The Sunburnt of Seville

I am leaving Seville today to go to Barcelona. It was a lovely visit. We took a tour of a beautiful castle and its gardens, as well as the Plaza d'espania where part of Star Wars Episode 2 was filmed. We were able to go to the beach at Cadiz where the three scotsman got incredibly burnt by the spanish sun. It was a very relaxing trip, especially after our tiring stay in London.
The men and women of Spain are probably the most beautiful people in the world. You can tell they take good care of themselves. The men are fit and thin up until their deaths, and the women stay beautiful long after their prime. I remember the Italians being just the same way. I would like to know their secret, maybe it's the Mediterranean blood. I adore Spain, and will miss it dearly when I leave.
Have a good day!
Steph

Memories of Peter and Shoe-biting Swans

Yesterday I spent the morning in Hyde Park, the home of Peter Pan, Diana's Memorial Fountain and thousands upon thousands of dogs. After stopping at a small cafe by the lake, I jaunted through the park to find the oh so famous, but brilliant statue of Peter Pan. This statue was featured in the movie Hook, as well as a memory of a trip through Hyde Park 15 years ago. I sat on a bench by the Lake, looking up at Peter while I wrote part of my essay. Every once in a while I would look towards the water and look at the swans gracefully gliding by.
It is so much more interesting to look at birds in London. It seems to me that in the lakes that I frequent in the states, the birds are the same. You have your mallards, Canada geese, and other non-distinguishable gray or brown birds. Here, you have several types of geese, several variations of ducks, and very strange looking birds indeed. On a walk through the park you can see a coot, which is a black bird with an odd white patch right in the middle, and you can see birds with splotches of red on them, plus there are swans everywhere. As mean as they can get, they are beautiful creatures. I just don't go sticking my feet near their mouths.
I'm leaving London today, and I am sad to go. I could happily spend another week here, walking through Hyde Park and experiencing life in a big city. I am glad to be in London right now, durnig the G20 Summit. Yesterday I stayed very clear of the financial district where all the rallies were going on, and I may or may not have seen Obama and all of the other State Officials driving by as I sat near Westminster.
If any of you want to know more about my specific experiences and the sites that I see, just ask. I am happy to talk. Otherwise, I will say good bye now. I will be in Seville in less than 12 hours!
Steph

London, England the home of the Globe theater, Dickens and the Tower of London

Hello everyone,
I am in London, staying at a very pleasant hostel at Earl's court. The last two full days that we've been here we have seen Trafalgar Square and a street performer risk his life to make money. We also toured the Tower of London, which, while it is expensive to get in, is worth the money. We toured the Globe Theater the third and the house of Charles Dickens. Tomorrow we will head down to Westminster, Hampton Palace and the British Museum.
However, as fun as it is to see these bits of history, part of the novelty of being in London is witnessing the daily life. Looking at architecture and shops is just as worth the time as the well-known places. We have been visiting a few of the pubs around Earl's Court, and they have a very nice atmosphere. Last night (Sunday), the bar closed at 11:30, but instead of heading home, we found this tiny little place that secretly stayed open after hours. We had a few glases of wine there, and discovered a part of London that you can never read about in the guidebooks. It was a very interesting evening.
This is probably the only time that I will get online in London, though I am not certain. But, when I am in Seville, I should have access to the Internet every day because I will be staying with Jenna.
I hope all is well in the States, and I hope to talk to you soon!
Steph

Leaving for vacation!

This morning I woke up at about 5:30 to get ready for my trip, and I cried out in shock!  I was woken up by a gust of wind, and when I looked out the window to see what had made the noise, the sky was completely bright.  I have never, let me repeat, never been up at 5:30 when the sun was completely risen.  It freaked me out!  

I'm leaving for London in about 10 minutes.  This will be a return trip for me, but it will be like visiting for the first time. Hopefully I will have a chance to write in each city I am in to tell you all about my journey!  

To let you guys know how nerdy I'm becoming, I bought a code-breaking puzzle book on amazon yesterday!  It should be here when I  return.  

Love you all,

   Steph

You know what they say about Aberdeen...

