Ello ello.

(This was written a week ago but I just got around to posting it)

Hello everyone, I am currently sitting in Carlisle Train station waiting for my connection back to school. I have just returned from a grand Italian adventure with my cousin Lindsey. But before I get into that, let me recap on the past few weeks.

First, I returned to school after a long, warm, sunny Easter break at home. It was really nice to be home and see everyone. Its a little weird to be back at school knowing that these are my last few weeks as a St Bees student. Although I will be glad to return home and be with my family and friends once again, I will also be really sad to leave this place and the people here behind. I've made a lot of amazing friends during my year here and its a little surreal that I'm leaving them all behind, not knowing if or when I will ever see them again.

A couple of weeks ago Kate and I were given tickets to an event in Carlisle called Radio 1's Big Weekend. Radio 1 is basically the biggest radio station here and every year they put on a free concert that has tons of amazing big names and new artists, basically a giant festival. This year, the festival took place in Carlisle (which is a about an hour and a bit north of where my school is). Anyways, I was lucky enough to be given tickets to go by a friend, so Kate and I put on our wellies and headed to Carlisle. We waited in a line for 2 hours to get in with tons of other excited and crazy fans. When we finally did get in we were greeted with a huge field of food stands and tents with various stages in them. We headed to the main stage first because everyone was curious to see who the surprise opening act would be. We had heard rumors of Eminem and Rihanna and various others but it turned out to be the Artic Monkeys. I hadn't really listened to them much before the show but they were amazing live so I have found a new favorite artist :) Really, I would highly recommend checking them out. Kate and I stood in the tent for about 4 hours without eating or using the loo just to see some of our favorite artists. We ended up seeing Jessie J, Nicole Scherzinger, Tinie Tempah, Ellie Goulding, Black Eyed Peas, Panic at the Disco, Swedish House Mafia, Plan B, and many more I can't remember right now. It was probably one of the best days of my life, or at least in the top 20. Needless to say we were absoutely exhausted after standing up for a straight 12 hours but it was totally worth it!

After Big Weekend, exams began. I can't say I really enjoy exams, but on the plus side with exams comes study leave. Basically for two weeks we didn't have to go to school, all we had to do was just sit and study all day. Which I could handle sometimes. I'm having a hard time taking exams seriously because I know they don't really affect much for me and before half term I was most focused on my trip. After the two weeks off though I was kind of going crazy just sitting and studying all day. But I'll go back to school after half term. And I only have 3 exams left!

Now, on to half term. Lindsey (my cousin) and I planned a grand adventure for my half term break. For her, this was a celebration of her recent graduation from high school. She was supposed to arrive in England on Thursday and travel to my school and stay with me. Things didnt really work out as planned. Her very first flight to Chicago was delayed and then diverted midair to Tulsa. She got stuck there for about 4 hours then she finally arrived in Chicago. Needless to say, she missed her flight to Manchester and had to rebook for the next day. She spent a totally of 17 hours in the Chicago airport before finally getting on a plane to England. When she finally got to Manchester on Friday, I took a train and met here there. From Manchester we took a train to London and stayed in a hostel there for the weekend. We got to see all of the major sights of England and we even got to go on the London eye! It was a great weekend overall. On Sunday, we went to London Gatwick Airport and caught a flight to Rome. We arrived in Rome that night and had to wait FOREVER to get our luggage. Then we had to find food, and get a train to the city centre and find our hotel. It was a bit crazy, but we managed alright and when we finally got settled in our room we were very excited to be there! Rome is a very mesmerizing city. Its so beautiful and I don't think I could ever get enough. The first day we were there we went to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and a few other places. The second day we visited the Vatican City. We had some interesting experiences on the metro in Rome as it was very crowded. Wayyy more crowded than London ever was for us. It was quite entertaining. Anyways, our 3 days in Rome were spent eating gelato, marvelling at the sights, and enjoying the Italian way of life. It was a great few days. On Wednesday we took a train to Naples. Lets just say, on arriving we were a bit shocked. Naples is more of a metropolitan area than Rome and significantly less glamorous. We were very nervous about the are and we had an initial moment of panic. My first reaction was to hop the next train back to Rome, but we stuck it out and eventually discovered it was a very interesting and dynamic city. On our first day we visited a few of the major churches in Naples. Unfortunately we weren't able to go in because we completely forgot that shoulders and knees needed to be covered to go in. So, if you ever travel to Italy and plan on visiting religious monuments, make sure you bring something to cover yourself with. Anyways, the second day in Naples we took a regional train to a town called Sorrento. It was a beautiful town and we spent the day on a local beach enjoying the Italian sunshine. Of course I ended up with a sunburned but what can ya do? Anyways, we returned to Manchester on Saturday and after a bit of confusion with our hotel situation we got settled and just relaxed for the night. It really was an amazing trip for both of us and I'm very sad its over. I hated saying goodbye to Lindsey because I wanted so badly to be going home with her! But oh well, I will enjoy my last few weeks here :)

