Home!

Okay, so I know that I promised that I'd write the minute I got home, but I've just been so busy/jet lagged that I didn't get around to it...sorry!

Anyway, I am home safe, and the summer is starting to feel like a very good dream that was a million years ago. If it wasn't for all the stuff laying all over my room I almost wouldn't believe it ever happened :-)

Anyway, happy summer, everyone, and I hope to see you all soon. Thanks for reading!

Dara

Done with finals!

So as of about an hour ago I'm totally DONE with finals and all class obligations! I'm also all packed at this point, so I'm kind of out of stuff to do. In about half an hour Kathryn and I are going out to lunch, then I think I'm going to go to the Oxford Castle (which will undoubtedly be overrun with tourists since it's Saturday) before all of us have our farewell dinner tonight.

Anyway, I thought it might be nice to finish off my blogging with a quick rerun of the last three months and a top ten list of my favorite things I've done during this incredible summer. I've been trying to keep track of the best moments all throughout the trip, and it's been really hard to choose, but here's the finished result:

10. Mass at Sacre Coeur - Paris

We totally stumbled upon mass going on at the cathedral, and so we sat in the back and watched the end. It was absolutely beautiful, and the space was totally incredible. Afterwards, we wandered around Montmartre with other people from our group, which was also lots of fun.

9. Day Trip to Glendalough - Ireland

After weeks of being in cities, it was such a relief to get back to the country! Glendalough was absolutely beautiful, and it was definitely just what Ireland is supposed to look like. Hiking--even if we were schlepping our backpacks the whole time--was such a nice change from city walking and subways.

8. Bike Riding to the North Sea - Belgium

After our finals, we rented bikes and rode out to the North Sea with one of our professors. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and I had forgotten how much fun bike riding is. Seeing an actual beach was also a nice change, as was drinking good Belgian beer with a professor. Quite an afternoon.

7. Borghese Museum - Rome

Even though this museum was one of the smallest we saw on the whole trip, I absolutely adored the Berninis they had there! It was great to finally see them close up, especially after studying them so much in art class.

6. Pimm's at the Eagle & Child - Oxford

Even though it's totally full of Americans, my friends and I fell in love with the Eagle & Child here in Oxford. It's everything that a good English pub should be, plus they have the most delicious Pimm's I've ever had (Pimm's is a very British drink that involves fruit, lemonade, and cucumber--AMAZING). We spent many a Thursday night there :-)

5. Climbing the Fortress - Salzburg

Austria was one of my favorite countries we visited, and the views from the top of the fortress in Salzburg were just SPECTACULAR. It was, admittedly, quite a climb, but totally worth it in the end. That was such a fun day.

4. Churchill War Rooms - London

By far the coolest historical museum I've ever been to! I mean, the British Museum was absolutely spectacular, but I'm so interested in World War II history that I just had to love the War Rooms. They've been so perfectly preserved for the last sixty years... absolutely amazing.

3. Weekend in Lisbon

Okay, so I know that it's cheating to say that a whole weekend was a particular thing we did, but it was just so much fun! Good food, a great hostel, fantastic company, and beautiful architecture all over the place. What could be bad?

2. Our Last Dinner in Italy - Venice

The best food we had in Italy (which is saying something) with great company in a beautiful garden. Proves the worth of waiting to eat and finding a restaurant far away from the tourist centers. I'll definitely never forget that pesto.

1. The Vienna Philharmonic - Vienna

Listening to one of the greatest orchestras in the world in a beautiful concert venue. The finale of the Mendelssohn suite we heard was one of the most incredible musical moments of my life. Everyone should try to hear the Vienna Philharmonic at some point in their life.

So that's it! I--of course--also loved learning about art and music, eating lots of good food, and improving my photography skills (stuff like that), but those are the biggies. I hope that you've all enjoyed my blog all summer, and thanks so much for reading! I'll post a quick update on Sunday letting you all know that I've gotten home okay.

Happy end of summer, everyone...

