Lack of an update

Well hello there everyone/ myself, since I'm sure not a lot of people read this thing. Anywho, just wanted to make a quick apology for the lack of any sort of update. England kind of took over my life and I absolutely loved it. For those of you who have not spoken to me since I got back, it was absolutely amazing!! I stayed in a little town west of London in the East Midlands called Grantham, well technically Harlaxton but Grantham was 3 miles away and alot bigger. I studied British Studies (what a shocker!), Norse Mythology (which was pretty awesome actually, got to see where JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling got a lot of inspiration for quite a bit of their stories), Contemporary British Theatre (wonderful! went to see lots of plays including Equus with Lily Allen's little brother), and choir (not quite your typical choir, we learned songs in Swahili, French, Middle English, Latin, Japanese, and much much more!). Our school week only lasted until Thursday so we had Friday or Thursday afternoon to travel across Europe. Oh my goodness, people, it was spectacular. I went to Paris, London, Nottingham, Germany, Amsterdam, Ireland, Liverpool, and plenty of places in between.

Man, I miss it. I think alot of what I miss is just the freedom I had over there. I was free to travel wherever I wanted, within monetary boundaries, and do whatever I wanted, which was not the best thing all the time . . .but anyways. For instance, I drank in the oldest pub in England. It was underground next to Nottingham castle and it was probably the coolest place I have ever been. This pub had endless amounts of rooms. You turn a corner and there's another room with people just drinking and having a good time. Plus there was a really cute bartender there ;-)
Let's see, some other favorite times would be going to Camden market with my friend Kat who came to visit for her spring break. Camden market is in the top ten of coolest places I've been (racked up a lot of those while I was over there. go figure!). This place was a maze of spectacular little shops and booths that sold everything from doorstops to jewelry to delicious caribbean food to rave gear. I really wanted to buy everything I saw. If only the pound to dollar rate weren't so hideously disgusting I just might have. Parts of camden market were pretty punk too. I saw the only honest punks I have ever seen there wearing Doc Martens, leather vest with safety pins all over it and huge mohawks died bright colors. Kat got a picture of them. It was too funny. It was really an epicenter for counterculture and I just loved it!

Ah yes, Paris. Je t'aime Paris tres beacoup. I have wanted to go to Paris since I started taking the language in 8th grade and it really was everything I had hoped for. The coolest part is that I traveled there by myself. I got to visit one of my friends, Cassie, who was staying there, but I was on my own for the first day and I loved it! I got to just wander around Paris and do whatever I wanted to do, see whatever I wanted to see. I have to admit that when I met up with Cassie I was thrilled to be able to speak English to someone, but other than that it was tres fantastique! I saw Le Tour Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, le Musee de Louvre, et Versaille. I was so excited to see Versaille and it was so amazing! I loved it ! It was just beautiful. The gardens. Oh! They were gorgeous and that was when they weren't even in bloom. I can't even imagine what they look like later in the spring and summer.

Amsterdam. What more can I say? Amsterdam and Paris were my two favorites. Amsterdam is so unique with its canals and little side streets, I loved wandering around there. And it really does have such a free feel to it, like there really are no holds barred and I love that! Oh, and sitting in the Red Light District people watching became quite a favorite past time of ours (me, Matt, and Steven). It really is funny to see how the ladies interact with all of the passersby.

Like I said before: I miss it. It's crazy because when I was over there, towards the end of the semester I was ready to come home (and get back to some warm weather), and now I would just love to go back and explore some more. And I will! I never got to see Italy and Greece and Austria and Spain. One day I will go back. But, until then, it is back to life in the good ole U S of A.

I hope that was a fairly sufficient summary of my travels. I might write more if I am feeling nostalgic again. And if anyone wants to see some pictures, leave me a comment and I can send you the link to my snapfish account. Tons of pictures from everything I did over there!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

England!

