Puppy!

Home safe and sound...and engaged!!!!

Yes, in case you have not already heard, Spike and I got engaged yesterday. Not even home 24 hours and that boy had put the ring on my finger!

But let's back up a few days...

Back in London this last week, I had a nice last few days at my internship with loads of Christmas activities! Tuesday was a party for the little kids of the families that come to use the services at our centre, Wednesday I got things ready for the kids to go to the cinema for a Christmas movie that night, and Thursday was a party for the older kids. We also had a basement full of boxes of toys donated for the kids to go through and distribute!

Wednesday night, our programme went to see Billy Elliot, which was mind-blowing! Much jealousy was had of the dancing ability by the kids in the show. Thursday, we had our final exams in Contemporary British Society and Religions in London classes, then at 5pm a going away party commenced which was thrown by our director Mark and assistant director Jen. The party continued into the night with all us Vandoners celebrating our last night together. Much fun was had and memories made. A great last night in London! I had quite a mixture of emotions; sad to leave, happy to be coming home.

By 4:30am, Friday, I left Vandon House on a shuttle to Heathrow airport to begin my long journey home. When I went to check-in at the airport, I discovered that my first flight to Newark had been overbooked. So, they offered me to change my flights to go from London to Houston instead, and then to Des Moines, getting me home 4 hours early by cutting out the 7 hour layover I was supposed to have in Newark. So, I took it! However, the flight to Houston was about 10 hours as opposed to about 6-7 hours to Newark. Luckily I was able to sleep for the first 5! I had also developed a cough the last week, which is worse when I sleep, so I think I quite scared the people sitting beside me as I hacked the whole trip! The best part of the trip though (sarcasm there), was having only about 40 minutes from stepping off my plane in Houston to getting on my plane leaving for Des Moines. This wouldn't have been such a problem if I hadn't had to go through immigration, pick up my bags, go through customs, drop off my bags, go through security again, and then take a train to a separate terminal!! Thanks to my sprinting, I made it to my plane within 5 minutes to take-off! My bags weren't so lucky, but they arrived at my house yesterday afternoon. So, I landed in Des Moines around 5pm Friday evening and was greeted by my parents, Spike, and my brother Josh and his wife Lindsey, with flowers! We went out to eat at Spaghetti Works and then headed home after a short stop in Ames at my cousin's graduation reception. I slept the whole way home, but was wide awake by 7am yesterday morning! Today I am feeling the jet lag a bit more, but still not bad.

Anyway, on to the story you all are wanting to hear: how Spike proposed.

It happened yesterday afternoon, after he and I had lunch in town with my grandparents and uncle and brother. I was quite adamant about driving, as I had not been able to for 3 and a half months, apparently hindering Spike's plan a bit. So after lunch, he directed me to the place we started dating: Prairie Bridges Park. We were being pretty goofy, him telling me to turn right, then left, and then go straight, and me shooting back witty replies. So, we were both laughing when we reached the bridge he on which he was going to pop the question. He began to tell me about how I kept ruining his plans for his proposal: he had a special evening planned for next Thursday, his last day of school, but I was not sure I would be able to come to stay that night as I had a lot of things to do and people to see my first week home, so he was trying to convince me to come that night as he had a "surprise" planned; me knowing this was coming, knew what that meant, ruining the special-ness of it. So, in order to keep it a surprise, he did it this weekend! It was simple but cute, and of course I said yes! It has been a whirl of attention since then!

Still trying to unpack everything. I have all my Christmas presents wrapped and my suitcases put away, but my clothes are still lying in a massive pile on my floor. Maybe I will get to them tomorrow....

Thanks for following me on this journey, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! I am so blessed to have gone and to have you all in my life!

Cheers, and happy holidays!

Alyssa

Only 5 days remain...

Only 5 more days in London!

This picture is for Keith Jones:

Winter sunrise behind Big Ben.

Notice the Christmas tree too!!

