http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tessa/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tessa en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:53:48 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:53:48 +0000 Hey everyoneIm in Seville right now with Adam and Gabe for New Years. So far this trip has been extremely interesting in unexpected ways. Im not going to type some of the major details here you all can ask me when I get back or email me for details but in general everything has been intriguing. Lets just say Adam and Gabe are both lifesavers. We spent the first 2 days in Madrid. Madrid was ni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-231762.html Hey allWelcome to my travelblog. I like travel writing so this is my amateur attempt at it that I always do when I travel. This is my preliminary entry before Adam Gabe and I take off for Spain next week. If you got a notification email about this entry you are on my subscribed list. If you came here via Facebook Myspace or Livejournal to read this and subscribe yourself just click the Su http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/blog-229232.html J'adore ParisnbspEurope raquonbspFrance raquonbspIle de France raquonbspParis By TessaMay 17th 2007Tessa MurphyHi allThis isn't a real entry but I thought I'd write a short blog saying that Angie and I survived 3 days in Paris ok. I'm too tired to write much more and tomorrow we're going to Cologne Aachen Belgium and Luxembourg so sadly I won't be able to probably properly up http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-159513.html I just bought two cuckoo clocksEver since I got here I thought it would be cool to get one because they're so neat and distinctly German. So today Angie took me to a cuckoo clock outlet in Kaiserslautern called House of Clocks Gifts and Collectableswww.houseofclocks.com and we looked at the clocks. While looking at the clocks I learned a lot about them. The store we were at had 3 types. The http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Kaiserslautern/blog-158429.html Yesterday we went to an American World War II cemetery in St. Avold France and Strasbourg The cemetery was humbling and going to Strasbourg was really exciting for me it was my first time to France and my father's family ancestry comes from the AlsaceLorraine region our ancestor came from there when it belonged to Germany. Strasbourg is almost directly on the FrenchGerman border. The 2 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Alsace/Strasbourg/blog-157979.html Hello all. Okto set matters straight to anyone wondering Angie's paperwork to get out of the army is INCREDIBLY messed up right now. It's not affecting the trip like we thought it would luckily they are not trying to make her leave the country now but it's still messed up. Now she's in a position called stoploss where her company is not allowed to go anywhere because they might get deplo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Kaiserslautern/blog-157784.html These past few days have been for relaxing. Angie is running around trying to get all her paperwork done for the army so if she has some problems with that you won't be hearing from me for a few days. But I'll start blogging again after they get resolved. In the meantime I'm babysitting AJ while Angie and her husband run around and take care of some of the paperwork. He's pretty cute. This le http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Kaiserslautern/blog-156725.html Sprechen sie Englisch Today's lessons 1. The autobahn is easy to get lost on. 2. I still need to know more basic German. First time life experience today 1. Both Angie AJ and I got stuck in an elevator for the first time in our lives today. That's what Angie taught me today as we were driving on the autobohn toward Heidelberg. It's useful 'cause I don't know any flippin' German. She also http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-W-rttemberg/Heidelberg/blog-156131.html Hello peeps. Angie and I are going to start doing stuff tomorrow today was Sunday and everything here is dead then. But we have created a tenitive itinerary of places to go and when....we realized since we have to optimize the days the days her husband is off work so he can watch AJ and the other days have to include trips to close places we need to plan where we're going and when. So I share http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Kaiserslautern/blog-155832.html Hello My travels have brought me to Germany and Europe for the next few weeks. I have more access to a computer now also than ever before while traveling so perhaps I'll be able to update this frequently I'm staying until May 19th with my childhood friend Angie and her husband and baby AJ on the military base in Kaiserslautern. It's about 630pm here right now and I got here at 730am. It http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Kaiserslautern/blog-155474.html Hey everyoneSorry for the late update. I've been averaging 4 hours sleep per night since we've been here and whenever I have free time I choose to spend it in other ways....mostly hanging out with PG Adam and my new friends Allison and AlexandraI'll update this in more detail once I get back home and add pix but here are some highlights.The London Metropolitan ArchivesThis building is uglie http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cambridgeshire/Cambridge/blog-139025.html Let me just say I never want to leave here. I LOVE London I've been on Cloud 9 overtime since we've been here. I'll try to recap as much as possible what we've done while we've been here.First of all a certain someone on our trip and many of you who know me and are reading this will know who this is made these wonderful comments since we've been here1. I like my beggars to be concise and hum http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-137611.html I'm going on over 24 hours without sleep and it's fantastic I'm not sleeping till later tonight WHOO We all made it to London ok but we've already had a few close calls. One student lost her passport at the last second and just barely made it One of her friends found it in Ames AFTER we got to Des Moines. We had to wait in the customs line for an hour and a half I think that was mostly due http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-136739.html This is my first posting on this site in two years. How I missed TravelblogAs you may or may not know you're either reading this because you know me or because you're a random person looking up England travelblogs I'm going to London and Cambridge in 4 days. I will be traveling with my London history class of about 30 students my fellow grad student and friend Adam and Dr. PG as I will refer http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-135437.html Irsquom Tessa as you already read at the top of the screenhellip and Irsquom a senior who will soon be graduating from Simpson College in Iowa. These blogs are going to chronicle the adventure of our little Simpson group of students and our wonderful professors Dr. Lora Friedrich and Dr. Nick Proctor. They will partake in the joys of traveling with us as we journey through the sights and s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-7848.html Hi everyoneIt's scavenger hunt time I'm in Chiang Mai right now and we're doing a day long scavenger hunt The hunt ends tonight at 830 at a drag show in the Night Market...very fitting. There are many ways of gaining points but out of all of them I really want to see the statue of Queen Victoria in the Foreign Cemeterynot only for points but because Queen Vicki was just so awesome and biz http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-8245.html I didnrsquot even know what a betel nut was before all of this started. By about the middle of our trip I knew something was up about betel nutsmdashwhatever they were. I kept hearing Jim Allen another student in our group talking with Nick about finding them. I eventually found out all about them and I got to participate in an experimentation with themmdashwhich was not only hilarious http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-11655.html For anyone interested in how we liked our lodgings or how I liked them since there were a lot of times I didnrsquot hear other opinions here are all the places we stayed and even websites to look them up.Bangkok1. Veingtai HotelWebsite www.viengtai.co.th This place was ok. It wasnrsquot sensational but it wasnrsquot bad either. It was in the backpackingtourist area which was nice. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-13159.html Cults can take many forms. For instance there are the more dangerous variety such as Charlie Manson's Family Jim Jones David Koresh and Heavenrsquos Gate. There's also the good old cults of personality we've seen eminate from the likes of Joseph Stalin and President Turkmenbashi of Turkmenistan. However I've never actually witnessed the insanity and the strangely undying loyalty that only e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-13163.html Hi allSorry I haven't updated this for a while...having too much fun in the far east So far our trip is wonderful and we're all having lots of fun. It feels like we've done so much and we've only had 2 full days of activities. What immediately struck me about Thailand It is very showy sparkly and flippin' hot. We arrived in Bangkok a little after 1130 at night on Tuesday May 2 in Thailan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-8063.html