One Day More

Sunday night, before the packers arrived

I write this while sitting in our hotel room, which is located about .25 miles away from our current/old apartment. It's been an extremely busy week and this is the first time I've really had the energy and time to write. Here is a short recap:

On Monday morning, the packers arrived at our apartment and began to pack all of our belongings. This took all day Monday and spilled over into Tuesday midday. Hank spent most of the day attempting to eat the packing paper and bothering the three workers. Chris and I sat on the couch and read while they worked. By midday Tuesday, everything was packed in the apartment and in our storage unit, minus the televisions and one bed, which made sleeping that night much more enjoyable.

Monday night, after packing

Monday night, after packing

On Wednesday morning, the movers arrived to put all of the furniture and boxes onto the truck. That was an all-day affair. They arrived at 9 and did not finish removing all the items from the apartment until 7 p.m. The movers were very friendly with Hank but he got very confused throughout the day and had several accidents in the house. Once they left, all we had left in the apartment was our aero bed and our belongings for the trip.

Post movers = empty house

On Thursday morning, we got up early to pack the car since the cleaning people were arriving at 9. Alas, we discovered that the packers had forgotten to pack some things that were in our cabinets. They had packed the lids to the pots but not the pots themselves, and had packed the glass oven dishes but not the lids. They also missed a bunch of ziploc bags and some coffee travel mugs. In haste, we put together two leftover boxes and packed them. Luckily we'll have space in the car for them, but it is definitely not an ideal situation. When the cleaners came, I left to drop Hank off at a friend's place for a couple of nights so we could run errands and relax. He was no longer upset after that and I'm not sure he noticed when I left.

Thursday was filled with errands that we had to run, including dropping the cable box off at Verizon, mailing last minute packages, exchanging our coins for cash, and shipping Chris's car. Once completed, we finally went to see the second Hobbit movie, since we've had no time to go since it came out.

Today has been a very relaxing day. I've come down with a bit of a cold so I slept in and Chris went back to the apartment to handle the exterminator appointment. Then we got breakfast and Chris got his haircut while I finished a book. Now we just have to wait around until 3 when we have our final out appointment with the rental company.

Hank, before he ran away because the photo flash was capturing his soul

Chris and I are amazed and excited that our trip is finally here. We've been talking about it and planning for it forever, so it's surprising that it has actually arrived. It probably won't feel real until we're on the road tomorrow. I've posted a link here the route that we will most likely take. Everything will depend upon the weather, so if it's nice tomorrow, we may take Skyline Drive and if we have enough time, we may head up to Vegas after the Grand Canyon.

That's all for now. I will do my best to post every night about that day's distance covered and eventful occurrences!

- Kate

California Dreaming

First things first, I've returned to the blogosphere. It's been a very busy 1.5 years but I've found a good reason to blog again and I hope you'll all enjoy it.

There are few things I enjoy more in life than travelling. I was lucky enough to be born into a family that loved travelling and was blessed that they wished to bring me along on these trips, even though I was remarkably good at disappearing. 

Despite traveling far from home and living abroad (but only for a month each time), I've never actually moved more than 4 hours away from home. State College and Washington, D.C. are all within a half a day driving distance from the Jersey Shore and it's been easy to visit family (and for them to visit us) and come home for holidays.

Alas, life is full of curve balls. Enter Chris, who I met two years ago and recently decided his was a worthy life partner and his career in the Army. It is this career that is moving us across the country to Southern California for two years! (There are worse places). Come February 1st, (one week from tomorrow!) we (including our 80 lbs. dog, Hank) will begin our 7 day trek across the United States to Huntington Beach, CA.

This space will host my daily blogs about the trip cross country and our future adventures in California. I'll hopefully post a few times next week (wifi willing) regarding the packing process and the week leading up to the big move.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days!

- Kate

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

So this is the end. My month long trip across the pond came to a close about a week and a half ago. It's taken me all of this time to spit out this blog post, for the ending is always the most difficult to write. When I started this series of blog posts, I was super excited for my trip. I couldn't wait to tell you all about it. However, I knew only a bare minimum of what I would be doing while I was there so there really wasn't much to say.

Now it's over and I'm back to reality (sort of). And it's been extremely difficult to put into words all of my emotions about the trip. You could almost argue that I'm still getting over my jet lag. It hasn't fully sunk in yet that I'm back in America, because I totally hit the ground running when I got back. I haven't had a weekend free and only see one opportunity for a free weekend before the semester begins. And there is almost too much to say. Too much to recount. Too many feelings to impart. So I'm going to try and I will also keep this short. I could go into extreme detail but that would only be for my benefit and not for yours.

