Greetings from London!

Hello everyone!

I am actually in London right now! I got in last night... me and two other girls flew into Luton Airport yesterday. Luton is basically in the middle of no where...I'm pretty sure when we landed and were taxi-ing to the gate I saw a cow, or two...actually an entire herd. Needless to say it wasnt what we expected flying into London to look like. I cannot complain though becuase our flight was about 36€ which comes out to 50 USD which is pretty darn good. So we got a shuttle bus to the train station, and took a train to the King's Cross tube station. Then took the tube to where our hostel was. One of the girls broke away from us because she was meeting up with some other people and staying with a friend. So Amber and I had an interesting time trying to find our hostel. We rode the tube a bit too long, and switched onto the wrong line once or twice but we eventually made it. When we got up to the street we kinda started to freak out because we had no idea what part of London we were in or where we were supposed to go. We went into a store and asked for directions and eventually found our way--there was a nice couple walking in front of us that asked if we were looking for the Ace Hotel and told us we were in the right direction. The place we stayed last night was very nice and very clean. We got there and were able to get on the internet so I could telll my mom and dad that I had arrived safely. Then we found a vending machine and got some snacks because we were starving haha. We were pretty tired out so we went to bed soon thereafter. I was kind of bummed out because I wanted to meet up with Nick to see him, but we really didnt feel safe roaming around London trying to find him. Two girls, first night in London, no idea where we were going--my intuition told me better. So I called him and he understood, he actually told me that we were really far away so it was probably for the best. Its a bummer that he's going to Scotland this weekend, I guess I'll just have to wait until we get back to State to hang out!

The past few days in Dublin have not been too exciting. We have all kind of realized that we actually need to do school work too, so we've been reading and working on assignments so there has been a lull in the sight-seeing. However we have seen two incredible movies for our classes. The first being "Michael Collins" and the second being "The Wind That Shakes the Barley". They both are about the Anglo-Irish war, in which the people of Ireland ban together and form the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and begin their efforts to make Ireland a republic. "Michael Collins" takes place in the heart of Dublin and really its more of a hollywood version of the whole situation...just like any of the hollywood war movies we would see regarding the US. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" however took place in rural Ireland. It was such a heartwrenching story line that allows you to identify with the characters more.

On Tuesday we had two guest lecturers. One spoke of Irish literature in comparision with other nations--It was fairly interesting. The second of the two, however, was very cool. It was two women who were not from Dublin. It a mother and her daughter--They both are fluent in Gaelic and are Irish Gaelic Reel Singers. They sang a fews songs for us and actually attempted to teach us a song. They forced us to try and sing along....each person having to sing a line so we each could say we did it. It was a very cool experience. Their voices were absolutely beautiful and the sounds and tones that they sang in were so soothing.

On Wednesday evening we went on a tour called the "Easter Rising Tour". Easter Rising was the Irish people's first attempt to rise against the Brits in 1916. It was a failed attempt, but it was the intro to the Anglo-Irish war which eventually led to the Civil war. The tour was fairly interesting, I think I had been expecting it to be longer and to have taken us to more historical sites, but it was still very interesting and informative. It was perfecting timing because we had just viewed the two movies and done quite a bit of reading regarding this time period and these issues.

So as you can see, I am learning lots while having a great time. I am really looking foward to this trip in London. I think we will see lots and have a great time. We need to be mindful of what we spend though, because the exchange rate here is AWFUL! It is like 2.28$ for 1£. Which is insane. We just went and bought a water for 89pence, but in reality thats over 2 dollars. Oh goodness, I am positive I will be broke by the time I make it back to GP.

I hope everything is going well with everyone back home. I am bummed that I do not get to talk to many of you as often as I would like, but I am doing my best to try to stay in contact with people. It is difficult when I don't have internet access at the drop of a hat...and phone calls are expensive. Yikes. Well I would love to hear from everyone...E-mails are great...facebook messages/posts...Keep them coming. Keep calling my home cell phone and leaving me voicemails, I do check it and it is so nice to hear some voices from home. I love and miss you all so much and would love to know whats going on with all of you. Well my minutes on this computer are running out, and this has been a long blog post so I am off to explore the amazing city of London!
Take care, and I'll be talking to you soon.

Love always,
Jenny