanted to go in the store. I told him I just wanted the store. He made me feel so much better when he told me that the store was in a different place because it was so big and that it was open. I wanted to hug him, but didn't. He pointed me on my way. I got there got the pin and then went to the closest tub station which was way closer than the one I came from. Then it was time to take a step into Harry Potter by heading to King's Cross and hopefully find the sign for Platform 9 3/4. Sadly when I got there it was under construction and I had no way of getting to the platforms... I was kinda sad but I could change it. After yet again wasting my time I headed to the tub station and on to the next place, Parliament buildings and Big Ben in the day time. Mostly, so I would have pictures of it as well. So I went all the way over there via tub station again. I pretty much followed the exact same path I did the day before. I came out of the station then went out on the bridge for pictures. I took a few there then back to the same place I took pictures of the London Eye. Then I went to the other side of the Parliament Buildings and toward Westminster Abbey again for pictures. This time I was able to go inside St. Margaret's Church. Its a smaller church right next to the Abbey. I went in briefly because like I said before I didn't really have the time to wonder. So I went over to Westminster. Debating the whole time whether I should go in or not. Sadly I decided against it because I still wanted to go see Buckingham Palace and I had less than an hour to see it. So I walked around the exterior taking pictures then stopping briefly in the shop to grab a book about Westminster Abbey. Then off I went to Buckingham and my last rushed stop of the day before I had to catch a tub over to. I pretty much got out at St. James park and headed toward the palace. I walked quickly despite how my feet hurt so I could get there with enough time to get pictures and leave. I was already past the time I planned on leaving so I was rushing. I took some pictures of birds and scenery in the park as I walked to the palace. I didn't have the time to make sure they were good pictures sadly. So once I actually go to the palace. I took the pictures I wanted and turned right back around to go to the tub station. It was past the last alarm I set to get to the airport. I was so late. I practically ran to the tub station. I could really because my feet hurt so bad. When I got there I already knew how I needed to get to Victoria. When I got there I bought my train ticket to get to the airport and then got on the train. Not long after the train left. 30 minutes later I was at the airport. Luckily I didn't have to check in because I didn't have any bags to check. I ran the entire way. I got to the airport and it turns out I needed to go to the other terminal so I found the buses that were going there and got on one. I got there and ran all the way to the other side of the terminal to finally get to my plane. When I got there they were already in line for boarding. Phew!! I made it just in time. That could have been so bad. I will never ever ever do that again. If I'm going to see something I'm going to fit it into the days BEFORE I'm going to leave. So finally on the plane. It took us about an hour and a half to get back. I had to listen to the couple next to me argue the entire way there. That sucked but I could do anything about it without being rude. So I just played my gameboy till we landed then I immediately went to the skytram to go to the trains to get home. When I got to the train station the train didn't come for an entire hour so Yay more waiting and playing my game. Finally the train came and I was on my way home. When I got back to Bonn I got on the usual UBahn to get home. Finally at home I immediately crashed. I fell asleep at 9. I was an incredibly long day.
Day 76, 4/6/2010
Well the beginning of a two day week which is so nice considering. The whole end of the week was completely devoted to yet another trip. Well on Tuesday we just had a game class and nothing for the rest of the day. I don't remember if we had a presentation that day but if memory serves me right we didn't. I enjoyed the day because we didn't really have much class. Yet again, most of us just worked on our final projects for most of the day. I don't remember anything specific happening. So I guess it was an un-eventful day. The usual for the evening before going to bed.
Day 77, 4/7/2010
The really nice thing about today is that it didn't start until 1 in the afternoon so I was able to sleep all morning. When I finally got up it was about 11 I got ready and headed to class. After getting there we had our meeting about Berlin and the pre-departure stuff we needed to know before we left like what time to get to the train station. Right after that we had studio. This time we just went over what we've already done and what needs to be done before the end of the semester. I'm not worried yet about getting stuff finished but I'm sure I'll get worried and stressed before the end. So anyway we showed them what we had and that was about it besides working because we were leaving for the Berlin trip the very next day.
Day 78, 4/8/2010
This was the first day of an awesome four days in Berlin. However, it didn't start very good. First of all my alarm didn't wake me up. It didn't wake me up at all. I was woken up by David calling me on my cell phone to ask me if I was coming. That gave me the biggest heart attack. I had no idea if I would make it there or not. I jumped out of bed and ran around getting dressed. I asked my host mom if she would be willing to get me to the train station. I don't understand why the only days I don't wake up on time are the days that I could get left behind or look the worst to the coordinator, Lars. Well my host mom wasn't actually ready for the day but she threw on some clothes for me to take me into town. I was so grateful because without her twice now I wouldn't have made it in time. Well I grabbed my stuff she threw on some clothes. I'd already done the same thing. I grabbed my tooth brush and we ran down to the car and hopped in on our way to the station. We got there and I had only 5 minutes to spare. I ran as fast as I could to the platform and found the car we were in with just enough time for me to put my bag up in the rack and for me to sit down and the train started moving. I can't believe that I made it in time again. This is the second major trip we've gone on that I almost missed the departure time. So this was an incredibly long train ride. I spent most of it talking and typing on my computer. That was when I caught up quite a bit on my blog. Finally we got there and we had to ride several trains and trams to get to our hotel so we could drop off our luggage. First however when we got to the Hauptbahnhof we grabbed some lunch. Silly me grabbed some sushi which I had be craving for a while. After we ate and met up in the designated meeting place we grabbed the tram to the different places we needed to go to get to the hotel. Once there we dropped off our stuff. Hung out for about an hour, (I was roomed with Lisa and Allie this time) then we headed back out to go to the Bike Tour office. We were about to go on a bike tour of Berlin. We started the tour in an old brewery that has since been changed into a culture center. After that we rode all over town. The first major place we visited on this tour was a replication of the wall and the former neutral zone between the two walls. The Berlin wall consisted of two walls and a 'No Man's land.' Then we visited a same location as a church that was right on the wall boarder that they tried to prevent from being torn down but it still was later. This was a rebuilt modern church and an observation tower with an exhibition. You could see a completely rebuilt and replicated area of the wall and the 'No Mans Land.' It was just like it was when the wall was at its height of security. It was kinda weird to see. After I was late again because I had to go to the restroom we started riding along to the only tower left in its original location from the Berlin Wall. This was a little more moving because the guy who gave us the tour was the brother to the first person shot trying to get over the wall to freedom. It was weird seeing this location and how the towers worked along the wall. We didn't stay there long, but I was still moved by the brief time we were in there. Mostly because of the cruel ways they used to keep people from escaping. One of the worst was a large mat of foot long spikes that they would place just over the wall so that any one jumping would fall on these and basically bleed to death depending on if the soldiers decided to come help them or not. After that we headed to the next place on the list which was the Chancellery and the Parliament Building with the modern day glass dome. All we did was ride past it. Right near here was the field where Hitler had planned on building his Germania. This was interesting because, again, although nothing was there it was the original location of history. We stopped briefly at a shop right next to those buildings before heading one our way to the Brandenburg Gate. Sadly we didn't get to see the front today but we would go to the front later. We continued our tour over to Jewish Memorial again we couldn't stay long. Long enough to talk about it and move on to the next place. The second to last place we went that was a location without anything there was Hitler Bunker. Where he supposedly killed himself at the end of WWII. Nowadays it's just a parking lot with a sign. That was it. After that since it was getting close to the end of our tour we had one more place to go before riding back to the Bike Tour office. This was the location of the book burning during the War. There wasn't much to see except a memorial for the books below ground represented by empty bookshelves. After that we were done with our tour and we had a dinner reservation we had to make it to so we rode back to the office as quick as we could so we could get on our way to the restaurant. This place was called the Kartofelselar, or Potato Cellar. This was the best place I've ever eaten. It was amazing. I loved every bite of food I put in my mouth and sadly I'll think about this place for the rest of my life and I will never be able to eat there again. I also got the best Beer I've ever had as well. Called Berliner Weisse Rot. It was soo good. We talked and screwed around for the time we were waiting for our food then after that we didn't do anything because it was just so good. Then we were done for the evening and we headed back to the hotel. At least a few of us stayed when we got there. Allie, Lisa and I just went to our rooms to talk and wait for the guys to decide if they wanted to go out. Well by the time the guys came by the room we didn't want to go anywhere. Allie and Lisa couldn't decide so I flipped a coin for them and they decided by that to stay. Right after that we went to bed.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Day 86, 4/16/2010
Will I ever be caught up?
Not unless I write everyday
Day 74, 4/4/2010
Wow am I really 12 days behind...
I had a hard time getting up this day, but I still was on the train by no later than 8:20, which was twenty minutes later than I wanted but still not bad considering I had no one yelling at me to get up. This was the best day I've had in the entire time I've been here, only rivaled by the previous visit to the Lourve, and a later visit to a couple of Berlin Museums, I'll talk more about those when the day comes up. So, this day like all started on the tub, going to my destination. This morning it would be the Globe theater first. I had made the decision the previous day that it was just something I couldn't miss, no matter what. I had to get off at the St. Paul's tub station again, then walk across Millennium Bridge like I did the day before to get to St. Paul's just in reverse order. Well I got there when the place opened at about 9ish. (Yea, I know, the trains take forever). However, the first tour of the interior of the Globe wasn't until 10. Well I didn't plan on going into the exhibition about Shakespeare but since I was going to have to wait an hour anyway, I went in. Interesting fact, no one actually knows how he spelled his name because he spelled it differently in ever signature that has survived from him. Weird right. I started through the exhibition and I wasn't even half way through when the gong rang to go on the tour. So I hurried out to catch the tour guide. He introduced himself, I can't remember his name, and we immediately went over to the Globe. Well, sadly this is the third Globe theater. All of the others are gone, including the original Globe where Shakespeare's original plays were performed. They only just barely pinpointed the location of the second one a little over a decade ago. Mostly because they found the remains, still intact of another theater in the area called the Rose. It was a rival theater in the Banks of the Thames. This allowed them to pinpoint where the Globe was originally. However, the one we were in was just a replica, as close as they could get, to the first Globe that burned down in 1613 because of cannon fire during a performance of King Henry VIII. The wadding caught the thatched roof on fire. There were no casualties, according to the tour guide. We first sat up in the second story balcony area so we could look at all the features of this Globe theater and he talked a little about the previous two and their locations. We also talked about the similarities of this one and the first one. Another interesting story on how that theater came into being is about a man named, Sam Wanamaker, who came to London in the 40's naively thinking he was going to get to see the original Globe, not even the second one, the first one. The one that burned in the 1600's. Well, needless to say at the time they didn't even know where the location was let alone have a theater standing. Well this upset Sam and he made it his literal life goal to get a new one built as close to the approximate location as he could get. in 1993 his goal was realized after a life time of campaigning and money collecting. Sadly, he did before it was finished built but he died knowing that it would be. This was quite a moving story for me because rarely does someone have that kind of passion to have something done. This Globe was built like the first one, with a thatched roof and everything. It was pretty amazing to be in a building that was built as close to the old one as possible, using the same building techniques and everything. We sat and listened and talked a little up on the second level before continuing down to the bottom where the common people would have stood for a performance. You would pay 2 penny's to stand on the ground for the three hour performance,1 more penny to sit on the second and another on the third. A whole shilling to sit in the Lords rooms or on the balcony on the stage. The point of sitting there was not to watch the play but to show the world how rich you were by paying to get to sit there. Another thing I learned is that everyone went to see these plays from the lowest to the highest, including royalty. It amazing, to get to see this replicated place of history. I only wish it could have been the original. After talking on the second level we were allowed to go down to where the common folk would have stood for the play in the pit area. I believe the nick-name for them was "pit dogs". It was very interesting to get this insight into this place. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I had planned to go to a different museum this one was well worth it. After we finished in the Pit area we headed out to look at the name blocks outside and with that the tour was over. I immediately went back to the exhibition. I didn't want to spend too much more time there but I was still interested in everything. I pretty much just started taking pictures of all the signs. The place wasn't too big so I was able to get a picture of all of them. Mostly for Sean and I. I wanted to be able to read them but simply didn't have the time for it. Hind sight tells me that I should have paid more attention to my camera batter and not taken so many pointless, by that I mean deleted later, pictures. After that I went and bought the things I picked out of the store the day before. Then I was off to the British Museum, where I would see things that I had no idea they had or would even imagine me seeing. I was way too exciting. This place is what made me fall in love with London. The first thing I saw was the oldest piece of art the museum had called the Swimming Reindeer. It was made from the end of a mastodon tusk 13000 years ago. After that I saw (Not in exact order) some Native American stuff from America, I also saw one of the Easter Island statues, a Crystal Skull, many old Stone Age items, pieces of the Yorkshire Hoard as well as from the hoard found in 2009 just recently, The really good stuff that made me so excited was a piece of Egyptian sculpture of Ramses II, as well as other smaller less famous Egyptian stuff, a piece to the beard of the famous Sphinx in Egypt, and several mummies. Out of the Egyptian section and into the Assyrian. I saw yet more Lamasu, yet these were different than the ones at the Louvre but these weren't as interesting because we didn't study these specifically. After that I saw the Lion Hunt relief, which is something we looked at last semester. Then the biggest highlight of the whole day because my camera was still working was getting to see The Black Obelisk of Shalmanezer III. This just made my day. It was one of the more specific things we wrote a paper about last semester. I studied this thing very closely just like the relief in Munich. I was able to see it in person. It just made my day. I took so many pictures of it because I wanted to document it. After that it was on to other rooms. I didn't get upset until about half way through that section when my camera died. I wasn't too happy about it, because right after that is when I walked into the best sections of all, these next there were all things we specifically studied in class. The first one was the Mausoleum of Halikarnasos. Well whats left of it. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I've now seen one of the wonders!! (Again, what is left of it) I was able to get my camera to work for one picture of the monumental statues representing the two people that were buried there. It is thought to be a wife and husband, named Mausolus and Artemisia. The word mausoleum comes from this monument. It was amazing. I just sat there and looked at it for some time before moving on to my next big surprise. Again another thing I didn't know was at this museum, The Nereid Monument!!!!!!!!! The exclamation points don't even come close to how in awe and excited I was. It was amazing. Yet again I got lucky enough to get my camera to work and I got a picture of it. It wasn't a bad picture either except the girl in front that was moving at the time, but I didn't care I got a picture. The Right after that the second best room after the Nereid Monument room. This one had the sculptures from the Parthenon. It was all the Metopes, Friezes, and Pediments. The Centaurmachy and the processions. Both, pediments and the famous bust of Iris. I really need to stop going into detail or I'm never going to finish this day. Good thing is that right after that there wasn't anything that absolutely made me weak in the knees sorta speak. After that I went to get some quick lunch right as the cafe was closing, I got some really hard pizza. I was kinda disappointed because I should have gotten the fish and chips. After that I went through what I could of the rest of the museum. At one point I didn't realize that I had missed the Rosetta Stone. I just completely missed it. I don't know how it was right in front of me when I walked into this area but I didn't see it. I guess I just saw this large stone with writing on it, went huh 'thats cool' and moved on. So when I couldn't find it on my map and I had to ask someone where it was, it was a *face palm* moment because there it was. luckily, yet again, and for the last time I was able to get my camera to work so I got one picture of it. After that I went upstairs. This area was mostly Indian and Hindu artifacts. That was interesting because I didn't know anything about any of it. I loved being able to see something new as well. The very last thing I saw was peices to the famous Yorkshire hoard and the one found in 2009 that changed our thinking about the Vikings. The other thing that I saw was the Lewis Chess Pieces. Which turns out aren't really chess pieces, but since at this time they were basically shoving us out the door we had to go and I didn't get the time to read the rest of the information. After that I headed to the the book store to find one of the books that I had been looking at periodically throughout the day as I would pass the store. When I got back to one of the stores that had post cards I grabbed a few and decided that it was a good idea to get one of the water bottles that was there. A Rosetta Stone one. I really liked it and I wanted a water bottle. Although I'd rather not compare the price to what I would have paid in the states. Yea it was probably WAY too expensive, but whatever. After that I headed out of the museum for the long walk back to the station. I didn't mention earlier but the station was quite a ways from the Museum itself. Along the way I found a souvenir shop that had some dolls and DP!!! I didn't even see the dolls at first because I headed straight for the Dr. Pepper. MMMMM it was so good. I didn't even make it back to the hostel before It was all gone. Anyway while I was there before I paid for the DP I saw some dolls. They looked really bad at first then I noticed some porcelain ones right next to them. These were exactly what I was looking for. A culture specific doll to the area. It was perfect. I find it a little weird because it is a police officer but then London is famous for the uniform the police used to wear. So after I found that I didn't want to get it without making sure it was made in the UK because all the dolls I have are from their country of origin. So I called Mom first and since it was Easter I wished them all a happy Easter. Yes I know I didn't mention it before except with going to Easter Vigil at St. Paul's. So while I was on the phone with them I asked them to look up the doll company for me. I hung up with them a milled about the store talking to the worker for a little while. Then I called them back and they gave me the go ahead. They told me that all the info they found about it pointed to that it was made in the UK by a certain lady and I asked mom if she was in doubt would she still buy it. She told me yes, so I got it. Then I headed back to the hostel to try and figure out a way to charge my phone. I forgot my plug converter for the UK so I didn't get the chance to charge my phone the night before. I rode the trains all the way back to the hostel. When I got there I asked the desk clerk where I could get a plug converter. They sold them there at the counter for 2 pounds. That worked out perfectly cause I was able to go upstairs and start charging my camera. I tried to get it charged enough before the sun went down but that didn't happen so I just settled for going to get some night pictures. After about an hour of waiting I headed for the train to get to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben. When I got there the sun was already down. I came out of the station and right next to the exit was Big Ben. I had to look straight up to even realize what it was. I was so surprised. After that I headed out to go across Parliament bridge so I could get pictures of the those buildings as well as the London Eye and Big Ben. After taking quite a few of them I headed over around the Parliament buildings to the back so I could see that side and Westminster Abbey was right there. So I took some night pictures of it as well. I also walked around to the front of it to get more pictures. Then I headed back to the station so I could back to the area near my hostel for some food. When I got there I tried a bar that I saw that had fish and chips but their kitchen was closed for the night. So, I headed down the street to try to find some place to eat. I ended up going to a cheap Italian place down the road a little ways. When I got there they didn't have a place for me to sit so I stood for a while then they took me down stairs where I had to sit by myself till they got a free table upstairs. When I finally sat down there I ordered Carbonara. Before I got my pasta two gentle men sat down next to me. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because the tables were really close, but it ended up being just fine. I don't know how the conversation started but we just started talking. Mostly about different things like all the stuff I had seen that day. I was a very good conversation I quite enjoyed it. These two men were there for business because they both work in the restaurant business. They were both from Newfoundland, Canada and the gentlemen I talked the most with owned a restaurant in St. Johns called Atlantica, or Atlantis. I wish I could remember because I can't find it on the internet now. I'm suppose to look them up any time I'm in St. Johns. I don't remember their names though. I think the shorter one, not the owner of the restaurant was named Terry. After a little while, I realized that I wasn't eating so I started trying to finish. When I had finished and they had they asked me if I wanted any dessert. I hadn't planned on but I ordered some cake and a cappaccino. It was a very good dessert. I quite enjoyed it. When it was over I pulled out my wallet to pay and they told me no that dinner was on them for making such a good conversation. It was really nice. I was too stunned to know why they did it. They insisted and since I didn't have that much money left I didn't complain. I thanked them a lot before we even got out of the restaurant. Once outside we ended up just walking down the street which turns out was the wrong direction for me but it was ok I was getting to talk to people who spoke English. After that I told them that we were heading in the wrong direction because my hostel was back toward the park. So we turned around and headed back. At one point they asked me about a sculpture on a store wall. It was just a representation of Neo-Greek with modern figures and after looking at it I told them so. After that we kept walking and I asked them where the Hard Rock was. The restaurant owner whipped out his phone and looked it up. Turns out it was just around the corner. So after that we walked all the way back to the hostel. I guess they were still enjoying the conversation because they walked me all the way to my hostel. We said goodbye and I went inside. I quite enjoyed the conversation. It put some confidence in me that I still had conversation skills. I went immediately up stairs. While up there I soaked my feet and watched TV. I also went down stairs on the internet for a little while. They gave me some extra minutes because of a messed up station. I didn't use the minutes though because Sean got off early and I didn't have anything else to do. So I went back upstairs (the computers were in the lobby) and watched TV till later. (Fiddler on the Roof). I finally just had to turn the TV off because I really needed to sleep so I could get going by 8 in the morning.
Not unless I write everyday
Day 74, 4/4/2010
Wow am I really 12 days behind...
I had a hard time getting up this day, but I still was on the train by no later than 8:20, which was twenty minutes later than I wanted but still not bad considering I had no one yelling at me to get up. This was the best day I've had in the entire time I've been here, only rivaled by the previous visit to the Lourve, and a later visit to a couple of Berlin Museums, I'll talk more about those when the day comes up. So, this day like all started on the tub, going to my destination. This morning it would be the Globe theater first. I had made the decision the previous day that it was just something I couldn't miss, no matter what. I had to get off at the St. Paul's tub station again, then walk across Millennium Bridge like I did the day before to get to St. Paul's just in reverse order. Well I got there when the place opened at about 9ish. (Yea, I know, the trains take forever). However, the first tour of the interior of the Globe wasn't until 10. Well I didn't plan on going into the exhibition about Shakespeare but since I was going to have to wait an hour anyway, I went in. Interesting fact, no one actually knows how he spelled his name because he spelled it differently in ever signature that has survived from him. Weird right. I started through the exhibition and I wasn't even half way through when the gong rang to go on the tour. So I hurried out to catch the tour guide. He introduced himself, I can't remember his name, and we immediately went over to the Globe. Well, sadly this is the third Globe theater. All of the others are gone, including the original Globe where Shakespeare's original plays were performed. They only just barely pinpointed the location of the second one a little over a decade ago. Mostly because they found the remains, still intact of another theater in the area called the Rose. It was a rival theater in the Banks of the Thames. This allowed them to pinpoint where the Globe was originally. However, the one we were in was just a replica, as close as they could get, to the first Globe that burned down in 1613 because of cannon fire during a performance of King Henry VIII. The wadding caught the thatched roof on fire. There were no casualties, according to the tour guide. We first sat up in the second story balcony area so we could look at all the features of this Globe theater and he talked a little about the previous two and their locations. We also talked about the similarities of this one and the first one. Another interesting story on how that theater came into being is about a man named, Sam Wanamaker, who came to London in the 40's naively thinking he was going to get to see the original Globe, not even the second one, the first one. The one that burned in the 1600's. Well, needless to say at the time they didn't even know where the location was let alone have a theater standing. Well this upset Sam and he made it his literal life goal to get a new one built as close to the approximate location as he could get. in 1993 his goal was realized after a life time of campaigning and money collecting. Sadly, he did before it was finished built but he died knowing that it would be. This was quite a moving story for me because rarely does someone have that kind of passion to have something done. This Globe was built like the first one, with a thatched roof and everything. It was pretty amazing to be in a building that was built as close to the old one as possible, using the same building techniques and everything. We sat and listened and talked a little up on the second level before continuing down to the bottom where the common people would have stood for a performance. You would pay 2 penny's to stand on the ground for the three hour performance,1 more penny to sit on the second and another on the third. A whole shilling to sit in the Lords rooms or on the balcony on the stage. The point of sitting there was not to watch the play but to show the world how rich you were by paying to get to sit there. Another thing I learned is that everyone went to see these plays from the lowest to the highest, including royalty. It amazing, to get to see this replicated place of history. I only wish it could have been the original. After talking on the second level we were allowed to go down to where the common folk would have stood for the play in the pit area. I believe the nick-name for them was "pit dogs". It was very interesting to get this insight into this place. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I had planned to go to a different museum this one was well worth it. After we finished in the Pit area we headed out to look at the name blocks outside and with that the tour was over. I immediately went back to the exhibition. I didn't want to spend too much more time there but I was still interested in everything. I pretty much just started taking pictures of all the signs. The place wasn't too big so I was able to get a picture of all of them. Mostly for Sean and I. I wanted to be able to read them but simply didn't have the time for it. Hind sight tells me that I should have paid more attention to my camera batter and not taken so many pointless, by that I mean deleted later, pictures. After that I went and bought the things I picked out of the store the day before. Then I was off to the British Museum, where I would see things that I had no idea they had or would even imagine me seeing. I was way too exciting. This place is what made me fall in love with London. The first thing I saw was the oldest piece of art the museum had called the Swimming Reindeer. It was made from the end of a mastodon tusk 13000 years ago. After that I saw (Not in exact order) some Native American stuff from America, I also saw one of the Easter Island statues, a Crystal Skull, many old Stone Age items, pieces of the Yorkshire Hoard as well as from the hoard found in 2009 just recently, The really good stuff that made me so excited was a piece of Egyptian sculpture of Ramses II, as well as other smaller less famous Egyptian stuff, a piece to the beard of the famous Sphinx in Egypt, and several mummies. Out of the Egyptian section and into the Assyrian. I saw yet more Lamasu, yet these were different than the ones at the Louvre but these weren't as interesting because we didn't study these specifically. After that I saw the Lion Hunt relief, which is something we looked at last semester. Then the biggest highlight of the whole day because my camera was still working was getting to see The Black Obelisk of Shalmanezer III. This just made my day. It was one of the more specific things we wrote a paper about last semester. I studied this thing very closely just like the relief in Munich. I was able to see it in person. It just made my day. I took so many pictures of it because I wanted to document it. After that it was on to other rooms. I didn't get upset until about half way through that section when my camera died. I wasn't too happy about it, because right after that is when I walked into the best sections of all, these next there were all things we specifically studied in class. The first one was the Mausoleum of Halikarnasos. Well whats left of it. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I've now seen one of the wonders!! (Again, what is left of it) I was able to get my camera to work for one picture of the monumental statues representing the two people that were buried there. It is thought to be a wife and husband, named Mausolus and Artemisia. The word mausoleum comes from this monument. It was amazing. I just sat there and looked at it for some time before moving on to my next big surprise. Again another thing I didn't know was at this museum, The Nereid Monument!!!!!!!!! The exclamation points don't even come close to how in awe and excited I was. It was amazing. Yet again I got lucky enough to get my camera to work and I got a picture of it. It wasn't a bad picture either except the girl in front that was moving at the time, but I didn't care I got a picture. The Right after that the second best room after the Nereid Monument room. This one had the sculptures from the Parthenon. It was all the Metopes, Friezes, and Pediments. The Centaurmachy and the processions. Both, pediments and the famous bust of Iris. I really need to stop going into detail or I'm never going to finish this day. Good thing is that right after that there wasn't anything that absolutely made me weak in the knees sorta speak. After that I went to get some quick lunch right as the cafe was closing, I got some really hard pizza. I was kinda disappointed because I should have gotten the fish and chips. After that I went through what I could of the rest of the museum. At one point I didn't realize that I had missed the Rosetta Stone. I just completely missed it. I don't know how it was right in front of me when I walked into this area but I didn't see it. I guess I just saw this large stone with writing on it, went huh 'thats cool' and moved on. So when I couldn't find it on my map and I had to ask someone where it was, it was a *face palm* moment because there it was. luckily, yet again, and for the last time I was able to get my camera to work so I got one picture of it. After that I went upstairs. This area was mostly Indian and Hindu artifacts. That was interesting because I didn't know anything about any of it. I loved being able to see something new as well. The very last thing I saw was peices to the famous Yorkshire hoard and the one found in 2009 that changed our thinking about the Vikings. The other thing that I saw was the Lewis Chess Pieces. Which turns out aren't really chess pieces, but since at this time they were basically shoving us out the door we had to go and I didn't get the time to read the rest of the information. After that I headed to the the book store to find one of the books that I had been looking at periodically throughout the day as I would pass the store. When I got back to one of the stores that had post cards I grabbed a few and decided that it was a good idea to get one of the water bottles that was there. A Rosetta Stone one. I really liked it and I wanted a water bottle. Although I'd rather not compare the price to what I would have paid in the states. Yea it was probably WAY too expensive, but whatever. After that I headed out of the museum for the long walk back to the station. I didn't mention earlier but the station was quite a ways from the Museum itself. Along the way I found a souvenir shop that had some dolls and DP!!! I didn't even see the dolls at first because I headed straight for the Dr. Pepper. MMMMM it was so good. I didn't even make it back to the hostel before It was all gone. Anyway while I was there before I paid for the DP I saw some dolls. They looked really bad at first then I noticed some porcelain ones right next to them. These were exactly what I was looking for. A culture specific doll to the area. It was perfect. I find it a little weird because it is a police officer but then London is famous for the uniform the police used to wear. So after I found that I didn't want to get it without making sure it was made in the UK because all the dolls I have are from their country of origin. So I called Mom first and since it was Easter I wished them all a happy Easter. Yes I know I didn't mention it before except with going to Easter Vigil at St. Paul's. So while I was on the phone with them I asked them to look up the doll company for me. I hung up with them a milled about the store talking to the worker for a little while. Then I called them back and they gave me the go ahead. They told me that all the info they found about it pointed to that it was made in the UK by a certain lady and I asked mom if she was in doubt would she still buy it. She told me yes, so I got it. Then I headed back to the hostel to try and figure out a way to charge my phone. I forgot my plug converter for the UK so I didn't get the chance to charge my phone the night before. I rode the trains all the way back to the hostel. When I got there I asked the desk clerk where I could get a plug converter. They sold them there at the counter for 2 pounds. That worked out perfectly cause I was able to go upstairs and start charging my camera. I tried to get it charged enough before the sun went down but that didn't happen so I just settled for going to get some night pictures. After about an hour of waiting I headed for the train to get to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben. When I got there the sun was already down. I came out of the station and right next to the exit was Big Ben. I had to look straight up to even realize what it was. I was so surprised. After that I headed out to go across Parliament bridge so I could get pictures of the those buildings as well as the London Eye and Big Ben. After taking quite a few of them I headed over around the Parliament buildings to the back so I could see that side and Westminster Abbey was right there. So I took some night pictures of it as well. I also walked around to the front of it to get more pictures. Then I headed back to the station so I could back to the area near my hostel for some food. When I got there I tried a bar that I saw that had fish and chips but their kitchen was closed for the night. So, I headed down the street to try to find some place to eat. I ended up going to a cheap Italian place down the road a little ways. When I got there they didn't have a place for me to sit so I stood for a while then they took me down stairs where I had to sit by myself till they got a free table upstairs. When I finally sat down there I ordered Carbonara. Before I got my pasta two gentle men sat down next to me. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because the tables were really close, but it ended up being just fine. I don't know how the conversation started but we just started talking. Mostly about different things like all the stuff I had seen that day. I was a very good conversation I quite enjoyed it. These two men were there for business because they both work in the restaurant business. They were both from Newfoundland, Canada and the gentlemen I talked the most with owned a restaurant in St. Johns called Atlantica, or Atlantis. I wish I could remember because I can't find it on the internet now. I'm suppose to look them up any time I'm in St. Johns. I don't remember their names though. I think the shorter one, not the owner of the restaurant was named Terry. After a little while, I realized that I wasn't eating so I started trying to finish. When I had finished and they had they asked me if I wanted any dessert. I hadn't planned on but I ordered some cake and a cappaccino. It was a very good dessert. I quite enjoyed it. When it was over I pulled out my wallet to pay and they told me no that dinner was on them for making such a good conversation. It was really nice. I was too stunned to know why they did it. They insisted and since I didn't have that much money left I didn't complain. I thanked them a lot before we even got out of the restaurant. Once outside we ended up just walking down the street which turns out was the wrong direction for me but it was ok I was getting to talk to people who spoke English. After that I told them that we were heading in the wrong direction because my hostel was back toward the park. So we turned around and headed back. At one point they asked me about a sculpture on a store wall. It was just a representation of Neo-Greek with modern figures and after looking at it I told them so. After that we kept walking and I asked them where the Hard Rock was. The restaurant owner whipped out his phone and looked it up. Turns out it was just around the corner. So after that we walked all the way back to the hostel. I guess they were still enjoying the conversation because they walked me all the way to my hostel. We said goodbye and I went inside. I quite enjoyed the conversation. It put some confidence in me that I still had conversation skills. I went immediately up stairs. While up there I soaked my feet and watched TV. I also went down stairs on the internet for a little while. They gave me some extra minutes because of a messed up station. I didn't use the minutes though because Sean got off early and I didn't have anything else to do. So I went back upstairs (the computers were in the lobby) and watched TV till later. (Fiddler on the Roof). I finally just had to turn the TV off because I really needed to sleep so I could get going by 8 in the morning.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Day 83, 4/13/2010
Day 73, 4/3/2010
First full day in London, and it was such an awesome day. I didn't even care that I was there by myself. So I started the day with getting up and ready around 8:00 I didn't get out of the hostel till about 9. Mostly because I ate a really crappy breakfast provided by the hostel, then heading out, instead of just going. The first place I went was the St. Paul's Cathedral. I wanted to see the interior. So I got on the underground and rode it over to the St. Paul's stop. It wasn't hard because It was on the same line as Queensway. When I got there I of course looked at it and took a lot of pictures. Then when I went to go inside it turns out that it would cost me 12 pounds to go into this place. I was a little mad because this was the first church I've ever heard of that charged you to go in to see it and they didn't allow photos. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So after seeing this place I headed to the underground again to continue on my way to The Tower of London. It turns out that the stop near the tower was offline or closed for the weekend so I had to walk down from a different stop. This was alright because I was able to walk along the river and I got some good pictures of Tower Bridge on the way to The Tower of London. When I got there I thought it was an actual tower, well I learned just by looking at it that the Tower of London was actually a fortress and palace. I walked completely around the entire fortress first to take pictures which later I didn't like... o well. After that I decided it was time to go inside. Before going to the ticket line I checked out the souvenir shop right there beside the entrance gate to the fortress. After deciding what I was going to purchase I got in line for my ticket. That took like 20 minutes to get through. The line was very long. Finally, I got my ticket and I purchased the guide book at the ticket stand. I of course started at the gate. This is now the only entrance you can enter through. I started down Water Lane, then into the palace area of the Tower. After getting through that entire wing I exited on the opposite corner from the exit. At about that time I saw the Ravens for the first time. This was actually really cool. There is a legend that says if the Raven's leave the monarchy will crumble into oblivion. I don't remember exactly where I went next but I eventually saw everything they had to offer. In roughly this order. After the palace area I went to see one of the rooms that held the older crown jewels. I never went to see the actual crown jewels because the line was soo long that I didn't want to wait. There were some very interesting rooms besides the palace that were important to the violent history of the tower. A lot of the rooms had carvings on the walls made by the prisoners. The awesome thing is that they were able to identify who made them. A lot of them were from famous people. So after I saw most of the curtain wall and whatever it had to offer I headed toward the actually White Tower. This was really neat because this was what started the fortress on this location. It was also the first palace on the location. Even though the king who built it didn't stay more than three months it was still outfitted to be a palace. This was cool also because they had armor. Armor from the kings and others as well as weapons. This was very very cool to see. Although I know nothing about the armor it was still the most interesting part of the Tower. The final thing I went to see is the Bloody Tower. This is the only tower that contained REPLICAS of the torture devices. This was interesting because from what I understood this was not the place that they would have tortured them. I got to see some replica's of these devices. There was a wrack, manacles, and another device that makes you scrunch up and it doesn't allow you to stretch out. So after that I was done with this place. I was tired and there wasn't much else for me to do. At some point during the day I ate a small lunch. Also before leaving the tower I got a few souvenirs at a shop inside the inner curtain wall. After leaving the tower I stopped by the shop outside to gather the rest of the souvenir's I planned on getting for my family, then I headed back to the train stop after looking at the outside of the tower again. This was when I decided to go to The Globe Theater. I wasn't sure if I would have time to see it any other time while I was there so I really wanted to see before I left London. I had to walk back to the stop then ride the rest of the way back to St. Paul's stop. Then I walked across the Millennium bridge to the theater. I walked around outside of it for the most part because it was too late to go on a tour of the interior and I didn't really have the time because I was going to go to church at St. Paul's. My brain conveniently forgetting that it was an Anglican church not a Catholic church. But, before I went to church I hung around the theater. Mostly to check out the souvenir shop and decided what I might want to purchase later. After only being there for a little while I decided that I would go to the exhibition and the tour in the morning. There is just no way I could miss this. After that I turned back around and headed back across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's for Mass. This was definitely an interesting experience. I was already in the church in a seat when I remembered that this wasn't a Catholic Church. I decided to stay anyway and just experience it even if I didn't participate. I didn't even sing because I didn't know the songs. The first part of the service was outside in front of the church. The Bishop spoke and then we lite our candles and went into the church to stand around the baptismal font and watch people get baptized. Then we headed back to our seats. Mine was to the right just underneath the dome. I ended up just looking at the decoration the entire time I was in mass. I also have to confess, I went to mass not just because I planned on going but because I wanted to see the inside. That was the only way to get in for free. After the LONG service during which I feel asleep, I felt bad for that, I started to head out and noticed that people were taking pictures so I went a head and got my camera out and took a few of the things that I wanted pictures of then I headed out into the night to look for a place to eat. Right there next to the church I found a burger place. This was a very good place to eat. I ended up getting a chicken burger with fries. After that I went back to my hostel and got on the computer after paying for it of course. I only talked to Sean for about an hour because he left after that. Then sleep for the night.