I am over here! Sorry about the lack of an update, but with the combination of jet lag and homework and exploring I've been a bit busy. My flight was not too bad, although I was rather upset with the movie selection, Nancy Drew and an episode of the King of Queens on a jankety projector? Really, US Airways? Anywho, I arrived on a stereotypical English day: foggy and chilly. We couldn't even see the manor properly when we drove up. But, the manor is spectacular, I mean it is a castle. There's a long gallery, great hall, refectory, ante room, morning room, the state room (where I have my British Studies class), the conservatory, and many more castle-y things. Plenty of statues all over the place and creepy fireplaces and secret passageways that aren't so secret since they were just there to keep the servants hidden. British food is different, not bad, but different. First day there we had fish and chips for dinner and I had the fish. I really do love chips, though. They're tasty.

Now for a taste of where I am currently living:

This is the great hall. I have choir here and Harlaxton Players here as well. The chandelier was made to go to a Spanish castle, but they were afraid it wouldn't make the trip since it was during wartime so the owner of Harlaxton Manor at the time was just like, "Oh, okay, I guess I'll take it. I think it'd look nice in my long hall."


This is the view from my British Studies classroom/the State Room. That would be the front courtyard and the gates into the manor.


And this is where I actually live, the Carriage House.

About the rest of the pictures: I have a link here for my Snapfish account, but I do believe you will have to create an account to see them. If the link doesn't work for some reason then you should e-mail me or leave me a comment telling me to e-mail a link for you.
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=19161200511361400/l=347056588/g=118731805/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
just copy and paste that link and hopefully it will work for you. Since you can't see the whole link, just highlight it that line down to the one below it, if that makes sense. If not, just send me your e-mail.

The Christmases of UET!

(back row l-r: Michael, Matt, Sarah, Justin, Austin; middle: Lynn, Laredis, Siri, Joseph; front: Angela, Elissa, Steven, me; floor: Donny)

On Friday night our UET class of 2010 celebrated Christmas by doing secret santa! We started this little tradition last year by going to Justin's house (he lives in Evansville and has a very nice house for hosting get togethers) and eating lots of food and swapping presents. Well this year we did not have all of our class there since half of them have been gone for the semester abroad, alas the show went on! We had a good time and made several videos to Christmas songs. I would post them on here, but I'm not sure how to get videos from Facebook to blogger . . .Just trust me that they were hilarious! The videos started by singing along to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." A couple of the girls decided to dance around and sing it to a bunch of people in the room. And the second video was to "Santa Baby" by the Pussycat Dolls. Well, at this point Michael, the guy filiming, decided he was going to be a great director and started off the video all artsy on a candle and panned up to all of the girls sitting on the couch singing along, and then Donny came down the stairs and we all proceeded to seduce him. What a Christmas! The best part of the night, other than the delicious food, was trading secret santa gifts.
Here is me giving my gift to Steven (I tie dyed him a shirt, a hat, and some socks):

And here is his reaction to getting the gift (i love this photo!!):


The next Christmas party was on Saturday. It is the annual UET Christmas party where everyone gets all prettied up and dances to Christmas music! It's a ton of fun!
I got all prettied up:

Before the party Sarah, Angela, Leslie and I went out to dinner at Olive Garden in our Semi-Formal gear. That was pretty awesome.
Here's a picture of me and Sarah:

We're pretty hot, we know. And we decided to make these faces all night really, or at least according to most of the pictures taken we did . . .
Here is a picture of Sarah, Leslie, Me, and Angela before the party:

Once we got there I had to have a picture with my theatre family (everyone in theatre is in a family where the parents are members of the theatre society and give us fun things for different occasions. It's fun). That's my brother, Daniel, and my sister, Sarah:

ANd I did dance a bit. Dancing to Christmas music is such fun!

That would be Elissa and I dancing the night away. We're so pretty! All in all, Christmas party is really the most fun party of the year because you get to see everyone in their fancy clothes and just having a good time. Oh, and there are tasty treats as well, such as Fererro rocher and chips and tasty dip! Anyway, that's all for now. Wish me luck on my last final and packing for home! ah!

