Week 4

               Class went well this week, and we were all anxiously awaiting out weekend trip to Edinburgh , Scotland with the entire Newcastle program. We left Friday at 6:30 pm, so during the day Colin and I went to lunch at an awesome burrito place (no Chipotle but still), and watched a lot of Prison Break. We got on the bus with the whole group (about 40 in total) and embarked on a 2.5 hour ride north. Kendall and I sat next to each other on the bus and I recommended watching Pitch Perfect so we watched it on my computer and shared the headphones. We arrived at the hostel around 9 and got situated in our rooms. Our room was: Me, Matt Marsh, Kevin Collins, Colin Teeter, Justin Thomas, and Anthony (don't know his last name), but I was pleased with the overall group. We settled in, and a lot of us went out to a pub to get food. That's all we really did friday night because we were all tired and had to be up early on Saturday.
               We woke up Saturday at around 9am and all met downstairs outside the hostel. We walked to a meeting point to meet our tour guides and broke off into 3 groups. Our tour guide was named Billy and he brought energy, enthusiasm, and humor to the tour which helped wake us up and made it interesting. We went and saw scenic things like the castle, the café where J.K. Rowling sat down to first write Harry Potter, the gravesite of Tom Riddle (the dark lord from Harry Potter), and a lot of other local landmarks of various Scottish tradition. The tour was about 2 hours in total but went by rather quickly because it was all so interesting. We had free time until 2:15 so we went to McDonalds and then went back and attempted to nap but couldn't (I'm the worst napper in the league). At 2:15 we had another tour of "Mary King's Close (Alleyway)" which is an old alleyway that ran under the buildings beneath the city of Edinburgh. Out tour guide was a little dry, so I found this tour itself less interesting but it was still cool seeing exactly how this looked in the 17th century. After this, we went back to the room and I was actually able to nap which was nice in preparation for the night. We went to this pub called Finnegan's Wake (also the title of a song by the Irish Rovers on my annual St. Patty's day playlist) which had a cover band which sang a lot of American classics so it was kind of one big sing-a-long which was awesome. When that closed we went to another place called Espionage for a little bit before heading back to the hostel for the night.
              Sunday morning we had a 9:30 wake up call in order to check out of the hostel, but were able to leave all our bags there until we left Edinburgh so we wouldn't have to carry them around all day. We had a scheduled tour of the Holyrood Palace which is "the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland." It was massive and had a lot of really cool pantings and statues, and the garden outside of it was really beautiful. This was an audio tour which allowed us to move at our own speed which I liked, so we finished in about an hour or so. After the tour, Kevin, Collin, Marsh, and myself began our voyage towards the tallest mountain in Edinburgh, King Arthur's Seat (882 feet). We got about halfway up and Marsh decided he wasn't going to make it - high winds scared him off, but the other three of us would not be denied. We got to the top and the view was breathtaking so we took many photos before heading back down. We got back to the bottom and self-proclaimed that we did it in world-record time (even though theres absolutely no chance thats true) and everyone was impressed. Tired, yet proud, we headed back to the hostel and ate lunch at the attached restaurant and waited for everyone to come back for the bus. We arrived back in Newcastle around 6:30pm and at the end of the day, it's just another country down. #locals

Photos:

