Some reflections

England…Scotland…Ireland…

Hmm… I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.  It has become a part of who I am.  It has made me realize that I really can make it on my own.  I am stronger than what I think…

It also made me realize that I have been in such a rush these past 4 years.  There is so much to see and do… and experience is such a wonderful thing which makes you realize to slow down, enjoy the ride… plan ahead but don’t expect everything to work out like you thought it would.

And home?  I knew I lived in a beautiful, mostly-peaceful town in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest.  But when we went swimming the day after I got home near the dam… it just struck me like – wow – how beautiful this place is… how fortunate I get to live here.  

And how fortunate I am for everything that I have worked for.  Lucky? No… not lucky. Fortunate – fortunate is the word… Fortunate to have been given the chance.  I have put so much hard work into everything I have done… always… but to be given the chance, to receive a scholarship of a lifetime that took me on the most wonderful adventure.  Not only the adventure, but I was given the opportunity to receive a wonderful education at Sussex.  History and culture of Europe was fascinating to study in Europe – there are no words to explain the kind of education you receive when studying abroad.  And finally, where I met the most wonderful women…that make me smile each time I remember a moment spent with them in Great Britain.

Who do I begin to thank?  Ms. Heinz of course… and all the workers of the Vira Heinz staff that make it possible for so many girls to get the chance of a lifetime.  Anna Johnson (she is now married and has a different last name that I can not think of off the top of my head) for urging me to check out the scholarship and go with me to the previous year’s Heinz presentations.  Dr. Stuckart – I don’t even know where to begin because he believed in me without a single doubt (haha or at least he never let me know lol).  My professors… yeah… they believed in me probably more than I believed in myself.  My parents – for riding my hide (is that what you call it?) all of my life - just kidding.  Start again, my parents for pushing all the morals – of hard work, perserverance, respect, appreciation, and dedication – upon me throughout my life.  They have taught me that other people may be doing it the short way, may be cutting corners… but doing it the right way, for one, feels really good, and in the end you benefit from the task and are rewarded in so many ways.  They also have believed in me… really really believed in me.  I have doubts (who doesn’t though) about my capabilities. I don’t think they have ever doubted me.  My dad did so much research on cochlear implants because he believed that this would be the best for me, and he believed that I really would work hard to adapt and make the implant do wonders for me.  I owe a lot to him and my mother – for all they did for me to get the implant.  I told so many people, when they asked, “What made you go for it – for this study abroad scholarship,” that it was the implant.  With my hearing aids, I would have missed sooo much – but this implant has done wonders.  I’m not the same person I was last summer… it has really changed me.  Continuing, my grandmother – Ms. Janet Elmquist.  She is right there by me – through thick and thin – through absolutely everything.   And the age difference has never mattered or seemed to hinder how close I am to her.  She has done so much for me… soooo much… too much I think   She is a very special person – very special…

And I come out of this a little more stonger, a little more knowledgeable, and just a little more grown up. 

So to all the girls out there that are qualified to enter for next year’s Vira Heinz Scholarship… don’t hesitate one wee second.  No matter where you go (as long as it fits you perfectly) you will come back a better person.  Ms. Heinz has made it available for you to get the experience of a lifetime – don’t pass it up.  Go abroad – experience everything – try things you thought you wouldn’t – visit places you’ve only thought you would see in magazines, and makes friends with people that fill your trip with laughter. 

 

London – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

I am not in love with London – surprising eh?  I’m a country girl… always will be… I would favor a day in the Cotswolds (that very sadly I did not see) in heartbeat over a day in London.  But – I can say that I have seen all the “wonderful” things that there are to see in London.  My favorite?  A tie between the play & The National Art Gallery… yeah I took them back to the gallery after I had been there with Etalia - haha – there was no way they were missing that sight.

Thursday morning and afternoon was spent getting into London, getting to our B&B, and getting ready for the play at 7:30.  What did we see??? This makes me giddy – Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre.  Yes… the sold-out almost every night, play which cost me a small fortune to get three tickets 3 weeks ahead of time.  It was WoNdErFul… it was so much more than I ever thought it would be.  I would go back to see it…definetly.  And I’m not saying much about it, because I am hoping you will be lucky and see it someday too.

