Germany!!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. And that a lot of turkey was eaten for me! I went to Germany for Thanksgiving. lol. I went to visit Laura Cardy. Now Laura & I have a funny little story considering we've never actually met each other. She went to NCCS in AZ, 2 years after I left. She's Ashley Kaiser's roomie, and she's friends with Chuck & Allison.. whom I'm still friends with today after leaving there in 8th grade. Laura & I have both heard stories about each other and have talked before.. so it wasn't like we were complete strangers! Lol. But anyways.. she's an au pair (a nanny) in Germany for a whole year.. and it just seemed like a perfect idea to go there and meet her! And it was! We had so much fun!!..

But back to the story..

On Thursday, I headed off to the airport at around 1. My roomate Krista and a couple of her friends were headed off too, their flight being earlier, I caught a cab and train with them. I just hung out at the airport for a couple hours before my flight left. The flight from London to Bremen, Germany was only about an hour long. It was basically just a hop, skip and a jump across the ocean. After I got my passport stamped (yay!!), I headed through the terminal to see Laura! Hehe. It was soo great to finally meet her. We headed off to where she lives. It was off to bed around midnight..

Friday morning got up early and headed off for Munich! (Munchen as it's pronounced in Deutsch!) We stopped at the bakery for breakfast.. mmm.. yummy doughnut! Lol. It took us about 8 hours to get to Munich. The whole time we listened to Christmas music. I think the drive was my favorite part actually! I got to see soo much of the beautiful country side.. Germany is gorgeous! I saw the cute little town, with the cute little churches, and the hills.. oh. it was pretty! Loved it!

When we finally got to Munich, we headed to Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp of the Nazi, and was mainly a male camp until the end of the war. This was the main reason we went to Munich, as I truly wanted to go to a concentration. And I'm so happy I was able to go and be there.. The day was foggy and it was getting dark as we were walking around, it was also terribly cold. The look and the feel of the day helped to better understand the men's lives in the camp. We walked around in the barracks, and saw their cramped living quarters.. saw pictures of the men.. saw the gestapo posts.. the wall around the camp.. the train tracks that they were brought in on and the dead were taken out on.. The whole experience was mind-blowing. I was in awe as I stood in the roll call area and tried to picture the camp with the men, in their prison outfits,.. seeing the camp and the pictures makes you wonder how people can be so cruel? And how they were able to hide it for so long.. It seems unimaginable. Visiting Dachau makes me want to go to other concentration camps to learn more... they just seeem so horrible to imagine, but once you've been to one.. you can't imagine how people could do those things to another human being.

After we left Dachau, we checked into our hostel! No worries! We had a very good one, one of the best in Munich. We have very good stories compared to the horror stories that we've heard! And! There were no bed bugs!! :) I checked! Lol. Laura and I hung out that night and got to know each other. It was such a fun night!

Saturday, we again went to the bakery for bfast. I got another doughnut, and this time a German pretzel! It was soo delicious! We headed back to Dachau to finish looking at the things we didn't get to see the day before. Then we headed to the city centre to look around and do some shopping. We waited to get into the parking garage for like 40 mins! It was crazy!! Luckily though, as soon as we finally got in, we found a parking space right away. We then went and did some shopping! And we walked around the market on the street. Laura got some roasted nuts.. they smelled very good! But I hate nuts! Yuck! All the stores were decorated for Christmas! It was soo cute! We were on a mission to find a German braut while I was there.. but we couldn't find one. :( I wanted a true German one from a street vendor, not from a restraunt, and I couldn't find one. It was very sad! But that just gives me more reason to go back! :) After we found the things we wanted, we headed back to the car for home!

The drive home was a little long since some of the autobounds were closed. But we did make it back! We stopped at McDonald's for dinner, and it was amazing!! They had FREE REFILLS AND CRUSHED ICE!!! The drink fountain was out for the customers to get their own drinks, so heck yes i got free refills!! Lol.

Sunday morning it was back to the airport. My flight was only about 40 mins. this time.. Yay! I had to wait an hour until the next train came, but it was ok. I read my book. Krista and her friends were on my train again, so we took a cab together back to school.

The trip was truly a great time. I had a wonderful time with Laura, and in Germany I did everything I wanted to do. I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoyed their time with their families.

This week in school is really low-key. It's the last week of classes, and people started finals on Saturday. We're all starting to pack and get ready to go home! I have a little bit of mixed emotions about going home. I'm soo excited because I miss everyone greatly and can't wait to have everything normal again. But I've had an amazing time here, and will be sad to leave my new friends. There's soo many places I haven't seen yet either, which gives me a million reasons to come back again!

See you all VERY soon!
Miss you!

Love,
Tiffany

Sir Harlaxton

Hey Everyone! Last night in the Bistro they have a "Sir Harlaxton" contest. Except there was a catch.. it was in DRAG! lol. So the boys dressed up as girls and participated in the contest. And then the girl were dressed up as boys. Ooh goodness.. was it ever hilarious!! Cameron, one of the professor's son, he's 9, won the contest. He was funny,.. but the older guys were hilarious!! And they looked a lot more like girls some of them.. Oh goodness too funny.

Nothing else is going on here. I leave for Germany tomorrow. Yay!! I hope that everyone has a happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey for me! Thanks! :)

Miss you all!

Love,
Tiffany

Costume Ball && Football Game!

Hellooooooo Everyone!
This week hasn't been anything great. I've been VERY busy with projects and papers galore! But that's ok.. once they're all turned in, then I'm done with hard stuff until finals! Yay! :)

Friday night was the Costume Ball! I went as a "Babe Magnet".. Hehe. I wrapped myself in foil and stuck pictures of hott boys on me. The magazines my mom sent me were put to good use! Lol. Leah was Sandy from Grease, and Elizabeth was Queen Elizabeth. It was so much fun! We had a date auction that night too, and the money went to charity. It was so funny! We had a bunch of students get "sold" and then two of our professors, and one of the staff members were "sold" as well. It was hilarious to see! We danced and danced.. It was a great time!

