Well- I'm in real Scotland now! Edinburgh is the second best place we've been on this trip! The people are far more friendly here than anywhere in England and the culture is great!

We've got a busy week ahead of us that's for sure. Tonight we're going to see a premiere of "16 Years of alcohol" with the director right there answering questions and stuff- then off to a Rhumba night at one of the clubs.

Tomorrow we're going to see the premiere of a student film and that's pretty much all we have planned for the weekend.

Next week we're off to Lock Ness in search of the monster for the day which should be interesting.

Our flats here are really nice, somewhere where I could actually see myself living. Scotland is very "posh".

peace out for now...I'm gonna go make some dinner before the movie.

22 hours, 4 people, 4 bikes, 44 miles, best day ever.

Well- we're officially in Scotland now! I'm on the Isle of Aaron- which is one of the coolest places I've been EVER! The huge hills/mountains are covered with green and little streams running down the side of almost every one.

We traveled on multiple trains and a ferry to get here yesterday, but it was well worth it. Adam said yesterday that its nice to look out the window and see something rather than concrete. So true! I guess I never realized it was so beautiful here- thing Rohan from The Lord of the Rings...

I think we're going to try and find some bikes today and go biking around the island... I'd like to find some hiking trails and get to the highest point. I'd also just like to sit back and relax. Which is what I think I'm going to do right now and wait for everyone else to wake up.

I never thought it would feel so good to be back in England... I had a great time in Prague, but its nice to be back were you can actually ask people something and they understand what you're saying. Now only if you could take the people's attitudes of the people in Prague and the city and have them speak my language it would be fantastic!
 
Actually- I'm making it sound much worse than it actually was. Prague was very very interesting. People were right when they said they heard it was a beautiful city, but have never been there. I would say that its only of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The gardens are the best part! Its surprisingly hard to find local Czech food too- I noticed there was a lot of Italian food, but good Italian food at that (can't go wrong with Italian).
 
Our flight ended up getting delayed last night so we didn't get in until late. There were about 10 English guys on the plane "passing wind". It was horrible! Almost to the point of puking! They said they "tainted the image of England for ever". I think they were right.
 
So I'm in Bath now. The 3 some took a trip to town today to check out a few things and work on our photo assignments- contrasting the old and new. We went to the Royal crescent and the Roman baths. Both of which I thought were really cool- the other 2/3rds of me weren't that impressed with the crescent the 1/3 of me did. Before we ventured out we had a quick bite to eat at a little local cafe. SMOOTHIE!!!!!!!
 
I'm at the university now just chillin' and I plan on finishing up my assignment and taking a nap before I fire the missiles!
 
Cheers!

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day! Nicole, Jen, and I went to this garden thing and just relaxed for the afternoon. They had a stair case that over looked prague- so we sat there for about an hour and just chatted about random stuff. I found out that Nicole doesn't live too far from my brother Jerry's house! She lives over on Square Lake Rd and Livernoise! Also she went to the same elementary school as Shelby does! How funny is that!
 
After the park we decided to take a paddle boat out on the river for an hour! This was soooooo relaxing! It was also reletively cheap- $2 american for each person. So the Debbies, Bugsy, and I decided to go again today- I think we might actually swim in the river today.
 
The weather is starting to heat up and the europeans are starting to smell... I almost wish I was sick again just so while walking through the crowds I wouldn't get a whiff of some serious B.O...yuck.
 
I'm hungry so I'm out for now.

Well- its certainty been an interesting time in Prague. I've been having a great time so far! The weather is really nice today so I think I'll be enjoying that later today. I think some of us are planning on taking some paddle boats down the river.

Had a great day yesterday and the day before too. Thursday Nicole and I we out to lunch and I had one of the best meals so far! After lunch we split and worked on our photo projects for a while and met back up to take the jaunt back to the hostel. On the was back we decided to go up the clock tower in old town square. HOW AMAZING! I'm so glad we decided to stop! The view was amazing. I have plenty 'o pics, but I'll have to post them later.

Yesterday we Jen, Nicole, and I took a long walk up to the "castle". It was fun to just walk around and discover some different stuff that people would maybe normally not see. We all went back to the hostel and I took a long nap. I woke up mid-dinner so Nicole and I went out for a nice dinner at one of the local restaurants. MMMMMMMMMMMM steak. It was great to actually get some protein in my body! Finally a bunch of us went out to a kariokee (sp?) bar near the hostel. Oh yeah- Nicole and I tried the Absenth and got a little absenth minded....

Peace.

Prage is so interesting, but also confusing 'cause I don't remember any of the places I've been because of the language barrier.

