What to Bring and What to Leave at Home

Ok, I am now back in Derby. Safe, sound, wearing clean socks and freshly showered. I now (finally!) have time to write up some posts about my travels ... this is gonna take awhile.

I did take some pictures to show what I have been lugging around on my back for the last 3 weeks. I think it is pretty impressive.

This is what it all looked like before I unpacked it.

This is what it looks like unpacked.  I dont think it is clear from my picture but my entire bed is covered.

After staying with Jenns family in Italy for a week and eating well at the hostel in Paris, I wanted to eat a real meal when I got home, not fish n chips.  I made myself this lovely meal:

Paris: Part Deux

In the morning we planned to meet Benji, the grad student from MSU we had met the day before, at the pyramids of the Louvre.  We chose this location sticktly because it sounded awesome to meet somebody "under the big glass pyramid at 10 sharp." As had become our custom, Jenn and I forgot that the trains only come out to our hostel every 10 minutes and it takes another 15 to get to the "Pyramids" metro stop.

We had already done a solid amount of exploring in the Louvre, we just wanted to stop by and pick up gifts at the gift shop in the basement.  Jenn ended up getting a children's book on Leonardo DaVinci for her friend Emily and then waited for me to confirm that she should get a copy for herself.  I found a really cool book that has lesson plans for all levels of students on the art that is in the Louvre (Mom, this is what I got for you.)

I forgot my sun glasses

We walked out of the Louvre, past the Pyramid, through the original Arc Du Triomphe, and through the Tuileries.  Though it looks like the world "Toulips" it actually means "Tiles."  There used to be a tile factory on the site of the Tuileries Gardens but the queen didnt like seeing the workers in the factory from her window (in the building that is now the Louvre) ... so she had it torn down and there is a park there now.  Just across the river from this park is the Musee d'Orsay.  If you dont know everything about every bit of art, this is the place to go.  The pieces of art you know are all here (but it is closed on Mondays, so we couldnt go)

We walked along the river and back across a bridge to what was once the city center.  This is where the guilletine use to be, this is where Marie Antiounette lost her head.  Horses used to refuse to go into this square because it reaked of death.  Now there is the hotel that the winner of the Tour d'France stays at for 3 days.

If you look straight west from the Pyramids at the Louvre you can see straight to the Arc Du Triomphe.  The original arc is in that line of sight, as is the Tuileries, as is the old town center, as is the Champ d'Elysee.  Aparently this marvel of touristic city planning was a complete accident, but it was very convenient for us because we were planning on climbing the Arc.

From France - Paris

There are something like 400 steps up the Arc Du Triomphe.  They all wind up in giant spiral staircase in the legs of the monument.  When you get to the top you can see Paris from its heart (according to our tour guide, "Spike," the soul is on the other side of town).  The Arc is in the center of an 8 lane round about, which you will recognise from a certain National Lampoon movie starring Chevy Chase.  There are 14 roads that merge into this round about and there is an accident there every 30 minutes.  It is the most dangerous roundabout in Europe and no insurance company will cover a crash there (you have been warned)

Our only other real goal for the day was to climb Notre Dame (its full name is Notre Dame De Paris and means "Our Lady of Paris").  Benji wasnt interested in climbing so we parted ways here and Jenn and I waited in line for an hour to climb up.  For being students we got a discount as we had on every other notable building and monument we had climbed in the past 3 weeks.  The view was nice but not the best.  What was really interesting about Notre Dame was watching Jenn freak out about seeing the Gargoyles from the Disney Hunchback movie.

We climbed down and were mobbed by beggars asking if we spoke english.  Their big ploy is to ask if you speak english then hand you a note that gives you a sob story and asks you for money.  There has got to be a more efficient way to get money from tourists, the entire time I sat in that square (a good 45 minutes) I only saw one person stop and read the note.  I did get to practice other languages while I waited though.  As far as they know I speak Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, and French but not English.