First full day in London, and it was such an awesome day. I didn't even care that I was there by myself. So I started the day with getting up and ready around 8:00 I didn't get out of the hostel till about 9. Mostly because I ate a really crappy breakfast provided by the hostel, then heading out, instead of just going. The first place I went was the St. Paul's Cathedral. I wanted to see the interior. So I got on the underground and rode it over to the St. Paul's stop. It wasn't hard because It was on the same line as Queensway. When I got there I of course looked at it and took a lot of pictures. Then when I went to go inside it turns out that it would cost me 12 pounds to go into this place. I was a little mad because this was the first church I've ever heard of that charged you to go in to see it and they didn't allow photos. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So after seeing this place I headed to the underground again to continue on my way to The Tower of London. It turns out that the stop near the tower was offline or closed for the weekend so I had to walk down from a different stop. This was alright because I was able to walk along the river and I got some good pictures of Tower Bridge on the way to The Tower of London. When I got there I thought it was an actual tower, well I learned just by looking at it that the Tower of London was actually a fortress and palace. I walked completely around the entire fortress first to take pictures which later I didn't like... o well. After that I decided it was time to go inside. Before going to the ticket line I checked out the souvenir shop right there beside the entrance gate to the fortress. After deciding what I was going to purchase I got in line for my ticket. That took like 20 minutes to get through. The line was very long. Finally, I got my ticket and I purchased the guide book at the ticket stand. I of course started at the gate. This is now the only entrance you can enter through. I started down Water Lane, then into the palace area of the Tower. After getting through that entire wing I exited on the opposite corner from the exit. At about that time I saw the Ravens for the first time. This was actually really cool. There is a legend that says if the Raven's leave the monarchy will crumble into oblivion. I don't remember exactly where I went next but I eventually saw everything they had to offer. In roughly this order. After the palace area I went to see one of the rooms that held the older crown jewels. I never went to see the actual crown jewels because the line was soo long that I didn't want to wait. There were some very interesting rooms besides the palace that were important to the violent history of the tower. A lot of the rooms had carvings on the walls made by the prisoners. The awesome thing is that they were able to identify who made them. A lot of them were from famous people. So after I saw most of the curtain wall and whatever it had to offer I headed toward the actually White Tower. This was really neat because this was what started the fortress on this location. It was also the first palace on the location. Even though the king who built it didn't stay more than three months it was still outfitted to be a palace. This was cool also because they had armor. Armor from the kings and others as well as weapons. This was very very cool to see. Although I know nothing about the armor it was still the most interesting part of the Tower. The final thing I went to see is the Bloody Tower. This is the only tower that contained REPLICAS of the torture devices. This was interesting because from what I understood this was not the place that they would have tortured them. I got to see some replica's of these devices. There was a wrack, manacles, and another device that makes you scrunch up and it doesn't allow you to stretch out. So after that I was done with this place. I was tired and there wasn't much else for me to do. At some point during the day I ate a small lunch. Also before leaving the tower I got a few souvenirs at a shop inside the inner curtain wall. After leaving the tower I stopped by the shop outside to gather the rest of the souvenir's I planned on getting for my family, then I headed back to the train stop after looking at the outside of the tower again. This was when I decided to go to The Globe Theater. I wasn't sure if I would have time to see it any other time while I was there so I really wanted to see before I left London. I had to walk back to the stop then ride the rest of the way back to St. Paul's stop. Then I walked across the Millennium bridge to the theater. I walked around outside of it for the most part because it was too late to go on a tour of the interior and I didn't really have the time because I was going to go to church at St. Paul's. My brain conveniently forgetting that it was an Anglican church not a Catholic church. But, before I went to church I hung around the theater. Mostly to check out the souvenir shop and decided what I might want to purchase later. After only being there for a little while I decided that I would go to the exhibition and the tour in the morning. There is just no way I could miss this. After that I turned back around and headed back across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's for Mass. This was definitely an interesting experience. I was already in the church in a seat when I remembered that this wasn't a Catholic Church. I decided to stay anyway and just experience it even if I didn't participate. I didn't even sing because I didn't know the songs. The first part of the service was outside in front of the church. The Bishop spoke and then we lite our candles and went into the church to stand around the baptismal font and watch people get baptized. Then we headed back to our seats. Mine was to the right just underneath the dome. I ended up just looking at the decoration the entire time I was in mass. I also have to confess, I went to mass not just because I planned on going but because I wanted to see the inside. That was the only way to get in for free. After the LONG service during which I feel asleep, I felt bad for that, I started to head out and noticed that people were taking pictures so I went a head and got my camera out and took a few of the things that I wanted pictures of then I headed out into the night to look for a place to eat. Right there next to the church I found a burger place. This was a very good place to eat. I ended up getting a chicken burger with fries. After that I went back to my hostel and got on the computer after paying for it of course. I only talked to Sean for about an hour because he left after that. Then sleep for the night.
Day 81, 4/11/2010
Day 71, 4/1/2010
This is yet another long day. If you haven’t noticed I’ve said that a lot. It was one of the busiest weeks/months that we’ve had yet. More work that started in the morning and went on through the afternoon. All of us only stopped long enough to get some lunch. Then more work for the rest of the day. Like I said, it was a long day. After we were done working we all went home usually at staggered times. I went home around 7 or so because I had to get ready to leave the next day for London. I was going to go to London on my own to see things at my own pace. Needless to say with that weekend the friendship I thought I had with Trisha was gone forever. She and I won’t ever be as close or as good of friends ever again.
Day 72, 4/2/2010
This was the beginning of our four day weekend. Sadly I wasn’t able to find a hostel for Thursday night otherwise I would have been there an entire day earlier. It was rather upsetting when I searched for hostel rooms NOBODY had an opening on Thursday. So I made my reservations for today. I didn’t have a flight until Way late in the evening so I didn’t get an entire day to do things for that weekend. It kinda sucked. So That day I slept until lunch time because I didn’t have school for the day. After that I packed up my computer and finished packing everything I would need for the weekend. Then I went down stairs for a little while so I could talk to Sean and enjoy the afternoon before I had to torture myself with traveling. At about four I decided it was time to get ready to go to the airport in Dusseldorf. My plane flight wasn’t until about 9 so I needed to leave with enough time to get there two hours before hand. It would take me at least an hour to get to the airport itself. So at around that time I headed to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof and got myself a ticket on the RE to Dusseldorf. The train wasn’t due to arrive till 5:30 which I wasn’t happy about because I was already feeling like I was late on getting there. I got on the train and was on my way to the airport. When I got to the airport I had to get on the skytram over to the terminal then I went through the airport security to get to my gate, just like always. I only had to wait a little while for the bus to take us to the plane. After that I was off on my trip. When the plane arrived in London I headed to the only place I knew to go for transport to the city and it was coaches. I wasn’t happy about it but I didn’t know if there were actually any trains. So I got a bus ticket to a coach that was leaving in 5 minutes so I ran over to where the buses were picking up so I could head to Victoria Station in London. That took me soooo long to get there I finished Trisha’s book during that time so I had to read other things like books I bought later that weekend. So for the rest of the coach ride I just looked out the window. When the coach finally arrived at Victoria station we all had to find our way from the coach drop off to the Underground station itself. It took me forever to find it because It wasn’t anywhere near the coach station. Eventually I just followed the other people that got off the bus with me to the station. It took a while to find because there were no signs leading toward it. When I got there I bought a one way ticket over to the station I needed from the help station and then figured out which stations I needed to get to in order to get to Queensway the station that was near my hostel. I eventually found it after some confusing signs and directions found on a city map. First I couldn’t find Queensway on the map. Then, I had to figure out which station would take me to that line, then I had to find which direction on the train to go to get to the Central line, in which Queensway is on. I eventually navigated successfully to the station I needed to go but before that when I was waiting for the first train I had a small scare that turned out rather funny later. As I was standing there I heard the train coming, so, like usual, I got up to stand and wait for it to stop so I could board. Well as the train was entering the tub station (that’s what they call them in England) this GIANT bolt of electricity shot off the front of the train to the tracks. I almost fell over myself with fright because I was not expecting this bolt at all. It was rather frightening and after that I stayed farther back from the tracks because I didn’t want to get struck. Although I don’t think I would have because the bolts happen a lot, just not usually that large. After that I got to the station, Queensway and came out of the station to street level in order to look for my hostel. This also turned into an ordeal because I became quite lost looking for this place and it turns out that it was literally Right there in front of the station. I ended up walking up and down the street for several more hours up and down and up and down. I started to get rather nervous because I was afraid that someone unpleasant would notice that I was walking back and forth looking lost. During this whole time I was trying to not look worried. Eventually I decided to go into the Burger King and get some food like that was what I was doing all along. While I was there I asked the worker for some directions that ended up being really bad because he sent me farther down the street, which was the wrong street. After getting my food I headed in the direction he told me and this turned out bad because the addresses stopped after 100 and I was looking for 121. So I was getting more and more upset. Finally, I decided to stop and get the map I had made in class on Thursday instead of working. I found a table to place it on and I looked at it till I figured out where the hell I was and where the hell my hostel was. Turns out the guy at Burger King told me the wrong direction. I would have been so much easier if the hostel website would have given good directions in the first place instead of right next to Queensway. So I turned right around and headed back to the station. To the right of the exit to the station was another street that T-ed with the street I was on. Since I knew where I was going I turned left at this street and I only had to go a few feet and there it was. Right there, Royal Bayswater Hotel. I was not happy because it took me more than an hour to get to a place that would have only taken me about 5 minutes to walk to. So finally I was able to check in and I headed up the stair case to my room, 114. When I got up to my room I turned on the TV and ate my dinner then after a few hours of wasting time watching TV I went to sleep.
This is yet another long day. If you haven’t noticed I’ve said that a lot. It was one of the busiest weeks/months that we’ve had yet. More work that started in the morning and went on through the afternoon. All of us only stopped long enough to get some lunch. Then more work for the rest of the day. Like I said, it was a long day. After we were done working we all went home usually at staggered times. I went home around 7 or so because I had to get ready to leave the next day for London. I was going to go to London on my own to see things at my own pace. Needless to say with that weekend the friendship I thought I had with Trisha was gone forever. She and I won’t ever be as close or as good of friends ever again.
Day 72, 4/2/2010
This was the beginning of our four day weekend. Sadly I wasn’t able to find a hostel for Thursday night otherwise I would have been there an entire day earlier. It was rather upsetting when I searched for hostel rooms NOBODY had an opening on Thursday. So I made my reservations for today. I didn’t have a flight until Way late in the evening so I didn’t get an entire day to do things for that weekend. It kinda sucked. So That day I slept until lunch time because I didn’t have school for the day. After that I packed up my computer and finished packing everything I would need for the weekend. Then I went down stairs for a little while so I could talk to Sean and enjoy the afternoon before I had to torture myself with traveling. At about four I decided it was time to get ready to go to the airport in Dusseldorf. My plane flight wasn’t until about 9 so I needed to leave with enough time to get there two hours before hand. It would take me at least an hour to get to the airport itself. So at around that time I headed to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof and got myself a ticket on the RE to Dusseldorf. The train wasn’t due to arrive till 5:30 which I wasn’t happy about because I was already feeling like I was late on getting there. I got on the train and was on my way to the airport. When I got to the airport I had to get on the skytram over to the terminal then I went through the airport security to get to my gate, just like always. I only had to wait a little while for the bus to take us to the plane. After that I was off on my trip. When the plane arrived in London I headed to the only place I knew to go for transport to the city and it was coaches. I wasn’t happy about it but I didn’t know if there were actually any trains. So I got a bus ticket to a coach that was leaving in 5 minutes so I ran over to where the buses were picking up so I could head to Victoria Station in London. That took me soooo long to get there I finished Trisha’s book during that time so I had to read other things like books I bought later that weekend. So for the rest of the coach ride I just looked out the window. When the coach finally arrived at Victoria station we all had to find our way from the coach drop off to the Underground station itself. It took me forever to find it because It wasn’t anywhere near the coach station. Eventually I just followed the other people that got off the bus with me to the station. It took a while to find because there were no signs leading toward it. When I got there I bought a one way ticket over to the station I needed from the help station and then figured out which stations I needed to get to in order to get to Queensway the station that was near my hostel. I eventually found it after some confusing signs and directions found on a city map. First I couldn’t find Queensway on the map. Then, I had to figure out which station would take me to that line, then I had to find which direction on the train to go to get to the Central line, in which Queensway is on. I eventually navigated successfully to the station I needed to go but before that when I was waiting for the first train I had a small scare that turned out rather funny later. As I was standing there I heard the train coming, so, like usual, I got up to stand and wait for it to stop so I could board. Well as the train was entering the tub station (that’s what they call them in England) this GIANT bolt of electricity shot off the front of the train to the tracks. I almost fell over myself with fright because I was not expecting this bolt at all. It was rather frightening and after that I stayed farther back from the tracks because I didn’t want to get struck. Although I don’t think I would have because the bolts happen a lot, just not usually that large. After that I got to the station, Queensway and came out of the station to street level in order to look for my hostel. This also turned into an ordeal because I became quite lost looking for this place and it turns out that it was literally Right there in front of the station. I ended up walking up and down the street for several more hours up and down and up and down. I started to get rather nervous because I was afraid that someone unpleasant would notice that I was walking back and forth looking lost. During this whole time I was trying to not look worried. Eventually I decided to go into the Burger King and get some food like that was what I was doing all along. While I was there I asked the worker for some directions that ended up being really bad because he sent me farther down the street, which was the wrong street. After getting my food I headed in the direction he told me and this turned out bad because the addresses stopped after 100 and I was looking for 121. So I was getting more and more upset. Finally, I decided to stop and get the map I had made in class on Thursday instead of working. I found a table to place it on and I looked at it till I figured out where the hell I was and where the hell my hostel was. Turns out the guy at Burger King told me the wrong direction. I would have been so much easier if the hostel website would have given good directions in the first place instead of right next to Queensway. So I turned right around and headed back to the station. To the right of the exit to the station was another street that T-ed with the street I was on. Since I knew where I was going I turned left at this street and I only had to go a few feet and there it was. Right there, Royal Bayswater Hotel. I was not happy because it took me more than an hour to get to a place that would have only taken me about 5 minutes to walk to. So finally I was able to check in and I headed up the stair case to my room, 114. When I got up to my room I turned on the TV and ate my dinner then after a few hours of wasting time watching TV I went to sleep.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Day 80, 4/10/2010
Day 68, 3/29/2010
Another week of class, YAY!! Most awesome thing is that class didn't start till after lunch. So, of course, I slept all morning. When we got to class it was all just a work day. We specifically asked for a work day because so many of us wanted one. We are all 'behind' on everything. So we worked for most of the day. Just to get some stuff done to show Judith the next time she would be there. After working all after noon I headed home. This of course wasn't until 11. Tyler and I were partners in game history to present the next day. We put ourselves in partners earlier in the semester. I hadn't worked on the presentation at all during the weekend like I should have. Actually I completely forgot till Sunday evening where I ended up staying up WAY later than I wanted trying to find sources that we could use. After getting a lot of information for Tyler and the power point, I headed home. I did the usual for the night then sleep.