After class this morning Nicole and I decided to catch some lunch. We ate at some modern place and I wasn't sure what to order (you know me and my picky eating). Well- I got some chicken stuffed with ham and some sauce on it. BEST THING I'VE HAD THIS WHOLE TRIP! I seriously want to go back one more time before I leave.

After lunch we worked on our photo projects a little. I'm doing arches and curves. So far I think I have some good stuff...

After shooting we decided to go back and find something to do for the next few days. I don't know any of the popular tourist destinations because nobody I really know (besides Jada) has been here. So we just sorta wonder all day until we find something cool. So we ended going up this huge clock tower thing thats in one of the city's squares. It over looks all of old Prague and I got some great panoramic photos. It was worth the hike up the tower...or lift ride. lol.

Tonight we're going on a Jazz boat up the river which should be really sweet with all 21 of us! WAAAAHOOOO!

Peace out. A-Town.

Hey everyone! I'm in Prague now! Telecommunications are hard to find here! Plus the phone system is really complicated so its hard to call home from here. Everything else is really really sweet! The buildings are really cool- I can't post any pics from here though 'cause I'm having to use an internet cafe's computer to access the net. At least the keyboards are in English.

We've been to a lot of cool places already, but I don't speak the language so its hard for me to remember names- even street names are hard to remember! Yesterday we hiked up this huge hill that over looks all of Prague- it was really cool. We decided to take the tram down the side of the mountain, but when we got to the bottom there were people checking tickets. Well- when we bought our tickets at the top we didn't see anything to validate the ticket with. The guy at the bottom wasn't happy with us and wanted us to pay a fine of 400 crowns (sp?) (about $16 U.S.). Well luckily Debbie and Meredith were with us and talked the guy out of it. It was really stupid though because it said nothing at the top about validating the tickets before getting on the train- we have a feeling it was a trap for stupid tourists like us to pay more money! Oh well I guess...

I'm out for now. Its awesome! Our hostel is really cool too- we have a whole floor (6th) all to our selves with 2 balconies overlooking the city...

Lata.

Last night in London...

Last night we saw "Jerry Springer the Opera". It was great! Really profane, but hilarious to see people singing opera about "I'vvvvvvvvve been seeeeeeeeeing yooooooooooour beeeeeest friend!". Its not in the U.S., but I'd expect it to come over sometime in the near future. If you liked South Park the movie, this would be right up your alley.

Today I didn't really do much. I got a hair cut and several complements! WAAAHOOOO! Other than that I didn't really do much today. Packed up and got ready to leave for Prague (we leave in 6 hours- yikes!).

Closing thoughts on London...

Its been an eye opening experience for me thats for sure. To stop and think a whole other life path exists over here is just mind boggling. To think some people over here will never experience some of the things that I've experienced living in the U.S. and things that I'll never get to experience by not living in England. This really hit me while I was riding the bus though the country side on our way back from Stonehenge. Passing all the little houses on the English country side thinking about what life there must be like. I came into this expecting London to be much like many large U.S. cities. Boy was I wrong. I heard someone say while I was here that the UK and the U.S. were "two countries divided by a common language". Thats exactly right. Even if they speak the same language the culture and daily life is vastly different.

Good bye London.

p.s. I'm not sure how easy its going to be to get 'net access in Prague so this might be my last update for a while- or at least until we get back to England.

Its been a long while... I've still been very busy in London- taking in as much as I can I guess.

Chicago was great! A lot of people have been asking me which is better- the movie or musical? Well- I have to say they both hold their individual qualities. I was most looking forward to seeing the "cell block tango" the most. I was a little disappointed with the musical in this respect... I love the tango- its my favorite type of dance, but in the musical the women didn't interact with the guys AT ALL!!!!! The best part of the movie was the dancing in that part- there was barley any in the musical (during the tango)! I did like seeing a live jazz band and people actually singing and dancing in front of me- even if we were 3 rows from the back!

Yesterday we all had our documentary photo presentations due. I ended up doing a movie about the making of an umbrella at that local umbrella shop. Which I'll post a link to on my site sometime in the near future.

After the presentations we all ate dinner at the dorm and took off to The Globe theater to watch a Shakespeare play ("Measure for Measure"). This was the best thing I've done sense being in London! The Globe is soooooo sweet- it was like time warp or something. We had the cheap "seats" which were standing seats on the main floor. I guess the poor people back in the day would stand the whole time like we did (3 hours). The wealthy people would sit in the stands surrounding the stage. This place was really cool and the acting was really great! There was a guy playing a women in a boos-tae (sp?). Well- his nipples were slipping out on the sides and Annie and I were laughing at him and stuff. Well- at the end of the play when there were all dancing around he came over to our side of the stage and bowed and winked at Annie! It was hilarious! I must say again that this was the best thing we've done so far! I would strongly recommend it for anyone who comes to London. Plus on the walk back to the tube you walk across the millennium bridge which is awesome at night.

