Classes so far...

Today is the first day of classes. It really hasn’t been very exciting so far. In fact, it has been rather confusing. To start the day, I had a fight with my alarm. The original plan was to get up at 7:30am because that is when I need to be up for Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. My courses start at nine, so that gives me a little less than an hour to get up, shower, eat breakfast, and make myself lunch when I need to. But for today, my 9am class was canceled. As excited as I was to not have to go to class, I wanted to start to get myself into a morning routine right from the get go. Let it be known that the alarm clock will never win. I let myself sleep in until past 8am. I finally got up and got myself together and somehow managed to forget that I needed a lunch. Two minutes from campus I realized that I forgot lunch. Not wanting to be late on my first day however, I decided to just buy myself a sandwich on campus. I was, of course, twenty minutes early to class, which for me is about the time it takes me to get my lunch together.

The first class I attended was a food science class pertaining to product development. I sit down in a row by myself  thinking that there will be a full lecture hall like my classes back home. I was wrong. The lecture hall remained pathetically half full. The professor walks in, sets up for his presentation, and then begins talking and finally a few girls walk in and sit down next to me. The professor starts going over the boring syllabus stuff and then starts in on the schedule. Apparently even when your timetable says you have class, it doesn’t always mean you have class. I was practically told that the three hours of lecture I am supposed to have on Mondays only happens three times the entire semester and the rest of the time, I only have an hour and occasionally two hours of lecture.

My second class of the day was Crime and Social Exclusion. I am technically not in it yet, but it didn't look full, so hopefully I actually get in. It was a nice short lecture, but should prove to be very enlightening. I do not think the class itself will be very active because of how quiet it was, but I could be pleasantly surprised.

My last class of the day was interesting. I couldn't find the room at all. Luckily, I ran into a couple of women who were looking for the same place, so we looked together. We asked eight people where it was and each of them had no idea. They kept saying that it wasn't in the building. Eventually we found a man who explained it to us. It is in the back of the building, but you can only get there from the outside. You have to go in a sketchy ally to get there too. We ended up being late, but so did our professor. He happened to show up an hour and a quarter late. He too couldn't find the room. It turns out he is the same professor as the first class I attended, so I will be seeing him a lot.

Now I am waiting to attend a meeting for a group, but I am unsure whether I actually want to be a part of it. I am very tempted to just walk home because today has been a long day. Luckily tomorrow should be better and shorter!

Cheers!
-The Adventurer 

Washington DC

It was insane! I have already updated you all on me struggling and getting stuck in the metro because I had so much luggage, but now it is time to let you in on what I did while I was there!

I didn't do anything on my first night because we didn't get to my friend's apartment until late at night. The next day, I trekked into the city on metro to go to the Smithsonian. Metro, by the way, is much easier to navigate when you aren't carrying anything. I started at the Air and Space Museum. It was gigantic! I started at the area where they were talking about air and space photography. It was very interesting and I read every single thing that was there. Unfortunately, as I continued through the museum, my interest started dwindling. After a little more than two hours, I gave in to hunger and ate inside the museum at their cafe where they were serving McDonalds. It was not good at all. I had four fries and then two chicken strips.

After my lavish lunch, I decided to walk around the city a little and ended up in Georgetown. It was beautiful and so clean! Once I felt up to it, I made my way back to the Smithsonian and walked through part of the sculpture garden they have. It was pretty cool!

The tree that is in the background is made of metal. It was so cool looking! I didn't really like the red sculpture too much. After that I went to the Natural History Museum. I loved looking at all the animals!

 I felt like I was in the Lion King and the giraffe was bowing to me

 Elephants and their relatives are always a must have picture

My final Smithsonian stop was the American History Museum. Although many people told me this was their favorite museum, I was not very impressed. It might have been because I was a little rushed and I was tired, but I expected more.

After the Smithsonian, I made my way over to meet my friend Elizabeth and we went to get drinks at one of her favorite places. It was pretty cool. We also stopped by a place called Madhatters, which had a cool room with a table on the ceiling that was decorated to look like the table from Alice in Wonderland.

The following day was a little lazy. I had a late start because I had a headache, but I went into Elizabeth's office to meet her colleagues and see where she worked. It was very cool to see her relationships with other people. We went to see the House of Representatives and the Senate. Unfortunately, the Senate was closed. Then we went to see the Library of Congress. The buildings were so beautiful and the reading room I saw was awesome. I wish I could have read in there.We walked around the area she lives and just had a nice day in. We explored some of DC in the evening and ended up going dancing.

