Stratford upon Avon

Yesterday we went to Stratford upon Avon, where William Shakespeare was born, grew up, and died. It was really interesting, but the city was quite expensive- I suppose thats what happens when you have the rights to everything about the worlds most famous playwright. None the less, it certainly put things into perspective in terms of how old everything is here. We walked past a Pizza Hut and it was in a 16th century building that was 500 years old, and then past a bridge built in 1492, the year Columbus discovered America, and it is still in constant use. It is things like this that we do not have in the United States that makes Europe so unique and so special. Just to think that every week, someone is married in the same church that Shakespeare is buried in! I took a lot of pictures, which can all be seen in the pictures link on this page. Unfortunately I am not sure how long it will take to get more up, since my camera broke yesterday, and I am currently in the process of trying to resolve that situation. There is no way I am going to be in Europe for 5 months without a camera!

Tomorrow classes start, which will be a welcome change in pace from the constant going and doing that has taken place since we got here. Hopefully we will fall into a routine and start to get more settled in!

Settling In

Last night we went out with some of our fellow exchange students after getting to know each other a bit better at a tea party set up by the university. It's amazing that all of us are here, and that we have so much in common even though we are all from such different places. We've met people from Amsterdam, Germany, Finland, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, China, and even Ohio and Arizona! Today a group of us went and got cell phones. Initially, we thought that we could get by, but in this generation it is almost impossible to not have a mobile phone and coordinate everything. It is interesting how popular and simple pay as you go phone plans are. There are several different companies which offer them, and most of them have a few different plans to work out. We have what looks like a credit card, which is connected to our cell phones, and whenever we like we can add minutes, and a "top up" machine, by swiping this card and inserting as much money as you like. While it is cheap for us now to talk to each other over here, for those of you in the States, skype, email, or aim, is still the easiest way to reach me. But life over here is certainly getting easier every day!


UK Mobile #
44-07951892606

Email:
sarah.niksa@wlv.ac.uk

Post Address:
Room 215
Hereford House
University of Wolverhampton
Lomas Street
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
WV1 1QU

Here...Finally!

We have been in Wolverhampton now for a full day, but man, has it been some journey to get here! Traveling certainly started off quite smooth, but as most things in life, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

We started the day around noon on Monday, when my dad brought Heather, Justin and I to JFK. Getting to the airport was surprisingly easy, and once we had checked in, and left our bags, we had plenty of time to get some food, and relax in the terminal. Our flight to Dublin was as well quite easy, and although we took off a bit later than expected the flight went by quickly and was really pleasant, even the food (I know a shock to us too!) It was when we got to Dublin that the chaos began!

We had about an hour layover planned in Dublin, but because of our late departure, it took us a bit longer to get to the city than we expected cutting our time by about 15-20 minutes! Once we had landed we were instructed to follow the signs to customs, and then to our connecting flight. Customs was no big deal, but once we were all through we looked ahead only to find the baggage claim area! We only had a half hour before the flight took off, and it had already begun boarding! We panicked a little, and then started racing through the airport, no doubt informing everyone around us of our nationality at the same time. We mad it through security, and Justin read the monitors to find our gate number which was not posted on our boarding cards. A9, he said, so we ran to gate A9. Once there, Justin handed the man his ticket, and we all took a sigh of relief. "But this is RyanAir" the man said. We all just looked at one another. Because the RyanAir flight and our flight to Birmingham on AerLingus was at the same time, we hadn't even noticed the other airline, or flight number. We took off again, and made our way out of the terminal, baffled that there was no way to get between terminals past security) and to the AerLingus desk. We had undoubtedly missed our flight, along with some character names Bates, who was as well a weary American we later discovered. Luckily the woman seemed unphased by our mis-step, and booked us on the later flight leaving at 9:30, promising to re-tag our luggage for our new flight.

We took a deep breath, and agreed that this was really fine, because we were hungry, and a bit tired. We made our way through security for the third time in 10 hours, found a bathroom (after Justin mis-read a sign for an elevator to be the toilet) and grabbed a bite to eat. We sat down, and I went to open my oddly packaged bottle of sparkling water, which at that moment decided it was going to explode onto my lap! At least it was water, I thought out loud. Not two minutes later, Justin spills his cappuccino all over Heather, down her pants, down her coat, on the floor, it was everywhere. While they were cleaning it up, I ran into a small gift shop to find something to bring us more luck! After looking around a bit, I found a lucky Irish penny keychain, which I thought fit the bill, so I bought it and went out. Justin looked unamused but Heather thought it was a good idea. Not wanting to make more of a scene, we decided to walk to our gate. We followed the signs, and walked down a hallway, where we saw a notice: Attention, all gates ahead, 7 minutes. After sprinting through the airport, we made our way, for yes, 7 minutes, to our gate, which we then discovered was in a temporary terminal...thats right, temporary, which in Irish means, screw you, you messed up, now we are going to not give you heat, and make you sit 7 minutes from the rest of civilization and let your freeze until your plane arrives. And we did, for the next hour we froze and waited for our flight, with our friend, Bates, until our flight came in.

Once on the plane things were fine, we landed quickly, and deplaned, to customs, where they were extremely friendly, more-so than the folks at Dublin International, who had good reason to be grumpy with us, and willingly let us into the country. We walked out and found all of our luggage thankfully, since we had been re-booked after we missed our flight. Now we had to find a way to get from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. As exhausted and forlorn as we were, figuring out the bus and train seemed a ridiculous if not impossible task. We found an information kiosk, and asked the man how, with our obscene amount of luggage, was the best way to get to Wolverhampton. He assured us that a taxi was the easiest, if not the cheapest way with the amount we had to bring with us. As he was talking, a younger man interrupted him, and told us that we couldn't fit us all in a taxi, but he could get a mini-bus (mini-van) and bring us for the same fare of 55pounds. That would be amazing! We all piled in, and thanked our lucky penny for changing our luck!

The man brought us to the door, we paid our 20pounds each, and he unpacked our bags! Feeling deserving, after we had settled a bit, we hit the pub for a quick meal and a drink.

Today, it has set in more that we are here in the UK and will be for a while. I have two flatmates from Germany, one from the Czech Republic, and one from Keene as well. We've been to Asda (British Walmart), gone through some orientation and have unpacked a bit. I'm starting to get excited again to explore the UK and Europe for a while, and I put my map up on the wall, which I plan to add pins to with every place I travel to!