A Day in Bath!

This past Saturday I continued my adventures with a trip to Bath! We actually ended up meeting up with Becky's friend Jency, who is studying abroad in Bath for the semester. She was a great guide and we all had a ton of fun! Bath is home to the famous Roman Baths, which were hot springs that the Romans built a temple and healing spa around for people to come from all over and enjoy public bathing. It was so cool to think I had touched the same water and rocks that the Romans had touched almost 2000 years ago!

me on the edge of the main bath
one of the many statues that surround the bath
the main bath from above

Directly next the the Roman Baths was the Bath Abbey, dating from the 7th century, with beautiful Gothic architecture.

Next stop was the fashion museum...which was easily my favorite!!

really old dress...i call it a butt dress lol

the J-Lo dress!!!!

Jackie and I trying on corsets and hoop skirts

My favorite piece in the whole museum

After the museum, Jackie and I decided to go off for some vintage shop and boutique shopping. They had great street vendors, resulting in a couple fabulous finds! Overall, it was a fantastic day and Bath is a beautiful city. I would love to go again!

Big Rocks

This past weekend I got to go on a trip through the school to see Avebury and Stonehenge! It was a really interesting trip, and was surprised to find out that Avebury actually had more stones and was much larger than Stonehenge. It also had a quant city around it with a Church, haunted pub and museum. Stonehenge was interesting as well, and I can officially say that I have now seen one of the Seven Wonders of the World (medieval mind category)! While no one is sure why either sites was built, the consensus seems to be that it was part of some sort of Stone Age ritual. (I actually prefer theories involving aliens, but that's just me...)

Stonehenge, back in the day...
Avebury, back in the day...
That's about as close as you could get...
Jackie, myself, and Ashley
Stonehenge

Signs of Spring (please, already?)

St. James Church at Avebury
You could actually touch the rocks at Avebury!

Me in the "Devil's Seat"

Portions of the large outer circle and one of the inner circles at Avebury

Avebury
One of the chalk horses unique to the UK

I AMsterdam

Sorry for the delay in this post but I've been busy having fun and getting some amazing travel in! Last weekend I went on a trip with about 60 other Americans to Amsterdam and absolutely fell in love with the city. I'll try and recount our journey as best possible...(the video at the end has all the stuff I talk about in order!)

Thursday: We all left on a bus around dinner time Thursday to start our overnight journey. We took a bus to the coast then took a ferry into France. Sleeping was a bit hard, but I got a really solid 2 hours in on the boat (with my head on a table) because the rocking of the boat was so soothing! I also luckily slept the remaining 5 hours through Belgium and into the Netherlands. We arrived in Amsterdam about 11am on Friday and headed to our Hostel!

Friday: After dropping our stuff off in our rooms, myself and my friends Jackie, Kelly, E, Ryan, and Derren all headed out to explore! We walked around a bit, found cash machines to get Euros, and headed to the Van Gogh museum. The museum was very nice and it was interesting to see paintings like Sunflowers in person, but I think I discovered that art museums aren't really my cup of tea. (Especially when it costs 15 Euro to get in!) Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures in the museum, but I could in our next destination: The Heineken Brewery!!! It was an amazing experience. We got to learn all about how the beer is brewed, see the breweries, tasted hops, and got 3 free beers! We even had a bartender teach us the correct way to drink your beer for optimal taste. (Ask me sometime and I'll teach you). After finishing up at Heineken, it was getting close to dinner, so we just wandered the city some more, got a feel for the more residential areas, and found some amazing canal views. We all noticed right away though that all the buildings are tall and skinny, with beautiful architecture and the city is amazingly clean. Eventually we made our way to an area with a ton of restaurants, and chose a little Italian place for some good food and wine. We were all pretty exhausted at this point, so we went back to the hostel to shower, grab a quick nap, and regroup before heading out for the night! That evening we hit the town and stopped in a "coffee shop" (random fact: marijuana is not legal, just decriminalized, and the police look the other way at such shops because it is a huge money maker for the city), then made our way (the long way..whoops!) to the Red Light District. Our whole group, boys and girls, just sort of felt...odd in the district. It was sort of sad, and while there was a ton of people and great energy, it's just not a good feeling to see prostitution so blatantly. Our tour guide the next day explained how it works, so I'll try and do that for you. The way it works is women rent out windows in the buildings all along the roads and back alleys. They are dressed in lingerie and tap on the window when men walk by. If a man is interested, he goes up to the window and the woman decides if she finds him to be a suitable client. If so, she opens the window (which is like a big door), he comes inside, and services/money are exchanged. It's just sort of gross..but thats the way it is, so I hope I didn't shock any of you too much! After that, we all called it a night and grabbed a taxi back to the hostel to get rested for the next day.