Day 69, 3/30/2010
We started this day out with Game History. The nice thing was that after that we didn't have class. So, we were able to do whatever we wanted. Again, most of us stayed to work. Tyler and I had our presentation in Game Culture today. It was focused on the gaming genre of fighting games. For example, games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. We kicked butt in our presentation. I can only hope that we can do as well on our final project in studio. So after the presentation we watched another one that was also good. Then I worked on my studio for the rest of the afternoon. I don't know about anything else exciting happening for the rest of the day. So went home then sleep.
Day 70, 3/31/2010
Yet another long class day. We started the day with mostly just work. We worked in the morning then around 2 in the after noon we went off to yet another company visit. I'm getting kinda tired of those, by the way. It was ok though because I got to see a lot of stuff that referred to composting and 3D stuff. We got there and headed up the stairs. After that we pretty much went straight into their screening room. They played a few things for us. I liked a lot of their stuff even if I feel asleep during a lot of the presentation. I didn't want to I was just so tired and we were sitting down in a dark room. I tried to get through it without crashing. I nodded off twice. I tried so hard not to but when your tired there isn't much you can do about it. So they talked and we listened and asked questions just like most of the other times that we've gone to a company. The nice thing is that this is the first time that they've offered any help to us. Although like the other place that offered us an internship we probably won't take them up on their offer. So after the visit we either left or went back to AIB to work. I went back to work and after that, of course, I went home for the day.
Another week of class, YAY!! Most awesome thing is that class didn't start till after lunch. So, of course, I slept all morning. When we got to class it was all just a work day. We specifically asked for a work day because so many of us wanted one. We are all 'behind' on everything. So we worked for most of the day. Just to get some stuff done to show Judith the next time she would be there. After working all after noon I headed home. This of course wasn't until 11. Tyler and I were partners in game history to present the next day. We put ourselves in partners earlier in the semester. I hadn't worked on the presentation at all during the weekend like I should have. Actually I completely forgot till Sunday evening where I ended up staying up WAY later than I wanted trying to find sources that we could use. After getting a lot of information for Tyler and the power point, I headed home. I did the usual for the night then sleep.
Day 69, 3/30/2010
We started this day out with Game History. The nice thing was that after that we didn't have class. So, we were able to do whatever we wanted. Again, most of us stayed to work. Tyler and I had our presentation in Game Culture today. It was focused on the gaming genre of fighting games. For example, games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. We kicked butt in our presentation. I can only hope that we can do as well on our final project in studio. So after the presentation we watched another one that was also good. Then I worked on my studio for the rest of the afternoon. I don't know about anything else exciting happening for the rest of the day. So went home then sleep.
Day 70, 3/31/2010
Yet another long class day. We started the day with mostly just work. We worked in the morning then around 2 in the after noon we went off to yet another company visit. I'm getting kinda tired of those, by the way. It was ok though because I got to see a lot of stuff that referred to composting and 3D stuff. We got there and headed up the stairs. After that we pretty much went straight into their screening room. They played a few things for us. I liked a lot of their stuff even if I feel asleep during a lot of the presentation. I didn't want to I was just so tired and we were sitting down in a dark room. I tried to get through it without crashing. I nodded off twice. I tried so hard not to but when your tired there isn't much you can do about it. So they talked and we listened and asked questions just like most of the other times that we've gone to a company. The nice thing is that this is the first time that they've offered any help to us. Although like the other place that offered us an internship we probably won't take them up on their offer. So after the visit we either left or went back to AIB to work. I went back to work and after that, of course, I went home for the day.
Day 78, 3/8/2010
Ignore the post day I did this on the long train ride to Berlin so I wrote all this two days ago.
Day 60, 3/21/2010
Finally it was time to go home. We didn’t really want to go home but all of us were tired and we didn’t have anything planned for the day so we woke up a little later that usual and packed our stuff then we headed over to the other building before taking our stuff to check out, so we could eat breakfast. Then we went back and grabbed our stuff and went straight back to the main building. We hauled all our stuff up the stairs because, if I didn’t mention before, the office for the hostel was up on the second floor which here in Europe actually means the third floor. So we checked out and headed toward the trains to head over to the Spanish Steps. This was the only thing we planned on seeing that day and it worked out that we had several hours before we needed to get to the airport. So when we got to the steps we ooed and ahed then sat down for the time that we were there. At about lunch time we decided to head to the famous McDonalds and I was so incredibly disappointed because it wasn’t the famous place that I remember from the television show. I was very, very disappointed. The nice thing was that it was still cool and we could eat there. So we had some ‘good’ food. Then after sitting there for a while we headed to the metro so we could go to Termini that would eventually take us to the airport. So when we got there and paid for our tickets we sat outside waiting for the train. After a while the train came and off we went to the airport. We did the usual thing to get in. Once we were in we had to wait for a long while because they wouldn’t let us check into our plane until at least two hours before the flight. This was one of the things that made us swear up and down we would avoid using Easy Jet ever again. However, I would use it again later in the semester to go to London. So we finally were able to check in after sitting there waiting for the line to open. When we got through security and finally got to our gate we found out that the plane was delayed for 2 ½ hours, yet again. So we sat there like everyone does in an airport and waited, and waited. Eventually we were able to go but they had moved gates so everyone moved over there like a giant herd of sheep. It was quite annoying because these planes were first come first serve when it came to sitting where you wanted so people rush to get in line so they can get the seats they want. After we got through the gate we headed down to wait for the buses. Yet again more waiting. It seems that everything with Easy jet is hurry up and wait. At least this time people weren’t already through the gate before they found a problem like when we flew out of Paris to get to Rome. We got onto the buses that headed to the plane and found seats. When we were almost all the way to Dusseldorf they decided to re-route us to Cologne due to high winds in the Dusseldorf airport. We were happy about it because it helped us out however everyone else was quite upset about it because this was not the destination that they wanted. So we headed to the baggage claim grabbed my bag then on to the train station so we could catch a train home. First we had to ride a train to the Cologne Hauptbahnhof then to Bonn. It took forever because when we got to the Cologne Hauptbahnhof it was another hour before we would actually be able to get on a train to Bonn. Again more waiting. By the time we actually got to Bonn it was almost midnight even though we were supposed to be there at around 7 in the evening. Finally we all made it to our homes respectively. I hate how traveling takes all day. So when I got home I got ready for bed and messed with my computer for a little while then to sleep at around 1:30 in the morning.
Day 61, 3/22/2010
Well school starts again. Spring Break was the best one of my life. Especially when compared to today. This was torture. First the day started with Game History. A class I quite enjoy, however, I don’t like starting class this early. We didn’t have any presentations that day luckily so it was all just discussion. I think we talked about Demoscene if I remember correctly. Later that day after lunch we had our first studio in a while. This was one that we had to give a pin-up for but nobody had anything different, at least not really. I, literally, made a power point in about 10 minutes before class because of how late it was when we got back. I didn’t have much to show. I drew out a concept while we were in the Game History class. On a side note, I don’t know why they call it Game history class. It’s more like a game culture class because we talk about the genres and the current situation in gaming. So anyway, we did the pin up and right after that we just worked on whatever it was we needed to do for our project. Colton and I went out to different locations trying to find a good location for our time-laps. We also got Arianne and Lars, our directors, involved to help us get permission to film from one of the buildings in the Markt Platz. However, we would later find out that nobody was willing to allow us into their building as early as we needed to be there. So we came back to the AIB slightly worried because we need our filming done before it gets too late in the semester. After that we were done for the day. I stayed at the school for a little while working on the storyboard and trying to get something to show on our next pin up. Then, I headed home for the day. I did the usual for the night with homework added to the mix rather than just messing with the internet.
Day 62, 3/23/2010
This was a good day. All we had was a company visit and that was about it. The visit was in Cologne so we met at the Hauptbahnhof in our usual location at about 10. At least everyone else did. I was running late so I just barely caught the train right before it pulled out of the station. Another lucky break on my part. This was a nice company visit because it was an interesting one. They didn’t work on any games that I know but they had a few on their shelves that I wouldn’t mind having. Like Zoo Tycoon. They specialized in Ds and ipod applications. They also openly offered us an internship there which we all found very surprising because we don’t usually get offered something like that. I don’t know if any one took him up on his offer but it was nice none the less. Another really neat thing was that they had a full recording studio. That was amazing. I’ve never seen one before. Although this one was rather unconventional because of the way it was set up. The place clearly wasn’t built for a sound studio. Another random thing that they offered to us was to be a speaker on one of their language applications. I don’t know if anyone actually did this either. After the company visit we were done for the day at least officially. They still wanted us to go to the AIB to work but I went home I wanted to head home for the day so I did. When I got there I changed into my pjs and sat on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and evening working and messing with my comp. Then the usual for the evening before I went to sleep.
Day 63, 3/24/2010
Well I don’t really remember how this day started I suppose the usual of me getting up taking a shower, the usual morning stuff then heading to the train station to catch my train like every morning. I liked this day because it was another one of our short get a project done days. This was a week long workshop so we would have four projects done by the end of the semester. Actually the week long workshop turned out to just be a couple of days. These were incredibly long days as well because of the time we had to do it in. We started at 8:45 in the morning and went until 6 in the evening or sometimes later. The first day was exclusively initial ideas we had to get our project first then figure out what it was. Ours was if IKEA decided to make an airplane to sell to the public. We changed it later to a flying machine, like a helicopter. We started with drawings and sketches all over the white board. We were just a group of five so it wasn’t too bad. It was me, Trisha, Garrett, Colton, and David. So that first day was all devoted to ideas. By the end of that long day we had one because we only have the two days to do it. That evening Colton got our models for the project done so we could put it in an advertisement. After that we didn’t do anything else for the rest of the evening. I went home did the usual and went to bed.
Day 64, 3/25/2010
This was another long day of the workshop we worked on getting it finished so we could present it the next day. All we had to do was the outlines for the advertisement and the ‘Assembly booklet.’ That was what the day was devoted to, was just working to get the thing finished. We worked WAY late that day to make sure it was finish. I didn’t do anything else special except take a break in the middle of the day for lunch. After we FINALLY finished whatever we could that day we headed home. I did the usual then went to sleep.
Day 65, 3/26/2010
This was a free day. We had school. We presented in the morning then the rest of the day was up to us. I don’t remember much about the day because nothing of note happened. I did get invited to go to town the next day by Michelle, The sixteen year old that I met a couple of weekends ago. Other than that I think I just messed with my computer. Doing homework and what not.
