UK: Christmas & London

My flight coming into London was interesting... I tend to get very nervous on planes (and yet clearly it doesn’t stop me from flying!) We were initially meant to land about an hour early, because of the wind was going in our direction. However, when we were close to Heathrow we were informed that too many planes were trying to land so we’d be waiting a while, circling above the airport. This didn’t bother me toooo much. Eventually we made our descent, and when we were just metres off the ground- and I was bracing myself for landing- the plane starts going back up again! This is when I pretty much flipped out. Apparently there was too much wind so we had to try all over again. Bleh.

Anyway eventually we touched down and I made my way into London. There I met Jenny (my cousin) and stayed the night with her in her apartment near Waterloo. Early the next morning (Christmas Eve!) we hopped on a train out to Dorset, where I would be spending Christmas. I had Christmas with my aunts and uncles and cousins, and it was loooovely. My aunt Nikki cooked a lot of incredibly delicious food- though, after eating in the dining halls for so long..Everything tastes good! This town in Dorset, Fontmell Magna, is a teeny tiny little country town which was highlighted when we went to the “Christmas Pageant” on Christmas Eve. It was like a cross between a nativity play, a carols service, and a parade. We’d meet some characters (i.e. kids dressed as Mary & Joseph, Angels, Sheppards etc) and sing a song or two, then move through the town to meet the next set of characters and sing a few more songs and move on again. Essentially we followed Mary & Joseph’s path to Bethlehem, and ended up in the church. Probably the most adorable thing I’ve seen, ever. Overall, Christmas was lovely- relaxing!

On the 27^th I got a train back into London where I have been seeing many musicals, and not doing much else! I saw three shows. 

·         “Legally Blonde”: SO GOOD! It’s so funny, and the songs are brilliant. The cast was great, and I loved the dancing. Very girly- you could tell that every man in the audience had either been brough by his girlfriend or was gay. On that note, one of the funniest songs in the show.. “Is he gay, or just European?” Brilliant!

·          

           “Wicked”: I’ve seen this one before, a few times. I initially saw it in London, then saw it twice in Melbourne. While the Melbourne show was undoubtedly 100x better, it’s still fun! I got really cheap seats, so it was worth it.

·         “Matilda”: Amazing show! And so many kids! The kids are all incredibly amazingly talented. Not only for being able to sing and dance the way they do, but just to be able to remember it all. Phenomenal. Also the set was really cool- very intricate, but hard to explain. Possibly the best of the three. Loved it.

Other than musicals, I have gotten myself a new camera, a new sim card for my phone, and applied for my Indian visa. The rest of the time I spent mainly roaming the streets of London. I’ve been here enough times before (and I’m coming back) so I didn’t feel that I needed to rush around being a tourist.. But it’s nice to walk through Covent Garden, do a bit of shopping on the Strand, and have lunch in one of the parks by Buckingham Palace. I love London!

Covent Garden, all Christmassy!!

 Tomorrow morning I am meeting up with Fiona and Mel, before we fly to Bratislava!

New York: third time lucky!

Dec 21-23

For my last two nights in America I headed back to New York. Though I went by myself, I managed to meet up with four friends from UMass (who were all there separately) and by huge coincidence one of them was staying at the same hostel as me!

I arrived early afternoon on Wednesday but it took forever to get to the hostel, due to the amount of time I had to wait for a bus. Eventually, I got there..And then quickly left to start my tourist-ing! While in Toronto I saw something on the news about Lady GaGa taking over a floor of Barney’s (a department store) to sell weird and wonderful things in the name of charity. After discovering that it was only a few blocks away from my hostel, I decided to have a look. It was actually really cool, even though I’m not a Lady GaGa fan. The whole Lady GaGa “area” was colourful, with very strange drawings and figures all over the place. The stuff they were selling wasn’t actually all that interesting: mostly make up, hair things, bits and bobs. Worth seeing though.

