I Love This BLOG!

Hello! I am in such a Wonderful mood right now. I officially have ONE week until I go home, and though I am completely heartbroken to leave my friends, and the beautiful country, and the wonderful adventure this has been, (oh, and the 65 degree weather!) I can't WAIT to get home! I am completely ecstatic because my mom is coming to see me, and we are going to spend the afternoon in London!

As I am sitting my room this evening, completely suffering because of hayfever, dieing to see my mom, relieved that I am almost done, happy to be going home, and thinking about my friends....something occurred to me.......I love this blog! Seriously? I don't know how it occurred to me, but it did! I am always thinking about this blog.... "ooo, I should put that on there" or "oh! I hope they read my blog!" This may be hard to believe, because I hardly ever update it, and because of the ever present spelling and grammatical mistakes, but it is true!

(Be ready for one cheesy moment! Just for you! )

So this is a thank you to you, dear reader. Thank you, for coming on this adventure with me, and thank you for your support, and your comments, and thank you for most of all, for being interested in me enough, to read the blog!

It is my intention, to keep the blog once I am home. Life will still be an adventure for me, I am sure of it. Whose life really isn't an adventure?

So, now that I am almost done, I feel that it would be appropriate to list some of the things I have learned here. First of all, though we may be across different cultures and believes, we are always more similar than we are different, sometimes, it just take a bit to find the similarities! Second, humility is strength, especially when it seems to be a weakness. Third, though Europe seems daunting, if you stick to crowded, well lit areas, you are always bound to find someone who will help, and they will probably speak English too :D Fourth, scary things, are fun....in the end, (this probably doesn't include traumatic things). Fifth, and the last, for now, because I could go on for quite a while....Facebook, isn't such a bad thing after all, right now I count it as a blessing, because I will be able to keep in touch with my friends here in England in the future years :D

For those of you in England, thanks for your friendship, thanks for sharing your country with me! and for those of you in America? see you soon!

Kara

The Land of the Little People!

For Erin, Lisa, and I, London and Paris were not enough! Along with cities such as Warwick, Worcester, Preston, Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birth/death place), and Cadbury World, we adventured to Ireland! My flatmates Olivia and Catherine came with us, and the five of us had an absolute blast!

Olivia's family is from Cork, and on the advise of friends we decided to not see Dublin and head towards Cork. we also wanted to see some of the beach, and so we spent a day in a little town called Kinsale. Kinsale was by far our favorite, and most of us agree that we wish we had spent a little more time there. The city is made of little winding streets with the cutest shops and pubs. We got to see some very beautiful scenery of the seaside, where old forts still stand, against the natural Greens and Blues of Kinsale.

It was fun traveling in such a large group. We had lots of fun times, and there was always something random happening, like trying to fit in the baskets that were underneath our beds in our hostel in Cork. :D

I think I do want to come back to Ireland someday, but like Italy, I would rather visit the small, quiet towns, rather than the big noisy ones :) Maybe we were lucky, but I really believe the Irish seaside to be some of the best!

Kara

A Tale of Two Cities!

My friends Erin and Lisa came to see me here in England!!!! We have done so many things this last two weeks. London, Paris, Church History sights, the Temple, Ireland, Warwick, and Stratford-Upon-Avon! and I have written a thing about it up here! Ah! I suppose there is nothing better, than to start at the beginning.

London and Paris!

We left for Paris on the train (that goes underneath the Channel) at 5:25 AM! Really the only reason we did London, was because we had to stay the night there. Though, we enjoyed the day, seeing the main sights of London, such as the London Bridge (which actually is NOT the pretty one, that is the "Tower Bridge") and Wicked! We left for the train station at 4:20 AM! it was the most Insane weekend, because we got no sleep, then crashed and got like 14 hours of sleep, and then got no sleep, and then crashed again, when we got home!

In Paris, we went on a free walking tour, and learned a lot about Notre Dame, The Piazza D'Republic (it has a different name now, which I can't remember) and Eiffel Tower, the French statue of Liberty, and all those other important things you see when you go to Paris.

My favorite things are the things I listed above. Did you know, that the Eiffel Tower sparkles at night? I mean it! there are all these little white lights that just SPARKLE! It is the most incredible thing.

It was really good to travel with friends that I knew really well. We laughed really hard all weekend, and the last two weeks have passed really fast because of that and all the sudden, I am coming home in two weeks today!

Today, we are going to find something new, though we havn't decided what yet, So I suppose the rest will just have to come up later, but be sure to check!

Kara

Lickey Hills with the Flatmates!

Hello!!! Today I am in such a good mood. I am coming home in two and a half weeks and nothing could be better for me.....anyway more about that later. Here is an update on my adventure!

In the end of May-ish, George, Olivia, and I went to the Lickey Hills to find the Bluebells! and we did! We spent the majority of the day walking there because, the train station was quite a way, but it was beautiful day, with good company, and fun people! I always go crazy about the English country-side, and besides people, it is probably the thing I am going to miss the most. It is so green! but as an Irish man told me once "It should be green, they wash it four times a day!"

There is one more photo that I have to add, and I hope that I won't get in too much trouble :D but near the end of the day, we were getting into a very random mood, I am sure it had something to do with the ice cream we were eating, and how tired we were BUT George, and Olivia, made some amazing attempts to fly! Here they are!

Some day, when I have photoshop, and I know how to work it, there wil be amazing photos.

I also got to go see Darcy's house! From Pride and Prejudice! (With Amanda, Sam, and Cally) It was a good afternoon out. It isn't nearly as big as it looks, still big....just not as big. THEN when we went home, we all had a BBQ, and those were some of the most amazing burgers that I have had in a long time.

Lastly (for this post of course) Erin, Kim and I had a fun Kite flying day. Honestly, the kites never worked, and we were all very bummed about it. I put pictures on here of the highest we ever got the kite, and yes....that is the highest that Kim ever managed, about a foot of the ground.

There is SO much more hopefully coming in the next few days. Luckily for me, my friends Erin and Lisa came to visit me here, and they have been keeping me very busy!

Kara