For those that don't know, I have been back in the States since April and have been working in Council Bluffs since May. Of course am just now getting my blog updated; mostly because I don't have internet at home to post them and also because I am a hard core procrastinator. It also takes quite a bit of time to upload pictures and videos, so bear with me as I try to finish these up! For the days before and the day of St. Patrick’s Day I went to Dublin, Ireland to celebrate the holiday in style. I left on [View Full Entry]

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This entry might be kind of boring. I am mostly talking about some things I have done around the town I am living in and some things I have done with friends. But since I cannot travel out of the country every weekend and I want to see some of England here are some of the things that occupy my time here. Sorry there are no country hopping adventures or anything scandalous in this entry, keep your fingers crossed for the next entry. Some of the other random things I have done around Leicester are visit a nearby town, go out [View Full Entry]

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While in Leicester I had the opportunity to see many new sporting events. I am happy to say that I saw my first ever rugby and football (aka soccer) matches. The first event I went to was the Leicester Tigers Rugby match with Sharron. She was looking around for someone to go with her and I said was interested in maybe going to a game and she pounced at the opportunity and said, “Ok we’re going! When are you free?” So one weekend that I spent in Leicester was half divided by writing papers and on Saturday going to see the [View Full Entry]

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The first weekend of March Madison and I went to Scotland and the highlands. We left after school on Friday and took the 5 hour train ride up north. We got in to Edinburgh pretty late and had to wander around to find our hostel. When we finally found it, no one was there to check us in, even though we informed them about our late arrival. It was very difficult to locate someone to get us a room key! Finally once we were sorted we headed straight for bed since we had to be up pretty early for our bus [View Full Entry]

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I vicariously know a girl from Nodaway Valley, who Treynor competes against in school events. She just so happens to be studying in Wales this semester, so we thought we would try to meet up sometime. One unusually sunny weekend in February we met in Birmingham, part way in between. I arrived by train and walked to the Birmingham bus station to meet Alyse and her friend Rachael. One of the most tourist-y things to do near Birmingham is the Cadbury World Chocolate Factory, so of course, we went. Who doesn’t like chocolate? From Birmingham we had to take the train [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone, sorry I am ultimately failing on keeping this updated! I am going to be home soon, so hopefully then I will be able to finish my blogs in a timely manner! I would like to keep them in sequential order so here continues the saga of my traveling, so let me take you back, way back… One blustery weekend Madison (who is basically my weekend traveling buddy now) and I went up north to Manchester to see what the city had to offer. We took the train up on a Friday night so we could have 2 whole days [View Full Entry]

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The second weekend of my life in Leicester I took a day trip to a nearby town called Nottingham. For those of you who are Robin Hood fans you will recognize it due to its proximity with Sherwood Forest where Robin and his merry men hid in a giant hollow tree. Madison, a girl I spent a lot of time with at the London orientation, came with me. We left on Saturday morning by train, and the trip only took about 45 minutes. Once in Nottingham we were a bit early for anything that we wanted to see, so we had [View Full Entry]

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From Paris Amanda and I took the train first to Nice, France for a day and then for a night stop over in Milan, Italy and finally to Venice for 2 days. The weather in Nice was amazing!! We couldn’t believe that it was still considered winter! While everyone else was walking around in heavy winter coats we were in short sleeves and enjoying the sun! Our time was limited in Nice, but we made the most of it by walking from the train station to the beach, around the protestors for Pakistan, and then just sat around on the retaining [View Full Entry]

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Before school started about 40 international students met in London for a 3 day orientation. I won’t post many pictures from that because I already have pictures up from when Amanda and I went to London. But I thought I would just kind of mention what we did….so…. After surviving hauling my very ridiculously heavy bags through the tube and into the hotel our group set out for the Tower of London. We ended up taking the river boat cruise down the Thames while an announcer pointed out buildings along the shore. Once arriving at the Tower of London our guide, [View Full Entry]

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Ok I’m going to get this thing finished I swear! This is the last installment of Amanda and my trip during our Christmas break. We ended our travels exploring the wonders of Italy. After leaving Venice we took the train to Perugia, where I studied for 4 months during the fall. Amanda wanted to see where I had lived, I wanted to introduce her to people I had met there, and most importantly, I left a bag there, so she could take it home for me. Once in Perugia we checked our bags at the train station and I started by [View Full Entry]

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