As far as I know I have covered the past few weeks completely. I'm sure I missed something here or there but thats to be expected. I shall post at least once more before I return to the US for good. I'm sure there will be tears and sadness as well as joy on my departure from the UK but we'll see when the time comes. Ta ta for now!

I'm alive.

It has been absolutely ages since I've sat down to write a blog post. Sorry about that. A lot has been going on since the last post. I intend to detail most of it here, but if I miss things I'm sorry. Also, my dad has promised to help me write a blog post about our cruising adventures so look for that in the future (most likely when I'm home), and I will make him do it.

Anyways, for my February half term I went on a Mediterranean cruise with my dad, my sister, and my grandma. It was amazing. We started in Rome, spent a night there and then got on the ship the next day. We explored the city a bit and saw the coliseum and things like that before heading out to the port of Civitavecchia (spelling?). Tip, when taking a train in Rome, if there are guys there to put your bags on the train they will demand money. DO NOT let them do it. This whole idea of saying no seemed to be an issue with my Grandma (Dear Grandma, I love you to death, but you have to admit its true). I'm pretty sure every street vendor we passed on our entire cruise managed to stop her and try to get something out of her. I digress. We took a train from Rome to the port to get on our ship, the Costa Magica, on Saturday. By the way, when they say there is a shuttle bus to the ship from the train station it really means you have to lug your suitcases all the way across town and find the buses inside the actual port. Just fyi. Anyways, we finally got on the ship and were able to enjoy the sunset from our balcony. The cruise was overall amazing, we got to see Palermo (Sicily), Cagliari (Sardinia), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Barcelona, Marseille (France), and Savona (Italy). We did a lot of exploring each city and saw some really amazing sites. It seems like that when you're in Europe there is a cathedral or some sort of amazing architecture around every corner. Being on the ship was really fun as well. Our room was a little tight as it was only meant for 3 people (guess who ended up sleeping on the cot?). But overall the experience was good. It was really nice to be able to relax and hang out with my family for a week. It makes me realize how much I miss spending time with them. If I had to say anything negative about the trip it would be that my mom wasn't there and my grandma managed to fall down a hill and fracture her shoulder. That was a bit of a drama, but I am very grateful that I decided to take Spanish in school because otherwise taking her to a Spanish hospital would've been much more difficult. Although I wish we hadn't been in that situation it kind of made me proud that I was able to communicate and work out everything for her.

This description of the cruise really doesn't even cover half of it but like I said, Dad and I will be collaborating on a full recap soon.

Other than the cruise, I've just been continuing to go to school and play rugby in between. I've really enjoyed playing rugby this term. It makes me wish there was a league closer to home that I could play in. I've even been watching rugby matches on tv trying to pick up tips. Yeah, I might be a little obsessed. But oh well, its fun, so who cares? I have to say I do have a lot of bruises as a result, no pain no gain. We're going down next Wednesday to a big tournament in London for three days so I'm really looking forward to that. Hope we get to play some good rugby!

Aaaaaaaand, guess what? I COME HOME IN 2 WEEKS!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY! I'm just a little excited, if you can't tell already. If you have any chocolate/candy/souvenir requests better get them in now :)

Thats all I'm writing for now. I'm just proud of myself for getting a post up. But I promise there will be a pretty substantial one up in the near future. Adios amigos!

Pointless rambling....

I think I've just come to terms with the fact that this blog just wont get updated much. Its just one of those facts of life.

