Visits and Visitors

Hello Everyone!
I finally have some time to update you on life in London. I've actually been doing homework for a few hours now which is sort of interesting / really boring. It's a good time to take a break.

My mom came to visit last week over my spring break we had a ball! We packed a ton of excursions into each day and were extremely tired by the end. We also went to Paris for a couple days which was amazing! Paris has the best food I have ever tasted. We had great Italian food the first night and literally the worlds greatest hot chocolate the next day. I also got to meet up with one of my good friends from Madison, Katie, who is studying in Paris. She showed us some great shops and took us to see the Eiffel Tower (where we took the elevator to the top!) We also got to see the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Musee d'Orsay.

Traveling is not without its drawbacks however. My mom and I had a couple of minor incidents involving 1. cash cards being eaten by ATMs and 2. a missing Eurostar (train) ticket which was eventually found in the garbage. Oh well... it just adds to the excitement.

I was very sad to see my mom go on Monday, but at the same time was happy to see my friends return from their spring break trips. I've been hearing funny tales from Spain, Morocco and Greece all week and it's great to see the flat full of people again. What hasn't been so great is the amount of homework that is now piling up. I have a history paper, history presentation and history essay due next Thursday, as well as a Political Science paper due in two weeks. uh oh!!

I had a very interesting political science class today, where we discussed the history of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in response to the recent IRA shootings in Northern Ireland. I got to learn about the IRA and the history of terrorism in the United Kingdom, something I don't know a lot about. It's amazing how much history there is left to learn. Also, in the middle of class, my professor stopped abruptly and said "see that? that's royalty," and sure enough, the royal motorcade drove down the street right outside the window. Even the little things are interesting here, that's for sure.

I am flying this weekend to see my friend Ben in Bonn, Germany. It's been sort of a spur of the moment decision, but I think I would feel too bad after taking so many German classes, not actually going to Germany. So I've got a day to get packing and get myself oriented. I will also be away next weekend in Dublin with almost everyone else in the program here. It's going to be a tiring week and a half!

Have a great weekend everyone! bye bye