Friday was… ughh – like I said – London makes me ughh.  But we started out well – walked to Westminister (our B&B was a 10 minute walk from Victoria sub/train station, and a 15 minute walk from Westminister, Parliament, Big Ben).   From Westminister we walked around the corner, they saw the Parliament building, Big Ben, and then we continued down to Westminister Millenium Pier where we purchased the river cruise tickets to the London Tower Millenium Pier. 

The London Tower was crazy… the biggest tourist attraction in London I am guessing.  There were… umm like 10 or 12 ticket booths with a 10 to 15 minute wait in line.  I think we got to see almost everything, but the Bloody tower.  The Crown of Jewels were just as beautiful as you could imagine.  And they the “moving sidewalk” going around the cases so that no one could push or shove or stare at the same thing for 20 minutes.  My favorite (which I can’t remember the name now) was the tiny crown for one of the queens made out of pearls and diamonds - it was simple yet beautiful.

We also went through some of the other exhibitations, the White Tower, and the chopping block yard.

And how can you talk about some of the trip without a little bit of frustration.  I spent a lot of time planning London by areas – Friday the one side, Saturday the other side and anything that we missed or wanted to see that wasn’t a huge attraction.  Yet… I was overruled and we went all the way to Kensington Gardens after the Tower of London (which was planned for Saturday).  It was… maybe because I was angry – not as wonderful as I thought it would be.   The best part was seeing Princess Diana’s dresses and photographs in a special display.  She is…. there are no words – the photos were just… beautiful (I am saying that word a lot).  Her smile and hair and face… just warm the room.  So sad… really sad.  The gardens outside were amazing.  The photos can only show you a small part of how colorful the memorial gardens were.

Then we went to Victoria and Albert Museum – nice showcase of anything you could think of.  Stained glass windows, pottery, paintings…ect.  Def worth the time if you have it.

Saturday… I was ready to go home.  But I think I was ready to go home  the first night we spent in London (Thursday).  Saturday we saw… Buckingham Palace – unbelievable right?  Well we did… we thought that it would not open until August 1st… but we were walking by because I wanted them to at least see the outside… then and I noticed a line.  So I walked up looked at the poster and realized that they were opening it that day!  We were in line around 9 and got a slot for 10:15.  The palace is only open for month or a little less while the Queen is away.  There was so much to see in the palace… so many paintings!  You got goosebumps thinking that the Queen and all sorts of important people walked through the rooms we visited every day.

Next was… Harrods.  I say that with… ugh, a sigh.  But I realize that everyone likes different things and my Grandma really wanted to go and see it and she deserved to see it.  I swallowed my dislike for places crammed with annoying shoppers and lead the way to Harrods.  We passed Hyde park on the way – which was soooo pretty.  Once we got to Harrods we were sucked into the place along with thousands of other people trying to wander around the shops.  We were in there for an hour or two – plenty.  So – I’ve been to Harrods… next sight :)

I took them to the National Gallery.  Showed them the highlights and left.  Then we did everything that we missed – St. Pauls (didn’t get to go in), the Globe (didn’t get to go in), and finally back to Westminister area and ate and then back to the B&B. 

We flew out of Gatwick (took the Gatwick express at 5:45 from Victoria) and into Toronto.   Home… I was really home – well almost.  It took about 4 hours to get home, but it gave me enough time to figure out what side of the road was the “right” side to drive on among many other things.  It also gave me time to just realize that I was home – no longer in England.  It is hard to explain, but after being away for 5 weeks – on your own, with strangers (that became wonderful friends), in a different place – you need to adjust coming back to the States.

 

Finishing Stratford and Warrick

When I was traveling abroad, I thought I would have so much time when I got home to write about the last week of my travels – not even close.

My main excuses or reasons? Probably… summer.  With it being so cold in England, it seemed as though I missed out on a lot of my summer – so I have been trying to squeeze everything in – swimming, camp fires, meeting with my friends, and all the other little summer things.  Then there is this paper… my independent study paper which never seems to end.  The footnotes were awful to correct, that is my weakness – I hate doing footnotes and bibliographies.  I love reading, but when it comes to putting my research down on paper I seem to forget that everyone didn’t read 20 different articles and 6 or 7 books on Pennsylvania Loyalists.  And my final reason?  My best friend got married… so odd to say that.  So Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was devoted to being with her, helping out in any way possible, and just being there for her big day.  Watching her walk down the aisle gave me a big shock… we are growing up, whether we want to or not.