Not much has been going on lately. Mostly just school everyday with the occasional weekend trip to Whitehaven. I did go to an 18th birthday party this weekend. The host of the party had it at her house, excuse me, I mean castle. Yes, she in fact lives in a castle. Its pretty big, and pretty awesome. But to her its not that weird. In fact, its not really that big of a deal to many people around here. I guess that comes from the fact the the castle to people ratio is much larger in the UK than in the US. Anyways, the party was really good. Its always nice to get away from school every once in a while.

In other news, I have a new addiction. Tea. I have finally embraced the stereotypical English custom of drinking tea all the time. And I must say, I love it. I have tea when I come in from school, after dinner, while studying, and before I go to bed. Its addicting, I swear. Try it.

I have my first rugby match tomorrow! I'm very nervous about it. I don't really know any of the rules so we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling I'm gonna get called out for illegal tackling or something haha. At least I know that you cant pass forwards, hopefully I bluff my way through the rest of the stuff. It should be interesting. Its been a while since I've played a competitive team sport so I'm pretty excited to get back into it.

One thing I've noticed lately (another one of those weird English things) is the use of the word ta. "Ta". Its almost used in the same context as cheers but I still cant quite get the hang of when to use it. Maybe its just something I'll have to practice.

Oh, next Friday I'm going to Rome and meeting up with my Dad,my sister, and my Grandma. And then we're going on a Mediterranean cruise! I'm so excited! I can't wait to see more of that area, I've only really seen Spain. And I still feel like I haven't seen enough of that! I'll do a long blog post afterward and let you guys know how it goes :)

Anyways, I really should get some homework done. I mean, I know this year doesn't count academically but I probably should put a bit of effort in, right?

Adios amigos.

Back in the motherland.

Hello all!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know I did! It was great to be back at home with my family and friends. But alas, I am back in the UK at school.

My journey back was sort of uneventful. Other than the fact I sobbed on the phone to my mother because I didn't want to come back to school, it all went pretty smoothly. I never thought I would get tired of seeing airports. It used to be a really exciting thought-jetsetting through different airports and countries. I guess I kind of take it for granted now that its become a normal thing. I'm actually quite tired of aiports, isnt that sad? But I am glad I have the opportunity to do everything I'm doing. Dont get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all, just want to make that clear. Its just funny how years ago I wouldve never seen myself where I am now.

Since I've been back at school I've realized that there are a few things about the British that I missed dearly while I was at home.

1. Chocolate. I'm sorry but Hersheys just doesnt really cut it anymore. I'm a Galaxy girl now, and you can only get that in England.

2. Accents. I started to get annoyed with the accents right before I left, probably because I had heard enough of them to last me a while, but after spending two weeks in the US I have a renewed appreciation for the Brits speech. I've also got my little accent back as well.

3. Their obsession with Friends (the tv show). I have quite enjoyed sitting down at night and watching episodes of the beloved 90s show.

And a few things I haven't missed.

1. The weather. Really? Does it HAVE to be this cold? Its just unneccesary.

2. The rooster that lives outside my window. My hopes that he had been eaten for Christmas dinner were dashed when he woke me up at 5 am the first morning back.

3. The food. I miss American food even more now. Good thing half of my suitcase I brought back was food. Back to beans and toast I guess.

Not really much eventful has happened since I've been back. I started playing rugby. And I absolutely love it. Today I'm quite sore because we started playing tackle rugby yesterday and I think I might get into it a little too much. But trust me, I'm not the only one. Now that I'm playing rugby here I wish we'd had it at Chatham because I definitely would've loved to play it throughout high school.

School is a lot quieter these days because my lovely Germans went home after spending their semester abroad. It feels empty to me but its also kind of nice because I can get a decent nights sleep with no interruptions of the German kind.

Anyways, I better go. Might miss a showing of Friends!

Much love,
Maddy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to say, hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Its a little weird not to be in the US for Thanksgiving. I actually had forgotten that it was today. I am going to have Thanksgiving with other Americans tomorrow though.

Have a good one and eat lots of good food :)

Also, please keep my Aunt Kim and her family in your prayers. They recently lost all of their personal belongings in a house fire.

Catch up.

I'm sitting down to update this blog because I'm tired of people send me angry messages to do it.(*cough**cough* Laura and Sierra).