Week 3: London

               Towards the middle of the week, my friend Matt Marsh asked me what I was doing this weekend. Having no plans, I told him probably nothing just sleeping. He said that he and some of our other Loyola friends had booked trains to London and that I should come. My travel-thirsty self jumped right on it and booked a round trip bus ticket for the weekend. I looked into trains which were about 120 pounds round trip and decided that 3 hours more each way would be worth saving 70 pounds. So, I woke up friday and walked to my 8:40 bus. Most people would probably be anxious about a 7 hour bus ride by themselves, but this was nothing compared to some of the bus rides i've made back in the states. I watched the Wolf of Wall Street on my computer (amazing movie) which killed 3 hours, and the next 4 hours was a combination of dozing off, looking out at the English countryside, and listening to music. Matt texted me saying that Nick Alvino was also taking an early bus and that he should be getting there around the same time as me. I texted Nick and we met up at the bus station when I arrived around 3:00 pm. We each bought a city bus ticket which would take us closer to the hostel. Nick and I checked in and waited for the arrival of the 7 others in the hostel. Everybody's trains got delayed so the next 4 people didn't get there until 6:00 and the next 3 until 7:30. My bus ended up pretty much being the same duration as their trains for a lot cheaper so I was secretly somewhat happy. Everyone got settled and then we walked downtown. We went to this really cool place called the Ministry of Sound although it was expensive everyone had a good time.
               We woke up early saturday morning after not getting much sleep, but everyone was anxious to go out and see all the sights and do all the touristy fun things. Nick, Sam B., Sam T., and Madison all left the room around 9:30, but Kevin, Matt Marsh, Kendall, Becks, and myself needed an extra hour to wake up. We left the room at around 10:30 and Kendall and Becks went to meet up with everyone else. Kevin, Matt and I went to McDonalds (so American of us), and then walked about 40 minutes towards the River Thames and the iconic Tower Bridge. We also had an awesome view of the Shard (tallest structure in the UK) and the view of the city across the river. We walked around a bit more and then stopped into a pub for lunch. There was a big rugby match on that everyone seemed to be watching. I didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, but I was rooting for Ireland because thats the homeland. We made the long walk back to the hostel and everyone went down for a nap as we were all very tired from all the walking and lack of sleep. We woke up around 7 in preparation for our pub crawl which we signed up for which started at 9. The pub crawl was fun and led us through 4 of the most famous pubs in the "Piccadilly Circus" district of London which seemed to be the hot spot for night life. We ended up going home early because Madison got her phone stolen or lost and she was all upset.
               Sunday, we had to be up and out of the hostel by 11 so we all woke up around 9:30 so everyone could shower and we could clean the place up. We packed up our bags and embarked on a looooong walk towards Harrods which is one of the most famous stores/malls in the world. It was massive. We got lost looking for their famous ice cream parlor, and when we finally found it, we turned right around when we saw that it cost 14 pounds per ice cream. It was still a cool experience. We walked pretty much back where we came from (ends of the earth) to go to Chipotle because everyone, including myself, loves it. We ate and sat there for about and hour and a half because we had nothing better to do and our legs were killing us from walking with all of our bags. I parted ways with everyone else because they were going to the train station, and I walked 2 miles to the bus station. It went by quickly though as I got to walk by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye, which I was glad to see as we didn't go on Saturday. If I didn't see those and just left I would have said that London was overrated, but after seeing that I would say it was magnificent. I was glad I got to experience it walking by myself, taking it all in it was pretty cool. My bus left at 4:30 and I quickly fell asleep as my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. I woke up and watched Pitch Perfect (my favorite movie), and then listened to music the rest of the way. I was back in my bed in Newcastle by 11:30pm. It was a long travel day, but I'm definitely glad I made the trip. #locals

Here are some pics:

Week 2

               After some confusion and adjustments I got my classes all set up and Monday was the first day. It was kind of hectic finding the different classrooms and everything but I managed to get to all of my classes and settle in. The week went by pretty quickly which was good and friday night Colin, Jenna, Alexa, LJ, Rebecca, Kendall, Madison, and myself all walked over to chinatown for dinner. The food wasn't bad but it was very expensive but I guess we were paying for the experience more than anything which was fine.
               Saturday, we had an early wakeup call for our group-wide day trip to York. The bus left Newcastle at 9:30 and we got to York around 11:30. A lot of people slept on the way there but I wasn't able to so I took in the scenery and listened to some music. We got to York and walked around the quaint city admiring things like the massive architectural masterpiece that is the cathedral. Kevin, Matt, Colin and I went off on our own and went to lunch at a pub on a road that was the inspiration for Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter movies which was really cool. We mostly walked around popping into different places and getting a feel for the city. We left York at 4:30 and I was able to nap on the bus ride home which made it go by fast.
               Sunday, I had another very early wake up call for the team bus for the Newcastle American football team's game at Durham. Will Grill - a graduate of Loyola and current grad student back at Newcastle plays on the team and told me I should come watch if I'm interested in playing. Also, I wanted to go because my friend John plays for Durham and I wanted to get to a game. We left at 8:40 and the game was at 11. I couldn't do much as I was in street clothes but while the team was warming up me and an injured player tossed the pigskin around a little bit. One of the refs asked me to be a ball spotter so I pretty much had to just follow him around and when there was an incomplete pass I would hand him the ball I was holding. The first half was close but we got blown out in the second half. Everybody knows Durham is the best team in the league so everyone was kind of expecting it. JP played well for Durham - made a lot of tackles and recovered a fumble and we got to talk a little bit after the game which was good.
               When we got back to Newcastle around 4:30 I took a long nap and woke up ready for the Super Bowl party. The football team rented a pub out for the viewing of the game so a lot of the Loyola kids came to watch. I thought the Seahawks would win but I wasn't expecting them to do it in that fashion. Blowout city. But it was fun watching it with everyone and we had some good food. Today, I had class at 1 and 5 and got my haircut in between. I was nervous how it would look but I'm pleasantly surprised. Here are some photos and potentially a video from York.