I'm Back to the Land of the Living....

The long-awaited post I'm sure you all have been longing for is finally here! Finals took all energy from me for about 2 weeks. Literally, for 2 weeks, I would wake up, shower, go to the library, open my books, and study for 8-10 hours per day. Only 3 finals, yet they to be so much more fate-determining than the finals I took in undergrad. I wasn't alone at least - my two best friends here, Emily and Meg, joined me in my misery as they too studied for their finals. We had a good bonding experience of studying over multiple cups of hot tea (you know, it's a British thing), breaks of chat sessions (supposed to be 5 minutes but would sometimes turn into 45 minutes), and cups of coffee when we decided we needed to treat ourselves to the 1 pound sterling coffee that a nearby coffee shop offers for 2 hours in the afternoon!

After getting back from our trip at Christmas, my friend Meg and I knew that we wanted to travel to Spain during the break between finals and the second semester (which is 3 weeks long). However, we were so busy studying for finals, we really couldn't plan much of our trip. The day after I finished finals (two days before we wanted to leave for Spain), Meg and I sat down and planned out the trip. We just decided to tour southern Spain, the Andalucia region, which turned out to be perfect. Spain was absolutely gorgeous, and I already want to go back again! The sunshine and warmer weather was a nice change from the cold, wet, dark days of St. Andrews. We flew into Malaga and took a bus to Granada where we immediately fell in love with the city. The first night we went on a tapas tour that our hostel hosted, and we met a lot of really nice people staying in our hostel as well as had amazing tapas! The next day, we visited the Alhambra, which is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish rulers of Granada . We enjoyed Granada so much we decided to rearrange our original itinerary and stay another night there. The next day, we took a bus to Cordoba, where we continued tasting many different tapas dishes, as well as visited some sights there. La Mesquita was the biggest attraction in Cordoba that we saw. Originally built as a church, after the Muslim conquest the building was confiscated for use as a mosque and greatly expanded until it became the second-largest mosque in the world. It is regarded as perhaps the most accomplished monument of the Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba. After the Spanish Reconquista, it was returned to its original use as a church. It was an amazing historical sight that both Meg and I really enjoyed. After one night in Cordoba, we continued to trek west across Andalucia to Seville, where we stayed for two nights. In Seville, the weather was the best we had had since arriving in Spain, and we both really enjoyed just walking around taking in the sights, sitting outside at outdoor cafes, and enjoying the weather! We saw the Cathedral in Seville, the still-royal family's living quarters the Alcazar, and many others. To finish up our last night in Seville, Meg and I went to see a flamenco production. Flamenco is a Spanish dance genre characterized by its audible footwork. It was a great show, and an amazing dance! We then headed back to Malaga in the late afternoon to catch an early flight the next morning. We found a great tapas restaurant the last evening and really enjoyed one more night of Spanish tapas. We had a lovely trip, and weren't ready to come back to St. Andrews!

We arrived back in St. Andrews to what seemed like a ghost town. No one is here, and of 50 people that normally live in Deans Court, only 10 are here right now. It's totally dead, and the few people that were here when I got back are bored to tears! I'm off again on Monday morning to fulfill one of my life-long dreams - skiing in the Alps. I'm flying to Munich where my German friend will pick me up, and we will drive down to Austria to the St. Anton am Arlberg ski area. Another American friend who lives in Deans Court will also meet us in St. Anton, where we will ski for 3 days, and then head back to Munich. Irene will go home to her family for a few more days while my American friend and I will tour Munich for 2 days before heading back to St. Andrews to start the 2nd semester. I can't wait for next week! Hope everyone is well back in the States. Know you are missed!! Sending my LOVE...

Back to the REAL World....of Studying, unfortunately

It's a beautiful day here in St. Andrews - sun is shining, the North Sea a gorgeous shade of blue, birds are chirping, only 40 degrees outside rather than below freezing! I never knew how much sunshine makes a difference in your mood until I moved here and have experienced multiple days in a row, weeks even, without sun rays touching me! It's just too bad that I am inside studying rather than enjoying the fresh air and sunshine! YOU are my excuse to procrastinate, because we all know that it's more important to keep you informed of my life than to study for finals that begin in less than 4 days!