Then this morning, we got up and went to Nottingham. We went to a Notts County Football (our soccer) match. It was the Notts County Magpies against Macclesfield. It was so fun! We got a tour of the grounds, visited the changing rooms. We had lunch and then met the managers of the team, the coach, and some of the players. Oh my! They were soo cute! They were injured so they took pictures with us! Yay! Come game time it was a bit cold.. but still soo fun! English people are CRAZY about their football.. it's like a religion. And boy do they get angry at the refs.. the other team.. their own players.. lol. It was intense. It was soo cool to see a match though, and to see/hear the fans!

This week is going to be a busy one.. Finishing up my projects and my last paper. Then I'm off to Germany on Thursday! Woo!

Miss you all!
Love,
Tiffany

Football Pictures!:

Costume Ball Pictures!

Bonjour Paris!

Oh my goodness! Paris was soo much fun! We left England on Wednesday.. we drove to London from school. Then headed to Waterloo to take the EuroStar to Paris. For those of you that don't know, the Eurostar is a train that goes through the English Channel. They built a tunnel through the water, that you can drive through or take the Eurostar. It was very cool knowing I was going through the water! But I wish I would have been able to tell that I was underwater! We got in Paris at around 9pm and headed for the hotel. In the first hour I was there.. I saw about 8 couples making out!! Seriously! It was ridiculous! We were pretty hungry when we got to the hotel so we went to McDonald's. Again with the expensive-ness.. but oh well. We were terribly hungry! Lol. That night we stayed at the hotel and went to bed early.

On Thursday, we got up pretty early. We had bfast at the hotel... oh my gosh! French bread is amazing!! The bfast at the hotel slightly sucked.. not many options.. but the bread was soo good. Then we headed for the metro! Hailey, Leah and I were a bit nervous about taking the metro at first. But we were able to figure things out perfectly! Our first stop was that Louvre. It's a museum.. we heard the line was normally pretty long so we got there extra early. We were the 3rd people in line! Yayyayay! We wanted to see the Mona Lisa and we had heard she always has huge crowd. Since we were 3rd in line, we got there super early! And there wasn't a huge crowd at all! We saw the Mona Lisa.. and I was not disappointed at all!! Lol. Granted she was a little small.. but she wasn't as small as I thought she would be. So I was pumped!! Then we saw the "Venus De Milo" (The Perfect Women). She's a pretty funny statue because she has no arms.. but yet she's the perfect woman. Like I said, odd right? We walked around the museum a litte bit longer, saw everything we wanted to see.. and then headed to the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame.. oohh.. it was a slightly cool cathedral. It was amazingly huge and cool on the outside, and totally cool because it's so famous. But inside was kind of blah, the stain glass windows were the only cool things. I have to say that the English totally have cooler Cathedrals. Next stop was the Eifel Tower. That was the most amazing thing about Paris! By far my favorite part.. I'm not what it is about the Eifel Tower that makes it so amazing.. but whatever it is.. it's amazing. Again I saw more French people making out.. ugh! Then we headed to Arc De Triumphe. You probably don't know what it is by the name.. but the picture you'll recognize! Very cool place! (Sunday, Nov. 11 was Armistice Day and the President of French gave his speech here.) We went back to the hotel and took a little nap/rest our feet. And then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. It was a little expensive... but soooo amazing! My burger was absolutely amazing. No joke. We went back to the hotel and went to bed early since we were going to Disney the next day. We tried really hard to go to bed early, but I was sooo excited I couldn't sleep. I kept talking and giggling.. Lol. Leah told me I wasn't going to be able to go if I didn't shut up.. finally I calmed down and before I knew it.. it was morning!

Friday was Disney Day!! Yayayayay! It took us about 25 mins. by metro/train to get there from our hotel. When we got to the park.. we were amazed!! It was soo cool! It's the 15th anniversary of the park so it's decorated better then normal. The day was a little crappy, it was cold and not very sunny... We waited in line to buy our tickets and then headed to our first ride! We went on the Phantom Manor (The Haunted Mansion at home..) and it seemed slightly scarier because it was in french and we couldn't understand what they were saying. Lol. However some of the rides had some parts in french and then other parts were in english... a little odd. But whatever, it was nice to hear english. :) The castle is different as well from the castles at home.. We spent the whole day riding rides.. Sooo much fun! We watched the parade, which was very cool! The characters all spoke French, except for Timon. Somehow he always spoke English. Odd huh? We went to dinner a little later, and then headed back to the hotel. Haily, Leah and I were all exhausted from our exciting day.

Saturday we slept in a little bit. It was basically our shopping day. We did some souvenir shopping and walked around Paris. Then went back to the hotel for a nap. We went back to the Eiffel Tower at night to watch it light up and sparkle. Soooo gorgeous! Totally my favorite! Then we went to the Moulin Rouge and looked at that all lite up. It wasn't as cool as I thought it was going to be.. not very flashy. But still fun to see!

Sunday we got up and then headed for the Eurostar back to London! It was exciting to be going back to English!

All-in-all France was a pretty cool place.. Not as dirty as I thought it would be, but still had ton of graffiti everywhere. And the French don't really know how to "queue" (form a line) very well. They don't really understand that concept quite well. And I did miss the english language very much! But the peopel did speak English to me, I just couldn't understand anything anywhere else.. Lol. Still a fun trip though, wouldn't trade it for anything!

See you soon!

Miss you all!

Xoxo,

Tiffany