We'll I've Never Been to Spain, But I kind of like the Music :)

First day in Spain.  WOW!  It was sooo beautiful there!  One of my favourite places I visited.  We were so excited about the warm sunny weather than Amanda and I packed all sundresses and skirts to wear there which was awesome except all of the Spaniards gave us funny looks because they thought the upper 70 degree weather is cold.  Amanda and I woke up early and got ready to ride the bus into the city to meet up with Clare and Emily.  Emily acted as our personal tour guide the first two days in Malaga so we set off to the Castillo de Gibralfaro.  Here is a better description of it than I can give, "The Castillo de Gibralfaro in Malaga is situated above the Alcazaba and is connected by a path at the eastern end of the Alcazaba. It was built in the 14th and 15th centuries by the Muslim King Yusuf....The castle was constructed as a fortress to defend the Alcazaba against the spread of artillery use. The fortification includes the defensive devices of a large flanking tower, a rampart perimeter adapted to the terrain by zigzaging walls and an angled gateway."  It was an intense climb (another time in Europe when we found ourselves climbing a mountain) but the view was spectacular.  From here you could view the dock, the meditteranean sea, and the entire city.  We walked around for a good part of the morning and then we made the trek back down.  We stopped by a chino (type of store) and picked up some beach towels and then went to the Mercadona for a picnic lunch.  Amanda and bought some gouda cheese (really good), crackers, and a bag of mandrinos (mandarin oranges).  We met up on the beach and sunbathed, ate, and played in the water.  It was really awesome to go into the Mediterranean Sea because I never thought I would.  While we were there there were a lot of waves up at the shore which apparently is very unusual for this body of water.  The waves were pretty intense at some points.  Between Amanda and I, we ate almost the entire bag of oranges in one afternoon---they were SO good!  We also took a siesta on the beach and it was glorious!  We headed back at late afternoon to shower and rest because we planned to meet up at 11pm to go out (Spainards don't even start to go out for the night until like midnight! so crazy!).  Amanda and I went up to the city centre and did some shopping and ate dinner (they eat really late too) at 100 Manneditos.  It took us a while to figure out how to order but we found the sandwiches we got interestingly good. Clare, Emily, and some of Emily's friends from her school met us for Salsa Dancing.  We danced the night away and it was really fun!  It is always interesting to dance with people who don't speak English because we had to try to communicate using the little bit of spanish I know.  Overall it was just a great night!

En Route to Spain

Last Wednesday began my trip to Malaga, Spain.  Malaga is on the Costa del Sol of Spain, or in other words, it is a beach city on the southern coast.  It actually is just across the sea from Moracco which is on the nothern side of Africa.  Anyways, Wednesday started off with me attending our 8:30 British Studies Lecture but then skipping my seminar class so that we could catch the 10:10 shuttle to Grantham in order to leave by train to Gatwick Airport at 12:00pm (I'm sure my teachers understood).  Amanda and I caught a bite to eat at the Goose and proceeded out to wait at the train station where I took this photo.  It is part excitement about the beautiful weather in Engand, but mostly sheer joy because I'm about to go to sunny Spain!  Amanda, Clare, and I pretty much spent the rest of the day moving from one form of public transportation to another until we finally arrived at Malaga at about 9pm.  We took a bus from the airport to the city to meet Emily, our friend from Eastern who is studying abroad there.  It was so exciting to be reunited in Spain!  She took us on a general walking tour of the city centre and then sent Amanda and I off to our hostel further out of the city but right by the beach.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and you could just smell the green and verdant flowers and palm trees!  Amanda and I got off at what we thought was our stop but in reality we somehow went too far.  So we ended up walking around for about an hour looking for the hostel.  We tried asking people for help but first of all, we came across a language barrier because they didn't speak english and then even more so they just didn't know where The Melting Pot Hostel was.  Eventually we called and finally located it.  When we arrived we felt very welcome and our accomodations were pretty good as well.  I went to bed being able to hear and see the ocean out the window which was a very pleasant experience!

London Field Trip, Wicked, & Cadbury World!