My third day was another day of walking. It started out poorly because we had to wait for the cable and internet people to show up, but afterwards, the day became much better. We went back into DC to get lunch/dinner at a delicious burger place called Good Stuff Eatery. Then we went to Eastern Market, but we were a little late, so it was closed. That was a bit of a bummer, but I had great company, so it didn't really matter. Our next destination was Alexandria. We walked to the waterfront and then went to find a place for drinks. We ended up going to a tapas bar and getting Sangria. It was my first time trying Sangria and it was pretty good. We stayed there for a while chatting and then headed back into DC to see the monuments at night. The monuments were beautiful and awe inspiring. We saw them all. Our walk back to the metro was painful, but well worth it.

 Lincoln! I couldn't find the bullet holes that my mom told me about though 

Martin Luther King Jr.

Overall DC was amazing! I had great company and great food. The sights were beautiful and I really enjoyed all the walking and exploring. I like to think of DC as SF, but cleaner.

Packing Up and Leaving Home (It is a long one)

Packing to leave the country for a year is a stressful situation. It requires a lot of forethought, patience, and minimalism. Basically everything I wish I was good at, but am not. Back when I first started planning this trip I told everyone I was going to bring three bags: two duffles and a large backpack. Then I started talking to people and they helped me realize that traveling with three bags is a pain especially when traveling by train. Then my neighbors were nice enough to give me one of their old rolling duffles. So my plan became take a large Rick Steve's backpack and the large rolling duffle. Then there were some snags.

The first snag: Too much stuff. Now I will be the first to tell you that own a lot of stuff. I collect things and have a hard time giving them away. Some people would say that I am a hoarder by my own definition and I cannot deny it. Just think of me on the lowest level of it. Anyway, my parents were really nice in allowing me to use the dining room to lay all of my stuff out before shoving it in my bags. I brought down all the clothes I could possibly want to bring with me and put them on the table. Needless to say, the table became very full, very fast. From there, I had to go through the heaping clothes piles and carefully select the garments that I didn't think I would really need. I had to do this about six times to get the clothes to a mass that looked like it would fit in the duffle. Besides clothes, I packed a smaller duffle to use when I travel home (because we all know I will buy more stuff while in Europe), some toiletries, hangers, and some jewelry. Eventually I get everything to fit in the duffle and the backpack.

The second snag: Too heavy. My parents took me to the airport early in the morning (we left the house around 3:40am) to say goodbye. We get in line to check my bag. I knew it was heavy, but I was willing to have to pay extra bring everything I packed. I set the bag on the scale and it said my bag weighed around 85lbs. The women turned to me and said it would cost me $200. Can you believe it? First of all, I didn't expect the bag to weigh that much and second, I didn't expect to have to pay that much. Once I closed my mouth, I opened it and asked how much a second bag would cost. It would only be $60. So there I was in the airport, pulling out the packed duffle and shoving as many things in it as possible. Eventually I got it close enough in weight, that I only had to pay the $60.

The third snag: Trains and stations. My first stop before arriving in the UK was Washington DC. I knew that when I got there, I would have to lug my luggage through the Metro. The thing that I didn't even think about was how much space I would take up. I felt like I was the size of a male walrus. Large and in charge, except for the fact that I was definitely not in charge. So maybe I was closer to a beached baby whale. Basically, it sometimes became difficult to find enough for not only myself, but also my bags. My friend Elizabeth was kind enough to meet me at the station I was initially at and help me with my stuff. It was going pretty well until things went not so well. We had to change trains and "lucky" for us, the elevators and the escalators were not working. We easily got our workout for the day by going up and down stairs with the bags.

In summary: I cannot pack light, but with my experiences as of now, I really want to get better at it. Traveling with several bags sucks, as does, traveling with heavy bags. These are things that are now on my "Things I Have Learned" list.

Happy Lugging!
-A Beached Baby Whale aka The Adventurer

It Has Been A While...

Hi Everyone!

It has been a while. As I understand it, everyone has been on the edge of their seats to see what my rather adventurous life has been like. Oh wait. Nevermind. I got my life confused with someone else's. Although I have yet to jump out of a plane or wrestle a bear, quite a few things have happened. First off, I am currently sitting on campus at my new university surrounded by a bunch of people with accents. Except of course, they think I am the one with an accent, not the other way around. Secondly, before getting here to Leeds, I took a quick trip to Washington DC. C oh wait was I numbering? Thirdly or would this now be fourthly? Oh whatever! Anyway, after DC, I went to Edinburgh before finally settling myself and my gigantic mass of clothes here in my comfy new university or as the locals call it, uni.

As you can see, I have a lot to tell you because there is a lot to sum up about the last few weeks, so expect some amazingly poor grammar and spelling coming your way in the next few days!

Write you soon,
The Adventurer