http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ryangirl/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ryangirl en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:00:32 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:00:32 +0000 Hi allDuring the third week of May Mom my Aunt Pam and my Cousin Stephanie made a visit to Old York... and then we went gallavanting off to Italy. But not before I turned in the introduction and first chapter of my dissertation to my supervisor We flew into Rome took the train up to Florence then another train to Venice and flew back to England from there. Of course we took 'Easyjet' http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-10445.html In the last of my greater european travels while I am still a visaholding resident of the UK Jessica and I hit up two of the Greek Islands Santorini and Ios.Santorini is a scenic volcanic island I think possibly the most popular for tourists. We stayed in a small hotel about 15 minutes walk outside of Fira where most of the shops nightlife etc are located. Near our hotel Villa Rosa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Meteora/blog-11743.html Hello all my most special peopleI have been in York a month now and though the time has gone by quickly I also feel surprisingly settled into my life here. I decided to start this travelblog in an attempt to keep everyone up to date on the details... I know a lot of you hate mass emails and to be honest I don't always like sending them. So if you want to check in and see what is going on w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-1952.html Hello LovesEveryone here calls me love salespeople bartenders ladies who ask me for the time... somehow I find it cute and not like the salespeople who call me 'sweetheart' or 'honey' back home... funny.Not too much news to report I say that now but by then end of this entry I am sure my verbose nature will have kicked in but plenty of pictures to add. It is officially COLD in York. E http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-2122.html I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have to admit I was a bit sad that I was going to miss this allAmerican holiday eatfest but in the end my housemates really came through. We had close to thirty people at our dinner last night with much more food that we could handle. There was turkey ham stuffing mashed potatoes and gravy even vegetarian gravy that I could actually eat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-2224.html Okay this is the second attempt at getting this journal up... wish I had broadband in my room instead I am forced to trust the completely UNtrustworthy computers in our English Graduate lab Hello everyone I am writing you with the exciting knowledge that I will be home in less than a week... crazy. This may have been the longest 2 and some months of my life in good ways as well as difficul http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-2460.html Okay so I know I just wrote a journal but I had to write one more today just to inform all of my fellow Americans about a traditional UK Christmas practice... if you already know about it well done there So if you've seen Billy Eliot Bridget Jones... any number of Brit films with a scene at Christmastime you are familliar with the little colored paper crowns that are worn. These hats are http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-2462.html This is my first entry in a long while. I had a fabulous relaxing holiday back home in California. I loved seeing so many of you... it made coming back to classes and research quite hard. The first week back I moped quite a bit. However after a few sunny days and with the first flowers blooming in gardens and fields things really are looking up. My courses this term South African Literatu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-4133.html Hello all my peepsSo last week was my 'reading week' in the English Department here at the grand ol' University of York which basically means we had no class and were supposed to get ahead on reading. Which I did but I decided not to sit around and do it in York as is my usual routine. Instead I took a quick trip up to Edinburgh to spend Valentines Day with Mia and her dad who was visiting http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-4665.html Hey there matesThings are good this side of the ocean especially because I got to see my two most important boys last week. Dad and Joe came out to York first and then we did a whirwind tour down to London back up to Edinburgh then back down to York...all in just 6 days FIRST YORKTheir flight got into York very early so then there was the challenge of staying awake all day to fight off http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/blog-6027.html Hello my wonderful friends and familyHow I do miss you It feels as though it is not so long until I will be home again though I know I am only half way done. The time does seem to go by faster when the sun is shining and it has been lately off and on. Today is a beautiful day in York not 'warm' by California standards at all but lovely just the same. On my walk to work this morning we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-7204.html