Dara

Last Week in Oxford

Two days left! I'm halfway done with finals, (kind of) halfway packed, and very ready to head back to New England :-) Even so, it's been a very interesting last week here. Here are some of the highlights:

My classes on Monday were arguably my most interesting thus far--in International Business we had a speaker who is the head of McDonald's operations in the Netherlands, and in Ethics we had a lecture about photo manipulation and the ethical implications of photoshop (all the way from Lenin and Trotsky to modern-day airbrushing). Both were actually really great! The McDonalds guy had some very interesting things to say--apparently McDonalds views the European market as a completely different entity than the American market, and they're trying to bill themselves here as a "low cost eatery" rather than as a fast food chain like in the US. Hmm.

On Tuesday, Uncle Bob was in the UK on business, so he came to Oxford with one of his business associates and his associate's son (who attends University College here). After wandering around Oxford for a bit, the four of us went to dinner at this amazing restaurant in Oxford that I didn't even know existed! I had lamb with potatoes and mint, and it was absolutely delicious (definitely one of my best meals in Europe). Everyone was very nice and friendly, but Bob was flying out early to Tel Aviv on Wednesday so the evening ended fairly early. I--very sadly--missed the Georgia Tech-UGA Oxford Study Abroad yearly soccer game, but quite frankly I wasn't that crushed. I have my own rivalries to worry about :-)

On Wednesday the Provost of Worcester College held a champagne reception for all of the GT students and faculty in his garden. It was lovely--everyone got all dressed up (see photo of my travel group below) and there was free champagne and everyone took a million pictures. All of my professors were really nice; they told me that they loved having me in class and that I should definitely keep in touch even after I get back to Ann Arbor.

Yesterday was our last day of class, then last night I babysat for one of the professors who's teaching here. The kids were really great and it definitely made me miss camp just a little bit. I got lots of studying for my exam this morning done, and the professor is in aerospace and he had a lot of very interesting things to say about various departments at different universities.

This morning I took my first final, and I have another one tomorrow morning (which means, sadly, that I can't do anything fun like go to London tomorrow). Tonight Kathryn and I are going to our last weekly movie--"The Ugly Truth"--then tomorrow a bunch of us are going out for our farewell dinner. Sunday we fly home! Hooray!

Looking forward to seeing everyone,

Dara

PS: I've also added some more photos of Oxford goodness since I last shared this link, so if you're interested in more pictures, here's the link again: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016776&id=1326450024&l=9f8d8220f0 (Includes lots of pretty pictures from the Oxford Botanical Gardens)

London Calling! Really long post...

Oh my goodness, our last weekend is OVER. In a week I'll be landing in Boston, standing in line at Customs & Immigration, and participating in the general fun of re-entering the United States. Wow.

So this weekend we finally did a proper visit to London, after weeks and weeks of everyone else having gone and talking about it. We left Oxford on Friday morning after breakfast and took the "Oxford Tube" into the city, a direct bus service that runs every ten minutes or so during the day. After getting to Marble Arch, we had a little bit of time to kill before our tour started (yes, we did another Sandeman's Free Tour), so we stopped by the US Embassy since no one else had ever seen one before. This one was a FORTRESS (and even uglier than the one in the Netherlands), but it also had a nice park out front with an FDR statue, which was cool.

The Sandeman's tour was good (again), and we got to see all of what they called the "Royal City," which was basically the City of Westminster. We saw the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace (as well as a couple more royal residences), the Parade Grounds, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the Churchill War Rooms (although not inside), Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and a bunch more stuff I can't really remember. The best facts from this tour were that: 1) a recent London mayor campaigned on the platform of ridding Trafalgar Square of its pigeons, and once in office he started feeding them bird food laced with contraceptives (which has effectively lessened the population) and 2) 20% of the world's cameras are in the United Kingdom, and the average Londoner gets their photo taken 300 times a day (although I already knew that second bit). Sweet.

After the tour ended we grabbed lunch and then took the tube to our hostel, which was a bit outside the city center. This hostel was also fairly amazing--it was pretty inexpensive, and it was in a restored Victorian mansion. We got freshened up and then we headed back to Trafalgar Square to see one of the GA Tech professors perform on the plinth there. The backstory is that there's this huge public art project where volunteers are randomly selected to perform whatever they want (as long as it's legal) on this tall column for an hour, and they're having 2400 people do it all together. It's actually a very interesting project, and for more explanation and a live webcam of what's going on right now, click here. She was the only American to participate, so there was a reporter from "Time" magazine there to film her for their website... Amy even got interviewed for it!