Ok, so the rest of my trip to Germany was amazing! I did a lot of traveling around during the time I was there and I managed to go to Muenster, Cologne, Vallendar, Koblenz, Bonn and Maastricht (which is in the Netherlands). In Muenster I stayed with Charlotte and her parents and we enjoyed her mom's amazing cooking. We also went to a traditional German fair. I was SO much fun. It almost made up for missing the fair back home. The fair had all of the rides you would expect to find, plus food from every European country possible. I had a really really really good bratworst fresh from the grill. So so good. Anyways, when we were back in Vallendar I just kind of hung out with Charlotte and went to various activities. I went to some of her cheerleading practices, which was fun. Also, I went to a spanish class with her, which was really weird because they translated everything into German, so basically I was forced to communicate through Spanish. Ummmm, I'm trying to think of what else I did with Charlotte. I suppose I should've sat down to write this as it was happening.

Oh, on Tuesday I took a train down to Cologne, which is a fairly large city in Germany. Not as big as Berlin but its really nice. Taking the train was quite an adventure because that morning the train workers in the Vallendar area staged a general strike. Meaning none of the trains I needed to be on were running. Very, very annoying. So basically, Charlotte and I ran around until we found a train headed to Cologne and I just jumped on it hoping it would actually get here. I think I should've been more concerned with the situation given the fact that I only know about 10 word in German, but I was suprisingly calm. I finally did make it to Cologne though and my friends from school met me at the train station. They took me to the huge cathedral in Cologne and to an amazing Italian restuarant called Vapiano. Apparently they have a Vapiano in New York. I may have to research this. Anyways, I'm pretty sure the highlight of my day was going the Chocolate museum. There is an entire museum run by Lindt dedicated to chocolate. It was amazing. You went through and learned about the production of chocolate and the history and all that fun stuff. But the best part is at the end there is a HUGE chocolate fountain. I was in heaven. We also sat down in the cafe in the museum and had chocolate cake. It was delicious.

After Cologne, I returned to Charlotte's flat and spent more time with here. And she took me to a house party. Quite interesting, especially since I couldn't communicate with anyone. But it was fun. On Friday, Charlotte and I decided to go to Bonn. Which is a really nice, historical city in Germany. We went there and walked around and had a look at the city. I also went to the house where Beethoven was born. Pretty cool. And among other things, I ate an entire pizza. I was pretty impressed with myself. That night we went back to Muenster, to Charlotte's parents' house. Her mom was having a party in celebration of her birthday so I met a lot of interesting people. They were pretty interested in why I would come to England to study when it wasn't required of me. For me, its a hard thing to explain to people, why I'm here. Because a lot of people can't understand why I would just come for the experience when I could be at home in University. But I try, and sometimes they get the concept.

On Saturday, Charlotte and I drove to Maastricht, which is supposedly one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands. We had a bit of trouble getting there because of traffic and because we didn't really know where we were going, but we made it eventually. It was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in a really cute hostel in the center of town. When we got there we actually had Mexican food for lunch, not as good as home but good enough to satisfy the craving. And then we took a walking tour of the city and saw all of the historic parts. There is a wall that runs through the city that was part of the originial fortifications. Its highly interesting. We also got to see some gorgeous cathedrals and churches. The river running through the center of the city makes everything so much more picturesque. That night we ate at a little restuarant that served all kinds of food. I had a risotto dish that was to die for. I would love to go back to Maastricht one day and see more of the city.

So thats pretty much my trip to Germany. I'm back in England now. Actually, I just got back from a weekend in London. Again, I had train troubles (what is it with me and trains?) because the weather was so bad. I ended up hopping trains, starting in the opposite direction, until I got to London. I went to have Thanksgiving with the other Americans in my program. It was a really nice dinner, although they didn't quite get the pumpkin pie right. I guess nothing will ever be as good as my Moms. I must say I'm very tired now because I stayed out late both nights. The first night we just walked around a bit, went to Tesco, and talked until like 3 AM. The second night we got all dressed up and decided to sample a little bit of London's nightlife. It was so much fun, but I definitely could not live a continuous party lifestyle. First of all, its too expensive. Second of all, I just can't handle the lack of sleep. On the second night we had to take a bus to get back to our hostel because the underground had closed for the night. The bus ride was probably one of the most interesting bus rides of my life. There was either a problem with the system on the bus or someone was just trying to cause trouble. If you aren't familiar with public transportation then I will explain how it works. If you're on the bus and you want the bus driver to stop at the next stop, you have to push the red buttons and it will make a sound and he will stop. Well, on our bus the buttons were being pushed over and over and over and over again, causing us to hear a really annoying sound many times and causing us to stop at every stop. Well there were these really rowdy boys on our bus that were getting blamed for causing the trouble. We were sitting upstairs with them and we could plainly see that they weren't doing it. But everyone downstairs believed they were. So first a french man comes upstairs to yell at them. Next, an italian guy came upstairs and said 'I will call the polizia because I dont take caca'. I think you can assume the meaning. Really, it was all very entertaining because the french and italian accents make everything funny. But then the bus driver actually stopped, shut off the bus, and came upstairs and it turned into a huge argument. So a bus ride that shouldve taken us 30 minutes took us over and hour. But I don't really mind because it means I have a good story to tell.