So now everyone is gone for the week end- some people to Brighton, some to Liverpool, and some to Paris. I decided not to go anywhere 'cause the trips were really short (less than 48 hours in Paris!!!). So some of us are going to the "Jerry Springer Opera" tonight. Which looks hilarious! Check out the web site.

So I need to get some stuff done before leaving for Prague on Sunday. Laundry here I come!

Yesterday was a rather uneventful day for london. I was trying to get better and kick this sinus stuff that I have so I slept for 13 hours. I felt much better when I woke up though so that was great!

I ended up going down to the umbrella shop to take some photos for my story. I was origionally going to do it about the sales of the shop and stuff, but ended up getting a chance to go down into the workshop where they actually make 'em and stuff. The guys were really cool- we didn't really talk much about the actual stuff- more about social events in our countries. Janet's boob came into conversation as did other ameraican past times. lol.

After that we had a guest speaker (Andy Golding) come from the University of Westminster come over to the dorm. He was really enthustiac about his work and tried to give us a quick lecture about lighting in photographs. He was cool and I really enjoyed his lecture.

Then we ate dinner and went out for some night photography. I ended up taking the DV cam out with me and shooting some home video stuff. We decided as a last minute thing to go up the london eye which is the largest faris wheel in the world and it over looks big ben and stuff- kicked total butt.

Today we got up early and got tickets to see Chicago tonight (cell block tango here we come!). Took a quick trip though the Saatchai gallery- which was semi-disturbing I must say. Then took a little walk though Westminster Abbey and went out to eat at a good old American cafe- mmmmmmmmm burgers! ahhahaahah.

Now we're back and I have to take off to get ready to leave to see Chicago!

Cheers!

Stonehenge

Wow! What a long grueling day! After waking up to Bugsy knocking at my door at 2:55am this morning I rushed out to the coach- they were waiting for me! I totally thought we weren't leaving until 3:30am so I was planning on sleeping until 3am. We arrived at Stonehenge a few minutes before sunrise. It was a little creepy- it had a surreal feeling to the place. Either that or it was because I have a sinus infection and work up at the pre-butt crack of dawn. It just didn't really seem that I was there.

We've been out of internet so I haven't been able to update, so I have to fill in on the last few days. Saturday night we went out to a club called "Cargo" and had a blast! The music was really funky- not flat out techno, but more like house/hip-hop/trance stuff. I discovered their drink of choice called Shanty- 1/2 beer and 1/2 lemonade. It's really gooooooood.

On Sunday we tried to get up and go to church at St. Paul's but didn't make it in time 'cause the cue for tube tickets was really long. Jen, Nicole, and I ended up going over to Greenwich where 0 degrees longitude is. It was pretty cool and they had a cool over look of the city. We got back early and I crashed 'cause I wasn't feeling too well and we had to get up early today.

I'm on my way down to the Virgin Mega Store right now with Annie and Teresa.

Peace.

Well- today we decided to go to the markets and Harrods store. Lots and lots of people. Too many people in fact. I didn't buy anything and didn't really want to. Actually, I sort of hated it.

But I'm really tired right now and I think I'm going to take a quick nap before dinner.

Peace.

Big Ben


Piccidilly Circus


Buckingham Palace

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had a very civilized tour of the new (opened in 2000) Tate Modern Museum near the Millennium bridge. There were a lot of famous works there- some Warhol, Picasso, Monet, etc. But guess who's work was there!?!?! Yes- my favorite artist of all time Edward Hopper! Although I did see "Nighthawks" in Chicago it was great to see it again in London with the rest of his work. They had about 30 Hopper works on display and some of them were amazing!

We spent a long time there and then ventured back to the dorm for dinner. We were planning on meeting in the lobby at 9pm so I sat in my room and edited my photos 'cause we have a critique today at 2pm. We ended up going down to the Maple Leaf bar 'cause it was Canada's Independence day. Bad idea! There were soooooooo many people out down there it was crazy! So we ended up hopping back onto the tube and took it over to Piccidilly Circus and going to an Irish bar called O'nells or something like that. Man did we have a great time! We ended up dancing away to some early 90's rap with a little Irish jig thrown in for good measure! We ended up getting back really really late, but it was a great time! One funny thing was all the guys in the program were out with a few or the girls- so it was sort of a bonding experience I guess... I enjoyed myself.

Out for now! Cheers!