I walked back along 5^th Ave towards Times Square, where I saw many Christmas decorations. At Times Square I bought my ticket to “Anything Goes”- a show I had tried to see on both of my previous trips to NY, but missed out on both times. I then went down towards the Rockefeller Center, stopping a few times to take pictures of the incredible Christmas decorations. Of course now I don’t have those pictures.. But I’m glad I had a look, nonetheless. The Rockefeller Center has a HUGE Christmas tree, decorated with magnificently colourful lights. There is also ice skating, and the plaza is decorated with angels and lights. The Rockefeller Plaza was impressive last time I came, but it was so much more incredible with all the Christmas cheer!

I met up with Mari (friend from UMass- from Japan) for dinner. We ate at a nice little Irish pub. Irish pubs seem to be ridiculously common in NY, and often quite cheap places to eat. Slightly rushed dinner because I had to get to the show, but it was nice to catch up one last time. Then “Anything Goes”!!! It was sooooooooooooooooooooo good! I’m so glad I finally got to see it. The title number, which includes tap dancing, was by far the highlight. It’s one of the most incredible musical numbers I’ve ever seen performed. Sutton Foster was amazing. And Emily from Gilmore Girls was in it! Never knew she could sing... Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Thursday morning I set off to get myself tickets to another show. This time: “Memphis”! I then got a subway down to the bottom of Manhattan, where I found the Brooklyn Bridge. I managed to take some pictures on a disposable camera, so *fingers crossed* some of them come out decent. You get an incredible view of the city from Brooklyn Bridge, even though the bridge itself is largely under construction. Next stop was St Paul’s chapel which is effectively a memorial for 9/11. The chapel was used as a shelter and food supplier for volunteers during the time of crisis, and inside you can read about many people’s stories, as well as photos/letter/anything in memory of those who were lost. Really interesting. After this I headed to the official WTC memorial. It’s free to go, but they limit how many people can go in each day, by allocating times online (so you have to book ahead). It only opened September this year (on the ten-year anniversary) and it’s still not complete, so they’re trying to make sure not too many people are there at once- and security is very very tight. Basically they’ve made the places where the buildings used to be into "pools" which are like fountains, with the names of everyone whose lives were lost around the edges, sorted by their position; whether they were part of the rescue effort, a passenger on one of the planes, or inside one of the buildings etc.

I got the subway again up to the High Line. The High Line used to be a rail line, but has now been turned into a park/walkway which looks over the roads. It’s really cool sitting on a bench, surrounded by plants, looking over the roads below. The whole place is really pretty, a nice walk with some good views of Empire State & Chrysler, plus the general area (Chelsea) 

Then I met Florian (friend from UMass-from Germany) at Penn station, from which we walked to the Rockefeller Center to Julienne (also from UMass- also from Germany). Florian and I got tickets to go up the Rockefeller, hoping to be up there for sunset. Sadly, we were too late, there was a ninety minute wait between purchasing tickets & actually going up. At least you don’t have to wait around in a queue!  In this time we got dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was sooooo good to catch up with both of them, as they are both really close friends. I said goodbye to Julienne, and Florian and I headed up the Rockefeller.

The ceiling of the lift is clear, and there are weird lighting/visual effects as you go up all 69 floors..Kind of cool, but also kind of made me feel sick. Once you get up there, there are three different viewing platforms. One indoor, one outdoor with glass, and one outdoor with no glass. The top one is absolutely stunning; panoramic views. New York looks amazing from all the way up there at night, but I definitely would’ve liked to have seen it during the day too. While we were up there we met up with Maxim (also from UMass, also from Germany) and had a look in this random room, where it is allegedly a “game”. We couldn’t quite figure out how one wins the game, but basically the room is filled with motion detectors and it lights up as you walk around, with all sorts of coloured lights. Very cool.

I said goodbye to both Maxim and Florian, and quickly rushed off to “Memphis”. I absolutely loved it! Matt said that he saw it when he was in NY in August (just after I left) and highly recommended it. I think it’s a lot like Hairspray. It’s about a white guy who really loves the music black people are making, and falls in love with a black girl who he is trying to assist in becoming famous. It’s funny, and it’s sad. The music is great, and the dancing is amazing. Great way to end my trip to New York, and even my trip to America.