For another hour Jenn and I walked to the tourist shops to find nick-nacks.  I really needed to find a french flag.  I decided to get a flag from every country I went to because it was cheap, compact, and I couldnt think of anything I really wanted that I could get consistently in every country (I did get myself things though: Absynth, a Carnival Mask, a classy lighter from Spain,  and a Germany Football scarf)

When we got back to our room were were starving and the australians we had met the night before were just debating getting out of bed ... at 8 pm.  We all went to the bar/restaurant in the basement and ordered the only real food they had: Nachos and Burgers.  I ordered mine Aussie style, with an egg on top.  I have since become obsessed with this burger and have made it 3 times since getting back to Derby two days ago!

That night we went to the Moulin Rouge.  We couldnt get in because we didnt want to pay 150 euro a head to watch a Can-Can.  On the way we got lost trying to find the Metro station to take us to the Red Light District and accidentally walked through a bunch of riot police ... oops.

Overall, Paris was pretty fun.

Paris

Note: I will be adding the rest of the blog posts I have neglected to write about the other cities I have traveled to in the near future, I have been so tired each night I havent had time to write them up.  Also, my memory card reader on my computer is being stupid, so there will be no pictures until I am back in England.

Wow, for neglecting to book our hostel for Paris until the night before, we got a good one.  There is a bar and an internet cafe on the ground floor (because in Europe the 1st floor is the 2nd floor and the 1st floor is the ground floor ... confused yet?  I live on the 4th floor ....)  There is also interent in every room, though I have to be honest I havent tired it in the toilet.

We got into Paris on Saturday morning after spending another night in the airport. I must be getting used to sleeping on the cold hard ground because I managed to get 6 hours of sleep plus another 2 on the plane.  Our flight left Rome at 6:45 am and got in just after 9 am.  When we arrived at the airport we bought breakfast and hopped on a bus to take us to central Paris.  The really cool part was that once we got to Paris we had to take 2 metro lines to actually get to our hostel and our changing station was ... THE LOUVRE!!!

Once we checked into our hostel and got all showered and pretty, Jenn and I decided to walk around a bit before we passed out.  We managed to find the Opera House, the Arc Du Triumph, and the Eiffel Tower (to be honest, you cant miss it).  When we got to the Tower to we took some pictures and decided to go back to the hostel, grab a burger (which tasted like meatloaf) at the bar, and go to bed early.

This morning we, and by "we" I mean "I", got up a bit late and went down to the bar for the free breakfast.  I dont really like eating breakfast, so I just drank a lot of orange juice and grabbed a pamphlet for a free walking tour while Jenn checked her email.  It was about 10:30am by the time we decided to actually get moving and get to the free tour on the other side of town.  Somehow we made it.

The walking tour was really very good.  The girl who gave the tour was an aussie who is living in Paris for no other reason than she wanted to live in Paris.  She had a lot of cool stories about the monuments (she called Pont Neuf "the worlds first facebook" because of the 300 faces carved in the side) and kept pointing out where movies and tv shows had been shot, especially the Davinci  Code and the Borne Identity.  We saw most of the tourist spots on the tour.

We made a friend on the tour, his name is Benji and he is from MSU.  After the tour he came with us to the Louvre (which you can get in free if you are under 25 ... there is no need to buy a museum pass) and the Eiffel Tower.  At the Louvre we kind of rushed through.  We saw the Mona Lisa, we walked right up to it, and the Venus De Milo.  We also saw the entire Egyptian section, though I wasnt terribly interested in that.  I took pictures of some paintings with interesting musical instruments in them ... which I had seen at the instrument museum in Milan.

When we were waiting in line for the Eiffel Tower we started talking to an Aussie behind us named Sam.  Well, to be more accurate, she started talking at us and we decided that she was interesting.  The climb and trip up was pretty standard, it was a great view and it took hours and hours.  The best story of the day is Sam talked to a street salesman (one of the guys who tries to sell you random POS souvenires and wont go away until you tell them to F'Off) until he walked away

After we climbed down the tower Sam left us to meet some friends and Benji, Jenn, and I decided to grab dinner.  Jenn and I have made a pact to eat McDonald's in every country once, so we walked across town to the Louvre and at in the McDonald's there.  Afterwards, is was late and dark so we bought beer and walked the Champs-Elysees starting at the Louvre and ending at the Arc De Triomphe.

