The Fruits of My Labor And Your Neglect...

RECRUITMENT IS OVER!!! That was a hurray shout from me for having the most stressful week of my life over! But for the best part of it, we got 24 amazing new girls who are so beautiful and precious! New babies to take care of and show them our love for this place! But anyways, on to the decorations! The picture above was our banner on Open House Night. This night we also do the ceiling in full out balloons in a rainbow stripe! It's beautiful and very catchy! The next night was Philanthropy night, which was Anchors Away with Sigma Kay! This was our banner and we served ginger ale this night! It looked very nautical and our outfits were so fun!

At each of the tables the girls made soap fish to send to Maine Seacoast Mission. The soap fish were bars of soap wrapped in saran wrap and then felt fins and eyes glued on to make them look like fish! Really cute!
Didn't everybody look so cute?!

Candyland night was my absolute favorite. It was such a good feeling to see my thoughts come to life in front of me. I kept telling people, "this is what my brain looks like!" It felt so good to finally see it come together but I had a very hard time delegating this night because I knew what it needed to look like from my head. But it turned out great! The floor was a really nice addition with the candyland board game trail going around it! Real fun and the skit was hilarious!

Queen Frostine in her corner...These were the table centerpieces that related with each corner of the room...

My lovely friend Katie Dean was Plumpy. She sat high up in her tree (coke machine) the whole party and people would just look up there and be like "Oh my! There is a person up there!!" It was quite funny to see everyones face with this realization.
Princess Lolly and Jolly and then Melinda. In the skit Melinda was one of the kids who traveled along the deserted rainbow road to find the Sigma Kappa Candy Castle!

This is how cute everyone was!Gramma Nutt was Mary Alice she was just precious! Isn't she perfect as her?!?!
Ms. Mint was played by Angela Vance...

And here I am with my loveliest of friends on Chapel Day ready to get our new girls. It was definitely worth all the stress and everything I went through (laptop breaking, car not working, phone not working, etc.). Enjoy!

A Beautiful Place

So I want to go ahead and apologize for not writing! Internet is 5 euros an hour here or 10 for 24. We finally gave in and bought the 24 hours. Anyways, the flight experience from London to Dublin was awful. The airport there was intimidating, going through security and all. I have a really funny story to share later about that. But also the airport was laid out terribly and when one gate was releasing people from a flight you could not get past it. We were gate 78. It took 30 minutes to walk through the airport to our gate. Once we got on the flight, I finally had a window seat but the driver was crazy!! He was all over the air and my ears hurt for the first time in awhile. I was glad to get back on the ground but so sad I had to wake up...I took advantage of that 1 hour plane ride.

When we got to Dublin, we immediately took tours all day. St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, Trinity College, and the Book of Kells wason our list. I was so ecstatic about going to see the Book of Kells but when we got there, they were working on it so it wasn't on display...a photocopy was in its place! Boo!

Finally back to our hotel that night, we ate a meal at the restaurant in the hotel with the whole CCSA program. After that a couple of us went out to a pub for about an hour before we came in to sleep for an early night. We have gotten really close to some people in our group, I really like it.

The next day we went to Wicklow, Glendalough, and Bray. The Wicklow Mountains were gorgeous. This is where parts of P.S. I love You was shot. It was beautiful, so green and unique. We went to Glendalough which was an old monastic site next to two beautiful lakes. I don't think any other place could have been this beautiful even though it was raining!

Sack lunches for the day...and then headed to Bray, a seaside town with a beautiful beach. Here is a picture of us with some of our new friends. This is Lauren and Ashley, Lauren is from Kentucky and Ashley is from Washington. They are really fun!

Exhausted once again, we came back and went to watch Twilight. :) It was nice to see it again! Then we headed to Braisen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin and Ireland! It was so full of character! There was a live band there playing....a group of older men playing some rock and roll...we had so much fun! Everyone loved the American girls! We were finally accepted and received some hospitality, it was nice!

Then yesterday we had a day to ourselves to go around Dublin. We of course went to the Temple Bar area which is a small district of shopping and tiny streets. We also went to Grafton Street which is pedestrianized and lots of shopping. Really fun but also expensive here! The difference between prices on tags was about 20 units between euros and pounds. So buy clothes in London and not Dublin! After lunch time we came back and took naps and then had class at 5. After class we attended another play, it was terrible! It was "Playboy of the Western World" an Irish pastime. It probably would have been better if we would have known the inside jokes that the locals knew, but I wasn't impressed, especially after attending Wicked last week! :)

And this is where we went today. A beautiful seaside port called Howth. Oh my goodness it was beautiful. I broke away from the crowd today and got some time to myself. This was so nice. I took pictures, walked out on a beautiful pier, met an old Irish man named Bernard and his dog Woody...only after Woody ripped my coat! Don't fear! He was a nice dog, just really excited and jumping and playfully biting. Bernard pointed me towards a place where I could get the most breathtaking views and a cutting edge over the rest of the students in my class..an old radio tower up on a cliff. It was gorgeous!

Here was the view! I was very thankful to my new Irish friend! After this, we headed to Malahide Castle on the train. Once again, a beautiful place. I haven't downloaded the pictures from there yet, my computer is having hard drive space issues...

It was beautiful though sitting in a huge green park. We watched the sunset there and then headed back into town. After getting back we ate at the restaurant at the hotel again and I had lasagna, it was delicious! And I haven't been feeling well today so I came back and napped for awhile.

