Stratford upon Avon

So i'm a bit of a literary nerd. and i live about a 30-minute bus ride from Stratford upon Avon, the home of the great William Shakespeare. People support me in my nerdy habit--for Christmas, David bought me an action figure of the Bard. and this weekend, Elizabeth, my Northwestern English alumna friend, came to visit. so we all went to Stratford.

go figure it's the capitalistic mecca of everything literary. but it was fun and took my mind off of my impending thesis proposasl deadline. plus, we got to eat pasties, play with soap in Lush, drink at the oldest pub in Warwickshire and see where a man broke the Guiness Book of World Records by playing the Organ for 33 hours and 12 minutes consecutively. great country, that england:0)

Prague Finale

now it's time for the drunk Scottish men in the city centre! and Franz Kafka's grave. let me just say, if you're ever looking for a Jewish Cemetary and don't know if you're in a Jewish Cemetary, then you're not there yet. after searching around for about two hours, running into the Christian cemetary followed by the Russian Orthodox one, we found the beautifully manicured and Star of Davided one. then we knew we were there! the only other news about these pictures...after leaving the drunk scottish men to go back to england, i later found that the Hearts lost to Praha by a lot. sad.

and then, after this, i promise i'll have photos of the country i actually live in. i haven't taken any yet, but Leamington Spa is lovely in the AUTUMN (not the fall. people look at you funny when you say fall). But Elizabeth is here this weekend bearing tidings from my old edinburgh world, and we're off to explore the faraway lands of Warwick, Stratford and everything on the X17 bus route in between. until then, the last of Prague town:

Prague semi-finale

so i'm almost upon my one month anniversary of moving across the pond, and i guess life has just gone to show me that you can never expect what will happen next. i've overly lamented, cried, wailed and gnashed my teeth frankenstein style, but i'm still here. grad classes are unbelievably challenging, and short of carrying a dictionary to class and looking things up whilst my professor speaks, i'm hanging on by my shoelaces.

but i've discovered some previously forgotten lovely little cultural nuances. the british love everything on a sandwich ie. onion bhaji, hommous and cucumber, five cheeses with pickle on bread. then they put it in a little sandwich plastic indestructable-o box so you can carry it in your handbag with minimal squishing. delicious. i have also grown to appreciate bad bell ringing during monday night practices, instant coffee, flavoured everything crisps and things that should not be spelled with "u"s having u's in them again.

there are, of course, photos to come. elizabeth is ending her three-month european journey in lovely leamington spa this weekend so i'll make sure to sport my camera. in the meantime, i'm posting the rest of Prague including wonderful street performers, cathedrals, things written in czech and generally old buildings. oh, and the 200 Scottish men we found pregaming in the city centre one particularly sunny czech thursday. (wait, i lied the programme is not working tonight. those are what's yet to come...)

End of Paris, start of Prague

okay so i'm still backdating these posts, but it actually takes quite a bit of time to upload photos on this thing. here's my last night in paris--we picniced on wine and cheese under the eiffel tower. and then moving on to Prague--i met up with elizabeth, from study abroad, and nasim who was rounding out her week-long vacation.

Up the skirt of the eiffel tower and other assorted shots:






and then, Prague. in nasim's cousin's HUGE flat, along the Vlatada River and down the Charles Bridge:

More Paris

as promised, more photos. people in these pictures could possibly be: me, Elodie (the french flatmate), Anna (the german flatmate), Pierre (the french friend from edinburgh), Rebecca (anna's sister) or any one of Elodie's given friends. the first photo is the view out elodie's front window...subsequent photos are taken all around the city and include the arc de triomphe, the seine and amelie's cafe. i'd give the photos captions themselves, but i'm not that good at this yet, and the art of html code is lost on me.