Day 66, 3/27/2010
Yay, Saturday. I don’t have many of these left here in Bonn… Well I told Michelle that I would meet her at the train station at one so I got up around 11 to get ready. Then the train was supposed to be at 3 past one so I made sure I was at the station by then. I sat there waiting for the train I didn’t know which one to get one and I wish she had gotten off to say hey I’m here, but she didn’t and the train was late so I didn’t know which one to get on so I waited more. Eventually I called Trudy and asked if she could get her number because I didn’t have it. Trudy called her parents then called me back. This whole time I was sitting and reading in the train station at Tannenbusch Mitte. So I now had her number and decided to give her a call. It wasn’t hard to get a hold of her, she answered on the first ring. I told her where I was and we found a place that would be best to meet up. We decided to meet up at the Hauptbahnhof in the main part where the trains let you out. So off on the train I went. When I got there I was walking to the main entrance when I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I almost missed her. If there had been just a few more people between us I don’t think I would have seen her at all. But I did and off we went to walk and talk. First we just walked around mostly near Munster Platz and the Cathedral. At one point my host sister came out of nowhere and jumped on me. It was quite amusing. After that we decided to get something to eat but I had to go to the bank first. So we stopped by there then we headed toward Subway. That was where I wanted to eat because I miss it from home. We sat down in the place for a while to eat and talk more. After a while we got bored of sit and went out to walk some more. Eventually we wanted to go somewhere so we decided to go to her house for a little while. So we found a bus stop so we could ride all the way over to her neighborhood. That was nice we went to her house first so I could go to the restroom and meet her parents. Then we walked around her neighborhood for a while and down to the river. Then we walked to the train stop so I could go home. I got home at about 4. After that my host mom invited me on a walk with her and the family that has the dog names Selena, the same family that we went to the park to play in the snow earlier this semester. After that I really need to work so I got on the comp and worked for a while. Then sleep.
Day 67, 3/28/2010
This was Sunday. Again I didn’t need to do anything so I slept most of the day. I actually slept way later than I wanted to. I was really mad at myself for doing that. As soon as I was up for the day I went down stairs to work on my homework for a while. I didn’t do anything at all for most of the day. I have nothing else to add.
Day 60, 3/21/2010
Finally it was time to go home. We didn’t really want to go home but all of us were tired and we didn’t have anything planned for the day so we woke up a little later that usual and packed our stuff then we headed over to the other building before taking our stuff to check out, so we could eat breakfast. Then we went back and grabbed our stuff and went straight back to the main building. We hauled all our stuff up the stairs because, if I didn’t mention before, the office for the hostel was up on the second floor which here in Europe actually means the third floor. So we checked out and headed toward the trains to head over to the Spanish Steps. This was the only thing we planned on seeing that day and it worked out that we had several hours before we needed to get to the airport. So when we got to the steps we ooed and ahed then sat down for the time that we were there. At about lunch time we decided to head to the famous McDonalds and I was so incredibly disappointed because it wasn’t the famous place that I remember from the television show. I was very, very disappointed. The nice thing was that it was still cool and we could eat there. So we had some ‘good’ food. Then after sitting there for a while we headed to the metro so we could go to Termini that would eventually take us to the airport. So when we got there and paid for our tickets we sat outside waiting for the train. After a while the train came and off we went to the airport. We did the usual thing to get in. Once we were in we had to wait for a long while because they wouldn’t let us check into our plane until at least two hours before the flight. This was one of the things that made us swear up and down we would avoid using Easy Jet ever again. However, I would use it again later in the semester to go to London. So we finally were able to check in after sitting there waiting for the line to open. When we got through security and finally got to our gate we found out that the plane was delayed for 2 ½ hours, yet again. So we sat there like everyone does in an airport and waited, and waited. Eventually we were able to go but they had moved gates so everyone moved over there like a giant herd of sheep. It was quite annoying because these planes were first come first serve when it came to sitting where you wanted so people rush to get in line so they can get the seats they want. After we got through the gate we headed down to wait for the buses. Yet again more waiting. It seems that everything with Easy jet is hurry up and wait. At least this time people weren’t already through the gate before they found a problem like when we flew out of Paris to get to Rome. We got onto the buses that headed to the plane and found seats. When we were almost all the way to Dusseldorf they decided to re-route us to Cologne due to high winds in the Dusseldorf airport. We were happy about it because it helped us out however everyone else was quite upset about it because this was not the destination that they wanted. So we headed to the baggage claim grabbed my bag then on to the train station so we could catch a train home. First we had to ride a train to the Cologne Hauptbahnhof then to Bonn. It took forever because when we got to the Cologne Hauptbahnhof it was another hour before we would actually be able to get on a train to Bonn. Again more waiting. By the time we actually got to Bonn it was almost midnight even though we were supposed to be there at around 7 in the evening. Finally we all made it to our homes respectively. I hate how traveling takes all day. So when I got home I got ready for bed and messed with my computer for a little while then to sleep at around 1:30 in the morning.
Day 61, 3/22/2010
Well school starts again. Spring Break was the best one of my life. Especially when compared to today. This was torture. First the day started with Game History. A class I quite enjoy, however, I don’t like starting class this early. We didn’t have any presentations that day luckily so it was all just discussion. I think we talked about Demoscene if I remember correctly. Later that day after lunch we had our first studio in a while. This was one that we had to give a pin-up for but nobody had anything different, at least not really. I, literally, made a power point in about 10 minutes before class because of how late it was when we got back. I didn’t have much to show. I drew out a concept while we were in the Game History class. On a side note, I don’t know why they call it Game history class. It’s more like a game culture class because we talk about the genres and the current situation in gaming. So anyway, we did the pin up and right after that we just worked on whatever it was we needed to do for our project. Colton and I went out to different locations trying to find a good location for our time-laps. We also got Arianne and Lars, our directors, involved to help us get permission to film from one of the buildings in the Markt Platz. However, we would later find out that nobody was willing to allow us into their building as early as we needed to be there. So we came back to the AIB slightly worried because we need our filming done before it gets too late in the semester. After that we were done for the day. I stayed at the school for a little while working on the storyboard and trying to get something to show on our next pin up. Then, I headed home for the day. I did the usual for the night with homework added to the mix rather than just messing with the internet.
Day 62, 3/23/2010
This was a good day. All we had was a company visit and that was about it. The visit was in Cologne so we met at the Hauptbahnhof in our usual location at about 10. At least everyone else did. I was running late so I just barely caught the train right before it pulled out of the station. Another lucky break on my part. This was a nice company visit because it was an interesting one. They didn’t work on any games that I know but they had a few on their shelves that I wouldn’t mind having. Like Zoo Tycoon. They specialized in Ds and ipod applications. They also openly offered us an internship there which we all found very surprising because we don’t usually get offered something like that. I don’t know if any one took him up on his offer but it was nice none the less. Another really neat thing was that they had a full recording studio. That was amazing. I’ve never seen one before. Although this one was rather unconventional because of the way it was set up. The place clearly wasn’t built for a sound studio. Another random thing that they offered to us was to be a speaker on one of their language applications. I don’t know if anyone actually did this either. After the company visit we were done for the day at least officially. They still wanted us to go to the AIB to work but I went home I wanted to head home for the day so I did. When I got there I changed into my pjs and sat on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and evening working and messing with my comp. Then the usual for the evening before I went to sleep.
Day 63, 3/24/2010
Well I don’t really remember how this day started I suppose the usual of me getting up taking a shower, the usual morning stuff then heading to the train station to catch my train like every morning. I liked this day because it was another one of our short get a project done days. This was a week long workshop so we would have four projects done by the end of the semester. Actually the week long workshop turned out to just be a couple of days. These were incredibly long days as well because of the time we had to do it in. We started at 8:45 in the morning and went until 6 in the evening or sometimes later. The first day was exclusively initial ideas we had to get our project first then figure out what it was. Ours was if IKEA decided to make an airplane to sell to the public. We changed it later to a flying machine, like a helicopter. We started with drawings and sketches all over the white board. We were just a group of five so it wasn’t too bad. It was me, Trisha, Garrett, Colton, and David. So that first day was all devoted to ideas. By the end of that long day we had one because we only have the two days to do it. That evening Colton got our models for the project done so we could put it in an advertisement. After that we didn’t do anything else for the rest of the evening. I went home did the usual and went to bed.
Day 64, 3/25/2010
This was another long day of the workshop we worked on getting it finished so we could present it the next day. All we had to do was the outlines for the advertisement and the ‘Assembly booklet.’ That was what the day was devoted to, was just working to get the thing finished. We worked WAY late that day to make sure it was finish. I didn’t do anything else special except take a break in the middle of the day for lunch. After we FINALLY finished whatever we could that day we headed home. I did the usual then went to sleep.
Day 65, 3/26/2010
This was a free day. We had school. We presented in the morning then the rest of the day was up to us. I don’t remember much about the day because nothing of note happened. I did get invited to go to town the next day by Michelle, The sixteen year old that I met a couple of weekends ago. Other than that I think I just messed with my computer. Doing homework and what not.
Day 66, 3/27/2010
Yay, Saturday. I don’t have many of these left here in Bonn… Well I told Michelle that I would meet her at the train station at one so I got up around 11 to get ready. Then the train was supposed to be at 3 past one so I made sure I was at the station by then. I sat there waiting for the train I didn’t know which one to get one and I wish she had gotten off to say hey I’m here, but she didn’t and the train was late so I didn’t know which one to get on so I waited more. Eventually I called Trudy and asked if she could get her number because I didn’t have it. Trudy called her parents then called me back. This whole time I was sitting and reading in the train station at Tannenbusch Mitte. So I now had her number and decided to give her a call. It wasn’t hard to get a hold of her, she answered on the first ring. I told her where I was and we found a place that would be best to meet up. We decided to meet up at the Hauptbahnhof in the main part where the trains let you out. So off on the train I went. When I got there I was walking to the main entrance when I saw her out of the corner of my eye. I almost missed her. If there had been just a few more people between us I don’t think I would have seen her at all. But I did and off we went to walk and talk. First we just walked around mostly near Munster Platz and the Cathedral. At one point my host sister came out of nowhere and jumped on me. It was quite amusing. After that we decided to get something to eat but I had to go to the bank first. So we stopped by there then we headed toward Subway. That was where I wanted to eat because I miss it from home. We sat down in the place for a while to eat and talk more. After a while we got bored of sit and went out to walk some more. Eventually we wanted to go somewhere so we decided to go to her house for a little while. So we found a bus stop so we could ride all the way over to her neighborhood. That was nice we went to her house first so I could go to the restroom and meet her parents. Then we walked around her neighborhood for a while and down to the river. Then we walked to the train stop so I could go home. I got home at about 4. After that my host mom invited me on a walk with her and the family that has the dog names Selena, the same family that we went to the park to play in the snow earlier this semester. After that I really need to work so I got on the comp and worked for a while. Then sleep.