If you don't like the weather, just wait around 5 minutes.

The thing is my dears, it's actually true here (at least in the last two days)!

Let me just describe to you the weather I've been experiencing today:
I woke up at around 8:00 am to a beautiful, blue sky day with a little wind. I walked to Uni, and it was wonderful. I walk out of my second lecture, and it is now cloudy and grey :(. During lunch with Sarah it even started to rain. By the time lunch was over, it had stopped raining, but it was still pretty cold. When I left my Robotics lab, it had started to rain as well as be insanely windy and cold. Half way home, I swear it even started to snow a bit! Approximately two minutes after the slight snow, the sun started coming out and the blue sky shone through, and another 3 minutes and I couldn't tell it had even been an awful day. I had to close the blind in my room because the sun was so bright. I now look out my window, not ten minutes after I walked in, and it is cloudy and depressing again. Oh Aberdeen!

st patty's day plus weekend adventures

Today is St. Patrick's day.  I am sitting in the hub, looking around me, and no one is wearing green.  I know it's not nearly as big of a holiday here as in the U.S. but I don't get it. St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to wear crazy colors and get drunk.  Wait, maybe that's why, because the Scots wear crazy colors and get drunk every day.  

This weekend was a blast.  On Saturday I went to a charity event, a duck race!  I bought a duck for 2 pounds and watched it race down the river Dee.  They took 500 ducks up to the bridge and threw them into the river. The wind was mighty and the current swept those ducks down the river at a raging speed.  My duck didn't win... But, I got to race on some bouncy balls with my friend Andreas (I lost horribly), and win candy by scooping up a duck in a small pool, and jump in a bouncy castle!  So, all in all it was a very fun day.  

That evening I went to my first Ceidleh!  It's a traditional Scottish dance, similar to square dancing, but much cooler because all the guys wear kilts!  I danced about 3 dances and watched even more.  It's amazing how good some of these guys are at dancing, and none of them have any shame, being in skirts and all.  

Hopefully this evening or tomorrow I will upload some photos from my duck race.  If you look really closely you can even see my duck, number 407 in the very middle of the pack!  

Have a good day all!  I miss you.

Steph

I'm back!

Hey Yo!

   I have recovered from my awful cold, although I still have a bit of a cough.  The last week and a half has been a trial.  I got sick right after I got back from Manchester, England which caused me to be feverish and sneezy and coughy and gross.  I had to miss some classes and take the bus to uni because I couldn't really walk any where.  I think this contributed a lot to my bout of home-sickness that came.  I should maybe phrase it to say that it was more like school-sickness.  I started missing olaf horribly.  I missed the classes and the professors because they are just not the same here.  However, as the cold dissipates, I am also getting over my other sickness.  

More about Manchester.  I played in the Mixed National Indoor Frisbee tournament, and the team got third place.  I played enough, it was nice that the team trusted me to come in and play with them.  This team has been playing and practicing together all year, and they allowed me to come into their group and play with them in Nationals!  I played around 3 points per game, and I felt very privileged to be a part of it.  We beat edinburgh in the fight to finish third, which is a huge deal.  For people that know Northfield frisbee, it's like a game between the bella donnas and syzegy, in which syzegy wins.  In the last seven years, I like aberdeen had beaten Edinburgh maybe once.  

We stayed in army barracks for the two nights that we were there.  There was a bar in the barracks, and I had a nice conversation with the English bartender who thought that America would have been better off had they never sought independence from England.  He had some interesting ideas.  He gave me my English perspective for the United Kingdom.  It is very clear when you are over here that Scotland is not excited about being under the authority of England, and England loves it.  Scotland sees England as their bullying older brother, and would probably prefer to be a separate entity.  It's really cool to see these attitudes coming out and seeing the politics that have been around for so long.  

I leave in less than a month for spring break.  A three week vacation where I will travel in Spain, France, and Germany, and quite possibly Norway as well! It's going to be an amazing trip.  We will also be stopping by London for a few days which should be amazing.  I haven't been to London for 16 years, so this is going to be a time to remember.  

Send me mail!  I would love to get some letters from you all because I miss you!