Now...over to Europe!

Toronto

On Sunday morning Allie and her dad drove me to Boston Airport, where I had to say yet another goodbye! :(

I arrived in Toronto around 5pm, where I was greeted at the airport by Kris (my exchange partner from five years ago) and Mike (her dad). I spent six weeks in Toronto when I was sixteen, so this brief trip was more about seeing people than doing the touristy-things. We spent the evening catching up, and enjoying a nice home cooked meal!

Kris and Marlies at the Eaton Center

On Monday we went downtown, mostly to do a bit of shopping! We met up with Marlies, a friend from when I was last here, and hit the Eaton Centre (a huge mall in the middle of the city). We roamed around and got some Christmas shopping done, then stopped for lunch at a Pickle Barrel. It had a huge menu, so many options! I got a really good sandwich, yuuum! 

 That evening we met up with Corinne in the city for a few dinners. Corinne was a really good friend while I was here on exchange, so I was super excited to see her.

A work of art...

On Tuesday we had a more relaxed day, watching a movie at home (One Day- not great, apparently the book is better) and in the afternoon Mattie & Kathleen came round. These two are also friends from last time I was here; they both live really near Kris so I used to hang out with them a lot, and car pool with them to/from school. We made Rice Krispy bars..which were a bit of a disaster due to marshmallow confusion, but still tasted good! We also made a ginger bread house. Last time I was here I made my first ever ginger bread house with Kris, and we kind of maybe failed just a little bit. I just remember it falling apart! This attempt was much more successful, in that it stayed together. However, our artistic skills haven’t improved greatly! Lots of fun to make though. The Denega’s took me out to dinner that night, to their golf club. I’d been there last time for a big Christmas dinner event and, just as I’d remembered, the food was delicious! 

It’s now Wednesday morning, and I’m at the Toronto airport; headed for New York!!

It’s been so amazing catching up with all these people after five years. There are a few more I would’ve loved to have seen, but a lot of them are still writing exams (so close to Christmas!) I’m so happy I was able to briefly come up to Toronto and stay with Kris and her parents; they’re like a second family to me!

UMass: the final week!

I’ve just finished up my very last week at UMass. I had a brilliant week, given that I didn’t have any exams. Some highlights...

On Monday Dirk showed me his robots! Dirk is a friend from Germany, and possibly the biggest nerd on the planet...which is awesome. He showed me how they put together the robots, how the programming works, and showed me a few cool tricks the robots can do.  Overall it was very impressive, but made me feel incredibly stupid because secretly I only understood about 2% of what he was saying. 

Both Tuesday and Thursday night Allie and I stayed in, making the most of eachother's company before I disappeared! On Thursday we were joined by a few boys from our floor, and Joe, a really sweet kid from Allie’s acting class. Good to hang out with them all before they headed home!

For dinner Wednesday night Allie and I went out, to “Amherst Chinese” (such an imaginative name!), because I’m getting SO sick of the food at the dining halls. Plus it’s my last week here, so I might as well try out some of the restaurants.  It was DELICIOUS! The dumplings were the best thing I have eaten in a long long time. We should’ve just got like 5 plates of dumplings, so so good!!! 

With a group of girls we had organised to do Secret Santa. I got a gorgeous “Welcome to Amherst” mug from Izzy! I love it! The best present though was for Julienne, from Allie. A Wonder Woman snuggie! When you wear it, you look like Wonder Woman. It’s brilliant!

Fagne & Nate..gonna miss them!

