More about the wedding later, but look how curly my hair was!!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEH
It's official everyone!!! Whitney and I are going to Germany! There was a change of plans, instead of Fuessen, we're going to Bremen the last stop on the German Fairytale Route. We bought the tickets and booked our hostel yesterday!!!! It seems silly for me to be so excited about booking this, but I've never done it before and I feel very proud of myself for having done the research and finding the best deal, etc. Thanks for rubbing off on me Mom. We are going June 29-July 1 and our hostel even provides breakfast, just thought I would spread the good news!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The first picture is of Whitney and me with the Irishman.
The second picture is the creepy frenchman basically falling on me...look at my clenched fist and gritted teeth. The other guy is the bartender Christian.
This one is of my disgusted face and the creepy frenchman...look at the sleezeball look in his eyes.
This picture is of the Russian, no that's not her father.
I'm considering changing my major to international communications. Just kidding. Whitney and I have found a new favorite place to go, it's called Giraffe and every time you get a smoothie or ask you get a plastic giraffe stirer. We've been collecting them and have no acquired 17 Giraffes and 5 helium balloons. Tonight may have been the best night I have spent in London. I feel I should explain my international communications comment, it began last week on Thursday night...
Liz, Kim, Whitney and I decided to go visit a Brazilian-Australian bartender, Christian, we had befriended and while we were there, about 30 mins before closing, a 50 year old Russian man who sells Vodka and was named Igor, brought over 4 coronas for us, then stayed to talk/attempt to seduce Whitney. Not long afterwards, Christian brought over the cook for the pub, a frenchman named Dean. The pub closed and we (the 4 of us girls) decided to go to another place called Archangel a few doors down, needless to say the United Nations followed us and Christian later followed. We were then introduced to an Irishman named Bernard or Ben for short. After about 20 mins the Russian got the hint that he was old enough to be our father and was not going to be sweet talking any of us, so too did the Irishman realize he was too old for us and none of us were interested. Unfortunately, the Frenchman was not so quick on the uptake and failed to accept that we were not feeling his creepiness, the pictures should suffice in explaining the disgust/creeper nature that was Dean. Christian, being the only one our age and not creepy at all was the one we all felt the most comfortable talking to, but after a little while we decided to head home. We joke that we were attacked by the UN minus those native to this land and the Germans. I should mention, as it was a source of much laughter today/tonight, we saw the creepy frenchman in the park today and proceeded to look the other way and play possum...it worked.
Tonight, Whitney and I made new connections with a Polish guy named David, an Englishman
(hooray!!) named Damen and a Zimbabwean named Michael. They were really getting a kick out of how silly Whitney and I were being. First of all, David talked us into buying a kind of friend beans covered in a spicy ginger, soy sauce but when they arrived with an empty bowl, we were confused on how to eat them. We both grabbed our fork and started chewing on one before thinking, are we supposed to eat the outer shell? No, in fact you were not, we asked Damen and Michael to assist us in learning how to properly eat these bean things and they got a good laugh out of our ignorance, as did we. A few minutes later, Whitney managed to get the sauce in her eye which brought on new waves of laughter. We were then talked into trying one the most delicious dessert called a banana waffle. It's a waffle with 2 slices of banana (they tasted like bananas foster) and vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate and caramel sauce. By this time we already had 4 plastic giraffes, but insisted we needed more when our dessert arrived. Then we each had every color but one, so we got the completion of the 4 colors, however, we didn't stop there. We then obscunded (Michael made up the word) 5 balloons and free teas but having been there for nearly 4 hours and the fact that they were starting to close up, we decided we really should get our check. I think they may have been avoiding giving us the check so they could see what silly thing we were going to do next. They agreed to sing to Whitney on Monday for her birthday and I have to say, I think burned off the dessert I ate laughing.
For my class, History of London, we take field trips every Wednesday and Thursay, wed being the walking day and thurs is the Museum of London day. We walked around Parliament and Westminster today and then I walked through St. James Park briefly because my friends Josh, Joshua and I wanted to see the horse guards, but they were in the changing of the guard ceremony. By the time we got there, there ceremony was over and we missed the horse guards completely. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and running some errands.
On a more exciting note, Whitney and I are going to Fuessen, Germany between sessions B and C. We found a flight for under $150 roundtrip and although we haven't booked it yet, Mom gave me the go-ahead to start planning and I found what seems like a pretty decent hostel in Fuessen that includes free linen, towels and breakfast. The most expensive thing is probably going to be transportation but I definitely think it will be worth it. Fuessen is called the King's Nook and is where some of the fantasy castles are found, it's at the end of the Romantic road in Bavaria and just looks AMAZING!!! Tomorrow is going to be a funfilled day I'm going to the Museum of London for class, the National Gallery and the Royal Mews (stables) with Whitney and then research/planning out this trip and going to Whitney's mom's house in Richmond to see if she can help us out at all with the planning. This weekend I'm going to Cambridge for the day along with several other trips throughout like: seeing the Lion King, Stonehenge day trip, party boat, Jack the Ripper walking tour, Midsummer Night's Dream in Regeant's Park and the London Eye. I guess I better get started working on my German...Guten Nacht!!