Haven't been up to too much since my last post. At my internship we are busy collecting boxes of toys from elementary schools that the kids bring to donate to our Centre for the children in homeless/low income families. While doing this, I got to go into the school Prince William and Harry went as kids! It was very "posh." The headmaster's door has a sign that says, "Enter with a smile, or don't enter at all." Thursday for religion class we visited a Mosque and then had a Turkish meal afterwards, sitting on cushions on the floor and all (not very comfortable for people with long legs)! I have been spending some time on Oxford street, enjoying the Christmas lights and shopping. It will be interesting to see how packing goes this week! Can't believe my time here is almost over! I don't feel like I have gotten to do everything and don't really want to leave but want to go home at the same time...I hope to come back someday. This week, I have to finish a final paper for Contemporary Britain, take 2 exams on Thursday, have my final 2 days of internship, pack, hopefully go to Camden market one more time, and enjoy some quality time with my Vandon family!

See you all very soon!!!

Busy!

Hi all! I have been quite busy the last week, with assignments and exploring around London town! Here's what I have been up to!

Last week, I had a project due in my Religions in London class where we had to attend a worship service and describe the service and relate it to the religion and what they believe. So, I attended the first advent service at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Advent Procession. It was way cool!! The clergy and choir (amazing) started on the west end and moved to the east end of the cathedral which was dark apart from the candles they were holding, stopping to sing and read scripture. It was quite a dramatic service, and I would like to see what it is like for Christmas Eve.

On Friday, the CCA London programme went to Canterbury and Leeds Castle for a day trip. We toured the Canterbury Cathedral, although did not get to see the main part because there ended up being a service there. We were able to walk around the town on our own for a bit until we departed for the Castle. The castle was beautiful! It had a large amount of grounds space around the castle, with beautiful gardens and mazes. There were even a bunch of peacocks just roaming around! The castle even had a moat. I saw a leaflet for having your wedding at the castle...if only!!! ;)

On Saturday, I went up to Hampstead village to complete a walking tour assignment for British Experience Seminar class. It was a nice area; I walked by an old church with a large, really old, cemetery with people like Richard N. Shaw and John Constable buried there. I also walked by other old, famous houses. I then did some looking around at the many cute, but expensive, shops. I was very productive the rest of the afternoon and evening, finishing three assignments.

Sunday, I got up early-ish and headed over to the East End for another assigned walking tour. Whilst there, I toured the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In the first gallery of paintings, I was reminded of how much I do not understand when it comes to art. I look at the paintings and think, “What is so great about this? It is just a bunch of random brushstrokes and dabs of paint. Anyone could do that.” I simply do not get how a work is declared worthy of being put up into a gallery and called art. I just get a little frustrated as I do not see much in the majority of the pieces. However, there was one exhibit that I found rather interesting: The Past Was A Mirage I Had Left Far Behind by Josiah McElheny. For this exhibit, the gallery is turned into a house a mirrors; there are spots with mirrors and walls on which an abstract film is projected, with the mirrors creating an interesting effect. From there I walked down Brick Lane, looking around the endless string of restaurants and grocery stores of cuisine from all over. I saw the Brick Lane Great Mosque, not really that great looking, and then turned towards Spitalfields market. While walking, I was approached by a French man asking for directions, which it seemed I could not really help him.He continued to follow me and ask me questions about where I was from and what I was doing. I became very wary and quite uncomfortable as he continued to walk with me and then even ask for my number; I told him I did not have a mobile! He finally left me as I started looking around at the Spitalfields market. Relieved he was gone, I began browsing the huge Sunday market. I felt a bit overwhelmed, and probably would have bought some things had I more time and if there were fewer crowds. I saw a lot of cool crafts and clothes, very fashionable items! I was so tempted by many of the things there, but then disappointed by the high prices of the clothes items I liked.

