Saved by moms IPAD

Ok well first off Bath:
Bath is the most beautiful city we have seen to date. It is difficult to descibe how pretty it is but my goodness I loved that city! Some highlights: Jane Austen- a few of her novels were influenced by Bath and it was fun to go to the Jane Austen Centre, as many of you know she is one of my faviorte authors. We got to see some of the sights she describes in her novels and it was awesome! Mainly we just wondered around the city but it was great. at the end of the day we set out to find our hosts house but first we stopped at an internet cafe to get directions, here we met this kid who is the first person in Europe to create a 3d system for playing video games it was really cool. then we followed the directions given to us to the persons house and missed the holloway (actually I just did not know this meant underground). so we got lost walked about a mile in the wrong direction, stopped at a hotel where we were given mapquest directons then followed those. we ended up walking us this BIG hill and i am talking steep (like the driveway in lake chelan only a few miles long). we got to where we were staying and found out she got her dates mixed up but we could stay there anyways. it was fine but a bit awkward. that is about it for bath
LONDON (so far)
we got to london and got to our hostel only to find it super sketchy! at first i thought it was going to be fine because this guy that works there was nice and was watching lady gaga music videos and then Justin Beiber and I naturally talked to him about these music choices so from then on when ever he saw me he would start singing baby to me. but anyways the hostel was horid! it was hot, we were the only tourists, lots of people were just looking for jobs, my phone got stolen and it gave me the creeps. so the first full day we explored and say the castle, tate modern and the eye and then decided we could not go back there because it made us physically cringe at the idea of sleeping there again. so we tracked me down a new phone to buy and then called my mom and asked her to use her powers of internet to find us a place to stay! we were lucky she had her IPAD with her! anyways now we are staying near notting hill and we feel safe and slept well. (katie did not have to sleep holding everything she cares about) today we say Westminster Abby and the house of parliment and a few other things like the National Gallery. I like London but it reminds me of an older New York so it does not feel super new to me but it is still cool. I need to go home and read up on English history because it is so facinating.

I miss Karaoke! oh and England is having a heatwave go figure... we have not seen rain since we left! I miss it. but not too much! Ok that is the abridged version of what I have been up to since my last post. Love you all!

Wales and Oxford

Ok so Wales was so so, it did not make my list of places to come back but it was pretty. we got off the airplane and waited for a bus and the bus we wanted passed by and these four elderly folk with accents got all mad and were so hilarious about it. they kept having round about conversations (meaning the conversation repeated over and over) one lady said the bus driver had no right to assume we would not want that bus! and when the other bus came another lady said she would stop it with her foot if she had to. it was just so amusing. I couldn't even be mad about missing the first bus because I was so entertained. so we finally got on the bus and then we got to Cardiff central but the drive there was so pretty, there were horses (abby: you would've loved it!) but when we got there it was kind of dirty and a bit sketchy. then we decided to walk to the bay because we were waiting for the lady we were staying with to call us. we accidentally ended up walking through the projects of cardiff which may not sound scary but let me tell you! the Welsh accent is so hard to understand that I could not understand a single thing they were saying so I was (probably irrationally) fearing a surprise attack. we made it through and the bay was really pretty. it is where Dr. Who and Torchwood is filmed and produced so katie was excited. we still had not heard from the person we were staying with by the time we had dinner so I called my mom and she was nice enough to find us a cheap place to stay at. basically that is it for cardiff.
Oxford is awesome! I love the old buildings and all the colleges. I was looking for like main campus Oxford but could not find it. we walked past Christ Church which had a really pretty garden and then we walked all over town and while we were walking the lady we were supposed to stay with the night before called me to apologize. it was a bit of an awkward conversation. but at least she called. then we went to the University park which I was not super enthusiastic about but Katie was. we stayed for a bit then went to look at the pretty old buildings got to St. Giles Church then discussed what to do with our time. I did not want to spend my time at a park I wanted to explore and katie wanted to go to the park so we decided to split up and meet at the pub where C.S Lewis and Tolkien met frequently, The Eagle and Child. So I went exploring and looked at this one school which had pretty lawns that you could not touch, which is a trend here (why have a pretty lawn with inviting trees if we cant use them!). then I accidentally found what must be central oxford. there was a cool library and this hall which I could not get in to but I am pretty sure it was the Harry Potter hall. I just enjoyed wondering around and seeing all I could see. At dinner we met these Americans from California who are here filming a documentary about religion and science and how they can go together. we chatted with them for a while and then went back to our hostel. where I watched some of the Greece Vs Argentina game, I am pretty sure I was the only person who wanted Greece to win but that is only because of Nathan and Effie.
Oh! I am super excited to find out I have an accent! I have always wanted to have one! most people mistake me for Canadian based on my accent though, so I dont know what to think about that! but I am excited to have an American/Canadian accent! YAY! Ok next Bath then London! then we are done with our English speaking countries...

