A bit of a recap on the past few days, or weeks, or whatever it has been...

First of all, sorry for the lack of blogging... well not really, I have been in too many cities to count and internet isn't exactly cheap... except when it was free and then I was too busy seeing the cities. Second of all, the keyboards over here have switched the 'z' and 'y' keys so typing anything takes twice as long, even thought only two of the letters are switched... so if zou see (there it was...) a switched y or z just bear with me. Thirdlz, here is a bit of recap stolen from part of an email to the fam:

I am happily settled in Genéve for Christmas. We arrived here after a whirlwind tour of countless cities. While part of the group was in Chemonix, France, I was in Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest with another of my flatmates. All of the cities were beautiful, but Vienna was my favorite (perhaps because of the opera the first night and the ballet the second night, both for ridiculously cheap tickets). I met up with the rest of my flatmates in Salzburg, Austria and we had a good time touring the city, enjoying the Christmas market and who knows what else. From there, we journied to Prague and enjoyed that city as well, celebrating Emily's 21st birthday at a wonderful French restaurant called Café Louvre, a bit of champagne in the hostel, and early to bed as we had a bunch of traveling to do the next daz. Emily left at some ridiculous hour to fly to England to meet her friend and we took a train (or several as the case may be) to Munich. We actually only spent around 16 hours there, but managed to see the wonderful Christmas market, complete with bratwurst and crepes with nutella, in addition so seeing some famous sights in passing. We also, of course, visited the Haufbrauhaus. All of us had a HUGE stein of beer... 1.01 liters to be exact. It was quite enjoyable and the boys had atleast one more each... anyway we met some very nice Germans who have been meeting at the Haufbrauhaus for over 20 years and one of their Bavarian friends (whom the English speaking doctor could not understand half of the time) kept buying us mulled wine. It was a true German experience, or at least we are pretending that it was. Wow, so, this morning, we woke up very early, again and hopped on a train to Zurich and then another to Genéve. The city is quite beautiful, but is surprisingly lacking in tourist attractions. We are in a hotel and are enjoying the idea of staying in one place for more than two nights and not being in a hostel for once. This evening was pretty relaxed and we have no huge plans for tomorrow other than seeing the James Bond movie (in the original format) and perhaps going to Starbucks for a Christmas Eve coffee, or late, or perhaps peppermint mocha... no we are not addicted. Hopefully, Brandon will not arrive too late and we will have a relaxed Christmas Eve.

As for Christmas, we don't have exact plans, but it will be relaxed, just as anz Christmas should be. So, in the event that I don't get the chance to talk to everzone, have a wonderful Christmas and an incredible New Year! I love and miss you all, but don't worry, I will survive and get to see zou all in a few short months. I will be thinking of zou!!!

Happy Christmas!!!

Wohoo!!

Ok, superfast recap of the past few days.
Bus to London Stansted, flight to Bratislava, taxi to hostel, good night of sleep, a little bit of walking around and then onto a train to Vienna.
Vienna proved to have the most amazing hostel ever... Kate and I saw Don Carlos the first night at the Opera House and the next the Nutcracker, we saw amazing things in the city and generally had a blast... oh, and the Christmas markets and museums were great too. After two nights, we took a train to Budapest.
Budapest is a beautiful city and has been a blast. We have met some really nice Aussies and Californians and our hostel is really neat (Aborigional Hostel). The baths were amazing and it was a great experience.
Tomorrow we get on a train to Salzburg to meet up with some more of the flatmates, it will be good to see them.
There has been so much more, but I just don't have time to write about it all.

I hope all is well with everyone, thanks for the emails! They are great :)
Cheers, Hil

Almost out the door...

So everything is set. I have flights, trains, hostels and my passport. Tomorrow morning, OK later this morning, I head out with Kate to begin our Christmas Holiday Travel. The itinerary is something along the lines of Bratislava, Vienna (2nights), Budapest (2nights), Salzburg (2nights), Prague (2nights), Munich (2nights), Geneva for Christmas (2nights), Cologne (2nights), Paris to see my cousin George and New Years (4 nights), Barcelona (3nights), and finally Madrid to see Brent (3 nights). On January 7 I fly back to Nottingham and stumble in the door to sleep...

The past few days have been crazy with laundry, packing, Mary's birthday (which was great!), Christmasy stuff at the flat including mimosa's and secret santas, the Cross Country Formal Meal (it was really quite posh), and who knows what else. It has been great to receive letters and emails from home, thanks to everyone for that. Incase anyone is bored over the holidays, letters would be greatly appreciated... and incase you don't happen to have the address handy... it is:

HLY
67 Homefield Rd
Nottingham
NG8 5GH
England

Was that too obvious? Sorry, it had to be done.