The second picture is the creepy frenchman basically falling on me...look at my clenched fist and gritted teeth. The other guy is the bartender Christian.
This one is of my disgusted face and the creepy frenchman...look at the sleezeball look in his eyes.
This picture is of the Russian, no that's not her father.
I'm considering changing my major to international communications. Just kidding. Whitney and I have found a new favorite place to go, it's called Giraffe and every time you get a smoothie or ask you get a plastic giraffe stirer. We've been collecting them and have no acquired 17 Giraffes and 5 helium balloons. Tonight may have been the best night I have spent in London. I feel I should explain my international communications comment, it began last week on Thursday night...
Liz, Kim, Whitney and I decided to go visit a Brazilian-Australian bartender, Christian, we had befriended and while we were there, about 30 mins before closing, a 50 year old Russian man who sells Vodka and was named Igor, brought over 4 coronas for us, then stayed to talk/attempt to seduce Whitney. Not long afterwards, Christian brought over the cook for the pub, a frenchman named Dean. The pub closed and we (the 4 of us girls) decided to go to another place called Archangel a few doors down, needless to say the United Nations followed us and Christian later followed. We were then introduced to an Irishman named Bernard or Ben for short. After about 20 mins the Russian got the hint that he was old enough to be our father and was not going to be sweet talking any of us, so too did the Irishman realize he was too old for us and none of us were interested. Unfortunately, the Frenchman was not so quick on the uptake and failed to accept that we were not feeling his creepiness, the pictures should suffice in explaining the disgust/creeper nature that was Dean. Christian, being the only one our age and not creepy at all was the one we all felt the most comfortable talking to, but after a little while we decided to head home. We joke that we were attacked by the UN minus those native to this land and the Germans. I should mention, as it was a source of much laughter today/tonight, we saw the creepy frenchman in the park today and proceeded to look the other way and play possum...it worked.
Tonight, Whitney and I made new connections with a Polish guy named David, an Englishman
(hooray!!) named Damen and a Zimbabwean named Michael. They were really getting a kick out of how silly Whitney and I were being. First of all, David talked us into buying a kind of friend beans covered in a spicy ginger, soy sauce but when they arrived with an empty bowl, we were confused on how to eat them. We both grabbed our fork and started chewing on one before thinking, are we supposed to eat the outer shell? No, in fact you were not, we asked Damen and Michael to assist us in learning how to properly eat these bean things and they got a good laugh out of our ignorance, as did we. A few minutes later, Whitney managed to get the sauce in her eye which brought on new waves of laughter. We were then talked into trying one the most delicious dessert called a banana waffle. It's a waffle with 2 slices of banana (they tasted like bananas foster) and vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate and caramel sauce. By this time we already had 4 plastic giraffes, but insisted we needed more when our dessert arrived. Then we each had every color but one, so we got the completion of the 4 colors, however, we didn't stop there. We then obscunded (Michael made up the word) 5 balloons and free teas but having been there for nearly 4 hours and the fact that they were starting to close up, we decided we really should get our check. I think they may have been avoiding giving us the check so they could see what silly thing we were going to do next. They agreed to sing to Whitney on Monday for her birthday and I have to say, I think burned off the dessert I ate laughing.
For my class, History of London, we take field trips every Wednesday and Thursay, wed being the walking day and thurs is the Museum of London day. We walked around Parliament and Westminster today and then I walked through St. James Park briefly because my friends Josh, Joshua and I wanted to see the horse guards, but they were in the changing of the guard ceremony. By the time we got there, there ceremony was over and we missed the horse guards completely. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and running some errands.
