Meet me in Prague

Thursday I left Sheffield and headed to meet Alex in Prague. I've been to Prague before so the weekend was pretty low-key just walking around the city and spending time together.

On Friday we stumbled on to the Prague Food Festival being held in the Palace Gardens which are beautiful and have amazing views of the city. We tasted so many good foods, beer and wine. Especially remarkable was the Czech aged beef, piglet, New Zealand muscles and the most life changing oysters. These oysters were so delicious, only having a slightly sea-like taste, but very salty and just perfect. We spent most of the afternoon there and then walked around the city for the remainder of the day.

Friday night we ate at a famous beer house called U Fleku, which was right next door to the hotel. They have a continuous flow of beer with waiters constantly walking around and asking you if you would like some more. They only serve one type of beer which is brewed by the restaurant. We snacked on sausage and beercheese, which was also super tasty.

Saturday we walked around Old Town and saw all the 'sights' before heading to the park in Lesser Town. Prague is beautiful, but there is not a whole lot of things to do. All the major spots can really be seen in a day or two. So since the weather was nice we headed up into this large park which was very hilly but gave us some great views of the river and the city below. We snacked on berries we had bought at the farmers market before heading back to the hotel to decide on dinner.

We tried another beer house called U Medividku that was also quite good. We had the brewery's chopping board which featured ham, smoked tongue, brawn and bratwurst. Brawn is like head-cheese a sort of cross between meat and jelly. It was delicious. This brewery also had some great brews on tap at the bar attached so we stayed out for a bit and tried a few of the local brews.

I left early Sunday morning from Prague and arrive back in Sheffield this afternoon. Here is a summation of the travels I just went through:

SHEFFIELD -> Tram->Train->Plane->Taxi-> PRAGUE ->Taxi->Plane->Bus->Train->Tram->Bus ->SHEFFIELD

All worth it to see Alex and visit Prague.

This will be my last entry in this blog. Thanks for keeping up with me. My flight arrives back in the States Tuesday June 1st. It has been a great trip!

Good bye University of Sheffield, hello Prague!

Today is my final day of work at The University of Sheffield. It's a little sad. The people were really nice, but mostly I'm just sad to leave England and to think that my trip is almost over.

We had our final presentations yesterday and everything went very well. All of the interns and people from various offices were present to hear the work that we did. I'm happy it is over though, because that means no more work to do.

Before I call this trip over I am heading to Prague to meet up with Alex. The weather is not supposed to be great, but I'm sure it will be fun either way. After that I head home on Tuesday and Alex and I will be swapping time-zones as he will be in Prague for 2 weeks.

Monday is a bank holiday and I plan on spending it repacking. I'm interested to see how I fit everything back into my bag.

On a side note I'd like to point out that Alex's bag for Prague was 7lbs over the limit and my bag was 12 lbs under. I'm sure I can make some room for my newly acquired items. Might be wearing my Wellies home though....

A Wales of a Time

Sorry for the delay in updating about my trip to Wales. As most of you know I like to consider myself moderately outdoorsy and like to get out and hike, bike and occasionally camp. Even though now I've been there I think that I will be putting North Wales on my 'bucket list.' I would really love to go camp there and hike up to the top of Snowdon Mountain sometime.

Basically Wales is beautiful. The weather we had really helped the cause, it was about 75 and sunny with a cool breeze. Perfect. We stared the day at Conwy Castle, which is a world heritage site, and one of the best examples of medieval castles in the world.

Beyond the walls of the castle are the walls of the city of Conwy also from the middle ages. After taking a tour of the castle we walked along the city walls and had a great view of the mountains and harbour.

Conwy also boasts to its charm Britain's Smallest House. Which is very small, only four people can go in at one time. But it is a fully functional house.

After lunch in Conwy we took the coach to Snowdonia National Park, the first of three National Parks in Wales and the home to the highest peak in the UK excluding the Scottish Highlands, Snowdon Mountain. The scenes were just breathtaking. Snowdonia National Park and Snowdon are a pilgrimage for many serious climbers. Within the park the first British men to reach the summit of Mt. Everest trained and stayed at a hotel at the foot of the mountain which is still a world renowned climbers hangout.

While driving through the park we went through the city Betws-y-Coed which means Bethel in the Woods, which was packed with outdoor outfitters.