So I will write some thank yous:

To my family: who assisted both monetarily and emotionally, thank you very much. This was really the trip of a lifetime. I will look back on this time in my life with great happiness and I'm so grateful that you were there to help me get there. Thank you for supporting me during the trip, with Skyping and emails. It was nice to feel connected to home while abroad. And thanks for being here when I returned. It was wonderful to be greeted at the airport

To my friends (aka, my blog readers): thank you for reading. I'm sure it got tiring after awhile. I know it was tiring to write these up everyday. And they probably got boring. I wasn't as funny as I could have been but sometimes I was just too tired to be funny. But thanks for reading all the same. Or thanks for skimming/looking at the pictures. I know I got page views that weren't mine so I know that someone out there is reading this garbage.

To my London friends: First, I'd like to thank all of you. You made the trip a very memorable experience and one that I will not forget. I'd like to especially thank my cacaws! (Jenny and Melissa). You guys were the best and London would have been totally different without you. P.S. Cotswold misses your faces a lot.

To London: Thanks for letting me explore your city. You were awesome. I loved every inch of the city and could spend several months there and still not experience everything I want to. I hope to see you again soon (Please don't rain as much next time. Thanks!)

Well that's all I need to say. I did a lot in a month's time. I saw a lot of London but barely scratched the surface. I didn't go to Wimbledon but I drank some good beers. I saw some amazing historical items and visited some of the coolest libraries ever. I met some authentic British boys and they were just as I expected. I ate meat pies and they were awesome. I had too much food but loved it. I walked way too much and my legs hated me for it. It was all glorious. I soaked up a ton of history while I was there and it just left me with the urge to travel even more...

Which I am doing, since I'm going to Disney in a week. How bout that! Not sure it will be blog worthy but I'll bring my computer anyway and we'll see if something awesome happens that needs to be documented.

Thanks again for reading. You know I'll be back again when I take my next trip. I'm thinking Italy next time? Or maybe back to Ireland and actually blogging? Or Spain? Or back to Scotland for a more in depth tour? You know I'll be somewhere, seeing something, and being all together crazy but awesome. Cheers!

- Kate

I Must Away to the Colonies!

Well it's Friday. My last day in London. I wasn't sad to go, but I also wasn't elated to leave. I felt kind of apathetic about it. I mean, I was sad to leave my friends with whom I had spent pretty much every day of the last month. And I was sad to leave London. Glad that I wouldn't be there for the Olympics and that craziness, but still sad to leave the city. And I was happy to come home to see my family and friends. Not happy to return to work or the research paper that I need (and still need) to work on. But definitely happy to return to the comforts of home.

My last day in London started early....too early, and overall, we really didn't do that much. I woke at 6 a.m., unable to fall back asleep, and just decided to start my day. I packed everything, really happy that I had brought an extra bag with me for all of the gifts and souvenirs I purchased. Melissa, Jenny, and I met up around 10 to get some breakfast and do some last minute shopping. We grabbed lunch and decided what to do for the Olympic Ceremonies. The British Studies Program was going on a boat cruise from 4-8 but we decided not to attend. Something about spending 4 hours on a boat with a hundred or so undergrads doesn't really sound like a good time to me.

For the ceremonies, we headed to Trafalgar Square to see if they were showing the ceremony there. They weren't so we just found a bar nearby that was and settled ourselves there. Jenny, Melissa, and I enjoyed dinner and drinks before the ceremonies started. We were almost unable to watch them with sound because the restaurant had so rule about never turning off their stupid techno beats. However, another patron stepped in and took charge to get the sound turned up so we could all enjoy the ceremony. (Opinion: I personally really enjoyed the opening ceremony. I know that those in the United States got a play-by-play of it, which sounds really annoying, but we were able to see it all without commercials. Danny Boyle is crazy but I still thought it was cool.)


We called it a night rather early since I had to be up at 3 a.m. to get my taxi to the airport. I said my goodbyes :( and got a few hours of sleep before heading to Heathrow. A week before, when I made my taxi reservation, everyone in London was threatening to strike. Thus, I planned on getting to the airport early in case there were any issues. Well, no one went on strike. And traffic was non-existent. I was there before the United Airlines counter even opened. And then....

I found out my flight was delayed two hours. This was just the news I didn't want to hear on about three hours of sleep. So I spent the next five hours at the airport. Being angry. Writing blogs. Purchasing Olympic gear with cash (since they only took Visa and I didn't have a Visa.) I finally boarded the flight at 9:45 and settled in for a nice 7.5 hour flight across the Atlantic. The only saving grace was the fact that I was able to get my own seat and didn't have to share.

