RED HEAD COUNTRYY

TERRIBLEY LATE WITH BLOGGING. HERE IS A BUNCH OF ENTRIES ALL AT ONCE. SORRY FATEFUL READERS.

Dublin.

Trip 2.

Off to the home planet.

This trip was a lot more successful then the Norway disaster, thank god. We managed to get there with all the original people so it was automatically a giant improvement. Ha.

 The cast of characters who went on this adventure to redhead land: my roommate J., our flat mate E, our good friend Abby, (whose 21^st we celebrated in the ice bar) and our male companion N. 

(Featured above, expect for my roomie J who never made it onto bus tour into country). (I will explain)

 Getting to our flight this time around was not sweat and we managed to get there with time to spare (unlike Norway). Our trip went smoothly for the most part, but seeing as it is a Rebecca Copeland trip, chaos must happen.   

 In Dublin we did everything possible within our three day time limit. 

1.)    Ate various “irish foods”

a.       Aka. Anything mushy involving large amounts of potatoes and meat.

2.)    Drank huge pints of Guinness. 

a.       It’s like drinking a creamy beer milkshake. 

b.      A word to the wise about Guinness, Think of it as a meal. Don’t eat a meal and then attempt to drink 3 large Guinness pints. You will die, and your stomach will divorce itself from your body.  I have the annulment papers as proof of such a feat. 

3.)    Went to the Guinness Factory

4.)    Looked at the Jamison Factory, while drinking Jamison.

a.       Ha.

5.)    Pretended to have Irish accents.

6.)    Watched Locals attempt to pick me up, thinking I was …a local.

a.       Friends died laughing

7.)    Took pictures of every red head we saw

8.)    Went into the  country and saw where p.s I love you was filmed, brave heart, and Excalibur

9.)    Walked the entire city

10.)    Saw lots of churchs.

11.) Went in lots of churchs. 

12.)      Ate in pubs.

13.)     DID A BAR CRAWL.

a.       Insert chaos here.

b.      The Historic Irish Pub crawl.

                                                              i.      A MUST AS A COLLEGE STUDENT STUDYING ABROAD AND VISTING IRELAND. 

                                                            ii.      Problems.:

1.      J got insanely drunk, as she should, and started making out with a man who had a heavy Finnish accent, but claimed he was Irish. Ha.

2.      N. Ran into friends of friends and interesting information came out about him via these friends of friends. 

a.       We were all appropriately shocked at his various indiscretions.   

3.      After hearing N’s shocking news, may have drank slightly too much and I got lost at the last club, and could not find friends until 2 hours later when club was closing.

a.       Lol I would get lost.

4.      E ran around trying to find me

5.      A try to save J from herself.

6.      BAHHHH

14                        We now all can laugh about the various events that occurred that night.  We spent the next day hung over on a bus ride through Ireland’s country side and eventually came to forgive each other. J however did not make it on bus tour, like Norway J manages to miss trips, even when she is on them.  Girlfriend was still drunk in the morning and threatened each of us with death if we attempted to drag her onto a bus for the next 5 hours.  We respectfully retreated and left her to snooze in the Hostel.  The three remaining adventures all bonded over the free Coffee and cookies the poor tour guild offered us, and we nearly ate him in our hungover glee. Ohhh Ireland. 

                 When we returned to the hostel there was a moment of stunned silence as we entered the room for we had prepared ourselves to greeting J and we had expected tears for missing the tour, feasting (due to the drunkness) or perhaps some of us expected to see the finnish man from last night, BUT TO OUR HORROR we returned to hostel to find that J had not moved. AT. ALL. 

       N. (being the boy) was instructed to check her pulse while the three of us held our breathe behind him craning to see. As N touched J's wrist she croaked out "waaaattterrr" 

      FRANTIC running around ensued. We gathered a small thanksgiving sized feast and then rehydrated our poor little southern friend.  

On the last morning at the hostel (WHICH WAS FANTASTIC) I may have met a fairly hot family member. Always an exciting way to end a trip. ;D 

signs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0HNWto0UY&feature=player_embedded#   EVERYONE must watch

better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCokhCqK9rw&feature=related

~ a boy in our building just rushed up stairs, grabbed me.
Carried me downstairs. And sat me in front of his computer to show me this video.