We stopped in Llanberis Pass and hiked along Llyn Peris a glacial lake that gave us great views of Snowdon and a chance to explore the lush greenery in the park. It was a low-medium difficulty of a hike and was a great way to spend an afternoon in the amazing weather.

The blue skys and warm temperatures were short lived and its back to being dreary and a bit chilly...hopefully that will change for Prague this weekend!

The best whirlwind ever.

This weekend is only half over and I feel like I have done so much! First of all I left after work and headed south to Oxford to stay with my friend Corey.

Corey is an old friend of mine. We went to school together from sixth to eighth grade before separating for high school due to district lines. We somehow managed to keep up with one another on occasion, and he was nice enough to let me come explore Oxford while he is getting his masters there. Corey has traveled a ton and is studying anthropology and you will probably see him someday winning an award for a documentary. Corey is someone I would define as "my people" the type of person that I can always pick up conversation with and never seem to run out of things to say no matter how much time seems to pass.

Oxford was awesome. It's a really cool town with lots of great buildings, though honestly its awesomeness was probably affected by having someone around from home. The girls I'm on the trip with are really great people, just not "my people" though the trip is still going and those friendships may still be developing.

But really, Oxford is a good town. It's relatively small and you can walk just about everywhere (which we did) and the buildings and lands are just breathtaking. We went to some good pubs and dive bars and just spent the days walking around and seeing the city. It was great to get a prospective of Oxford from an American graduate student because the University is set up very differently than Sheffield. Sheffield is more of an American style University whereas Oxford has a college system which divides its students up much like Harry Potter's sorting hat.

I left Oxford this morning (though I seriously contemplated hanging out for another day) and came into Sheffield via Birmingham (Berm-ing-um) my trains were all on time and much much better than my journey there in which the air conditioning did not work for the first half of the journey. I was reminded of my previous train experiences in the former eastern block, but at least in those one could open a window. After arriving back in Sheffield I hopped on a bus to get to Chatsworth House.

Chatsworth House is beautiful, the home and especially the gardens that surround it. Words cannot describe really, please check out my photos. The house has been a part of the movie Pride and Prejudice (Mr. Darcy's House) and is the real life setting for the story of the Dutchess of Devonshire which inspired the movie 'Dutchess' with Keira Knightley. The grounds are expansive and the flowers are gorgeous. We had a picnic lunch on the grounds and took in the great weather, I even got a tan walking around Oxford, it's a miracle!

Tomorrow we are heading to North Wales to Snowdonia. It's another long day with an early start, but it should be worth it!

North Wales

Tomorrow I'm heading to Oxford to see an old friend and spend a few days. On Sunday I'm going with a school trip to North Wales. This is where Snowdonia National Park is located. It was the first of three national parks in Wales (Bethany and Ryan should be so proud!)

Please check out this link to a parody of Alicia Keys 'Empire State of Mind' all about North Wales, they even mention Conwy a city I will be stopping into! It's being played everyday this week on BBC1 Radio station, which I listen to at work.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8689212.stm

Spring is here?

About a week ago you can read my post about how chilly it has been here. Well, since I've bought Wellies and an extra scarf the weather seems to have changed for the better (Murphy's law clearly working here...)

But really, the weather has been much nicer and in the mid to low 60's either partly or mostly cloudy. Yesterday I tackled the mean hills of Sheffield on a run. They say that Sheffield was built on seven hills, if I have not previously mentioned that fact. So it is really really hilly and steep. But I ventured out for a run yesterday as my body seemed deprived of me pushing it to exhaustion. (For those curious the iron supplements seem to be helping)

The weather was warm, but overcast and I ran downhill to one of the local parks. The park was great, a nice dirt path through the woods following along side a creek. The path was still a bit hillier than I am used to, but the shade was nice and I stayed pretty cool. But I could tell the second round of spring must be setting in because I must have swallowed like TEN BUGS!

These bugs are tiny green gnat-like buggies that were swarming all over the place. Ten bugs is sort of an exaggeration because I don't think I actually swallowed any. I did however have to stop twice to get the ones that flew right into my eye! Yuck. Now, I'm not a squeamish person, so they don't really bother me, except when I'm literally pulling a dead bug out of my eye. At the end of my run I had to brush off my running jersey to get off any of the straggling bugs left.