Although technically I was just around the manor, last weekend was jam-packed with activities that kept me out and about until Sunday afternoon.  Friday we had a field trip to London where we toured St. Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery.  It was a typical day in England, rainy and sort of miserable but overall it was fun.  The cathedral is magnificant on the inside and we climbed all the way to the top (really intense climb) and saw an awesome view of London.  We ate our sack lunches and then headed out to see portraits and paintings that we have been discussing in class, in real life (which was very neat).  In Trafalgar Square we also got to see the official countdown to the olympics which will be held next year in London.  We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant called Garfunkels before trekking over to the Apollo theater to see a performance of the musical, Wicked.  The walk was lovely because everything was really lit up in the city.  The play was awesome as well, just as cool as when I saw it the first time at the Fox.  Following this, we made our way back to the bus to take us home.  My group did stop by a McDonalds and I bought my only American Fast food purchase while in Europe which was my personal favourite, ice cream cone.  I just had to see if it was as good overseas!  We made it back at 2am and then I went to bed because I had to be back on the bus the next morning by 8am to go to Cadbury World.  I have come to love Cadbury chocolate since being in England because I have been introduced to the wide array of candy they make (besides merely the Easter eggs that they sell in the US).  It was really fun, we got lots of free chocolate too!  The Cadbury brothers who started the company are remembered for the stellar way they treated their employees during the industrial revolution.  They even built a town called Bourneville for their employees to live in.  It was a really neat tour and afterwards we got to go into Birmingham to shop at the Bull Mark shopping center.  The only way I can describe it is INSANE!  Seriously we went into Primark (cool store I shopped at in Nottingham as well) and you would have thought it was Christmas-except it was just a saturday in March!  Finally we came home and ate dinnner before going out to celebrate my friend Christina's birthday.  It was a good couple of days, but I was relieved on Sunday to be able to relax!

A little bit of everything (it's been a while)

So it's been a REALLY long time since I blogged last but I haven't been on any major trips so it's hard for me to remember!  Following are a few short blurbs about what I've been up to in the last two weeks.

Nottingham: On a Friday free from classes, Shelby, Amanda and I caught the train to Nottingham for a day of shopping and Robin Hood.  Here we discovered the BEST store ever-Primark!  It has super cheap clothes and it's cheaper than even walmart shopping (even with the exchange rate!)!  It was bliss :)  We shopped to our heart's content and worked to complete out "english" wardrobe.  Mine still needs work, but I found some great stuff to wear on our new tradition, "Dress Up Wednesday."  We started trying to dress up for school on wednesdays just for fun.  Except this last wednesday we all dressed down due to the British Studies test that afternoon.  Somehow taking a test in sweats is just more comfortable than doing so in a dress ;)

A frolic about the manor: Last week was probably the most sunny week we have had so far!  It was absolutely brilliant!  The picture on this blog is from one of our days of bliss outside.  We took walks down the drive, ran around barefoot, and did cartwheels (or I attempted anyway lol). 

Nottingham University: On one of our Wednesday afternoons we took a free school trip to Nottingham Unie.  Here we walked around and enjoyed their scenic campus and their busy library.  It was pretty cool to see students like ourselves in a real college setting in England.  It was similar, but also quite different.  There were way more students in the library so maybe they study more? lol

A night at the Greg: Last weekend we got a big group of friends to walk out to The Gregory, a pub just down the driveway of the manor house.  The Gregory is named after Gregory Gregory who built Harlaxton manor.  It was a fun night of laughs and conversation.  On the way back Amanda and I saw a frog which was cool.

School work: Lately I've felt pretty busy with school.  I had my research paper about John Donne due on the same day I had to present in British Studies about the role of women in the Industrial Revolution.  I still have a ton to read and then just this past wednesday we had a really hard British Studies exam.  The semester is winding down though really soon which is crazy!

St. Patrick's Day: We had a fun celebration after the test for british studies to celebrate St. Patrick's day in the school Bistro.  Here we listened to irish music and drank things with green food coloring in them.  It was pretty fun and a nice break from the stress of studying for the exam.

The Roman Baths and Stonehenge!