Back to the trip – thinking back on Stratford-Upon-Avon… it was one of my favorite places that the three of us saw on our trip together.  Shakespeare’s birthplace was interesting, and they had wonderful guides stationed throughout the house.  But you had to make them talk to you – but I think that was the trick to most tourist attractions.  

After visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon, we took off to Warrick which was about a 20 minute drive from Stratford.  We went to the Warrick Castle and saw just about everything there was to see.  My grandma chose to stay on firm ground when my mother and I climbed up to a couple of really high castle towers, and she also opted out on the ghost tour.  The ghost tour was not worth it – it was renacted, which I find to be just plain old stupid unless you are a kid/teenager.   Then again, I never liked ghost houses, things that jumped out at you, or special effects (strobe lighting is it called?). 

Once again, the actual castle part – touring through the rooms and visiting the Great Hall was my favorite.  I just love looking at the portraits of important people, seeing the dining halls (seating up to 50 or 60 people) and all the beautiful chandeliers.

And then, on our way out we walked through the rose garden.  The season for roses was just about over – but there were a few roses left that were just beautiful and smelled sooo good.  My grandma wanted to take one with her – but decided that being thrown in jail over stealing a few rose petals wasn’t really worth it.  Haha… they really smelled that good to just think about it.

We then drove back to Stratford, where we would stay for the night.  Once again our B&B was nice and cozy.  We were quite fortunate to have chosen clean and comfortable B&Bs for our whole trip – but that is all due to lots and lots of time spent on researching through travel books, online, and ratings.  After freshening up we went to a recommended Italian place nearby.  It was about a 5 minute drive from our B&B and it was such a wonderful surprise.  The food was good – really good – and I can’t remember the wine I drank (it was real thick and the color was amber… so sweet too) but I didn’t like it until my pasta dish came and I could swish the food down with it.  Only then was it good… And we got dessert… I got homemade ice cream  that I split with my mom, 3 scoops – coffee, chocolate, and my most favorite of all - pistachio.  My grandma got some kind of chocolate covered cream puffs type things.  I didn’t like those… but she did

And the best part of all?  There was a small going away party there at the time, and the owners got out their musical equiptment (usually they only do it on the weekends).  The woman sang while her husband played the guitar.  AND if I can get the video application working on facebook I’ll put them up.  It was really really wonderful to listent to her sing in Italian for a little bit and then switch to English. 

I can’t remember if I wrote about this before… but if I did, sorry – now I’m moving on to London.  

 

Wednesday – July 25 – Stratford & Warrick

After arriving in Bristol around 7:30 we got breakfast and then got back on the road towards Stratford.  The drive wasn’t too bad and we didn’t get lost once (amazing!).  I was getting so good with the map, that I was able to get us coming into Stratford on the road where Anne Hathaway’s Cottage was located. 

So we saw Anne Hathaway’s Cottage first.  It was sooo pretty and the gardens were just full of flowers and other kinds of plants.  We walked around her home and spent a lot of time in the garden even though it was raining. 

Photos of Stratford and Warrick:

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2130174&l=eafbc&id=14225620

More later… I gotta pack my lunch and get some rest!

 

Part II of Dublin

After the National Museum we got on the Hop-On-Hop-Off Dublin Bus Tour.  We took the bus to the Dublin Castle where we went on a guided tour.  We had to leave our backs in a hold, and thinking that we couldn’t take photos I left my camera in my bag.  BUT we were allowed to take photos… sorry folks – I have not one single photo of the inside.  The castle was euhh… it was okay – but I guess it wasn’t the real castle anyway.  That was destroyed in a fire – so they showed us around a building that was built on top of the castle, now the palace.

Next – we just walked by Christ Church Cathedral and then we wakled to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  The Cathedral was beautiful – and I do have lots of photos from this place.  I think my favorite part was the spiral staircase… I dunno why… but it just was.  The light and the turn of the staircase was unique.  There were a ton of people in there, and it was hard to enjoy the experience, but overall I am really glad we went to the Cathedral.