That afternoon, I headed over to the Imperial War Museum to experience the history of war in Britain and Europe. This was the coolest museum I have ever been too! It was so interactive, and I was greatly impressed by the extensive collection of this museum. The exhibits really depicted what it was like during the wars. I saw the piece that was recovered from one of the towers of the World Trade Centre, which was really cool. I enjoyed the kid-friendly exhibit on what it was like inside a submarine, as well as the gallery depicting what the war was like seen through the eyes of the children during the time; the 1940’s house was really fun too experience as well. I headed downstairs to the galleries on the two World Wars. I spend a good deal of time down here, reading about how the wars started and ended, the personal stories, as well as marvelling at the never ending relics on display. I went through the Trench Experience and the Blitz Experience; both were really great, giving a little idea of what I was like in the trenches during WWI and in London during the blitz during WWII. For about the next two hours, I was in the Holocaust exhibition. I could not believe the extensiveness of this 2 story exhibit; there was so much to take in, but it was definitely my favourite part of the museum because of this. They had a model of Auschwitz, shoes and other items from the prisoners who were murdered, videos of personal stories from survivors, and so much more! I was interested to read about the ones who tried to rebel, particularly a woman who managed to shoot and kill a few guards when getting off a train to be separated into a camp; she was killed though too. Every time I learn more about this atrocity, the more I cannot believe it really happened.

Today was my last day of yoga class. It has been a good class, and I wish I could take the next beginners course. Tonight, I went to Oxford Street with Sarah, Dan, Margaret, and Caroline to do some shopping! They were wanting to help Dan find some new clothes because they apparently don't think he knows how to dress himself! I managed to find some things as well. :) Yay shopping!

This last week and a half is going to be a lot of fun as everyone is planning great nights out on the town. I am very excited to have some fun after getting all those assignments and projects done. I only have one paper and 2 tests due by next Thursday, so not much to worry about for finals! I think a bunch of us might go ice skating somewhere as well as going back to Portobello and Camden markets.

11 days!!!

Thanksgiving & Host

Happy last day of November!!

While you at home were all enjoying your breaks off from school and work, gathering with family for a large feast, us here in London had a little Thanksgiving celebration of our own. After Contemporary Britain class, we gathered in a festively decorated Vandon House kitchen for a meal that was prepared by us students. The menu was that of the traditional Thanksgiving meal we all know and love: turkey, 3 kinds of potatoes, green bean casserole, cream corn, salads, and of course, pumpkin pie and other lovely desserts. There was quite a lot of food, and like at home, there were leftovers for the next day. After stuffing ourselves with food and wine, most of us collapsed into slumber, but some stayed around and played card games. While it looked much like Thanksgiving would at home, it still wasn't the same. I became a bit homesick this weekend in light of the holiday. But, there are only 2 weeks left now, and still much to soak up in London!

On Friday morning, I was up with the sun and left on a 4 and a half hour bus ride up north to Leeds for my Host UK weekend stay. I was greeted with rain and Eric and Marie (pronounced Mary) Songhurst, a retired couple living in Leeds, the third largest city in the UK. I was joined for the weekend by another American student who was studying in Leeds. I knew from the drive from the bus stop to their house that it would be a long weekend. The other student was extremely quiet; I was talkative and outgoing compared to Christina. But our amount of talking did not make any difference as Eric talked nonstop the entire weekend. He would go on and on telling stories with little point or interest from me. So, I was stuck nodding and "mmhmm"-ing all weekend, pretending to listen. I realize how bitter this sounds, but it's the truth. I was really hoping for a really cool experience staying with a British family for a weekend but was quite disappointed, as a few others in our program have also been. Some students have had awesome Host stays while others have been similar to mine.

Anyway, Friday afternoon we went to a place called Tropical World were we walked around an indoor rain-forest essentially. It was kinda cool, took some pictures of animals you would see in a zoo. That night we had a casserole with fish and mince pies for dessert (not my favorite), and then they showed us pictures of their son's wedding. They also told us about all the previous students they have had stay with them over the years and how they have kept in contact with most of them and even visited some of them in their many travels to the States. Eric talked about how he didn't realize how big of an affect they had on the students they had stay for a weekend over holidays. During this entire time, I kept wondering, well then this couple must be pretty great to have students invite them to come stay at their homes years later. I thought then that my weekend had to get better. But it never really did.

Saturday, we began a car ride out to the countryside, but I ended up feeling sick halfway there, and we had to go back to their house so I could rest. It was quite miserable (I won't go into details here). I took a nap and was feeling better by dinner time that night. Eric and Marie were making a Thanksgiving meal for us, their son and daughter-in-law, and two other older couples that were also friends of the family. The visitors were all quite chatty, but mostly talked to each other about things going on in their lives, and little to me or Christina, something Eric actually later mentioned might have been a mistake (they usually just invite their son and daughter-in-law). The meal was fairly similar to what we have for Thanksgiving, but with a British flavor; about a third of the dishes were more common to Britain, like gooey parsnip and Christmas pudding.