Lady's Night, Oh What a Night

Tonight was the UET (University of Evansville Theatre) 2010 Lady's night and man was it fun. No joke, we had a blast. I wasn't as excited about it since half of our class is gone to England, but it was really fun. L's, Siri and I went shopping earlier today to go get snacks and sparkling grape juice for our get together and that just started to get me excited about it! Last year we had such a good time and this year was definitely comparable. We basically got a bunch of junk food and sodas and pizza and sat around talking for a while, then we played Apples to Apples (if you haven't played it, you need to!) and then we read Glamour and Cosmo and then we watched the Holiday. I had forgotten how much fun it is to just sit around with friends and talk for a while. And it is really relaxing to know that soon it will be Christmas break. Granted that means that soon I will be on a plane flying to England (ahhh!) but we won't think of that for right now. And man is the Holiday a good movie. Jude Law. yes, please! That is definitely one fo those movies that you have to watch with a bunch of girl friends just so you can all sigh in unison. I'll post some pictures when they show up soon.
And here they are:
We ordered pizza. When the pizza came, 2/3 of them weren't cut, they were still pizza pies.

We played Apples to Apples and according to the only round I won, I am appetizing.

And then we toasted to us: the women of UET 2010! Don't worry, it's sparkling grape juice.

After our toast we proceeded to read Glamour and Cosmo, like the girls we are.

Other things to stay tuned for: Monday is ten night, our class's celebration of being a class . . .yeah it's just a time for all of our class to get together and have a good time and we are drawing names for secret santa! Yay! Oh man, I went shopping for our Adopt-A-Family (charity program where you buy christmas presents for a child in a needy family) on friday and it was just so much fun! I just love getting in the holiday spirit! And then there is UET Lady's Night on Tuesday, always a good time. And then finals start . . .And then I'll have a new niece!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *excitement!!!!!!!!!* And then there is 2010 Christmas (if you can't tell, our class likes to get together alot; we're tight like that). And then there is UET Christmas party, which I got a lovely new dress for :-D And then it's Rachel's birthday, and I come home! Whew. I've got quite the week ahead of me. Well, wish me luck, and I wish you Happy Holidays!

New Post, Finally!

I got a new post! Yay!! Scroll down and you can see it. It has some pretty pictures. I think you'll like it.

Busy Bee

That has been me for the past couple of weeks which is why I have not updated anything for a while. You see, I am currently the head of wardrobe for the play "Grand Hotel: the Musical," which requires quite a bit of time and organization, which i am short on both currently. Yay! But at least i get to see my family this weekend and it is only 6 days until i leave for thanksgiving break! Whoopee! But until then, actually until Monday, my life will be chock full o stuff to do. but, c'est la vie, right? Anywho, for anyone intersted, i will be posting new pictures probably next week or something. Now all you devoted readers have something to live for, i know. To any and all reading this I hope that your week will be significantly less stressful than mine!

Stefanie

Fall Break in the Mountains!

In the beginning of October we had our fall break. And what better way to spend your fall break than going to the Smoky Mountains. It was a much needed break from school!
I went on this fun little road trip with my friend Courtney. We drove from Evansville to Nashville and then over to Gatlinburg. Our first night out we had intended to spend camping in the Smokies, but we kind of got there a little late so we just ended up staying in a sketchy hotel in Pigeon Forge on our first night. Courtney had never been to Gatlinburg before so we had to go into Gatlinburg that night, and man did we have a good time! We had dinner, which wasn't so great but eh, and then we talked around and window shopped for a while. After shopping for a while we decided to stop into this nice massage place and get some lovely massages. They were the water massages like you see in the mall. It felt very nice. We got headphones with soothing music and there was even a little lamenated picture of a beach that was laying below you when you opened your eyes, not exactly soothing since it was so pixely but it was a nice effort! After the massages came cheesecake and coffee. What better way to end a night, right? Man we were roughing it.

The next day were were ready to get up in the mountains and hike!!! No joke, Pigeon Forge was crowded and we were both just ready to get away. But, one last little tid bit about the night before . . . .