After a very quick Italian dinner, we split up to go to our evening events. The boys wandered around the city, the girls went to see "Hairspray," and I went to see "Jersey Boys." I haven't been to see a proper musical (besides working backstage at MUSKET) for AGES, and it was absolutely incredible! The show dragged a bit at first, but after the first fifteen minutes or so it was so tightly performed and energetic and just WONDERFUL. I can totally understand why it won the Tony, and I'd really recommend it if you ever get the chance to see it.

First thing on Saturday morning we headed back to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery, which had the most incredible collection that I've seen in Europe. I loved the Monets, the da Vincis, the Renoirs, the Cezannes, and the Raphaels, but my favorite piece was actually "Ophelia Among the Flowers" by Redon (photo below).

After the National Gallery, Kathryn and I popped our heads into St. Paul's Cathedral, then stopped for lunch at "Yo! Sushi," this really cool restaurant where food comes by on a conveyor belt in front of you and you just take what you want (then they count your plates at the end). We then walked across the Millennium Bridge to get to Shakespeare's Globe, where we took a guided tour. The tour was actually pretty sweet, and we even got to sit in on a rehearsal of Euripides' "Helen" that was going on while we were there.

After the Globe we went back to Westminster Abbey, where we took the self-guided audio tours. I feel like I've never been surrounded by as much history as there was in that building... there were so many monarchs and artists and writers and scientists and stories about all of them! I felt like we just barely scratched the surface during the hour that we visited, but it was well worth it. Hopefully I'll get to come back some day.

After Westminster, Kathryn, Jeremy, and I went to the War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. This was definitely my favorite historical museum that I've visited this trip--it was so cool to see everything! We got to see the secret direct telephone line (disguised as a bathroom) that Churchill used to call FDR, the map room just as it was the day the Japanese surrendered, Churchill's Nobel Prize, his baby rattle, and THE MAP that Churchill, FDR, and Stalin used to divide Germany into its Eastern and Western sides after the war. Literally, the map they drew on and labeled "USA," "Fr," and "USSR." It was incredible.

After the War Rooms the three of us went to Harrod's, where I bought a mini cupcake (one of the only things in my price range...we saw a cake that was selling for 4,999 pounds!). After that we met up with the gang for dinner, then crossed the Millennium Bridge AGAIN to go to the Tate Modern museum. As much as I'm often confused by modern art, they did have some amazing pieces, including Warhols, Lichtensteins, and some amazing Pollocks. The Lichtensteins were my favorite--I've never seen his work in person before, and his attention to detail is really remarkable.

After that long of a day, I had one of the soundest sleeps of my life, but we woke up early again today to get started with the day! Kathryn and I headed to the British Museum first, where we saw all kinds of amazing things: the Rosetta Stone, the Athenian marbles, Cleopatra's mummy, and a bunch more things I can't remember. It was one of the biggest museums I've ever been in, and their collection is so impressive that it's almost overwhelming. They had a couple of really cool temporary exhibits as well--one on timepieces throughout history and another on tribal shields from the south Pacific. It was great.

After a wonderful lunch of good 'ole American burgers, we went to the Tower of London. We actually didn't get to see the crown jewels (the line was at least an hour long, if not longer), but we did get a free tour by a Yeoman Warder (which was fantastic and very entertaining), and we got to walk all around the outside wall and see little exhibits they had set up. Next time I'm in London I'll get up early to see the jewels, but I definitely enjoyed the visit nevertheless.

By the time we'd finished with the Tower, seen the Tower Bridge, and headed back to Westminster to "eye the Eye," Kathryn and I were both so exhausted that we couldn't do anything else besides catch the bus back to Oxford. It was definitely a great weekend, though, and an excellent way to finish our trip with a bang!

Sorry again for this post being so long... we did a lot of stuff! Here's the photo documentation:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018152&id=1326450024&l=dfe2986be5

Have a great week, everyone!

Dara