Sunday morning, Eric took Christina and I to York for a 2 hour walking tour. It was quite windy out which made it quite cold at first. We walked at a brisk pace, stopping to hear Eric talk about a building or street or something he did as a teenager. We did see some cool churches, even the one Guy Fawkes was baptized in. It was a charming town, kind of like Pella is, only bigger. There was a lot of places for shopping around and I had wished we could have spent some time exploring the shops on the streets we breezed through. Oh well. Afterwards we drove back to Leeds, had lunch, and I packed up to head back to London. The bus ride took an extra hour or so due to an accident, so I was quite hungry and restless by the time I finally arrived to Victoria station later that evening.

Don't worry, I am better now that I am back in London! I am happy to be staying in the city for the remainder of my time, and have lots planned! This Friday, our program will be going on a day trip to Canterbury and Leeds Castle (not in Leeds). Then for the rest of the weekend I plan on going to some museums and other parts of the city I haven't yet ventured to. I will have to do a bit of homework though as well, since we have a load of assignments due on Monday. In other news, I have submitted my first application to graduate school today to a PhD program at the University of Minnesota in Educational Psychology! Quite exciting! I will be busy working on more when I get home for break.

16 days!!

And Germany!

Hello, hello!

So, my travels this weekend were to Germany! I went to stay with a friend, Anna, who was a foreign exchange student when I was in high school. She lives with her parents in a small town called Gladbeck, a 2 hour train ride from Cologne. I flew early on Friday morning, landing around 9:30am. Anna was to meet me and we were to take the one-hour train ride to Gladbeck, however, there was a little mix-up. She had told me to fly to Dusseldorf, so I booked a RyanAir flight there but found out when I arrived that it really wasn't Dusseldorf. It was Dusseldorf, but in parenthesis on my ticket it says Weeze, which is a small airport about a 2 hour train ride from Dusseldorf. Anna had gone to the main airport in Dusseldorf, and so after she realized where I really was and hopped on the train, it was about 2 and a half hours after I had landed that we were finally reunited. I almost did not recognize her as her hair had been dyed bleach blonde and was much thinner than I remembered. We then rode 3 hours on the train to her hometown. It was a pretty town with streets lined with trees all orange and yellow in the late fall afternoon.

That night we met up with her boyfriend Ahmed and went to the Christmas market in Dusseldorf. We took her car which suddenly made me feel back at home, riding in the front seat of a car (even on the right side!) on highways through fields to get there; it has been constant public transportation in London! She had the radio on which was playing popular American songs, and we discussed how it was interesting how popular America music and movies are everywhere; what is so great about American music and movies that they are so globalized and not those of other countries?? Anyway, we went to the market which was a pretty cool experience. There were Christmas lights and music all around, and there was plenty of food and people. We just walked up and down the stalls of various crafts and Christmas decorations.

On Saturday we left for Cologne where we explored the Cologne Cathedral and the many shops. Anna and Ahmed had me try the typical German street sandwich (actually Turkish), döner, which was a large sandwich of beef strips with veggies and a special sauce on bread. I quite enjoyed it! We headed back late afternoon and then met up with Anna's friend Ramona to go to a Latin American cocktail bar to have some drinks. Sunday we slept in and just hung out, taking a short walk through Gladbeck's downtown area, which was dead since it was Sunday and nothing was open. That night we went to another Christmas market in Oberhausen, which was even bigger and more crowded than the one in Dusseldorf. My favorite part of these markets was finding Pofferjes stands!! Early Monday morning (as in 3am), Anna drove me to the airport (the correct one this time!) and I flew back to London. It was a foggy morning and my bus from Stansted airport to Vandon house took an extra hour and I missed my yoga class. Oh well, I simply went back to bed!

I have gained a new job at my internship, something I wish I would have started earlier: helping teach the English as a second language class on Tuesday mornings. It has been a very good experience; you forget how difficult English is to learn until you have to try and explain why you put "an" instead of "a" in front of a vowel! The students are at the moment all women; most speak Arabic as their first language, one speaks Turkish, one Italian, one French. I have also continued helping with the family learning course on Wednesday afternoons which is also a lot of working on speaking and writing English.