So, hopefully all those bugs mean that another frost is out of the picture and that the warmer weather is here to stay. I certainly hope so!

"There are two rules to drinking whisky. First never take whisky without water, and second never take water without whisky" Chic Murray, 1977

The title of this post came from a quote at the Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh. It was an experience to say the least. Imagine the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland but instead of going through a house you go through the process of making whiskey. At the end they explain the different regions of Scotland and how the taste of whiskey varies between them all. I learned a great deal about how to tell how good a whiskey is, but mostly I learned that I need a mixer with my whiskey and cannot drink it neat.

In life, everyone needs to visit Edinburgh, or just Scotland in general. First of all, it is amazingly beautiful. The Scots are super friendly and they know how to have a good time. Even the native food is delicious, never let anyone tell you haggis is gross. They are wrong. Haggis is so tasty. They serve it with 'neeps' and 'tatties' which are mashed turnips and potatoes. It is all served with a white sauce that must be mostly butter and cream because it is so delish.

While in Edinburgh we stayed with my friend Sarah from GT that I studied abroad with as an undergrad. She has lived in Edinburgh for two years and just married Rory MacDonald a native Scott. They have a lovely flat by Ocean Terminal in the neighborhood of Leith. Ocean Terminal is basically the port of Edinburgh. She had great views of the water and the crags on either side.

Sabina and I arrived Saturday afternoon and after dropping our bags with Sarah we headed out to explore the town. In case you were expecting a souvenir (family, this is you.) it was bought in Edinburgh. The shops were just full of amazingly hilarious Scottish knick knacks, basically everything you could ever want you could find in some tartan plaid print. I bought myself the CUTEST pair of wellies from a store named Ness. They are green and have wool plaid on the

calves.

We went to the Palace of Holyrood, which has been the home of Scotland's royals for hundreds of years. Mary Queen of Scotts spent her days here and you can still see her bed chambers. It is a working palace and closed the day after we took a tour because Prince Charles was coming to stay. The current royals stay on the third floor of the palace and the tour is open on the first and second floors.

Saturday morning Sabrina and I got up and hiked Arthur's Seat:

Which gave us amazing views of the city:

It was a really steep climb, but totally worth it. Following the climb we were near the Parliament so we went in to visit. Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 so the building is very modern, very much in juxtaposition of the Holyrood House which is just across the street.

Later in the day Melissa and Natalie joined us, and they ventured off to shop while Sabrina and I went on a mission to find authentic Scottish wool for my mom. After a small goose-chase we found it and got some good stuff (though pretty expensive.) After that we tried to find the museum of musical instruments at the University of Edinburgh, but it was closed when we arrived :(

Our final day the other girls wanted to sleep in, and we ended up just shopping at Ocean Terminal, which is where I got my new wellies (the stores from city center had called ahead to put them on hold.)

All in all Scotland = amazing. I'm so happy I had the chance to go and spend a long weekend there. Check out all the photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/111959594841121334369/Edinburgh#

Dear Sun, I miss you. Love, Lizzie

England is a very cool place. And by cool I mean its like an Atlanta winter day everyday. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all that England has to offer in the way of culture, tradition, beer, scenery etc. It would just be nice to see the sun every once and a while.

That being said, cross your fingers, because today might be the day. Today might be the day that it stays sunny all day. Odd are though, it is not.

This morning started with, shocker, RAIN. But the clouds have seemed to move out and give us some glorious sunshine (do not be fooled, it is still quite chilly.) Over the past weeks I have dealt with a chill right to my bones. Even the locals are baffled by this winter weather in May. Monday night it hit zero degrees Celsius, and my host family had to scrape ice off their wind shield. The local schools do not have the heat on because it is not in their budget, and any other year they would not need it.

Four years ago travelling Europe our group seemed to hit a heat wave everywhere we went. I'm talking 96 degrees Fahrenheit, and no AC. Now it seems to be an abnormally chilly spring. Just once I'd like to come to Europe for a nice normal spring/summer. I'm honestly worried that I will never see higher than 60 degrees Fahrenheit during my stay in England.

I can really understand the British affinity to tea. It warms you from the inside. I find myself drinking more tea than usual, not because of the culture, but I always seem chilled. The everyday tea here is a breakfast tea (a medium to dark tea) served with about a tablespoon of cold milk. I drink this often.

