Long Time, No See.

Hiya!

I have been thinking recently.........A Dangerous Pastime, I know :D I haven't really been up to much since I last wrote. Which is maybe relative. It would be better for me to say, I haven't been up to exciting things like I used to when I was living in England. But I have been very busy! School has been requiring a new level of focus, and responsibility from me, and I have to remind myself everyday that is it is there to make me better, not bitter.

I also discovered, that perhaps life does not have to be feast, or famine. It might be that way because we make mistakes, and predict it will do that, but maybe it doesn't HAVE to be that way. Sometimes I wish I were older, so that my discoveries had more weight, and I felt more confidence in the things i have learned.

I am SO grateful for what I have learned this last semester and a half, despite my worries about their validity. I feel that my capacity to achieve has doubled, and my own self reliability is more trustworthy. Though i have no cool stories except for the minor success at school, and the "Fungi" stories. Who knows, maybe that is about to change?!?!?

Kara Joy!

A long, long way from Miami to L.A.

Heeeeelllllooooooo!!!!

I am sorry for my very long absence from the blog! It is kinda sad, but I have a hard time posting now, because my life isn't nearly as exciting. But the last few days I have felt SO much more alive and happy than I have in a while! I am doing school, and teaching 14 piano students, and I am SO busy, but nothing exciting is happening.

However, I did figure out that I have more friends at ASU than I thought I had! which is kind of a happy thing! Go figure, I have friends to sit, and walk with all the sudden, and I really like it! I have a new phone now, and I would love for people to call me, as I feel like a complete social hermit, and several of my friends proved it to me last night, and it is SO true!

I have a new goal though, I was driving to my family reunion (that's where the mud pictures below , are from) and I passed by these Cliff dwellings, and I wanted to stop and see them SO bad. I am going to go to the cliff dwelling this weekend or nest, anyone coming?

Kara

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

ITALY!!!!

This was by far, my biggest trip yet, I went to Italy for TWO weeks! It was absolutely fantastic! Pam, took me with her, I felt so lucky to be traveling with her, she planned the whole thing, and she speaks fluent Italian, and had many friends for us to visit, and stay with! The basic outline of the trip was....

Ragusa
Taormina
Naples
Pompeii
Rome

Florence

Venice

Brescia
Como

Switzerland

Milan

Ragusa! Pam served here on her mission. It is little really tiny little city, built in the hills of Sicily. It looked completely different than I thought Italy would look! I really fell in love with it. I am so determined to come back someday, I even got a card for a really pretty hotel there! You can sort of see the city behind our heads in the photo of me and Pam. I had massive allergy issues while I was there, but I was SO excited about being in a new place, that I just kept going and going along with Pam! Something else I really enjoyed seeing were these stairs I have heard Pam talk about for years! She used to tell us stories of needing to hike these stairs every day. There are SO many of them, they just keep going and going and going! Oh! and I got several Real Italian meals! that, was awesome! three cheers for good food!

We only briefly stopped in Taormina, and we only stayed the night in Naples (though we did take to morning to walk around and see it) so then on to Pompeii, an ancient Roman city, that has been preserved because of a massive Volcano eruption!!!! We got to see, perfect roads, mosaics, buildings, public toilets and much more! however, this definitely wasn't the end of the Roman ruins we saw while in Italy!

ROME! Is exactly what I thought Italy would look like, and SO different than Sicily, it is not hard to see why I was so surprised at what Sicily looked like! Rome, was beautiful, and I got to see things I have dreams for YEARS about seeing, but it was too chaotic for my taste! Here are photos of me at the Trevi Fountain, we are throwing our coins in, to insure our return to Rome again someday! Also, the Mouth of Truth from Roman Holiday! For those of you who havn't seen it, it is supposed to bite your hand off, if you are a liar! oops!

The COLOSSEUM!, I was So excited to see it, you can tell I am going a little crazy in the photo there I was absolutely ecstatic, that is, until we were told that we don't get the Student discount, because we aren't member of the EU!!! We were upset about that for a full 10 minuets!!!!

oh! and we almost got robbed in Rome! but that is a story to be told in person, so be sure to ask me about it ;)

:D we went to the top of that Dome, you see in the Basilica there, and it was SO packed at the top (I included a picture, that is the one with all the people in it), we couldn't move for almost 1/2 an hour! It was frustrating! but, obviously we made it down because then it was off to....

Florence, and Venice kinda seem really similar to me in my mind.... Though TOTALLY different, I loved both. Venice is for sure my favorite city on the main land. The city is totally pedestrianized, you aren't even allowed to have bikes there! but really, with the number of bridges you have to cross over to get anywhere any form of transportation except walking, isn't very practical! We did do a gondola ride, which cost almost 100 dollars! I found the city just as Romantic as it is made to seem in the movies :) I had no Idiea that it was as bautiful as it was though. I felt like there was something pretty to take a picture of around EVERY corner! I couldn't put the camera away, as a result, everywhere I went I was blatantly screaming "I am a tourist!!!" with how many pictures I took! Venice is a lot like a maze, because maps were almost useless, because it took you too long to figure out WHERE you were, before you could finally decide which way to go! Seriously? you could have some sort of MASSIVE hide and seek game there, it was fantastic! In this picture I am feeding the pigeons! How fun is that? I really got a kick out of that, and it was only a Euro!

Next was Bresica! Then Como, where George Clooney lives! and no, we didn't see him, but we heard about him, and saw picture of him everywhere! Como, was very relaxing, just what we needs after way too much walking, and stress in too little of a time..... Como, sits right on the edge of Lake Como, and everything about it, is idealistic.... we actually drove into Switzerland for an afternoon, to see one of Pam's Friends! I got to see the Alps! They are the BEST mountains I have seen, since the last time I was in Salt Lake!

It was then off to home! well, sort of... On the way back, I got to see both sides of the English Chanel from the Plane window, which probably shouldn't have made me as excited as it did.... :D, but oh well!

So, there is Italy in a nutshell! Isn't it obvious that there is so much more I haven't told? I wish I could add about 5 times the pictures as well!

Until next time!