At this point we realised that the Metro was going to close in 5 minutes and we had no other way to get back to our hostels ... so we booked it.  We ran like Kenyans, people confused us for kenyans.  We ended up in one of the most confusing subway station I have ever seen.  There werent ticket machines for our connecting line and I was out of tickets so I did a running slide underneath the barrier (which got a round of applause from a group of French people walking by) and we caught our train.  

Tomorrow we are going to see the Notre Dame Cathedral and other things.

Dublin

Im taking a break from studying from my Spanish test on monday to write about my trip to Dublin.

On Monday I left my Spanish class and hopped on a series of buses that google had told me would take me to my desired airport.  Thankfully, Google served me well.  It was a 45 minute bus ride to the airport (for a 35 minute flight, lol).  When I got to the airport (East Midlands) I was suprised by how small it was.  The only check in counter open was for the flight I was there for.  I felt like I was sitting in the food court as the mall closed, the place was dead.

When I actually landed in Dublin I hopped on the bus that I was told would take me to the center of town and made the now routine realization that I had no idea when to get off the bus.  One of the things I love about London is that you can hop on the tube straight from the airport and forego all the confusing busses to get you into town.  Eventually I got to the end of the line ... I think the driver was off the bus before I was, haha.

I couldnt get a signal on my UK cellphone for the first hour or so I was in Dublin so I spent that time trying to find a hotel that would let me use their phone so I could contact the person whose couch I was staying on.  When I found one I couldnt get the call to go through (you have to hit 00 before you type in a number in some countries and from a foreign phone).  I found a McDonald's*  and tapped into the wifi and after some electronic sleuthing found the Skype of the guy I was staying with and he told me how to get to his place ... I was worried I would have to find a hostel or sleep on the street (or in McDonald's) that night.

My host's name was Mantas.  He is a lithuanian photographer living in Dublin.  The first night we stayed up until about 3 drinking Absynth and telling stories.  We did this every night I was there, one night until nearly 6 am. Mantas told me what was worth seeing and what was not (Note: The Illunimated "Book of Kells" is not worth seeing)

From Dublin

The next day I got an early start. I left Mantas' flat around 9 am and started walking towards the River Liffey.  Most of the things you would want to see in Dublin are south of the river and a lot of things are along the river.  That first few hours I was walking around I saw the Ha'Penny Bridge, a famous park for which the name escapes me, a memorial to the potato famine, the Spire, and the Temple Bar.  At this point I got hungry and found some cheap food.

From Dublin

From Dublin

After I ate I found a tour bus* and got a flyer of the route and the sites it hit.  I had no intention of paying 25 Euro to ride a bus around town.  The only places I hadnt been yet were Christ Church and the Guinness Storehouse ... it was about 3 at this point so I could allow myself to go on a beer tour.

While I was buying my ticket for the Guinness Storehouse (which actually is interesting) some people behind me yelled "MICHIGAN!!!"  Turns out they were on a spring break class from Central Michigan University and had heard me talking to the ticket guy about where I was from (he asked).  We ended up taking the tour together and did the rest of the touristy stuff that day together.

From Dublin

From Dublin

From Dublin

That night we ended up going out pub hopping after they got out of their class.  It was a fun night.  I invited Mantas to come with us.  We all ended up at the Temple Bar, the actual bar not the walkway, with the rest of their class.

From Dublin

From Dublin

The next day I had to fly back to Derby.  I got to the airport with plenty of time (over an hour on a bus) to make my flight.  My flight ended up being delayed 4 times and had the gate changed just as many times.  While I waited I made friends with a girl from Austria (Vienna specifically) who is studying in Nottingham for the year.

* Travel tip: Most McDonald's have free wifi, dont waste your money with Internet Cafes. In Ireland you want to find EireCom wireless network and in England look for The Cloud wireless network.

*Travel tip: Find the city tour buses and pick up a map of the sights it hits.  Chances are you can walk the path for free and get a better view of the sights than you would from the bus.  It is much more fun to get lost walking in a city than to spend all your time in the safety of tour companies.