Saturday: The next morning we all got up REALLY early (8am lol) to grab breakfast and sightsee more. Tip: If your hostel has a complimentary breakfast, always take enough for lunch as well. Our first destination that day was the Anne Frank house. This was absolutely the most rewarding part of our trip. We got there early to avoid the lines and weekend crowd, and were really able to take our time in the house. To hear her amazing story again, walk behind the bookshelf, up the hidden stairs and stand in the very room she and her family hid in was surreal. The tour took you through her life, hiding and death and was a very emotional experience for our whole group. They did not allow photography there either, but images would not do it justice anyway. After that tour, we headed to the city center for a FREE!! 3 1/2 hour tour of the city. Our guide was hilarious, and we learned a lot about the history of the city and understood more of what we had seen the day before when we were wandering around. The most important things I learned: 1. Protesting for what they believe in is what Amsterdamers do best. 2. There are more bikes than people. 3. Only 6% of the Dutch people has ever tried pot, it is pretty much only for the tourists. After the tour, we had a real Dutch dinner of sausage and mashed potatoes, and spent the night shopping, finding more exciting places in the city and relaxing at a local pub, with real Dutch people. Everything was in Dutch, there was a cat that would just hop up on the bar, and it served what smelled like the most delicious food.

Sunday: Sunday morning we all got up, had breakfast, and packed up for the long journey home. I could have spent a week there, but came away with some great stories, experiences and knowledge. I can honestly say that Amsterdam is the only city I have ever left saying that I would want to live there. (Specifically in the pink-striped house that I could see from our hostel window.) Phew! That was a lot to tell. Enjoy the pictures of everything I talked about below, and next weekend is the stones of Avebury and Stonehenge!

Lots of Love, Lauren

If the video is blurry, check it out on youtube by clicking on this link! I AMsterdam

AND....panic....

Well, the first week of classes, "Refresher's week" is regrettably over, and reality has officially set in. I sort of forgot that I might actually have to do work while I'm here...and I feel a bit overwhelmed. I made it to my PR class today, finding out that it was not my fault that there was no one there last week. The department had actually given me an old time table, so it had the wrong room on it. (They are terribly unorganized here and it's very inconvenient.) But in the end, I made it to class, 30 minutes late, to find that I have my first assignment due on February 15th. I have a 2000 word project which involves researching and creating the first part of a PR campaign for a fake "healthy living charity". The project sounds really cool, and I am excited for it...but not that it's due in 15 days. In that time I have to not only do all the research and writing and creating, but also learn a whole new referencing and citation system. Gah!! Not to mention, I have 5 internship applications due February 17th, reading for two other classes, and a trip to Amsterdam the 12th- 14th. whew. I guess I better buckle down and get to the library instead of writing this blog.... I also didn't get down to Mumbles or the Gower Peninsula for hiking this weekend because it SNOWED!! (It never snows here.) So hopefully this weekend we'll get some good weather for outdoor activities!

But enough of my boring complaining....

I've learned some interesting things the past couple of weeks as well!

1. They have white chocolate mocha at Starbucks here...it's just called something else...so I can feed my addiction :)

2. Rugby is like a religion...every 6 Nations Rugby match is printed in my free student planner.

3. Speaking of religion...I am definitely a minority as a Christian. Young people here just aren't into thinking about God much at all and weren't raised to.

4. You can't buy many groceries when you have to carry them all back on the bus.

5. Friends with cars are like gold (see number 4).

6. In europe you can find random castles in the middle of town, right next to the McDonald's.

7. Fancy dress parties aren't just for Greeks here...everyone loves a good theme night here.

8. The Welsh and English are arch rivals, and aren't afraid to hurl some good insults back and forth.

9. Instant coffee is better than no coffee.

10. People in Wales are just nice :)