Day 67, 3/28/2010
This was Sunday. Again I didn’t need to do anything so I slept most of the day. I actually slept way later than I wanted to. I was really mad at myself for doing that. As soon as I was up for the day I went down stairs to work on my homework for a while. I didn’t do anything at all for most of the day. I have nothing else to add.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Day 76, 4/6/2010
Day 58, 3/19/2010
This was another day in Rome. We decided to go check out a park in the city that was the largest in the city. I think it was originally part of the Villa Borghese. The entire place was a park with some fountains and several museums as well as a zoo. We were looking forward to seeing the Musee Borghese. This museum contained some of the most famous Bernini sculptures including 'The Rape of Persephone' and 'Apollo and Daphne.' So after eating breakfast and riding the train over the the Piazza Poppolo. This was one of the beginning/entrance of the park. We decided to just head right in and follow the maps we had as best as we could. It was a great park mostly just because it was very very beautiful. I took pictures all over the place. We went to a lake in the park as well and I was able to get some nice pictures of Ducks and Geese. Eventually we came up to one of the museums in the park. We went in to see how much it would cost to go into the museum and we didn't know how long it would take. It cost more than we wanted to pay and we really wanted to get to the other museum. So we just purchased a more detailed map about the area and left. Eventually after walking through this park for several hours we got to the Musee Borghese. This was a slightly exciting moment just to get shot down by the people in the museum. Apparently this museum can be sold out and according to them we should have known that this museum required a reservation. This just really pissed us off because it says obligatory in the Roma Pass book. It was kinda wrong but it was the only place that we could see these sculptures obviously. So we got the number to call and after become extremely disgruntled. This was also the place that they were the rudest to us. They basically called us stupid for not knowing we needed to make a reservation. It was very disappointing so with our extra time we decided to go to the zoo because we wanted to make ourselves happier again. Animals could do that for us. When we got to the zoo it was quite enjoyable. We got to see a lot of different animals that we've never seen before, like the African Wild dog. That was really cool. The only sad thing was that you could tell they were board. The dog kept walking from one side to the other, back and forth. It was also really really cool because we got to see Asian Lions, and Indian Elephants both of which I don't remember ever seeing before. It was a nice day at the zoo we were able to see a lot of other animals as well. My favorite were the African Vultures. One had itself completely spread out on the ground it look like it was dead. We walked around the entire zoo and when we finished we grabbed a late lunch at one of the stands. I had a pizza sandwich. Then we headed out of the park out of the different exit on our way to the Parthenon to get some more Gelati because Catie had fallen in love with that Gelati shop that we ate at the day before. Then we headed to the museum that contained the Ara Pacis. This was cool because we got in for free, that was nice cause we didn't want to spend the money it would have cost to go in. This was really neat because it was yet another thing we learned about last semester. It was beautiful. I liked it because I got to see everything that I wanted to see on it. Sadly much of one of the panels was missing. That sucked a lot but I already knew that. We went through that place and while I was resting my feet Trisha came around the corner yelling at me about one of the people on the Altar. At about that time a gentle man came up to us and started talking to us about it and where we were from. Then he asked us what text books we used in our History classes. Trisha and I mentioned that we used "Art through the Ages." Then he says well I was one of the Authors. Both Trisha and my jaws dropped. It was like meeting a celebrity. We became kinda giddy after that. It was just really cool to get to talk to this guy. I was really happy about that. After we looked at this thing for a while Catie got bored and wanted to leave so we headed outside to see if we could figure out where we wanted to go next. While we were standing out there the same gentleman came out and talked to us again giving us some good places to go see and he pointed us in the direction of the Trevi Fountain. That was where we were headed next. This was awesome as well. Another Bernini fountain. All of us did the traditional throw the coins over our shoulder because that would bean we would return someday although for me to do it would be a little self serving I did it anyway. We only stayed there for a little while because it was really crowded and no body wanted to stay with all those people around. So we just left and headed on our way to the last place of the day at the Piazza Novona. I finally convinced them to go so we went and Trisha and Catie were really happy that I finally did. It was beautiful. I loved it. Sadly the fountain in the middle of the piazza was covered. We looked at it through the glass that they provided around the boards that covered it. After we walked around the piazza we found a shop that they wanted to shop at before we headed back to the hostel for the night in order to get some free food. They provided pasta for us for free, so it was only good to take advantage of it. So we headed back to the train station down the same street that we went down the day before in order to go home. Once we got there we had our pasta then went over to the other building where our rooms were so we could get ready for bed. Then they met up in my room so we could watch another episode of Glee before going to bed.
Day 59, 3/20/2010
This was the only day that I spent by myself. I decided to sleep in for a little while. At one point I got kinda mad at the cleaning lady because she came into my room at 9 in the morning while I was still sleeping I didn't like that too much. I was confused as well because I thought that they weren't suppose to start cleaning till after people had checked out. Any way, since I'm going back to Rome at the end of the semester I was ok with getting to sleep in. This was the day that Catie and Trisha were heading to the Vatican. I had the first part of the day to myself. I decided after I woke up to go and look at the bed and breakfast that Sean and I would be staying in at the end of the semester. One really cool thing is that it ended up being right next to the hostel that we were staying in so it didn't take me long to get over there. Right after that I decided I wanted to walk around so I did. I went and saw some of the ruins that were just a little ways down the street from us. After that I decided to go see one of the churches that we weren't able to see before now. After that I headed to the trains to meet up with Trisha and Catie at the Musee Borghese because the reservation we made the day before was for three. So, I got off at the piazza de Spagna. Then, headed toward the museum. This didn't take me long and I was actually at the park a while before I had to be so I grabbed some lunch at one of the street vendors just inside the park and sat down to eat it. As I ate I watched a pigeon bully his fellows for the little bit of food I dropped for him. It was funny because he would chase every other bird away so he could have the food. I don't just mean chasing them away for a few feet, he would chase them for up to ten feet before returning to the food. It was quite amusing. At about that time Trisha called to see where I was. I told them that I was almost there so I headed down the road toward the museum. It only took me about ten mins of walking to actually get to the building. So I decided to go into the shop so I could write down some names to books I was interested in. Then they called me again and I headed outside to meet up with them to go inside. This was yet again another amazing place. I was so excited to get to see the sculptures. The first one we saw was a lady lounging on a bed/couch. It was so well done I actually wanted to sit on the cushion on the couch. It really looked like it would squish if I did sit on it. It was so real. I was just amazed at the level of detail he put into it. There were even creases and stress lines on the cushion. I also loved the way he carved her hair. It was just as well done. I wish I had long enough hair so I could put my hair up like that as well. I just loved the entire work. This one, however, was nothing compared to the next two. These were the best pieces of sculpture I've ever seen. I would say that they are possibly better than Da Vinci. It was amazing. I was so excited to get to see these. Almost as much as Catie. She was about to jump out of her skin when she saw them. The articulation and the detail in each were just... wow! I could talk about these two pieces of work all day. The first one was 'Apollo and Daphne.' This was the point in the story where Daphne's father is turning her into a Laural tree. Because of Eros, Apollo had fallen madly in love with Daphne and also because of Eros she had her heart turned against Apollo. It was an impossible match because of the different arrows. So she asked her father to save her. By doing so, he turned her into the tree. This was an amazing sculpture because she is in that process. She has branches starting at her fingers, her feet are turning into roots and sending shooters into the ground. and she has bark and branched running up her body. Although she is still partially human. You can see the look of terror at being pursued by Apollo and not being able to get away. She even has a couple of tears carved on her cheek. I was completely amazed at this and how well it was made. The other sculpture was the 'Rape of Persephone.' This one was just as amazing. It has the part of the story of how Persephone became Hades' wife. The name of sculpture gives the point of the story. It was also just as amazing because of the detail and the realism of it. His fingers even made an impression into her skin so you could see the force he was using on her. It was just amazing at how real it looked. I was so surprised at this. I just wanted to look at this sculpture all day. However, we didn't have all day and there were other parts of the museum so we headed to the other rooms. Sadly nothing else was as amazing as those first three sculptures and we didn't see anything else that came close. Only one other thing is worth mentioning and that is a painting of Artemis's hunters as well as the goddess herself. It was so great because it was the group of hunters as well as a couple of men in the bushes off to the side. It was quite amusing because we know the story about Artemis if she would have found them they would be dead. Right their on the spot. After that we didn't do anything else for the rest of the day because we were really really tired and we were leaving the next day. So after the museum we headed back through the museum and then headed toward the metro station right outside the same metro station I came out of to get to the Villa Borghese. When we got back to our rooms we decided to take a little bit of a nap before the kitchen opened up for our free pasta. After we got our pasta we were still hungry so we headed to the pizza place we've eaten at before and got ourselves some pizza. Then we went back to my room to watch Glee and eat our pizza we watched two episodes because we didn't want to sleep yet. After they went to bed I watched a few more episodes and then went to sleep.
This was another day in Rome. We decided to go check out a park in the city that was the largest in the city. I think it was originally part of the Villa Borghese. The entire place was a park with some fountains and several museums as well as a zoo. We were looking forward to seeing the Musee Borghese. This museum contained some of the most famous Bernini sculptures including 'The Rape of Persephone' and 'Apollo and Daphne.' So after eating breakfast and riding the train over the the Piazza Poppolo. This was one of the beginning/entrance of the park. We decided to just head right in and follow the maps we had as best as we could. It was a great park mostly just because it was very very beautiful. I took pictures all over the place. We went to a lake in the park as well and I was able to get some nice pictures of Ducks and Geese. Eventually we came up to one of the museums in the park. We went in to see how much it would cost to go into the museum and we didn't know how long it would take. It cost more than we wanted to pay and we really wanted to get to the other museum. So we just purchased a more detailed map about the area and left. Eventually after walking through this park for several hours we got to the Musee Borghese. This was a slightly exciting moment just to get shot down by the people in the museum. Apparently this museum can be sold out and according to them we should have known that this museum required a reservation. This just really pissed us off because it says obligatory in the Roma Pass book. It was kinda wrong but it was the only place that we could see these sculptures obviously. So we got the number to call and after become extremely disgruntled. This was also the place that they were the rudest to us. They basically called us stupid for not knowing we needed to make a reservation. It was very disappointing so with our extra time we decided to go to the zoo because we wanted to make ourselves happier again. Animals could do that for us. When we got to the zoo it was quite enjoyable. We got to see a lot of different animals that we've never seen before, like the African Wild dog. That was really cool. The only sad thing was that you could tell they were board. The dog kept walking from one side to the other, back and forth. It was also really really cool because we got to see Asian Lions, and Indian Elephants both of which I don't remember ever seeing before. It was a nice day at the zoo we were able to see a lot of other animals as well. My favorite were the African Vultures. One had itself completely spread out on the ground it look like it was dead. We walked around the entire zoo and when we finished we grabbed a late lunch at one of the stands. I had a pizza sandwich. Then we headed out of the park out of the different exit on our way to the Parthenon to get some more Gelati because Catie had fallen in love with that Gelati shop that we ate at the day before. Then we headed to the museum that contained the Ara Pacis. This was cool because we got in for free, that was nice cause we didn't want to spend the money it would have cost to go in. This was really neat because it was yet another thing we learned about last semester. It was beautiful. I liked it because I got to see everything that I wanted to see on it. Sadly much of one of the panels was missing. That sucked a lot but I already knew that. We went through that place and while I was resting my feet Trisha came around the corner yelling at me about one of the people on the Altar. At about that time a gentle man came up to us and started talking to us about it and where we were from. Then he asked us what text books we used in our History classes. Trisha and I mentioned that we used "Art through the Ages." Then he says well I was one of the Authors. Both Trisha and my jaws dropped. It was like meeting a celebrity. We became kinda giddy after that. It was just really cool to get to talk to this guy. I was really happy about that. After we looked at this thing for a while Catie got bored and wanted to leave so we headed outside to see if we could figure out where we wanted to go next. While we were standing out there the same gentleman came out and talked to us again giving us some good places to go see and he pointed us in the direction of the Trevi Fountain. That was where we were headed next. This was awesome as well. Another Bernini fountain. All of us did the traditional throw the coins over our shoulder because that would bean we would return someday although for me to do it would be a little self serving I did it anyway. We only stayed there for a little while because it was really crowded and no body wanted to stay with all those people around. So we just left and headed on our way to the last place of the day at the Piazza Novona. I finally convinced them to go so we went and Trisha and Catie were really happy that I finally did. It was beautiful. I loved it. Sadly the fountain in the middle of the piazza was covered. We looked at it through the glass that they provided around the boards that covered it. After we walked around the piazza we found a shop that they wanted to shop at before we headed back to the hostel for the night in order to get some free food. They provided pasta for us for free, so it was only good to take advantage of it. So we headed back to the train station down the same street that we went down the day before in order to go home. Once we got there we had our pasta then went over to the other building where our rooms were so we could get ready for bed. Then they met up in my room so we could watch another episode of Glee before going to bed.