Anyway, since I most likely won't get to talk to many of you before Christmas, have a wonderful Christmas, a fabulous New Year and to all of those Luther students that are getting ready for J-term trips and Spring semesters abroad, good luck, have fun, keep in touch ... and you will be FINE... everything works out. Have fun and I love you all :)

and a very Happy Christmas to you all...

These past few days have been very close to the stereotypical British end of term time...
Courses finally demanded work to be turned in and I followed British Uni student practice with vigor. I had a paper due on Thursday (50% of my grade) and on Friday (25% of my grade). Needless to say, I procrastinated just enough to get very little sleep the two nights before. On Thursday, I biked to campus in the pouring rain, turned in my paper and biked home to work on homework for Mark and Carol. After a good dinner, we headed out with the Juggins to attend a Panto .

{Pantomime... Apparently, every organization in Britain, from schools and churches to professional acting companies, puts on a pantomime every year around Christmas. Each Panto tells a traditional fairytale with humorous bits inserted... some is slap-stick and the favoured bit is the part called the "dame" which is the middle aged man playing a female's part. The sparkling and gaudy costumes entertain and distract the young children just enough to prevent them from catching on to the political and other inappropriate jokes (which are much appreciated by the adults who are quick enough to catch up on them). For a month surrounding Christmas, large theatres close their doors to the normal performances and have six performances a week of a certain panto...}

We ended up seeing Cinderella and it was quite enjoyable. As the show was designed for children, it was split into three acts, so the intervals provided the opportunity to purchase chocolates, ice cream or drinks... between the little children screaming with delight and the elderly women giggling uncontrollably, it was a great night to watch the people and the show.

On Friday, I biked to campus again to turn in another paper, made it home in time for a nap so I could go back to campus for my last class of the semester for Islam and came home to watch a movie and nap a bit more. Friday night, the flatmates just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. The project of the evening was a competition between Mary & Kevin and Brandon & myself creating a mix of our favorite music. We ended up with a great collection of music and ended up staying up late just chatting.

Saturday proved to be a relatively lazy day, but I did make it down to the city centre to take care of some Christmas shopping. The Christmas market, although the market square is still under construction, is really fun. Vendors selling crafts, jewelry, small gifts, candies and pretzels and other various foods lined the edges of the square. Small children caroled under the towering Christmas tree and despite the lack of snow, I felt quite in the spirit of the Holiday. After finding the perfect gift for the Secret Santa we are having in the flat, I made my way home in the dark (it was 4:30 and pitch black outside). The group headed back into town to see the movie "The Holiday". Despite the star studded cast, it was not all it was cracked up to be. Fortunately, Emily, Kate and myself had discovered the candy selection prior to the movie. Apparently, it is rather common for theatre's to have bins of all types of candy which may be mixed and matched and purchased by weight. After carefully choosing from the selection (which included licorice allsorts, white mice, fizzing boomerangs, and the like), I understood that the idea of Willy Wonka's candy shops and Hogsmeade's Honeydukes is not all that extreme. Post movie, we made our way to a new pub/bar/club that Brandon had heard about. Although there wasn't any live music by the time we got there, we enjoyed a pint before heading home on the last tram. It was a great weekend day in Nottingham, I look forward to more of those in the spring.

Today somehow managed to slip by without me noticing. I talked to everyone in my family, finalized most of my itinerary, skyped with both my Dad and Joel and ... well, I'm not quite sure what else I did. Well, Aaron, Emily, Ryan, Kevin and myself made our way out for dinner... it turns out that it was the first time any of us had actually eaten out in Nottingham on our own. We went out with Mark and Carol when we first got here and I have been out with Kim and Mom, but that is it. Sad, I know. I will work on that. We went to a noodle place just downtown called Wagamama. It was excellent food and gave me a refresher course on how to use chopsticks. Anyway, it is now much too late for my own good, but I suppose I am just too excited about break. I leave in less than 72 hours.

In the event that the next few days are too crazy for my own good, Happy Christmas and have a wonderful New Year. I miss you all and will be thinking of you - no matter where I am.

...I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white...

...

Nothing much new at the flat, just wrapping up things for the semester. The final with Mark and Carol last night involved entirely too much writing, but it was fine. Anna's friend from home came to visit, so she will be around for a few days before they head to London to hang out for the weekend. We have a couple last minute details to take care of before we leave (in only SEVEN days) for our break, but otherwise things are OK. I have two papers left to finish and turn in by the end of the week and then I will catch up on my sleep this weekend. On Thursday night, the group is attending a Pantomime, a British Christmas tradition, with the theme of Cinderella. Next week, I will be doing laundry, packing, celebrating Mary's Bday and a semi-Christmas with the flatmates and attending the cross country Christmas Event. Before I know it, I will be gone. I hope everyone is doing well with finals and prep for Christmas. For those of you that are leaving for Spring semester abroad, don't worry about packing, you will be fine. Have a wonderful week!

more than a week...