"BECCA. picture this chick with red hair AND ITS YOU. THIS VIDEO IS THE STORY OF YOUR CURLY HAIRED LIFE." ~boy from downstairs. His excitment is hilarious

lol.
enjoy home friends.
mock away

V day in Norway

V day, in Norway




MY VERY FIRST TRIP WHILE IM STUDYING ABROAD AND WE PLANNED OURSELVES.



It was a disaster.

Things accidentally left behind by the group for the trip:

• Socks

• Pants

• Zune (mine!)

• Shampoo

• Toothpaste

• Cell phone chargers

• Julie

• Dan



Original plan: Go on a cute trip Valentine ’s Day weekend get one of my flat mates out of the country because she needed to leave and re enter for some sort of visa ridiculousness.

Me, my roommate, and 2 other flat mates book the trip. 3 others in the building did the same thing we found out later. Excitement all around.

Flight was at 6:45 on Friday. We would have to leave the building at 3 in the morning to take an hour bus to airport and it takes 30 mins to walk to bus stop. Let me say that again. Leaving Friday morning at 3. AS IN 3 IN THE MORNING.

Being born naturally brilliant I thought it would be a good idea not to go to bed Thursday night. Here was the train of thought: Why go to bed at 11 when I have to wake up at 2:30 anyway. Roommate with the visa issues was equally as intelligent and so we went to a club with one of the Italian boys we know from school that has the money and connections to get us in. ha.

Fast forward. Great time at club, get home, pack, and start to walk to bus stop. (heres when problems begin)

1. Friend does not even make it to the bus because he is so sick

2. We cannot find bus stop where bus is to bring us to airport

3. At airport another friend realizes she bought the tickets for the wrong month and must go all the way home.

4. We are now down from 7 people to 5.

5. We then sit and all separate to grab food, at which point I hear them CALL OUR PLANE AN HOUR EARLY AND SAY HEY ARE LOCKING THE GATE

6. WE RUN THOUGH SECURITY

7. WE RUN 8 MILES THROUGH THE AIRPORT TO FINALLY MAKE IT TO OUR TURMINAL.

8. We make it on plane

9. All pass out

10. Land in Norway.

Phew.

Once at Norway

1. We find out that we accidently only booked one night at the hostel not 2.

2. All of our phones are dead or not working so we cannot get in contact with the 2 members of the group who booked their stay at a hotel not a hostel.

DESPITE all of these monstrous problems, it all worked out.

Norway is beautiful and full of fantastically rich, beautiful, and extremely happy people. Everyone there speaks English fluently and are all very excited to talk to Americans. P.s Norwegians love Michigan? Hahah that’s what every single one asked us when we said we were from America.

By the way, it was also -14 degrees there. ha.

Snooze

I am in the library right now, the time being 16:42.


Aka 4:42.

As in MY CLASS STARTED FOURTY MINUTES AGO: 42.

Excellent.



Here is the situation;



I have class at 9 in the morning till 10:20. Then I should have class at 11, but my Professor decided to change the start time to 12. (I have no idea how he has the power to do this but it annoys me greatly because it cuts into the rfh (Rebecca feasting hour)) Anyway so I go from 12-1:30 then I have a monster break till 4.



I decided today I would be productive with my break and work on a paper. This paper being about the Nation-State in the Middle east and analyzing how it and its connection to religion effect domestic and foreign policies, basically it put me into a coma right at the student center computer. Perfect. I woke up in a panic and looked at the clock and saw that it said 15:56. I went phew, thinking I had another hour to sleep. No. I did not. This is why like money and language CLOCKS SHOULD BE ALL READ THE SAME. So there is no confusion. Any who this was the end result; I rush upstairs realizing my mistake 20 minutes later and run up the stairs and look in at my class watching a power point. I then spend the next 20 minutes watching the class learn, fear rooting me to my spot. I then sadly and pathetically (tail in between my legs) walked down to the library and since then I have been pitifully been reading over the graduate students shoulder next to me and spying on his thesis paper on Chekhov.



IF at my stupid pre departure orientation they hadn’t given us that big speech on how disrespectful it is to walk into a class more then 5 minutes late I would have been fine, but nope instead I am here. Because I am a chicken.