We hopped on to the bus again to since the next few sights were quite a way’s away.  We didn’t get off at the Guinness Storehouse, but I took a photo.  We got off at the next stop, the Irish Museum of Modern Art.  It was interesting – I couldn’t seem to grasp it, but that is because I love the classic art wayyyy tooo much.  It was a new experience and some of the paintings were really beautiful.  My favorites were by Anne Madden – there were 60 pieces of her artwork from the 1950s to date.  I liked the paintings similar to the Aurora borealis (oil on linen x2 panels). 

After that, almost everything was closed – so we just road around on the bus looking at all of the other sites.  We passed the Ryan’s Victorian Bar, the Dublin Zoo (where the bus stop is the street lamp across from the memorial since they won’t let the bus company put a sign up), the National Museum (i’m really sad we missed this one), the Old Jameson & the Chimney, and the O’Connell Bridge.  At the O’Connell Bridge we got off at the stop and walked over the Half-Pence Bridge (where people use to pay half a pence to cross) and walked down Temple Bar.

The rest of the evening was just walking around – getting something to eat and heading back to the B&B.

Our flight on Wednesday was early - it left at 6:20 and we were back in England around 7:30.

 

Dublin – Wednesday July 25th

 (I added more to the experiences of visiting Bath – a couple posts down) 

The city of Dublin was a lot easier to navigate through than London.  I really liked Dublin…  We started out morning at the Book of Kells housed at the Trinity College in Dublin.  The pages were beautiful and very interesting.  The Book of Kells was written by Celtic Monks in 800 AD.  It contains the 4 Gospels, and what is sometimes regarded as just important is the art work (Insuclar I believe) that is done throughout the books, some on seperate pages and some on the written Gospels to add “flare.” Trinity College also had other displays set up in the Long Room – an absolutely wonderful library with shelves upon shelves of old books The  displays were from either WWI or both WWI and WWII.  They had propaganda posters, photos, letters from soldiers, and some of their medals.

After Trinity College we walked through St. Stephen’s Green and to the National Museum of History and Archaeology.  A part of it was closed (the whole second floor) but we got to see some REALLY interesting things!!  Not to be gross, but I liked the half-bodies that researches found preserved by the bogs.  Some of them were around 900 – 1000 years old!! And the skin was still intact and you could see the hair, finger nails, and some of the organs coming out of the stomach.  Okay – it sounds gruesome – but it was really interesting and their skin just looked like leather on a couch. You just had to look at the bodies from the academic side of view.  What else (not so gruesome)… We saw a lot of gold that was preserved in the bogs.  Scientists believe that people in the Middle Ages (and even before) burried things in the bog for safe keeping but a different kind of safe keeping because they knew that they would never get it back.  Some also believe that they did it for religious rituals, as an offerring.  

After the national musuem we got on a hop-on-hop off tour bus…

More to come later!!

 

quick post

Hello – I am currently uploading photos and will work on my blog tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay about the last week in England and Ireland. Won’t be long…

 

Monday, the 23rd of July

We left our B&B early in order to get ahead of some of the traffic heading into Bath.  We parked at a park-and-ride where we got onto a bus that took us to the middle of the city.  We walked through the cobbled streets of Bath and easily found the Roman Baths.  

When the Romans conquered and ruled Great Britain, they built many lasting buildings and roads that still remain today.  The Roman Baths are one of the most beautiful surviving buildings from the Roman period.  They were built over hot springs and the waters were believed to be holy – believed that the waters could heal wounds, sicknesses, and disabilities.  Many of the pools are still intact and have hot water running through them.  We also saw some of the older rooms of the Roman Baths that had begun to crumble due to the moisture and constant heat.

In one of my photos there is a picture of a pool that is a wishing well – lots of coins and bills in it (that is why it looks dirty or weird).

After visiting Bath we drove to Bristol to get on our plane to Dublin.  It was around 4 when we reached Dublin and it didn’t take long to get to our B&B.  Once there we freshened up and took a walk into one of the outer parts of the city and got dinner.   Everyone was too exhausted to head into the city center – but we did everything we wanted to do on Tuesday.

 

Sunday, the 22nd of July

Sunday I woke up early, had a wonderful breakfast at my B&B, and then got dropped off at the airport by my B&B host.