Today, however, I will be heading to our local pub after work. This should allow a nice 'blanket' of it's own before walking the rest of the way home (it is located downhill about half a mile from our home stay.) http://www.risingsunsheffield.co.uk/

Yay Project!

Today I had my first meetings with American students. They went really well! One of them actually went to UGA and is from Covington, GA...such a small world!

I have three meetings tomorrow so my project is really getting under way!

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." — Samuel Johnson

London was awesome. It is large and full of life and history. It was easy to navigate the Tube, and most major attractions are within walking distance of one another.

We took the coach to London and got in around lunch time. We walked from the station to Buckingham Palace and on towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament/Big Ben. It was an exciting day around Parliament on Friday because for the first time in decades the election resulted in a hung Parliament (no true majority party.) So, the Liberal Democrats were in talks with the Conservatives to share power. There still has not been an agreement, but they expect progress by tomorrow.

After walking around a good deal with our packs we went to Tate Britain, which houses a great deal of classic artwork by British artists. Mostly portraits, which are not really my interest, but they had some great modern art exhibitions in the rotunda.

We stayed with our new friend Amy in her flat located in East London near the Royal Hospital. She had an amazing view, and we saved a bundle by staying with her, and cooking dinners at her apartment.

Saturday I navigated the group to St. John's and then across the Millennium Bridge. We went on a tour of the Globe, which was interesting, but would not recommend. Watch Shakespeare in Love and read Shakespeare major works and you pretty much learn everything they tell you about how the costumes and stage are set up. It is a great replica of the original theatre, but seeing it from the outside would have been fine with me.

Next we went to Tate Modern, by far my favourite. It is located in an old power station and has a HUGE empty hall with the art located on 7 floors along one side. The exhibits were great, though I was slightly disappointed that they only had one Jackson Pollock and one Liechtenstein. They had a great collection over all and the museum itself was just fantastic.

After having lunch at Tate Modern (Chicken Liver Pate..YUM..luckily I did not have to share because my travel mates were too afraid to try haha) We headed down the Thames to the Tower Bridge. We passed a great deal of touristy restaurants and attractions, and it started to drizzle, but for the most part it was a nice walk along the river.

There was a festival going on at the foot of the bridge along with a street performer or two, so we stopped there for a little while. Across the bridge is the Tower of London, the other place I really wanted to visit. This was the main home of the monarchy for hundreds of years and many many people were beheaded on the grounds. It was pricey to get in, but we hopped into the middle of a free tour and got some great information. The crown jewels are located there and they are insane! There are so many crowns and the sceptre has a HUGE diamond.

The castle was pretty amazing as well, they had some really good information, and it is still in such great condition. It really makes me want to watch all of the Tutors and rewatch The Other Boleyn Girl.

We dressed up and went out for Mel's birthday Saturday night and our host took us to some East London bars which was very fun, but a little pricey. Though, Southern Comfort is very popular in England, so it pretty much seals the deal that I could move here someday.

Sunday we watched the changing of the guard (so anticlimactic and lame) then went to Oxford Street for Shopping. Top Shop is very popular and the one in London was gigantic, the English 'posh' style seems very mismatchy to me, and they like leotards and insane shoes. Basically, throw on whatever is in your closet and as long as it looks slightly ridiculous you are in style.

Basically, London was great. Did mostly touristy things, but would love to go back someday to explore the different neighbourhoods and get a better feel for the city. It is very much like New York in that way.

My Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/111959594841121334369/London#

Election Day!

It's election day in Britain. In case you did not know the Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are the major parties and if you want some awesome masks of their leaders just follow this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8662468.stm

Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dem's is from Sheffield Hallam, so it is a pretty big deal around here.

Working at Sheffield

Yesterday was my first day for my internship at Sheffield University. I will be working in the International Office which handles all of the recruiting and management of International students enrolled full time at Sheffield University. This excludes all EU students as they have all the same rights and fees as UK students due to ERASMUS.

My specific project will be interviewing current American graduate students to try to understand why they came to choose Sheffield University, and how they can better market to the American students. There are only about 35 total American students enrolled (this is not including those studying abroad for just a period of time.) Of those 35 enrolled about 26 are graduate taught students (equivalent to our masters.) Those will be the students that I will try to interview.

I should get the list of names to email today, and hopefully set up meetings for the next two weeks. At the end of the meetings I will have to write up a report and do a brief presentation to the other departments hosting interns from Clemson.

