The Last Week

Well, after 26 hours of straight traveling, I am home. Bittersweet. I will not lie, chilling with my dog and family (and seeing my 20 pairs of high heels...) has been fabulous, but I already miss some buds from Swansea. Despite the sad goodbyes, I am able to look back and appreciate the opportunities that were placed in my hands while I was there. The last week was full of going out, good food, good wine, good company, numerous girly sleepovers where we didn't sleep, doing no homework, and fitting my life into 3 suitcases. Oh the adventures. I came home and it is now WinterWonderland. MN, along with the East coast, has been hit with lots of snow which I LOVE! But the subzero temps (today it was -4 when I woke up with a -27 windchill....British friends that was -22 C and -33 windchill). Not even the golden retriever wants to go outside. It is fabulous weather for beef stew, endless cups of tea and wrapping Christmas presents by the fire. British friends: you no longer have to post me PG Tips. My mom (who wins mom of the year for this) went to the grocery store and found it. BOUYA. Love to you all and miss you :) Here are pics.

Ospreys game vs some Italian team. Ospreys won 68-8!


My lovely roommates for Snowball

Dancing it up...
Bus stop...so chilly
Me and my bud Mike

The neighbor flat...We became really close
Angharad...and Justin being entertaining
Me and Mike again

Fun at Gower...Nikki Frolicking

Shipwreck


Melissa in her elementMe and Rach before the holiday dinner

Me and Sian
Drunk Christmas Caroling in our flat

Gracie singing her heart out
This is just one of many dance parties me and Angharad had. People walking by were amused I'm sure
Being supermodels?
Busride



Gower again


Singing at Play



I got pretty close to this group of girls on the trip

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Well, as I was sitting on the BOB (bright orange bus...) this morning, Leaving on a Jetplane came onto my ipod. Crap. Two days and I will have to leave some people that I have gotten really close to, travel for 26 hours (oh fun) and come home at 6am my time (midnight MN time). Blech. I have grown to LOVE traveling, but not accross giant oceans. Long flights=ew. BUT luckily someone cancelled a window seat on the plane, so I scored big on that one. On the flip end, I have some amazing things to come back to: family, dog, grandpa, good friends, fun roommates. Cons: I graduate in 6 months. Crap. I have to be an adult? What?

London Adventure!

Two posts in a day! Whoa! Thursday night, me and Melissa went home to Essex/Southend with a friend of mine named Sian. We stayed with her family Thursday night and went into London on Friday. It was a whirlwind tour of the city, but so fun! I am so glad we went! We started out with the Tower of London and saw all the Crown Jewels, the towers where people were tortured, and the prisons where they were held. We then headed to Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. We were so lucky to have gone on a weekday, as we didn't have to wait in line for anything. We walked right onto the London Eye, which was fun! Not as high up as the Eiffel Tower was, but still fun. I then got to go to Westminster Abby, which was incredible! Sir Isaac Newton, Darwin, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are all buried there, as well as many Kings and Queens such as Mary Queen of Scots. Awesomeness. Then we hopped on the Underground, and went to Buckingham Palace, and then found Abbey Road where I proceeded to stop traffic 7 times to get a decent picture walking across the darned crosswalk. This is no easy task at 3pm, as Abbey Road is quite busy and there is no place to stand. I finally got an ok one, after getting honked and laughed at numerous times by locals. We then went to Harrod's which was fun to see! Of course I had to buy some things there! Then we went to the underground Kingscross station to see the Harry Potter thing, and I got UBER excited to see the bridge they stood on with Hagrid and to push the cart into platform 9 3/4. We then went to meet Sian's brother and went to see the show Avenue Q. Oh how I love politically incorrect things. This was hilarious! I highly recommend you see it. We then got on the train back to Sian's house, where her mom had prepared us a proper English roast (YUM) and crashed. We got up the next day, and her mom had prepared us a proper English breakfast (could we be any luckier?!) Fried bread, bacon (its more like ham here instead of strips) toast, black pudding, and fried eggs. We went back to Swansea and then went to the Ospreys Rugby game where Ospreys (basically the Wales rugby team) dominated an Italian team, 68-8. Fun stuff! Here are pictures!


Me and an Ave. Q character

Clear Day...

Abbey Road :)

London Eye at night

HARRY POTTER!!

Atop the London Eye

Look at that perfect sky!

London Eye

Big Ben

Hi Harry...

Crown Jewels are in here...

The new bridge between England and Wales

Greece

Hi all, Well I got back from Athens a week ago today. It was a very cultural trip, with many adventures! The city is pretty large, so there was lots to do! One day we went to a huge mall and did some Christmas shopping which was fun, and the rest of the trip was filled with site seeing. Here are pics!

Stadium from the 1896 Olympics

Acropolis from the stadium

Theater of Dionysis

Up top the Acroplois

Odeon

Hadrian's Arch

Acropolis

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Agora