I landed safely without an issue and made it through customs without an issue at all. I was home! And someone was there to greet me :) What a great ending to a very, very long flight. And then, my month-long trip to England ended. It was over. I'll add my final words in another blog because it's taken a bit for it all to sink in. Cheers.

- Kate

I Can't Remember the Taste of Strawberries, Sam!

When writing my diary entry about the last Thursday of our trip, I drew a major blank. I stared at the page for a good bit, trying to rack my brain as to what I had actually accomplished on Thursday. And then it came to me.....The Research Symposium. Oh yes, the Research Symposium. But we will get back to that later since it wasn't until 6 p.m. at night and I did other things on Thursday.

The Olympic Torch!

It was our first full day of no classes so we took advantage of it. We started our day off with coffees and a walk to Millennium Bridge to go see the Olympic Torch. It was working its way through London on the last week of its three-month tour and would be going over the bridge and heading down towards the Globe Theatre at 10 a.m. There were a lot of people there but we were able to get right up to the barrier and see the torch as it went by. My pictures are only alright though because everyone was pushing in and getting in the way.

Then Melissa and I headed north into the City of London for our scheduled mani-peds. Yeah it seems kind of ridiculous to do in London but it was totally nice to get a little foot massage after all of the walking we had done that month. They were wonderful and we were even graced by a really, awful customer who yelled at the employees for messing up her one nail. She was a real piece of work. And of course her worthless boyfriend, whom she dragged along, just sat there and let it all happen.

Then we met up with Jenny for lunch at Mother Mash. I do believe I have extolled the virtues of Mother Mash on this blog and do not need to do so anymore. All I will say is that is was just as awesome as the first time and I officially like meat pies. After lunch, we headed over to Forbidden Planet, a comic book/nerd store. Yes, Jenny, Melissa, and I were pretty nerdy, evidence by our frequent references to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dr. Who (Jenny and Melissa only), and other movies/tv shows of the like. We nerded out for a good long time before realizing that we needed to head back to the dorms to get ready for......

The Research Symposium! I know you've all been waiting to hear about this and now the moment has arrived. Now the push behind the symposium is so the students can educate the rest of the British Studies group on their research. We are took two courses: one that counted as a classroom course and the other is a research paper. So as the title dictates, it allows one person from each group to present to the program their research. Here is what we expected: The professor talks for about three minutes and discusses what their class did and then introduces the student. Then the student talks for about five minutes, just about their research.

Here is what we got: professors talking for 5-10 minutes. Then the students talking for 10-15 minutes, and just barely referencing their research. Mainly, they just told us about all of the places they visited. And about 90% of the students did this. So instead of running about two hours, it lasted three. And it was about 85 degrees in the room. It was absolutely awful. I'm listened to a lot of professors ramble on for a long time. But three hours? Seriously? And we didn't really get to hear about anyone's research. Some we did, but not most. And it would have gone longer if the director hadn't stepped in to cut the student off.

So that is how my Thursday evening went. And you can be damned sure that as soon as it was over, we found both food and alcohol. Both were a necessity after that shitshow. We put a nice touch on the evening by hanging out on the South Bank once more, watching the Fire Garden and just relaxing. Only one day left...

- Kate

Enter the 21st Century, England, and get some A/C

Wednesday arrived much sooner than anticipated, for I was up at 7 a.m. to do my laundry. Still fighting a cold that I got in Scotland after spending the entire morning in the rain (see Blog: Storming the Castle), I started the day rather sluggishly. However, a nice breakfast of croissants and bread got me ready to kick off the last day of classes. It was hot. So hot out. Hotter than it had been all month. And England doesn’t have air conditioning because it normally doesn’t get into the 80s. But it did on Tuesday and Wednesday. And boy did we feel the heat.

Our last class took us back to the British Library, but this time it was for a tour of the conservation studio. I have to post for this in my school blog, so I won’t get into it here but will link the page when I get that all written up and posted.

Then we were free!! No more classes! So Melissa and I headed down to the Globe for my third and final Shakespeare performance of the trip. We saw Richard III, which I’ve never read but I really enjoyed. Two really famous actors were in it, Mark Rycliffe and Barty Crouch Sr. (I don’t remember his real name so he will forever be called Barty Crouch Sr. It was very well done. Not as depressing as it is normally portrayed, for Richard made it more satirical. We got standing room near the stage and were able to lean on the stage during the performance. It also kept us out of the sun, which was really strong that day.