On a more exciting note, Whitney and I are going to Fuessen, Germany between sessions B and C. We found a flight for under $150 roundtrip and although we haven't booked it yet, Mom gave me the go-ahead to start planning and I found what seems like a pretty decent hostel in Fuessen that includes free linen, towels and breakfast. The most expensive thing is probably going to be transportation but I definitely think it will be worth it. Fuessen is called the King's Nook and is where some of the fantasy castles are found, it's at the end of the Romantic road in Bavaria and just looks AMAZING!!! Tomorrow is going to be a funfilled day I'm going to the Museum of London for class, the National Gallery and the Royal Mews (stables) with Whitney and then research/planning out this trip and going to Whitney's mom's house in Richmond to see if she can help us out at all with the planning. This weekend I'm going to Cambridge for the day along with several other trips throughout like: seeing the Lion King, Stonehenge day trip, party boat, Jack the Ripper walking tour, Midsummer Night's Dream in Regeant's Park and the London Eye. I guess I better get started working on my German...Guten Nacht!!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Washtenaw
It's official. Colleen and I will be moving in July from our great little apartment on Eastwood to make room for a friend of Colleen's who will move in with us. We, therefore needed to upgrade to a 3 bedroom apartment. We found a nice one on a street named Washtenaw just a few blocks away that I think we'll be happy in. It is again nice and spacious, but will be much sunnier than Eastwood has been! It is a 3-flat rather than a courtyard building, so the owners actually live on the first and second floor and we will be on the third.
The current tenants are in the process of moving out, so the apartment is a bit disorganized, but you can still get the idea of what it's like.
Washtenaw
And, finally, my favorite part... the owners love to garden and the small backyard has been transformed int
o a mini oasis. She has rows of vegetables, flowers, a trelis, a picnic table, and a small patch of grass. Imagine the peace of coming down in the morning for breakfast with the birds singing overhead...
o a mini oasis. She has rows of vegetables, flowers, a trelis, a picnic table, and a small patch of grass. Imagine the peace of coming down in the morning for breakfast with the birds singing overhead... 
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Here are some more pictures from Williamsburg. You can read more about it on our blog. Elinore was the receiver of many many compliments, and she looked adorable in her little bumble bee dress (thanks, mom). We loved going in all of the little shops - the carpenter, the blacksmith, the milliner (dressmaker),... It makes me long for the kind of culture where craftmanship is honored, respected, and expected. Where you labor over something from start to finish and take pride in the finished product.
Thought this tree was worthy of a photo. I should add it to my tree collection.
Thought this tree was worthy of a photo. I should add it to my tree collection.Monday, June 04, 2007
Viva Las Vegas!
The ceremony was presided over by a larger-than-life Elvis. This guy seriously had normal proportions but was about 7.5 feet tall!
Viva Las Vegas!
You didn't know this, but Jennifer, Laura, and I were in three different epics last weekend. Laura explored the medieval and renessiance, Jennifer went back to the colonial, and I went to the heart of today, to the consumerist USA, baby!
Las Vegas was without a doubt, unbelievable. In a day I walked through Disney World, Central Park, NYC, Paris, and Venice, and back again. I think the pictures will speak for themselves...
Surprise!
I went to Bath on Saturday and the Tower of London on Sunday. Bath was BEAUTIFUL!! The countryside was breathtaking and so green. The town was very touristy and very crowded so I clung to my bag ready to attack in case of pickpockets. I felt like the actual Roman baths were a little anticlimactic, the most impressive one was the big one that all the postcards have pictures of. I got a little sunburned, we were outside more than I had anticipated and it was sunnier than the weather had suggested, but it was a glorious day. Our guide gave our group a little walking tour of the area and took us to where Johnny Depp has supposedly purchased a house and on our way up to it I swear I walked past the guy who played Merry in Lord of the Rings. My roommate also saw Tori Spelling yesterday in one of the ritzier shopping areas of London. The Tower of London was amazing and the crown jewels were just unbelievable. It took about 3 hours to go through most of the fortress and I think I got a little bit burned again haha. After we got back I went to Kensington Gardens, which was just teeming with people because it was so warm and sunny out
, and I attempted to find the Elfin Oak which as you can see from my pictures, is still around. It's pretty amazing! This is my last week of classes for the 1st session, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! I'm thinking of all of you and I miss everyone. I almost bought Elinore a little Paddington Bear at the Tower of London but it was the equivalent of $24 and it wasn't very big sooooooo I figured I could find one somewhere else for a LOT cheaper, or I could just take a picture haha. I hope you all are doing well! 
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Frau Caitlyn
I bought a wedding gift off an online registry for my Argentinean friend who is marrying a Swiss man this weekend. After the wedding in Vegas she will move to Switzerland with him, hence the registry is with a Swiss department store. When I picked my steel knife sharpeners and proceeded to check out, I had to choose a title.. Mr. Mrs. or both. Those were my only options. I declined. Then the dialogue box popped up telling me I had to choose a title or else.
Sadly, I clicked Mrs.
Mrs. Caitlyn Bodine. And I felt old. At least when my order came up at the end it said Frau Caitlyn instead of Mrs. Caitlyn.
But shouldn't it be Fraulein or something? Like Fraulein Maria and the Von Trapp family?
Sadly, I clicked Mrs.