More than a week since I last posted. Just over a week until I leave for Christmas break. This week, I have a final exam, two papers, and hours of other work to do. Am I stressed, only mildly, I feel as though it will not be too difficult (until about 4am on any given morning) and on the bright side, I got my Eurail pass today! But onto other news...

They boys started decorating for Christmas...

This past weekend, the group traveled to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Instead of all piling into our trusty coach with our speedy coach driver Roger, Mark and Carol rented a car. Carol drove the program car and Mark drove the stick-shift rental. We were ordered to pack light for the weekend, so we all fit everything we needed into the typical bookbag/backpack size bag. Plenty of room to spare in the cars. I found this extremely ironic as we all took our huge hiking packs on the first couple trips and couldn't fit everything we wanted to take in... hmmm... atleast we are getting better at packing more efficiently. Anyway, after an almost uneventful ride there on Friday morning (yeah, we missed classes, again. I wonder if that will be reflected in our Islamic Tradition grades?) we checked into our guest house and received our itineraries. Unlike other trips which had our every moment planned out, we had a list of places to visit and a ticket to get into all of them and two days to do it in. A quick take-away pasty lunch (a convenient way for Mark and Carol to save money... afterall, "It's December and we're low on money in the budget" as Carol said. Funny, they will pay for us to go into a costume Museum in Bath that was a complete waste of time and they have to scrimp later. No worries though, we all had plenty of food and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed their pasty (from Thai chicken to Bacon, Cheese, and Leek to Apple, Rhubarb, Custard... it was good all around).

Stratford-Upon-Avon (which is getting annoying to type... I'll just call it Stratford from now on... OK? good :) ) is a nice small town. Small in comparison to Nottingham, approximately 25,000, so about the size of Freeport. As it was the first weekend of December, the Christmas decorations were out in full force and it was quite pretty, especially at night. Obviously, the town is best known for its link to Master William Shakespeare. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not, but any and every house that could possibly be tied to the Shakespeare name ... has been tied to it. We saw his birthplace, the ruins of the great house he bought later in life, the house that was next door to that, Anne Hathaway's cottage (which he never lived in and probably spend little if anytime in...), his daughter's husband's house, his grand daughter's husband's house, the church his dad attended and his grave. Needless to say, I know a LOT about life in England around Shakespeare's life time. Once again, I learned that modern amenities are a wonderful thing. Aside from visiting Shakespeare related places, during the day, we walked through markets, cute little shops and one of the days I had lunch at a cute tea shop with Mary and Emily. It was a nice roomie bonding session.


On both Friday and Saturday night, the group attended a play performed at the SWAN theatre. Of course, before we came to Stratford, Mark and Carol prepared us for the plays by having us read the first couple acts and discussing both at length. We prepared ourself for the spoken Shakespearian word by watching "Shakespeare in Love" and a recent production of "Hamlet" with Bill Murray and many other popular actors/actresses that I should know. The first night, we saw Pericles performed with somewhat present day African influences. I know that sounds slightly odd, but it was phenomenal. I was completely engrossed in everyword after the first three lines and although it was nearly a four hour ordeal (including the half hour intermission), the time flew. To complete the night, we went out to the oldest pub in town afterwards and had a drink with Mark and Carol. The next night, we met for dinner at a great pasta place and then headed back to the SWAN for a performance of The Winter's Tale. This performance had influences of Europe in the 1940's, again it was an excellent performance. Although I was not as engrossed in this story, the acting was quite good.


On Sunday morning, the group attended church at the Cathedral in Stratford (communion was served ten feet away from Shakespear's grave... I found that awkward... anyway...). It was a cheerful service with a great deal of congregational participation. From Stratford, we journied to Chipping Campden. We had a great lunch of soup and bread and tea at a little tea shop (Mark and Carol even sprung for a slice of our choice of cake at the end...). We walked around the town and took in the surroundings and then spent some time in the cathedral. The oldest parts of the church dated back to the 11th century, but most of it was 16th century. A quick trip home with no major navigational errors and we were welcomed back to Nottingham by a cold, dark flat. The power was out. After lighting nearly fifty candles, the power came back on. We were happy to have heat and light, and perhaps most importantly... computers. (There are a few new pics on Picasa) This week will be interesting. I hope all is well back in the States and that everyone is enjoying the winter weather (Illinois has at least 8 inches of snow!). xoxo Hil