Goodbye Scotland

We are leaving Scotland soon. I am both excited and sad about this fact. Edinburgh is on my list of places to come again. Oh and I had 2 glasses of lemonade yesterday! one in the morning which was really good and one in the afternoon which was not good. the second one would've been good if they added water to it but as it was it was like lemon goop and really really sour. I even added mango juice, thinking trader joes had mango lemonade and that is delicious so this should be too, WRONG! it was not good. I ended up buying a bottle of water and downed half of the lemonade and added water to it. the water helped a little.
So far we have done a lot. Saturday night we met some boys from Portugal at our hostel. we ended up going for a walk with them, where I asked a lot of stupid questions because katie was quiet and so were the boys unless prompted. I was sad they had to go the next morning because I really enjoyed them! we ended up going to a pub for a pint before going back to the hostel. We were the first ones in our room to go to bed and we were on the ground floor and well around 1am people who were apparently locked out proceeded to bang on our window which was fairly scary but we did not want to let them in because there was no way of knowing if they were really residents or not so we just tried to sleep through it.
Yesterday we went on a free 3 hour tour (insert Gilligan's Island tune here)it was a walking tour and it was so cool. we learned all about the history and heard stories and yeah. we saw the building that was the inspiration for hogwarts and a tomb with the name Thomas Riddle and other names that are in Harry Potter. I was very excited! we also went to Edinburgh Castle which I really really enjoyed. we got to see where Mary Queen of Scots was born and see the dungon and all sorts of other cool things. the best thing was the view! I called my dad while was there to say happy fathers day and he told me to keep on blogging so this is me keeping on blogging. we leave for Wales soon I am currently uploading pics I have no clue what pics they are because I just clicked random ones. But it should give you guys and idea of what we have been doing. they will be on flickr.

Scotland!

I love Scotland! It is amazing here the people are nice and the cities are fairly easy to figure out! we just got done with the whiskey tour in Edinburgh it was pretty cool. we rode on this thing that took us though how scotch whiskey is made. then we tried some whiskey. I dont like it very much but it is still pretty cool with come water added. our hostel is awesome we are in a dorm style room and we share a bunk. I am trying to find a way to post pictures but it is not working none of these computers have sd card readers and I did not think to bring my usb connecter. I might have to buy one. we have almost 2 more days in Edinburgh and I am really excited because it is quickly becoming my faviorte stop (sorry Ireland) so far. we are becoming pros at walking around with our backpacks on.

Oh so in my previous post I said damn 3a and I did not have time to explain why, it is a joke really. we were told by a waitress to take the 3A bus to find C.S lewis and when we gave up on going to Titantic (because that bus is a ghost and snuck past us) we boarded the 3A but katie asked if this was the right bus for the C.S lewis statue on Hollywood ave (because we were not super sure) and the bus driver looked at us like we were crazy then called over the inspector and he had no idea either so we sat down and then after inspecting our map decided this was not the bus so we got off before it left the station and then went to city hall and st Anne's catherdral (we have seen A LOT of churches!) and a WWII memorial thing. then we walked all the way back to city center to catch what we thought was the right bus and rode it and eventually found the libary where the statue was. while wondering around what bus should drive by but the 3A! we found our friend C.S Lewis and took lots of pics and the old man took a pic of both of us turns out he used to preach at a church in Bremerton and he used to live right by the boarder and visted Lynden and bellingham a lot. well anyways we missed a 3A back and had to wait for the next one and while we were waiting we were jokingly saying damn you 3A! so that is the story of the awesome epic journey to find C.S lewis and narnia.

a series of epic adventures

So in Belfast we had to carry our bags around which made exploring a little harder. we wanted to see the titanic launch spot and the c.s lewis statue but we had to battle the bus system first it was an epic battle which as it turns out was a draw. the bus wont the first round and we could not see titantic but we prevailed over the damn 3a bus and got ourselves to our friend C.S Lewis! I dont have time to give all the details but that was the gist. then we had to find where we were staying but my phone was not letting me call Judith so I had Lupe call her from France. we eventually found Jude and Judith and they took us in their car around belfast where we saw a lot of murals. the Catholic vs Prodastant issue is big! anyways I love Glasgow, Scottland is awesome! we had to stay in a hotel because the people we had planned on staying with fell through. we went on a hike on a natropilus and saw a beautiful view. it was brilliant to stay in a hotel and have a nice shower and a nice big bed! we are off to Edinburgh now will try to update in more detail!