What would you have done?







ps. Grad students name is Rah Migal and he says hi.









pps. kill me.

maddness

Okay, Phew! What a week/weekend.


First, let me apologize for my lack of entries this week. But it has been a crazy one.

I saw Abby road, Big Ben, Parliament, The Tower of London, The London Eye, Camden Town, and the Tate museum. I also went to the Vodka Ice Bar and my first (and probably only VIP guest list club.)

Let’s start with Abby road. First of all, there are a lot of misconceptions about Abby road. As the American tourist I fantasized about taking lots of cute pictures crossing the road with my flat mates. Here is the reality.

Abby Road is in fact, a road. A road that has enough traffic and enough speed to equal to that of an American highway. You take your life into your hands every time you attempt to cross. Defiantly no leisurely walking allowed on this road. Anything less than an Olympic pace will involve one of the three (I witnessed all of these while being there)

1.) Angry drivers picking up speed, aiming at you and beeping.

a. Side note* when a driver beeps in the UK this is the universal symbol of “I see you and I am prepared to hit you”

2.) Drivers flipping you the Bird as they narrowly miss hitting you.

a. Side note* They also threw things

3.) Drivers hitting you.

a. See picture for proof.

b.  <--That van.

Hit this Man-->

Despite all of this it was enjoyable for all. I really loved the wall in front of Abby House were people had written messages. I fell in love with a particular message. Andrew Zolot, wherever you are, I will marry you any day your ready.

Skipping ahead to the bar events of the weekend. Both involved almost losing my sanity.

The first was the Ice Bar. The London Vodka Ice Bar is this bar, in a basement of a building that is made entirely of ice. Very expensive, very classy it is the type of thing you do once, only to say you did it. The ice bar was an event we were doing to celebrate a 21st birthday. Abby, who lives in our flat, is the cutest nicest girl from Transylvania College who had planned everything and scheduled the affair for 12:30 the night of her birthday. She wanted to say she brought in her 21st B-day, in London, in an Ice bar. Everyone in our apartment building was invited, so the 20 of us all got there by our own means planning to meet Abby there. However to the shock and horror to the group Abby was not at the Ice Bar, and was not picking up her phone. Insert massive panic and chaos here. Everyone freaks out. Abby is basically the mom of the group and is EXTREMLY PUNCTUAL. Add on top of this, the Ice Bar personnel where not very impressed with our large group or our lack of leader. To make a long story short, Abby had forgotten her ID went back home without her group not wanting to slow anyone up and got lost. She showed up 15 minutes later and we all made it into the ice bar and had a grand time, (just for a little less time than expected.)

Abby, Me, and my rommie Julie.

 

I will save the last bar tale for my next entry but here is a little teaser, I ended the weekend with the craziest night of my life.

Ha.

True.

Miss ya p ville. Xoxox becca.

Class?

So I sort of forgot why I came to London. Despite all the touring around, picture taking and pub hopping, I originally came here for educational stimulation. Aka school….ew.


Back home I planned lots of trips and visiting other countries completely forgetting that I would have classes during the week.

First of all, classes I am discovering that Europe has a very different teaching curriculum then the states. Overall it is a lot easier except for one tiny fact, you are graded on attendance. They expect 100% attendance and if you miss a class you must have a doctor’s note, if no note then you must meet with the dean. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I’m studying abroad! I am defiantly going to miss a Monday morning or 2.

Secondly, the classes are longer then I am used to and are held at the oddest hours. 6-9 pm 9-10:25am and no one on campus has class between 12:20-2. Bizarre.

However I am slowly getting used to the idea that I have to attend class and as I am doing so I am finding the classes I’m taking are very cool. A level 450 History course on European Fascism which is blowing my mind because everyone in it is SOOOOO well read. I’m also taking my first women studies course and it kicks some serious British bum. It’s called “Behind the veil; Women in the Classical World” and is educating me on the Greek goddess that ruled the world while the men bowed down to serve them. My kind of life.

Some serious sightseeing will be done this weekend so I will have a lot to talk about as well as a picture of the brand new THIGH HIGH black boots I bought (get excited.) Also on Saturday I will be attending Abby’s (a girl in the flat) 21st Birthday which is being celebrated in an ICEBAR.

Oh yea. Ice bar. Entirely made of ice. I’m pretty much P Ditty.

Lots of love

~becca