Allie & I decided that for our last night, we shouldn’t eat at the dining halls.. We concluded that the best food in town is wings (from Hangers) and dumplings (from Amherst Chinese) so we ordered both. Lisa and Julienne joined us for a huge feast..which was DELICIOUS. Allie gave me an assortment of knick-knack-type Christmas presents, which included a little Mario pull-back toy (because we play a lot of Mario-Kart...). We made an awesome game out of this little toy, and spent the next hour or so trying to aim it at a target; harder than you’d think. Some boys from down the hall came around we said our goodbyes! Then we headed out to a friend's house, which was super fun! It was so great to be out with everyone, not so much saying goodbye as just having a good time! The night ended in one of the dorm rooms, where  a bunch of boys were having a "paint party"; which essentially just means you wear an old t-shirt and get covered in paint! Again, just good to see everyone!

Despite going to bed at 4am, I forced myself out of bed at 8am on Saturday to finish my packing. Allie’s Dad had invited me to his Christmas party, so we aimed to leave at 11am to get there and help set up, but didn’t set foot out of the building til 12pm. Not a bad effort. On the way Allie insisted we stop at Outback Steakhouse- an “Australian” restaurant. Allie’s been saying all semester that I need to go there, and we finally made it! There was lots of Australiana-stuff in there, but it wasn’t too tacky. I had a steak, which was AMAZING, cos I’ve barely eaten meat since I’ve been at UMass; I just don’t trust the stuff from the dining halls! Saturday night was the Christmas party! Met lots of Allie’s relatives, while eating more delicious food.

Saying goodbye to my empty rooooom!! 707 forever!

Goodbye UMASS :( It’s been fun....

 

Today (Sunday) I’m off to Tornto!

UMass: Reflections..

I’ve now only got three more days at UMass, and thought I would reflect on the time I’ve had here. I have had an amazing semester abroad, with many up’s and down’s, but it’s mostly the up’s that count. I think that exchange is what you make of it; the people who put themselves out there and go for every opportunity are the ones who have the most fun. I think you have to focus on the good, and let the bad fade away. If you focus on what you’re missing out on at home, you won’t be able to see the incredible things that are right in front of you.

The best part of this exchange, by far, is all the awesome people I’ve met. Allie, the girl who lives in the room next to me, is like a long lost twin. I’ve never had a friend who understands me so well, and shares my weird sense of humour. I couldn’t be more glad that she ended up being next door to me, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all she’s done for me: taking me home for Thanksgiving, road tripping aimlessly to cheer me up, helping me to understand all things American, and most of all just keeping a smile on my face. The other girls in my suite have also been amazing fun, and various people from down/across the hall. Seb, the nicest kid on the 7^th floor, is just a huge sweetheart who I wanna take home to Australia with me. I also met a looovely bunch of British girls. They were almost the very first people I met at UMass, and somehow have remained some of my closest friends. Then there’s the Germans, who keep me entertained to no end. There’s Karsten, who regularly tries to speak German to me & tells everything so honestly that I often just don’t know what to respond. Julienne, who is one of the most genuine & caring people in the world, always up for a bit of fun. Sea-Bass and Flo-Rida, the funniest physicists to ever come out of Germany. Dirk, absolutely one of a kind; always thoughtful, funny and random. Jakob, who just makes me laugh. Other randoms: Mr Lee, who works at the dining hall, learnt my and Allie’s name and chats to us every time we go in; Joe and Yvonne and Emily, all incredibly fun; all the boys who live in 609, my favourite place to hang in the middle of the night; Becca and Anna who I sadly only met towards the very end of the semester (Quebec) but who are incredible fun. My friends are my favourite part of UMass, and definitely what I will miss the most.

I’ve also enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had to travel while I’ve been here: Boston, New York, Montréal and Quebec. It’s amazing to be able to see all these places while studying. 

The actual studying I haven’t really enjoyed much- it made me miss my classes at Deakin, which is something I thought I’d never say! UMass doesn’t have much of an Education department, and everyone pretty much takes Education classes cos they know they’re easy. So it was all a bit of a joke, I’ve been getting straight A’s without doing too much work. Sounds perfect, right? But it just gets really really boring. There’s a lot of work but it’s so easy. You rarely have to reference anything; it’s just your opinion! On the up side, it meant I didn’t have to spend too much time focusing on study, instead I could go out, travel a bit, and generally make the most of my time here.