After the play ended, we headed back to the dorm for a quick shower and change before heading over to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub. It was the first pub rebuilt after the Great Fire in 1666. It is also where Samuel Johnson used to go to hang out and work on writing the dictionary. Twas a really cool bar with lots of windy stairs. They had Samuel Smiths Extra Stout on tap!!! But ALL of the taps were broken. So I had to deal with just having a Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout. It was just fine but I've had it in America and was dismayed that I couldn't have something new. Next time!

After dinner, we went to the fire garden again! No fire dancing this time, but we laid on these weird orange hammocks/octagonal boats/nests. They were comfortable for awhile until my butt fell asleep. Then it was uncomfortable. We just hung out for a bit and then went back cause we was tired. And that was the end of Wednesday. Only two days left! Cheers!

- Kate

The Beginning of the End

Temple Church, for all you Dan Brown lovers

(Author's Note:So I just realized that this blog has been daily activity heavy and I really haven’t written anything introspective about my trip. I want to do this and I’m currently working on several opinion blog posts. I wrote several of these in an airport, working on about three hours of sleep and annoyed because my flight was delayed. So bear with me a bit.)

Moving on from that, I need to update you all about my last week in London. We only had two days on class, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the rest were free days to just relax and get everything together before exiting the country. On Tuesday, we had two site visits, one the morning and one in the afternoon.

The morning visit took us to the Inner Temple Library. If you know anything about the law system in England, all of the barristers in England must join one of four temples. These are the Inner, Middle, Grays, and Lincoln. They are all located near each other on Fleet Street in London. I am not blogging about this one for class so I will discuss more of it here. When you become a barrister and subsequently join this temple, you are given free rights to use the library of that temple. We visited the Inner Temple, which allows any member of a temple to use the library.

It is a beautiful and old library that has been in existence since the early 16^th century. It was bombed and destroyed during WWII but rebuilt afterwards and reopened in 1958. The architecture in the library is beautiful. It is all English oak, while high ceilings and large windows that allow in a lot of light. There is a gallery above that gives it that 19^th century library feel. However, the shelves are very high which is an issue for the librarians who need to reach books for the patrons.

Each inn has a core collection of law in England and Wales, as well as other special collections that are specific to each library. The Inner Temple, for example, has items regarding to part of the commonwealth nations as well as Scotland. It also has a very important manuscript and rare book collection. While we were unable to see them in person, we did see some of the copies they have on the walls in the library. For example, the library has the only copy of Edward VI’s will, in which he bastardized his step sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, and said that he wanted Lady Jane Grey to be the regent in the event of his death. Edward was a sickly child and this was written on a few months before he passed away. (History Note: Lady Jane Grey did assume the title, only to be arrested nine days later and have her head cut off. Then Mary took the throne, a role she eventually relinquished to Elizabeth.)

This library is very focused upon reaching out to their patrons needs. They spend a lot of time answering reference inquiries for the barristers, many of whom are crunched for time. They also spend a lot of time updating their blog, which compiles all of the news about cases, law, and verdicts that they believe is important to their patrons. This takes up a lot of time, but they recently won an award for it so they are thinking quite highly of themselves right now.

It's so pretty with the rings!

After visiting the library, we headed to lunch at a pub across the street. Called the Bank of England (check on this), it is the site on which Sweeny Todd is based. Lunch was paid for by our professor, which was very nice since I’ve been bleeding money ever since I arrived. We then hurried to our second and last tour of the day at the Royal Geographical Society. I won’t get into this here because I will link my post on the other blog here but it was so awesome. Super, super cool for anyone who likes explorers.

That was the end of our school day, so Jenny, Melissa, and I headed over to Tower Bridge to start checking off our checklist of things to do. Step one, walk across Tower Bridge. We did that but then had to walk all the way back to our dorms, which was much longer of a walk than originally anticipated. We do that a lot. I guess that’s why our calf muscles look so great, but it has led to lots of blisters over the past month. Before heading back, we grabbed dinner at a Mexican place that has the best burritos I’ve ever had. (I plan on blogging about food as well, since I’ve eaten quite well (maybe too well) since I got here.)

Fire Dancing!

I thought this was the end of the night until Jenny “cacawed” outside of my window and made me put on pants to go see something. I begrudgingly put on pants, signed off of my Skype session, and then found myself in a fire garden! It was so awesome. There is a Fire Garden in grounds of the National Theatre for three days every summer. We caught all three days. Melissa, Jenny, and I went to go walk through it and danced to the fire-themed music they were playing. Jenny took videos of our awesome dance moves. I have a feeling these may resurface in the future.

Thus, we ended our Tuesday on a high note. The countdown to the end had already begun with only three more full days left until I said goodbye to London. Cheers!

-         - Kate