Being back in a city is such a nice change from Clemson, though I do miss the sunny weather.

This weekend we are heading to London. We will be staying with Amy, who we met last weekend and dates the son of the other home stay family. So we will have a place to stay and a guide to help us get around. Should be a fun time!

Today was 7 degrees Celsius (thats 45 degrees Fahrenheit)

This is a picture of Relish from Sheffield, it is custom to put it on your beef and ale pie, which is what I had for lunch.

Today was basically a bust. After a debacle to try to find the right bus to Chatsworth we sat at the stop for an hour and in an instant missed the bus. It also sleeted on us today.

We spent the rest of the day walking through the Ecclesall neighborhood. It was actually a nice little area, then we caught the bus to the city center and took more pictures and walked around some.

Tonight we figured out our options for the evenings, Sabrina and I will be presenting them to the other girls tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is my first day of work, so hopefully I'll have a better update then!

How to dress when going out in England

1. wear really short skirt/dress/shorts

2. wear unbelievably high heels (platforms preferred)

3. extra points for lace that shows undergarments

4. make your hair look like a hot mess

5. apply too much eye liner

Today we went to watch Sheffield Wednesday play a big match against Crystal Palace. We were originally meeting Sam (the son from next door) and his girlfriend Amy at the pub near the stadium. Sam got a ticket to the match, and there were too many hooligans at the pub to stay without Sam close by, since it was just the four of us girls. We decided to go to our local, the Bull's Head and watch there.

We had quite a few beers (I drank a good deal of Beck's) and watched Wednesday play a close match to Crystal Palace. It was a draw, but because CP was ahead in points so Wednesday was relegated to the lower league for next season.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/sheffieldwed/7668893/Sheffield-Wednesday-2-Crystal-Palace-2-match-report.html

Amy was a great hostess, and introduced us to her friends at the pub. We had a great time, though Mel might have had a little too much fun.

I went home for Sunday Dinner (or Roast) and it was so delicious. Exactly what I needed after a few beers and a loss. We had Yorkshire pudding, which resembles a pop-over in texture and taste, mashed potatoes, vegetables, their version of tater-tots (not really but they were darn good) and roast chicken.

The English we have spoken to ask alot of questions. It makes me really think about my life back home, and I find that I could really get used to life here. I like to 1. Drink 2. watch sports 3. take holiday 6 weeks a year 4. be outdoorsy 5. use public transport 6. be only a 3 hour flight to all of europe 7. eat healthy foods 8. drink 9. watch sports 10. take holiday 6 weeks a year.

Tomorrow the goal is to go to Chadsworth where Pride and Prejudice was filmed.

On a totally unrelated note, I have to pay my Clemson fees and I'd like to point out I have to pay to have a job under the Graduate Assistant fee: $315

The First Days

Getting to Sheffield seemed pretty easy. A plain, a train and a taxi and I was at my new front door. After a lovely conversation with Emma (the six year old seated next to me) I moved back a row to some empty seats and had a good flight.

The train from Manchester to Sheffield was about an hour and a half, but it was through beautiful countryside where I saw lots and lots of daffodils. I feel like 2010 is going to be a great year if I get to see daffodils twice. I think my travel mates are annoyed at how excited I get to see daffodils.

My host family is very nice, though still hectically recovering from their trip to the States. They recently went to Florida for the beach and got stuck because of the volcano. Tony is Portuguese and Helen is from Sheffield. They have one son, Alex, who is away at University and two daughters Maddie (13) and Sophia (6) I told Tony he will have to teach me some Portuguese recipes to bring back home.

Today we found our way around Sheffield. Tony drove us through the countryside which looks exactly like every English novel I've ever read. Very green with lots of stone walls and sheep spotting the hills. In the area there are many good cliffs for climbing and there were many cyclists out enjoying the morning sun.

Later we made our way to the city center and got bus passes, so now we can do a little more exploring. There was an international market today, but the prices were very high for a market, even comparatively. We stopped for lunch at a local pub and I sampled my first English beer which is brewed locally by Abigail Brewery. It was tasty, but I'm not sold yet (on the beer, everything else is wonderful) It will be nice to get more familiar with the bus system, so we will gain more independence from our host families.

Tomorrow will be a day at the Pub cheering for Sheffield United...