This week is Thanksgiving, and we are having a family meal on Thursday afternoon, and then I will head to Leeds on Friday morning to stay with my Host UK family. I was to go with Rachel, another girl in our program, but she had to leave London last week due to a family emergency. So, I will be going alone, but there apparently is a new American student from another UK university who will be there with me. This will be the last of my travels, and I will only have 2 more weekends left after this one! So much left to do and see!

Amongst all of this, I have assignments and graduate school application deadlines creeping up on me....eek!

Paris!

Hello there! So, as you probably gathered from the title of this post, I went to Paris this past weekend.

Shannon, Jacque and I left on Eurostar at 8pm Thursday evening and arrived in Paris 2 hours later. After about 45 minutes of attempting to navigate the confusing streets of an unfamiliar European city, we finally made it to our hotel and crashed. Friday morning, we made our way to Notre Dame Cathedral. We toured inside the beautiful church then got in line to climb the 387 steps to the top of the tower where we could get a panoramic view of the city and say hello to those famous gargoyles. :)

It was a cold, foggy day so photos were not the most beautiful; only the bottom third of the Eiffel Tower could be seen from the top of the cathedral towers! After lunch, we did some souvenir shopping and walked to tour another big and gorgeous church. Next on the agenda was the famous Louvre museum. We had been told by other students in our programme that the Louvre would be free after 6pm on Friday nights if you were under 26 years old, so we headed that way around 5pm, but discovered that it was a bank holiday and so the museum would be closing at 6. No free tour for us! :( Instead, we got some delicious coffee and went back to our hotel to re-plan.

The three of us decided to get up early Saturday morning to go back to the Louvre and explore the galleries even though we had to pay the 10 Euro charge. It was still very much worth it--I mean, it is the Louvre! We spent about an hour or so looking around the Ancient Egyptian gallery, which was my favourite. We of course saw the Mona Lisa, and many other paintings and sculptures, then saw how Napoleon's apartments looked--not to shabby! We finished about 3 hours later so that we could head to the Catacombs, which required standing in line for 2 hours before we could make our way down deep into the earth, below the metro trains, and walk through the tunnels of old stone mines where the remains of about 6 million people have been buried. The bones of all these people have been stacked and arranged into walls in a sort of decorative way. It was interesting to see, but still creepy. After this tour, plus a stop for some Nutella crepes, we went over to the Eiffel Tower and took all our wonderful touristy photos like the one I have added to this post. We had dinner nearby so that when we finished, it was dark and the tower was lit up all beautifully. Before heading back to our hotel on our final night in Paris, we stopped at the Arc de Triomphe which was also all lit up and magical.

Paris was much more beautiful on a nice day like Saturday, but I still can't believe how dirty other European cities seem compared to London. There is so much more trash and the metro stations reek of urine!! It made me happy that I chose London to be the city to stay for three and half months! Three and a half months which are coming to an end quite quickly! Only 4 and a half weeks left! I have made a short list of all the things I need to see and do in London before I leave, and I will be gone the next two weekends with more travelling (Germany and my Host UK stay) so hopefully I can accomplish it all with the time I have left. Today, I went to yoga and then explored Covent Garden a bit in all its Christmas splendor. I also walked through Green Park this afternoon which is no longer very green. :) The ground is blanketed with leaves which I thoroughly enjoyed walking through. Back to my internship tomorrow which will hopefully go better this week; last week I was told by one of the social workers there that I need to talk more because it makes her think I don't like it there. She is one of those people who has a loud and shrill voice, so it is usually hard to determine whether she is angry or if it is just how she always talks. I tried not to let the comment get to me, as I do enjoy it there for the most part, when they give me decent work to do, and I do talk more when I am one-on-one with people, I am just a quiet person otherwise. Anyways, it just made me think about how I behave there and how I come across to other people I work with.

But anyway, I hope all is well back in the States. I will be back before we all know it! Then I will need to do more thinking about where to go after graduation! I just wish it was more clear what I wanted to do. But that is a discussion for another time...