Guess who got her belly button pierced on fall break? That's right ladies and gents, miss courtney. As anyone who has been to Pigeon Forge and/or Gatlinburg knows there are a ton of piercing and tattoo places along the way. Well, Courtney kept joking about getting her belly button pierced and I jokingly egged her on (although she will blame this whole thing on me). So we had been talking about it the whole day and as we were on our way to wal mart to get some groceries for the trip we passed a place and courtney said, "Alright, after we go to wal mart, I'm getting my belly button pierced at that place." Sure enough, after wal mart we went to the tatto/piercing place (American Rebel I belive was the name) and Courtney got herself a belly button piercing. The place was not very sketchy, it was very clean and the people were nice, little odd looking, but nice. So that was a fun way to end our first night of fall break!
Moving on:

After we ate breakfast we were off to the mountains! We decided to hike to Alum Cave Bluffs, part of the Mt LeCont hike. That was a beautiful hike and it was utterly refreshing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to just get away to nature after you have been at school for two months. It may not seem like a long time, but stress builds up quickly. Yes, I did wear my "Where the Hell Is Bell Buckle" shirt on the trail and I did get one person who recognized it since he went to MTSU. The hike was a great success.
BTW: Pictures from the whole trip are below in a little slideshow type thing. If this doesn't work for you, just comment. I was just trying to try something new so I don't have to post every single picture from the trip on here.

After the hike we drove up to Newfoundland Gap and enjoyed the view. Fall in the Smokies is truly beautiful, I highly suggest it for anyone and everyone. After Newfoundland Gap we drove down to Cherokee where we found a nice place to camp. We didn't camp in the park, but we did camp in this lovely little campground where we haad some very nice neighbors. When Courtney and I had issues building our fire and keeping it going they were kind enough to "make it easy" for us by giving us some quick light logs and lighter fluid! They knew how to camp. I still say there is nothing better than sitting around a campfire with a cup of hot chocolate and a friend.
But before we settled down at our campsite we went to dinner with a special guest: Daddy! That's right, he decided to come visit us and take us out to dinner and breakfast, it also gave him an excuse to get up in the mountains. Our first try at dinner was at Harrah's, the casino in Cherokee. Well, we knew that you had to be 21 to get into the casino, but Daddy insisted on trying to see if we could sneak in to eat at the buffet. Yeah well that didn't go over very well. Courtney and I walk in and immediately these two beefy guards stop us and ask for our IDs. I swear Daddy was already halfway to the buffet, he moves quick! After that attempt failed we ended up eating at the restaurants at the hotel at Harrah's. It was just as good, very tasty food.
The next morning Courtney and I pack up our stuff, thank our lovely neighbors, and go to meet Daddy at this mom and pop place called "Nana's Steak and Pancakes" (or something to that respect). It was a kind of sketchy looking place, but sometimes those are the best, Daddy hardly goes wrong with his breakfast selections. Turned out it was a great breakfast place, just don't try to use the bathroom there, go the Long John Silvers next door. We had a lovely breakfast with Daddy and parted ways. Daddy went off to hike the Chimneys, or at least one of them, and we went off to see the Native American art museum he kept talking about. When Courtney and I went to the art museum we were talking about how it would be funny if Daddy had already been to the museum that day, and what do ya know? We look in the guest registration book and there is my father's signature. Surprised? Not at all.
After the museum we went drove across the mountains, enjoying the lovely view and then decided to do one last "Quiet Walkway." The one we went on lead to the creek where there are tons of big rocks to hop around on. So that's exactly what we did once we got down there, just hopped around on rocks and explored for a while. Once again, very fun, very relaxing. After hopping around on the rocks for a while we headed back to the car and said our goodbyes to the Smokies. They treated us well.



One more little bit: On our way back to Nashville from the Smokies we stopped in to see Kat and Jennifer. We got to see Kat and Jen's lovely dorm room and Kat showed us some fun hippie-esque shop where I purchased my favorite magnetic poetry ever:Romance Novel. Oh it's great, let me tell ya. One word for you: Bratwurst ;-) We then ate at the place where Jennifer works of of the UT campus. It twas nice and tasty and I love the fact that Jennifer sat with us and ate our food while she was supposed to be hostessing. Gotta love my friends!

Overall, it was a very successful and fun fall break. One I won't be forgetting anytime soon!