The Santa Claus we never knew

The american posse got together today to watch some old friends episodes.  We ended up watching the one with the "holiday armadillo" which sparked an interesting story from Celine (our Dutch friend) about Santa Clause in her country.

It turns out that Santa is retired.  He used to be the Bishop of Turkey but now lives in Spain.  He lives there with his 1,374 "black friends" ... I think they are called "slaves."  Every November he hops on a boat and heads for the Netherlands with 6-8 (no specific numbers given) of his "black friends" for his birthday ... December 5th.  Once he is there he and his "black friends" got on white horses and go around to give children candy ... which he puts in their shoes.

The good kids get candy put in their shoes.  What do the bad kids get?  Kidnapped!  Santa and his posse will beat the bad kids with "the branch from a small tree," put them in a burlap sack, kick them, and take them back to Spain.

I like this story, its got spunk.  I like the thought of a little kid who just decided that they dont believe in Santa being told "well, looks like Santa is going to beat you, put you in a sack, and take you to Spain then" instead of "then you wont get presents from him." 

Hmm, cultural differences ....

Chesterfield

I found this in my draft folder ... I meant to post it a long time ago.

Yesterday (Valentines Day) I had to get out of the room and do something.  We had all been talking about doing something but nothing actually got of the ground.  I called the girls who I affectionatly call "The French."  They had heard about a church in Chesterfield (about an hours bus trip) that had a crazy spire on top.  

A few people had been planning to go to Nottingham for the day but their plans had fallen through so I invited them to come with us.  By the time we left we were about ten people deep.

We met at the Tourist Information Center in the town square.  A carnival had been set up overnight ... I debated riding the rides but would have missed the bus if I had.  "The French" were running a bit late (As "The French" are apt to do) and we nearly missed the bus.  There were just enough seats for all of us on the bus and we had to be spread all over.

When we got to Chesterfield we could immediatly see the Twisted Spire of the church.  We started walking towards it and passed some hilarious signs.  One said "Humped Puffin Crossing" and another was a pub called "The Spread Eagle" (we ended up grabbing a pint there as we waited for the bus home)

From Chesterfield - Feb 14

There are two "theories" as to how the spire got twisted:

1) A virgin got married in the church and the spire was so suprised to hear it that it twisted around to get a look.

2) The devil came to town to get new shoes (like horse shoes) made and the blacksmith hammered through his hoof.  The devil jumped up on the church and twisted the spire with his tail as he writhed in pain.

I think it is more likely, though I do like those two stories, that the church was built during the Black Plague (it was) and all the skilled labourrors wer killed off leaving only people who didnt know how to properly build a spire ... or to not use green wood.

Deep Freeze

So, apparently the snow I mentioned in my previous post continued.  The 'Deep Freeze' that followed is being called the worst snow storm in something like 70 years.  I did a quick google search to see how much snow had actually fallen and got a respectable ~8 inches.  Not bad, I can understand the absolute terror when a city as big as London only has about 3 snow plows.  Then I looked outside.  What was the accumulation?  About 2 inches, just enough to cover the grass and not enough to cause slush on the roads.

I did find an interesting blog post by a Tube drive for the London Underground:

http://severe-delays.livejournal.com/67893.html

Even more fun?  Watch this little bit of Top Gear (a british TV) where they are making fun of the state people were in yesterday.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/x-type-in-snow

Jeremy Clarkson: "The way they were carrying on you would think it was time to build an ark!"

NERD MOMENT: I really like their choice of music when they talk about the snow

Cheers

Around Derby

I was supposed to go up to Buxton today to do some exploring but I had a bit of a migraine.  I just woke up at 5pm, haha

I am going to spend a bit of time now showing a few of the cool places around Derby:

1) Wokamania -  This sounds like the comedy club Fozzie bear starts with his severance package from the Muppet show.  In fact it is a Chinese restaurant.  BUT WAIT!!! Its more than just a restaurant! Its a church!!!  This Chinese buffet is located inside a 140 year old cathedral.