It took a bit to find my mother and grandmother in the airport but not too long.  After we got everything situated (for we rented a car for a few days to get to the sights out in the country side that are not easily accessible by train or bus) we took off for Salisbury and Stonehenge.   For the previous 4 weeks I had been traveling by train and bus the majority of the time.  Never once did I have to study road maps and give directions while watching for the signs.  Their signs are confusing, well more like the lack of signs is what is confusing.  So that was the most frustrating part of the trip – figuring out the roads.

After many round abouts, turning around, and studying the map we finally made it to Salisbury, near Stonehenge by the early afternoon.  I was pretty proud that we made it in decent time… It was a normally a 4 hour trip, we made it in about 4 1/2 hours.

We parked in Salisbury, got a late lunch and then found a parking spot closer to the city center.   From there we walked to the Salisbury Cathedral.  It was beautiful and yet so unexpected.  You are walking along the tiny flower-lined roads of Salisbury and all of the sudden the Cathedral just shoots up out of the sky.  The inside was interesting and we also made it in time for the afternoon song service – which was sung soooo well and beautiful by the choir “boys” (no longer just men, some girls were singing too).  Then we walked around the cathedral and went to the Chapter House where the Magna Carte was displayed.   It was passed in 1215 by John, King of England and the best way I can explain it… is… it is kind of like a constitution.  There are only 4 orignal ones left in the world today and Salisbury was home to one of them - how neat!

We then hit the road to go about 10 minutes north to Stonehenge.  We knew we were going the right way because there was a long line of cars going in the direction that we were heading.  You could see it from a ways back, and I tried to take photos of it, but it looked like a bad case of big stones in some concentration camp due to the ugly chicken wire fencing around the whole area.  Stonehenge was… well it was a bunch of rocks.  But to know how old they were, how they got there, and the use of the rocks was awe-inspiring.  The weather was beautiful too – it was picture perfect for my photos. 

We then took to the road once more to find our B&B about 35 minutes away in the small town called Wells which was close to Bath (the city we would visit in the morning).   The B&B was nice – our rooms were enourmous and the bathrooms were clean – I couldn’t complain.  Plus we were all so exhausted that it really didn’t matter.  My grandma wasn’t hungry but my mom and I walked into town to eat at a local pub.  We talked for a long time since I hadn’t talked to her since I left home.  We also got a few pictures of Wells, which you can see on my facebook album once I get the photos up (I’m really behind in everything).

More to come – Day 2 – The Roman Baths in Bath, flight out of Bristol to Dublin.

 

Saturday, the 21st of July

Saturday was the day that everyone had to move out of the apartments at Sussex.  We all stayed up really late the night before because 4 of us went to the Harry Potter book night (I think at that point I was getting about 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night because we were up late and got up early to squeeze in the last few days together). 

Chrissie had left the day before, but the remaing 5 still had to say our goodbyes.  Julie, Millie, Amal, and I walked down to York together while we waited for our taxi.  Amal and I then took a taxi (with all of our luggage) to the Brighton train station.  Amal and I also got on the same train, but I got off a bit before her at Gatwick Airport.  I had arranged to leave the bulk of my luggage at a keep in the airport so that I could travel light with my mother and grandmother.

After doing all of my chores at Gatwick I got a cab to my B&B.  The B&B was wonderful, and I believe it was called Latchetts Cottage – but I’ll have to check on that.  The rooms were so pretty, the owners were wonderful, and the breakfast was great too.

Back to Saturday – then I got on a train (from Gatwick) to Tunabridge Wells where I took a bus to the Groombridge Place Gardens.  This is were the majority of the film Pride and Prejudice was filmed.  The home was a real manor house, but someone must have bought it since the film because it was being restored and renovanated in some parts.  The gardens were so beautiful too.  There was soo much to see and do – the Enchanted Forest, the Enourmous Swings, keeping track of all the birds that you saw, and even a little cottage where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned some of his Sherlock Holmes books (which are really really good by the way)!

I made an early return to my B&B and got into pjs, got in the big wonderful fluffy bed and read Harry Potter until I couldn’t keep my eyes open one second longer.

More to come about the rest of the week – but its too nice out to sit inside for long!