One of the things I love to do here is go to the hockey. Ice hockey is now officially my second favourite sport to watch, AFL being first. The hockey games are SO much fun. UMass has a pretty good team, which helps. Everyone gets so into it all- I’ve learnt lots of cheers. Though, it is actually more common to shout slander than cheers of support. For example, whenever UMass scores everyone chants “heee-ey, you suck” at the opposing team. Real good sportsmanship, eh? Football and basketball were fun too, but hockey is definitely the best.

Overall I’m incredibly glad that I applied for this program, and that I worked my butt of to save enough money to make it all worthwhile. I’m relieved that I’ve not (yet) had to miss out on anything due to financial circumstances. If I’m gonna do something, I wanna go all out! And that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve done everything I could have possibly done; no regrets. In a few days I have to say goodbye to UMass, and all the incredible friends I have here, which makes me undeniably sad. However, I’ve still got two months of traveling to look forward to! Europe and Asia, here I come!!!

Quebec City

Earlier in the semester I joined the UMass Ski ‘n’ Board club, not because I have any skiing or snowboarding ability/interest, but because I was told they organise wicked trips (which you can do without skiing). This weekend, I discovered that was very true!

On Friday afternoon Julienne and I hopped on a bus headed for Quebec City. We’d been told our bus theme was “Boston Sports”, so I borrowed a Bruins (hockey) t-shirt off a guy who lives on my floor, and was suitably themed-up. We met lots of people on the bus, including our room-mates for the weekend, Anna and Becca.

Dancefloor!

When we arrived in Quebec City we got a quick bus tour- mainly to ensure that we would be able to find our way home that evening. We dumped our stuff at the hotel, quickly got changed and headed out. We were meant to get a bus to the club, but missed it. This meant we had to walk twenty minutes up very steep hills in the freezing cold (and, when I say freezing, I actually mean below freezing). Of course no one really knew where to go, so it took us even longer. But we eventually got there! The club (called something that sounds like shay-dey-go-bear..but it’s French, so I’m sure it’s not spelt like that at all!) it was HUGE. Someone told me it’s the biggest club in North America! There were three floors, one with live music, one with a massive dance floor and one which overlooked the dance floor. Needless to say, there was lots of dancing that evening. Fun!!

On Saturday Julienne and I slept in- in the most comfy beds in the world (whilst others got up to go skiing at 7am. Ha.) Eventually we dragged ourselves out of bed and into the cold cold city. We got a tourist map off the hotel staff, and began exploring. Quebec City is SO gorgeous, particularly seeing as it was covered in snow. After roaming the streets and popping into a few shops we stumbled upon a “German Christmas Market” which Julienne (who is German) thought was the most amazing thing we possibly could’ve found.  Whilst I didn’t buy anything, it was nice to look around!  Julienne got some sort of hot wine...It’s a German thing, apparently.

We made our way into the historical part of town, which is surrounded by a fort. I would’ve liked to have learnt a little bit more about the history, but most of the museums seemed to be closed for “the holiday period”. However, I thought it was stunning. My feet were starting to feel like they might freeze at any minute, so we made our way back to the hotel to relax a bit. We arrived back at the same time as Anna and Becca arrived back from their skiing, and caught up on each other’s activities of the day. Apparently there hasn’t been much snow, so only one trail was open, making it not really worth the $40 for the ski pass. We went to a little Thai place for dinner and soon after began our night’s adventure.

Room-mates

On Sunday the journey back to UMass was LONG. First one of the buses was having issues, meaning that we all had to sit on our buses outside the hotel for more than an hour. Then when we stopped for food the place we stopped at only had two staff members working, and there were at least sixty of us queuing up for food. Then we were at the border for almost an hour and a half. After what felt like an eternity on the bus we made it back to UMass, exhausted. Two days later I’m still tired. But it was an awesome weekend; meeting new people, lots of dancing, and seeing the stunning city.