 

  

               

The special that they are displaying in these posters is actually the normal price of a buffet meal ... I don't trust it!

2) Kedelston Road Campus -  I guess that I am here for school, so here is the campus.  The University of Derby is a pretty small school.  There is only one main building with 3 towers branching off of it (the art and music classes are held in a building about a mile away on Markeaton Street).  I live about a mile or so from this campus.

There is a bank, a bookstore, 3 restaurants, a flea market, a library, a bar, a convenience store, oh and classrooms.

NOTE:  None of my classes require me to buy a textbook AND if I were to buy the recommended textbooks they would only cost me about £20 max!!!  We are getting screwed in the US.

     The outside of the campus.        

    The main reception area.

3) The City Centre - Yes, 'Centre.'  That is their spelling not mine.  This is where all of the shops are and it closes down at about 4pm everyday, so get your shopping in early.  The only store that is open late is ... McDonald's.  I have done my best to avoid it, but sometimes it just the only place that is open!

There is also the 'Westfield Shopping Centre' (again with the spelling!!!).  It is a mall that has 5 floors about 3 of every store.  There is also a flea market attached.  One of the stalls in the flea market actually sells science equipment (I had to buy a lab coat for one of my classes).  Note the Derby Ram statue, apparently it is a big deal or big joke, I cant decide which.

  

 

4) My Flat - While not actually a tourist attraction my living conditions may be of note to anybody who is actually taking the time to read this blog.  I have 5 flatmates.  4 are British and 1 is an exchange student from New Hampshire.  I get a room to myself (hurray!!!) but share a toilet, a shower, and a kitchen.  I even have a cleaning service!

I have decided that the reason there aren't really fat people here is because of the size of the toilet and shower.  If you are at all obese there is no way you can get in those rooms.

  The view from my room.  

  My room (much messier now)

   My next door neighbors

To view more pictures just go to my Picasa page.

P.S.  It snowed today.  Actual snow.  It lasted for all of an hour and almost stuck to the ground.

4 Weeks down

Wow, I just realized that I have already been in the UK for 4 weeks (I think? I suck at counting).  I am having an increadible time here.

The rest of the EMU Crew and I have found a host of fun places to spend our 5 day weekends.  The main places are 'The Friary' and 'Barracuda' (which always gets that song by Heart stuck in my head ... 'ooooooooo, barracuda!').  The Friary is a kind of student bar with a club attached and is the place to go most nights of the week.  Barracuda is a bar/restaurant that offers £3 meals and has the best chicken wings I have ever tasted.  Buffalo Wild Wings doesnt hold a candle to this place!

In all the time our little group of Americans has had to explore before classes started we took to growing our group.  We first adopted some of our flatmates into our group (Celine who is Dutch, and Lindsey, Cassie, and Brian from New Hampshire).  Then we met people up at Uni (Olga from Poland, The 4 French girls from ... France, Ann An from China, and Lucie from Czeck) and we also met some people at the clubs (Sabri from the UK; Jo, Sam, Marilee, and Antonie from the UK; Sabri from the UK; and many other people who I forget at the moment).  Now when we go out we bring about 17 people with us.  That is enough of a group to make T-shirts!!!

I finally, after all this time had my first class on Thursday.  I am taking 'Molecular and Cellular Biology' and 'Maps and Mapmaking.'  What do these classes have to do with music performance and music education?  I have no idea, that is somethig you will have to take up with EMU.

I was supposed to be taking a class called 'Session Musicianship' but unfortunatly it is not being offered to students starting in January.  My advisor at Derby signed me up for this class!!! WTF!!!  Now I have to sign up for a different class but I have to first talk to the IT department because I am locked out of my Derby Online account.

I am going to end this post now so that I have more interesting things to post the rest of the time I  am here (I already have some stuff prepared!)

This is our group after a week here:

(Top Row - Left to Right) Patrick, Ann An, Courtney, Chris, Cassie, Lindsey, Celine, Lucie, Jenn, Olga.

(Bottom Row) Sienna, Sherry, Me, and ... uh ... I dont remember, he is Olga's friend