random tour

So we were in the park trying to figure out how to get to get from the path to the grass when the random lady started talking to us. Her name was Francis and she was super nice. So the next thing we know we are being guided all around the part of Dublin we had never seen before! she told us all these stories and we walked a lot! She showed us low income housing and the U2 graftie wall and we went through so many different neighborhood and saw a bunch of different canals and we ended up at the beach! so cool because we were not planning on seeing the beach. we ended up having a picnic there. so yeah that is all for now. tomorrow we leave for Belfast!

day one and two ish

ok so the 17 plus hours of travel to get here were fairly uneventful. I slept through the first two and tried my best to sleep on the last. Boston's airport was so confusing but it made for a funny adventure to find terminal E but after a little while we finally found it. The two girls we are staying with are awesome they are Italians living in Dublin, well actually they live in Swords which is full of cute houses and such. So far we rode on a double Decker bus and sat on the second story, I got my first stamp in my passport, we saw our first castle (Dublin castle), saw our first old church (Christ's Church), sat in a park and ate at a restaurant called Queen of tarts.
Christ's Church was by far my fave part of the day. It is incredible and so amazing how multiple different types of architecture can come together to create such a unique place. We were lucky enough to get there during a service so we got to listen to scripture and pray in this amazing place, I feel blessed to have seen it! I also really liked Saint Stephen's Green (the park we went to) it was a mix of a lake (more pondish), large grass areas, large areas with trees, lots of benches and gazebos. It was nice not to just go go go and see every tourist attraction we could. I think by pausing and taking a break in the park we got to just simply be in Dublin rather than just see it.
Umm awkward moment of the day? well going to find the park and asking this kid raising money for kittens and puppies the paws project. he asked where we were from and I told him Seattle and he asked if I had heard of the Paws project and I said I had partly because I really had heard of it but also partially because I wanted the guy to buzz off. well needless to say he did not believe that I had heard about it before and walked us all the way to the park entrance (which was handy because we didn't know where it was) and then he asked us for a donation and I was like well we will think about it... and he was like don't be like that! think about the kittens save the kittens! and it took all my effort to walk away, apparently I have animal lover written all over my face. it wasn't that awkward just kind of funny! Ok well that is all for today. next we are heading to Trinity college to explore then we are meeting one of the girls we are staying with to go back to her place where we can hopefully crash, because we are sooo tired!

Leaving on a jet plane

In like five hours I will be on a plane on my way to Dublin! I am super tired right now because I did not sleep tonight but I am excited! Yesterday (Saturday) I graduated from college and that is mind boggling it went by so quickly. I suppose I will have to get used to the idea while in Europe... I haven't really wrapped my mind around the fact that I will be in Europe tomorrow but I think it will hit me when I am on the plane. This is going to be a crazy ride and I am excited to share all of this with you all. Hopefully I will have time to update this every once in a while! I set up a Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/amshag/
I will occasionally put photos up on their if I do I will put the link up in my blog so you all will know! K well see you all in 2 months!

Amanda

Thank yous and goodbyes

So at work this past week we have been doing thank you calls. Which is basically calling people and saying hey thanks for the donation and that is it. I don't know why but it is so awkward! It makes no sense why saying thank you is super awkward but I found myself either in a perpetual thanking circle with the caller, "thank you! No, Thank you! etc.." or I have to explain to them that I am not asking for more money which is also awkward. People are just so surprised when you do not have a motive when thanking them. I wonder what the awkwardness of thanking someone says about our society. We do not know how to thank people and we do not know how to respond to being thanked.

In a week from today I will be graduating college and along with that brings many things. Among one of them is having to say goodbye to my cat Cooper. Our landlord next year is not letting pets so alas I have to part with my other half. I am going to miss him so much I freaking love that cat. I am also preparing to go to Europe for the summer! It is coming so quick and i still have a bunch of things to do along with passing my finals and packing up my room but I think I am going to survive. Next week is my last week for 2 months for karaoke! I love going to the Cabin, I am now a regular and last week I did not even have to show my ID! I want the last song I sing for a while to be epic but am having trouble thinking of a song, So far I have sung, I'm Gonna Be (500 miles), Save a horse ride a cowbow, barbie girl, teenage dirtbag, come together.