Today was filled with lots of riding in the coach but we did get to see a few cool things before the weekend was over.  The Roman Baths were the first stop.  Here is where the Romans set up this bathhouse where people could come and relax, and be healed by the waters flowing from the 10,000 year old hotsprings.  It was cool to see and this was also mentioned in Austen novels as a popular activity in the 18th century.  Next stop was Stonehenge.  One of the 7 wonders of the Medieval World!  It was pretty cool to finally get to see it after hearing about it all my life!  We then went out to Salisbury to eat lunch.  Our group chose the Whig and Quill Pub for a quick bite and it was pretty good overall.  Back on the bus to ride the 4 hours back to school--ugh!  But I was excited to make it back for ice cream!

Bath and the surroundings, Day 2

Saturday we woke up early to take a bus tour out to some interesting sites around Bath.  We first visited Wells Cathedral.  It was pretty typical for a cathedral (I've seen a lot at this point).  We even had time to stop by a little farmer's market that you could buy all sorts of food and crafts from.  Amanda and I picked up some homemade apple juice and clotted cream fudge to split for a snack---delicious!  Next we went to Glastonbury Abbey.  This was the ruins of an ancient abbey and it has the place where King Arthur is buried.  I really liked this one because they had lots of beautiful flowers everywhere.  It was like a spring day!  We got back onto the bus and headed back to spend the remainder of our day in Bath.  Upon arrival in the city we all went the Jane Austen Museuem.  It wasn't great, but they did tell you a little bit about Jane Austen's life when she stayed in Bath.  It was really cool to finally get to see the place that she mentions so frequently in her novels as a place of relaxation and culture.  Next on the agenda was walking up to the royal crescent which is from the 18 century and a model of georgian architecture.  We decided to find a movie theater to spend our free evening and we finally found a cinema that was playing "No Strings Attached".  We grabbed a bite to eat at a very interesting mexican-ish restaurant and then saw the show.  The movie was AMAZING!  I'm still not sure if it was because it was just that good or I've just really been missing things like going to see movies with friends but either way we left the theater on cloud 9.  What a great day!

Oxford and Bath

Today we woke up early to head out on our 3 day bus tour with the school of Oxford, Bath, and eventually Stonehenge.  We arrived at Oxford first thing and headed out to look around this prestigious college town.  We stopped by Christ Church in Oxford to see the cool historical Great Hall that was the inspiration for various shots in the Harry Potter films.  Following is what Christ Church has to say about the films,

"The Great Hall was replicated in the film studios to create Hogwart's Hall. Only one of our portraits moves, sadly, but many of the faces are the real "Wizards" who have changed the way we understand the world. As Harry and the new first-years enter Hogwarts they are greeted by Professor McGonagall. This scene was shot on the 16th century staircase which leads up to the Great Hall......The cloisters in Christ Church were first built 1000 years ago. This ancient vintage made them the ideal setting for various scenes.  It is here that Harry is shown the trophy his father won as a seeker in Quidditch."

We also visited Christ Church Cathedral which is where Charles and John Wesley were ordained.  Afterwards we did a little bit of window shopping, and mainly just looked around the city to find parts of the many colleges that make up Oxford University.  We stopped in at the castle for a look around and then eventually loaded up the bus to travel to Bath, the location of our Hostel for the next two nights.  When in Bath, Amanda and I decided to see what the city had to offer as far as food and nightlife.  Our hostel was on the top of Bathwick Hill and so we had to walk down a steep incline into the city.  We found a quaint little place called Tilly's Bistro so we decided to stop there.  This was a fancy restaurant!  They took our coats and everything.  I tried to order water and he brought me sparkling water!  The food was delicious and we had a two course meal.  Afterwards, we were standing outside in the process of deciding what to do and a crazy man started talking to us about false claims of Sally Lune's (famous tea house).  Apparently they claimed to have the oldest house in Bath, but this is impossible because the parsonage was built before it.  I don't know?!  It was definitely a strange but entertaining conversation.  We walked around some more and met up with some cool locals who showed us the cool places to go.  We had a really good time and they were all really nice.  We called one "Mr. Darcy" all night because he was being very nice (and in celebration of Jane Austen's writings in Bath).  Needless to say we split a taxi to go back to the hostel because we didn't want to climb back up the massive hill!