I don't know if I'll have any pictures posted but I'll see what I can do. Its really hard to do anything with the lack of good internet I have. Let me take the opportunity to say I don't have wifi, or complete facebook access, or access to most chat systems. So stop scolding me for not being on skype or whatever, I CANT HELP IT! Seriously, I would love to be able to skype and communicate with everyone but its really beyond my control.

Anyways, I better go because I shouldve been doing work but I chose to update my blog instead. Cheers.

Deutschland.

Hello all!

I am currently sitting in my friend Charlotte's flat in Vallendar, Germany, enjoying some Musli (cereal). I got to Germany yesterday afternoon then drove here with Charlotte yesterday evening. Its quite a surreal experience to wake up in St. Bees, England and go to sleep in Germany. But I love it.

Charlotte goes to school here and the town is so beautiful. I'm going to take some pictures at some point this week and hopefully put them on facebook. If you think of a stereotypical European town with the narrow, stone streets and the gorgeous architecture, thats pretty much what it looks like.

And if you didn't know already, I turned 18 yesterday! Its a big deal here. Like, much more of a big deal than I expected. I actually had a drink in the airport before I left because I could. I made such a fool of myself when I went to order it because I was so excited to be getting it legally. It was quite amusing. The bartender looked at me like I was insane, but oh well. I forgot to mention that before I left for Germany my friends at school threw me a party and ordered Indian takeway for me. It was lovely.

Warning: If you don't want to hear about innocent little me drinking alcohol, don't read the next paragraph.

Last night Charlotte took me out for my birthday and it was a lot of fun! Actually, she had champagne waiting for me in her flat for before we went out. It was really sweet of her. First, she took me to this party that was outside, sort of in a garage. It was fun. Everyone was really nice although I couldn't understand most of what they were saying. Her friends were excited to find out it was my birthday. One of her guy friends gave me this vodka (wodka as it is here) and I thought my esophagus was deteriorating. It was pretty strong. And they also gave me an authentic German beer. I have to say, German beer is very good. I can't really compare it to anything because I haven't really had American beer but I can imagine it doesn't compare. After the garage party we took a cab and went into Koblenz. It reminded me of the night we took a cab from St Bees to go into Whitehaven, which was kind of funny. But anyways, we went to this club. It was insane. It was set up so there was multiple dance floors and themes. Like one was house music, one had German music, one had American hits, etc etc. It was really fun because everyone dances, including the guys (I'll get to them later). At the club I had a malibu and coke, its become my drink of choice. And someone convinced me to try a red bull and vodka. It was ok, but I don't think I'll have it again. And before you get any idea, I wasn't drunk because I paced myself AND I ate before I went out. I'm a smart girl. I think we got back at like 2 or 3 am. Which is apparently an early night for most people. I was thinking "If this is an early night, I don't know if I could make it on a full night out". I guess I'm just not used to the lifestyle. But overall I would say I had a really great 18th birthday.

Anyways, the German boys are soooooo cute! Seriously. They all look older than their real age and they are just so adorable. I mean, I don't know if all German boys are like this or if Charlotte just has really attractive friends but it doesn't matter because I had fun just hanging around them haha.

Today, I'm going to hang out here until Charlotte gets back from her meeting. And then we're going to her cheerleading practice (yes, I said cheerleading practice; I'll have more on that after I do some observations). And then we're driving to her parents house in Muenster for the weekend. I'll try to update as much as I can, but we all know I'm really bad at updating this so we'll see how it goes.