Mrs. Caitlyn Bodine. And I felt old. At least when my order came up at the end it said Frau Caitlyn instead of Mrs. Caitlyn.
But shouldn't it be Fraulein or something? Like Fraulein Maria and the Von Trapp family?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Good Ol' Paris
I have just returned back from a relatively wonderful weekend in Paris. I say relatively because it rained for a good portion of the trip and there were a few individuals who made it a bit unpleasant when we did groups things like tours. This first picture is from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, on Wednesday I went and saw Othello and this is my friend Whitney and me before the show began. It was PHENOMENAL!! I'm not a huge fan of the story of Othello, reading it anyway but the performance was just superb, even though I was standing for 3 hours and 2o mins. Tuesday I went to see Mary Poppins and I confess I was a little bit disappointed, the special effects and set design was really good but the story was a bit different than what I was familiar with, not to mention the added scene in which the children's toys become angry, life-size scary clowns and what not. I did not clap for that scene. Friday morning at 11:15, 47 people, myself included, boarded a coach to head to the Waterloo station where we would take the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) to Paris.At 11:20, prior to departing our meeting place, 2 girls realized they had forgotten their passports. Finally at 11:30 we were on our way and it took us an hour to get to the station. Traffic was horrendous, but we got to the train and boarded on time. The train ride was about 2 1/2 hours and was a little cramped but for the most part pleasant. Another bus took us from Gare de Norde to our hotel which was attached to the Gare de Lyon train station. My next picture is Paris 10 mins after arriving at our Hotel. In case you are not able to tell, it's pouring in the picture and it rained some part of every day.
I roomed with a girl I met on the train through a girl in the class I'm taking and a group of 5 of us traveled together. We ate dinner at a little pizza place near our hotel and then walked around the city. I ended up being the navigator as I was basically the only one who could effectively read a map. On our way back from Notre Dame, about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, we got banana and nutella crepes with the assistance of a nice old man who helped us order.
The next morning all 47 of us took a bus tour around the city, one of the instances where I was annoyed by some people in the group who began drinking the day before on the chunnel and are still going tonight, they haven't been sober since Friday. Our guide for the tour took us to Luxembourg Gardens, the Eiffel Tower, the tomb of Napoleon, etc. and ended at the Louvre. Because the Louvre is so big, my friends and I made a few short stops inside to see the crown jewels, the Mona Lisa (which you are no longer allowed to take pictures of at all) and the Venus de Milo
. This picture is me being a goof at Luxembourg Gardens, our first stop where we almost left 2 people, at our second stop we almost left 2 more people, our guide forewarned us that if we were not punctual we would be left behind. Apparently they didn't get the message. I left my friends at 1 because Friday morning I received an email from Mike saying surprise how about I come spend the day with you in Paris on Saturday
so, still believing it to be a joke I went to my hotel to see if he was actually there and SURPRISE there he was, sitting in the lobby. He had arranged everything spontaneously at the last minute with the help of his mom and his aunt. Although I was a bit distressed by our inability to communicate with each other, it was a wonderful suprise and I'm so glad he came. We walked around for a while and got some lunch and then went up the Eiffel Tower with the group and took a riverboat tour. It was beautiful, but it got cold with the rain.This morning, we went to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur before Mike had to leave for the airport. Unfortunately, we had a little trouble finding it and walked around for about 30 mins before finding it. We got ham and cheese crepes and banana and nutella crepes for breakfast and then took pictures. And as quickly as he had arrived, it was time for Mike to go. I walked him to the metro stop that would connect him to the RER and then to the airport and said goodbye with the hopes that maybe he'll be able to come visit in London. I seemed to improve my pronunciation of the few phrases I knew in French like no merci to the people trying to get me to give them money or buy things from them and bonjour.
I was glad to get back to the cleaner city, where they speak English. However, those same people that were intoxicated the entire trip bought several bottles of liquor on the train and when we left the train one girl was so drunk she had to have someone carry her bags and then proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs while passing lines of people in Waterloo station. I was mortified to be associated with this horrible example of Americans. To top it off, we had to stop on the 20 minute bus ride back to South Kensington so 2 of the drinkers could run to a bathroom because they were sick. Overall, I enjoyed the trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go again. I think I appreciated what the city had to offer much more this time around although I much prefer London-there's substantially less smoking.
This coming Saturday I'm going to Bath for the day and I may be arranging to have lunch with a friend from home who is also studying abroad. Somewhere in there, perhaps tomorrow which is a Bank Holiday, I have to write a paper due Wednesday. This week is supposed to be more like the weather I expected, rainy and cold. I miss everyone and I'm thinking about you all while I'm here in London and while I was in Paris!
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