Day 59, 3/20/2010
This was the only day that I spent by myself. I decided to sleep in for a little while. At one point I got kinda mad at the cleaning lady because she came into my room at 9 in the morning while I was still sleeping I didn't like that too much. I was confused as well because I thought that they weren't suppose to start cleaning till after people had checked out. Any way, since I'm going back to Rome at the end of the semester I was ok with getting to sleep in. This was the day that Catie and Trisha were heading to the Vatican. I had the first part of the day to myself. I decided after I woke up to go and look at the bed and breakfast that Sean and I would be staying in at the end of the semester. One really cool thing is that it ended up being right next to the hostel that we were staying in so it didn't take me long to get over there. Right after that I decided I wanted to walk around so I did. I went and saw some of the ruins that were just a little ways down the street from us. After that I decided to go see one of the churches that we weren't able to see before now. After that I headed to the trains to meet up with Trisha and Catie at the Musee Borghese because the reservation we made the day before was for three. So, I got off at the piazza de Spagna. Then, headed toward the museum. This didn't take me long and I was actually at the park a while before I had to be so I grabbed some lunch at one of the street vendors just inside the park and sat down to eat it. As I ate I watched a pigeon bully his fellows for the little bit of food I dropped for him. It was funny because he would chase every other bird away so he could have the food. I don't just mean chasing them away for a few feet, he would chase them for up to ten feet before returning to the food. It was quite amusing. At about that time Trisha called to see where I was. I told them that I was almost there so I headed down the road toward the museum. It only took me about ten mins of walking to actually get to the building. So I decided to go into the shop so I could write down some names to books I was interested in. Then they called me again and I headed outside to meet up with them to go inside. This was yet again another amazing place. I was so excited to get to see the sculptures. The first one we saw was a lady lounging on a bed/couch. It was so well done I actually wanted to sit on the cushion on the couch. It really looked like it would squish if I did sit on it. It was so real. I was just amazed at the level of detail he put into it. There were even creases and stress lines on the cushion. I also loved the way he carved her hair. It was just as well done. I wish I had long enough hair so I could put my hair up like that as well. I just loved the entire work. This one, however, was nothing compared to the next two. These were the best pieces of sculpture I've ever seen. I would say that they are possibly better than Da Vinci. It was amazing. I was so excited to get to see these. Almost as much as Catie. She was about to jump out of her skin when she saw them. The articulation and the detail in each were just... wow! I could talk about these two pieces of work all day. The first one was 'Apollo and Daphne.' This was the point in the story where Daphne's father is turning her into a Laural tree. Because of Eros, Apollo had fallen madly in love with Daphne and also because of Eros she had her heart turned against Apollo. It was an impossible match because of the different arrows. So she asked her father to save her. By doing so, he turned her into the tree. This was an amazing sculpture because she is in that process. She has branches starting at her fingers, her feet are turning into roots and sending shooters into the ground. and she has bark and branched running up her body. Although she is still partially human. You can see the look of terror at being pursued by Apollo and not being able to get away. She even has a couple of tears carved on her cheek. I was completely amazed at this and how well it was made. The other sculpture was the 'Rape of Persephone.' This one was just as amazing. It has the part of the story of how Persephone became Hades' wife. The name of sculpture gives the point of the story. It was also just as amazing because of the detail and the realism of it. His fingers even made an impression into her skin so you could see the force he was using on her. It was just amazing at how real it looked. I was so surprised at this. I just wanted to look at this sculpture all day. However, we didn't have all day and there were other parts of the museum so we headed to the other rooms. Sadly nothing else was as amazing as those first three sculptures and we didn't see anything else that came close. Only one other thing is worth mentioning and that is a painting of Artemis's hunters as well as the goddess herself. It was so great because it was the group of hunters as well as a couple of men in the bushes off to the side. It was quite amusing because we know the story about Artemis if she would have found them they would be dead. Right their on the spot. After that we didn't do anything else for the rest of the day because we were really really tired and we were leaving the next day. So after the museum we headed back through the museum and then headed toward the metro station right outside the same metro station I came out of to get to the Villa Borghese. When we got back to our rooms we decided to take a little bit of a nap before the kitchen opened up for our free pasta. After we got our pasta we were still hungry so we headed to the pizza place we've eaten at before and got ourselves some pizza. Then we went back to my room to watch Glee and eat our pizza we watched two episodes because we didn't want to sleep yet. After they went to bed I watched a few more episodes and then went to sleep.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Day 71, 4/1/2010
Continuation of Spring Break...
Day 57, 3/18/2010
This was our first full day in Rome. In the morning we got ready. I was a little late getting over to the other building where they served breakfast but not too bad. We used this day to go to the archeological part of Rome. We got up early to head out to the Colosseum. This was the best time because there were less people and we were able to get pictures with less people. It was really nice. We first walked around the bottom level and took a ton of pictures. We didn't have a tour guide so we weren't able to learn much about the place. While we were on the bottom we found a souvenir shop that was worth looking in. There was another one at the top level that had a lot of books. I wrote down a lot of the names of any of the books I was interested in. While we were still on the bottom level because there are two levels you can go up to, we found our first Roma cat of the day. He was so cute, but also kinda grimy from being a street cat. After that we went up the the second level, that is also where we found the second book shop. I was able to get some really nice pictures of the the Arch of Constantine from that level. I was also able to get some nice pictures of the floor of the Colosseum as well as of the country side. Before we headed out Catie decided she wanted some pictures on top of a couple of the capitals that were placed in various places around the bottom level. So we headed down there and she took a couple. We made quite a few people laugh with these poses. We finished walking around the Colosseum and headed out to look at the Arch of Constantine again. This time it was in the day time. Around this time the tourists were their in full. A couple of men dressed up as Gladiators came up to us and asked if we wanted to take pictures with them. It was funny because they had Trisha sit on his lap for the first pictures. I hiked my leg up in the second one. I liked that one better because all three of us were posed better in it. I got a big kick out of the Gladiators. We found out later after seeing more of them that we got the best looking ones. After we looked at the arch again we walked over to the Archeological area where there were the remains of a palace and several temples as well as the Arch of Septimus Severus and the Arch of Titus. Both the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus we learned about in class last semester. This was a very large area. We had to walk around the entire thing. At that last shop I purchased a guide book. So I would actually know what the hell I was looking at. We walked through the area and I took pictures over everything that I wanted pictures of So I wouldn't take so many when Sean came. This was a huge area. It was all different parts of a palace. It was huge and took us quite a while to get through it. Another really cool place that was in this area was the 'hut' that Romulus lived in. It is the traditional place, continuously renewed by the people of the city because Romulus is a founder Rome. When we finished with this area we were close to the Column of Trajan in the Forum of Trajan. This column was yet another piece of artwork we learned about in class. Another thing that I wanted to study but no Trisha and Catie were hungry. So, After that we decided to find some lunch. We were checking some of the restaurants near the column when a lady handed us some fliers to a place nearby with three plates for 12 Euros. It was worth it because we weren't going to spend much for dinner. So we had dumplings, backed chicken and Tiramisu for lunch and it was wonderful. After that we headed out again to walk around and see anything that was worth seeing. We decided to go to the Pantheon. It wasn't that far of a walk. Most everything in the central part of Rome is close together. Close enough that I could walk from one side to the other in about 30 minutes approximately. So we stared on our way and when we got closer we found another area that had ruins but what made this place special is that this is where a lot of the Roma cats stayed during the year. We were looking at them and taking pictures, wishing we could pet them as we walked around the ruins I noticed a place that was open where we could go down with them. It wasn't blocked so we went down. This was awesome because it was a cat sanctuary for the cats of Rome. This is where they are adopted from and saved from the streets. They fix them and feed them. It was really neat. I got to pet so many different cats. They were so cute. We stayed there for a while petting the cats and playing with the ones that weren't scared or angry. After that we headed to the Pantheon. We were HUGELY disappointed when we got there. They had scaffolding down one half of the building front. So the facade was covered. I was rather upset by this because this was my first time to see this building and I really wanted to look at it. It was also closed for evening mass so we weren't able to go in just yet. So we stayed outside and took some pictures. Then before we left to do something else while we waited we found a Gelati shop right next to the building. We got some gelati and for the Catie fell in love with it so much that we went back several time before we left back for Germany. As we walked around we found another Souvenir shop that I sat outside of because I was tired while Trisha and Catie shopped. I found a necklace and earring set that I really wanted there but I didn't get it. I made a promise before going to Rome that since I was going back I wasn't going to buy anything. So I finished my ice cream while they shopped. By then the Pantheon was open for tourists to enter so we went back. This was the best part because we were able to go inside. It was amazing. Another time of actually getting to see what I've only learned about in class. I took a lot of pictures. This was the day that I took so many pictures because of all the places that we went. I loved ever min of it because I love history. I enjoyed getting to see this building very much because of how important it was in my class and how important it was to building innovations. After a little while we started to walk some more. This was when we found a grocery store that was open and we decide to by our dinner. We decided it would be cheaper to get our dinner and make it ourselves than to go to a restaurant and it turns out it was cheaper because of our lunch. It was only 3 Euro between the three of us. After that we headed home we walked down a long street to get to the closest termini to go to our stop and hostel. We stopped by our rooms first to drop off our stuff for the day then we went to the other building to cook our pasta. When we were done and actually ate it, it was kinda nasty but we didn't have much else to do because we didn't want to go buy anything. After that we headed to my room to watch a show that Catie really really wanted me to watch called Glee. After that first episode I was kinda hooked. So we watched it and then went to bed so we could be fresh for the next day.
Day 57, 3/18/2010
This was our first full day in Rome. In the morning we got ready. I was a little late getting over to the other building where they served breakfast but not too bad. We used this day to go to the archeological part of Rome. We got up early to head out to the Colosseum. This was the best time because there were less people and we were able to get pictures with less people. It was really nice. We first walked around the bottom level and took a ton of pictures. We didn't have a tour guide so we weren't able to learn much about the place. While we were on the bottom we found a souvenir shop that was worth looking in. There was another one at the top level that had a lot of books. I wrote down a lot of the names of any of the books I was interested in. While we were still on the bottom level because there are two levels you can go up to, we found our first Roma cat of the day. He was so cute, but also kinda grimy from being a street cat. After that we went up the the second level, that is also where we found the second book shop. I was able to get some really nice pictures of the the Arch of Constantine from that level. I was also able to get some nice pictures of the floor of the Colosseum as well as of the country side. Before we headed out Catie decided she wanted some pictures on top of a couple of the capitals that were placed in various places around the bottom level. So we headed down there and she took a couple. We made quite a few people laugh with these poses. We finished walking around the Colosseum and headed out to look at the Arch of Constantine again. This time it was in the day time. Around this time the tourists were their in full. A couple of men dressed up as Gladiators came up to us and asked if we wanted to take pictures with them. It was funny because they had Trisha sit on his lap for the first pictures. I hiked my leg up in the second one. I liked that one better because all three of us were posed better in it. I got a big kick out of the Gladiators. We found out later after seeing more of them that we got the best looking ones. After we looked at the arch again we walked over to the Archeological area where there were the remains of a palace and several temples as well as the Arch of Septimus Severus and the Arch of Titus. Both the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus we learned about in class last semester. This was a very large area. We had to walk around the entire thing. At that last shop I purchased a guide book. So I would actually know what the hell I was looking at. We walked through the area and I took pictures over everything that I wanted pictures of So I wouldn't take so many when Sean came. This was a huge area. It was all different parts of a palace. It was huge and took us quite a while to get through it. Another really cool place that was in this area was the 'hut' that Romulus lived in. It is the traditional place, continuously renewed by the people of the city because Romulus is a founder Rome. When we finished with this area we were close to the Column of Trajan in the Forum of Trajan. This column was yet another piece of artwork we learned about in class. Another thing that I wanted to study but no Trisha and Catie were hungry. So, After that we decided to find some lunch. We were checking some of the restaurants near the column when a lady handed us some fliers to a place nearby with three plates for 12 Euros. It was worth it because we weren't going to spend much for dinner. So we had dumplings, backed chicken and Tiramisu for lunch and it was wonderful. After that we headed out again to walk around and see anything that was worth seeing. We decided to go to the Pantheon. It wasn't that far of a walk. Most everything in the central part of Rome is close together. Close enough that I could walk from one side to the other in about 30 minutes approximately. So we stared on our way and when we got closer we found another area that had ruins but what made this place special is that this is where a lot of the Roma cats stayed during the year. We were looking at them and taking pictures, wishing we could pet them as we walked around the ruins I noticed a place that was open where we could go down with them. It wasn't blocked so we went down. This was awesome because it was a cat sanctuary for the cats of Rome. This is where they are adopted from and saved from the streets. They fix them and feed them. It was really neat. I got to pet so many different cats. They were so cute. We stayed there for a while petting the cats and playing with the ones that weren't scared or angry. After that we headed to the Pantheon. We were HUGELY disappointed when we got there. They had scaffolding down one half of the building front. So the facade was covered. I was rather upset by this because this was my first time to see this building and I really wanted to look at it. It was also closed for evening mass so we weren't able to go in just yet. So we stayed outside and took some pictures. Then before we left to do something else while we waited we found a Gelati shop right next to the building. We got some gelati and for the Catie fell in love with it so much that we went back several time before we left back for Germany. As we walked around we found another Souvenir shop that I sat outside of because I was tired while Trisha and Catie shopped. I found a necklace and earring set that I really wanted there but I didn't get it. I made a promise before going to Rome that since I was going back I wasn't going to buy anything. So I finished my ice cream while they shopped. By then the Pantheon was open for tourists to enter so we went back. This was the best part because we were able to go inside. It was amazing. Another time of actually getting to see what I've only learned about in class. I took a lot of pictures. This was the day that I took so many pictures because of all the places that we went. I loved ever min of it because I love history. I enjoyed getting to see this building very much because of how important it was in my class and how important it was to building innovations. After a little while we started to walk some more. This was when we found a grocery store that was open and we decide to by our dinner. We decided it would be cheaper to get our dinner and make it ourselves than to go to a restaurant and it turns out it was cheaper because of our lunch. It was only 3 Euro between the three of us. After that we headed home we walked down a long street to get to the closest termini to go to our stop and hostel. We stopped by our rooms first to drop off our stuff for the day then we went to the other building to cook our pasta. When we were done and actually ate it, it was kinda nasty but we didn't have much else to do because we didn't want to go buy anything. After that we headed to my room to watch a show that Catie really really wanted me to watch called Glee. After that first episode I was kinda hooked. So we watched it and then went to bed so we could be fresh for the next day.
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