I have had so much fun on this trip but time and sleep are catching up with me! It will be so exciting to get back to the States and get some good home cooked food and sleep and see all of you all! I hope you all are well! See you in a couple of days!

All You Need is love....da da dadada

So today, I got everything finished in London that I wanted to do! I couldn't be more satisfied with my trip here! I started off the morning with meeting with my group to study for our presentation for class at 6. After that, me George, and Liz headed out to get our list accomplished. We went to Platform 9 3/4 and took pictures, went shopping at Camden, ate at some Chinese vendor, went to ABBEY ROAD!, and the Beatles store! We also went to have tea at Harrod's, the largest most extravagant department store I have ever been too! It was definitely an experience! After that we had class and then we went to this place called The Swan to eat. I had roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas. It was delicious! Although I figured out why I am getting sick and my throat is hurting after I eat...I am very dehydrated but it is definitely part of the culture to have very little drink with your meal. Water only comes in a small glass and no refills. I can't wait to get back to the states where I can drink as many glasses as I want. :) After that, me and Lauren, (a new found friend) had to go by larger carry on cases. Yes, I did by that many gifts for you and for myself :) of course, you know how bad of a shopper i am. And so we headed back to the hotel to sit around with everyone and talk. I am very happy with my time here. Love you all and talk to you in Dublin!!

Two Days Down and A Happy New Year!

Well, guys, I am so sorry that I have not posted! It has been a very busy past two days! Yesterday we woke up early to ride in a coach to Stonehenge and Bath. This was really cool. 1. Because we got to see two amazing landmarks in history and 2. because I got to sleep a couple more hours! I have never slept so well on a bus. The countryside was beautiful. It was freezing (actually the coldest it has been here in a long time, of course that would happen while we were here) and there was frost on everything. It was also very foggy and was really beautiful. When I woke up and looked out the bus window, I saw Stonehenge...really cool. :) By the way I know I look like an Eskimo in this picture, but do not make fun of me, for I was the only one in our group that was warm!

After Stonehenge, we headed towards Bath, an ancient city that looks like Rome because the Romans were the first to come to this country. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! We went to the Roman Baths were the people used to come and bathe for healing and just general purposes in the sulfur water. Yummy. lol. Anyways, it was very pretty and so was the town. Jane Austen used to live there and we met an awesome man who was standing outside of her house who told us that Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage both had houses there. I decided I wold probably be the 3rd Kentuckian to have a house there. :)

At Garfunkel's in Bath, England. This is Brenton Curry, Me, Cathy Frank, and Darrell my professor. The most normal food I had had yet..lemon and herb chicken, chips (french fries), and vegetables. Chips are served with everything and I am getting pretty tired of them!

On the way back from Bath was some of the best sleep. After we got back we chilled in our rooms for acouple of hours and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut...really funny while we are overseas...oh but no surprise it didn't taste the same. When we got ready to go out, we headed to Trifalgar Square which is kind of like Times Square. The crowds were so crazy, on the Tube and on the streets that we were like sardines. At one point we were walking on a layer of McDonald's fries and boxes. When we ended following the crowds, it had taken us to the Riverside instead of Trifalgar because of overflow. It was so crazy trying to get through but we finally made a mad rush when they released the crowd and got great seats to see the fireworks next to some high school students who were really fun to talk too. The fireworks were the prettiest I had ever seen. When the clock striked twelve, nothing really happened. lol. We wanted cheering and music but the fireworks just kept going, so we circled in a group and sang the new year's song (or at least hummed it) and felt pretty American.

After the fireworks was the most exhausted I had been for it took 2 hours to walk home. No tube or anything. And there was glass and drunk people all over. It was nasty and I was very tired. But after we got back we met up with some people in our class and hung out for a bit and then went to sleep. It was a good fun filled day and a happy new year! Mama and Daddy you would be happy to know that I told every English person I met last night that they should eat cabbage, hog jowl, and blackeye peas for health, wealth, and happiness.

And so this morning we didn't have class until 12:30 which was really nice because of the new year's celebration but after that we set out on our Museum day which was amazing! First we went to Tate Modern Art Museum where I saw Picasso, Monet, Rothko, and Pollock all in one room! Talk about overwhelming! I just told Brett that you would expect those to have a room to themselves but they were all there next to each other! I also got to see some Roy Lichtenstein and Paul Cezanne.

Then we walked to the National Portrait Gallery which made me so happy because I got to see Annie Lebowitz Exhibition was there!! It was so amazing to actually see her potraits up close and in such large form! If you aren't sure who she is, she is a famous portrait photographer who took pictures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair for many years..such people as Demi Moore (maternity pics), Arnold Schwarznegger, Johnny Depp, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and many others are in her pictures, even Richard Avedon whom is another famous photographer of this time period which is really ironic she got pictures of him. It made me laugh. :)

But the best part of the day came after we ate pasta and headed towards the Apollo Theater where I saw Wicked for the first time!!! I LOVED IT! If you are a Wizard of Oz fan at all, you need to see this show! I was amazed at how extravagant the scenes and setting were and also the costumes! Plus I just downright love witch stories! You know I am a witch guru. :) This could have quite possibly beat out Hocus Pocus.And so after that part of the night was over, me George, and Liz headed to Big Ben to take pictures at night. Here is the picture I came over here for and I am very happy to have it now. Anyways, it is very late and I have to get up very early tomorrow! Hopefully going to see Abbey Road and other things such as. Goodnight and I love you all! Happy New Years! Eat some cabbage, hog jowl, and blackeye peas for me!