I returned to "the bubble" (as the local students call it) of St. Andrews on Tuesday night after 6 days in Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Holland. It was a great end to the holiday travelling. In Brussels we saw the famous Maneken Pis statue (one of the most notable attractions in Brussels), visited the Belgian chocolate museum, Belgian beer museum, the City Museum (where all of the Maneken Pis' many outfits made by locals and tourists over the years are displayed - and probably one of my favorite rooms in the museum), and some art museums. We also enjoyed many of the Belgian delicacies - chocolate, beer, and Belgian waffles (which, I must add are outstanding and like nothing I've ever tasted....they melted in your mouth)!

Brussels was cold, but bearable with gloves, many layers, and coats. Then there was Amsterdam....and that was extremely cold! We visited the Van Gogh museum, which was probably my favorite art museum that we visited over the last three weeks (and you all know how tolerable I am of museums....I am trying to develop a patience for them!!). We also visited the Anne Frank House, which was outstanding and very interesting. World War II history is one of my more favorite periods in history, and so I really enjoyed this. We enjoyed just walking around the city enjoying the beautiful architecture, houses, canals, bicycles (it is definitely a biking city...with bike paths everywhere you go!), and Heineken Museum the last day. However, it was pretty exhausting, as it was -8 degrees and we were out in that weather for 8 hours a day...and the biggest problem was that we were running out of money, so you can only stop for coffee breaks so often when you are running low on cash!!

The biggest event from Amsterdam surprised us on Tuesday morning. Picture this: there were 5 of us in Amsterdam, and we had a private hostel room with bunk beds for 5 people. My friend Emily was sleeping above me on a bunk, and we she was awoken by the sound of what sounded like someone had their hand in a bag of chips. Well, she thought it was me, and apparently started telling me to stop eating. Then she took her cell phone and lit it up and shined it on me, only to realize I was fast asleep. She then woke me up and asked if I heard the sound that she had been listening to for about 20 minutes. I definitely did....and at that point we realized it was something under our bed. If you go to Belgium, you can't leave without buying some delicious chocolate. When we first got to the hostel, they had said that no food was allowed in the rooms, but we figured if the chocolate was in a sealed and wrapped package, it should be okay, because we weren't going to eat it there. We both had bought chocolates as gifts for friends. Well, once we realized that we probably had a rodent in our room, we turned on the lights and woke everyone else up. We opened the door to the hallway, Emily pulled her bag outside and dumped it out, but there was no rodent in sight. When she started putting the stuff back in the bag, she realized that there had been a rodent....and it had chewed through to her chocolate...and the teeth marks were pretty sizable!

At that, we went downstairs to the reception and they agreed to move us to another room. They also carried our bags for us (I certainly didn't want to carry my bag and the rodent jump out at me!). My concern was that my bag was opened on the floor next to Emily's, so there was a possibility of it being in there! When we got to our new room, we went back to sleep for a few hours and then got up to start getting ready. It was at this time that I realized that my bag had not been spared of the rodent...it had climbed through my bag, dug through clothes to find the chocolate, and it had eaten a chunk of the chocolate. It was quite the adventure, and at that point I decided I was ready to come home. I just felt dirty knowing the rat or mouse had crawled through my bag!

It was nice to get back to St. Andrews to my own bed and a familiar shower with good water pressure, but I can't honestly say I wasn't dreading coming back. Coming home to St. Andrews meant the studying had to start hard core, and let me tell you, it's been a challenge. I have had a hard time finding the motivate to studying and finding any kind of productivity. My exam schedule is a bit harsh, with exams back to back one evening and the next morning for two of the three of them. I've also found that it's very difficult to study in the dark, so that leave basically the hours of 9am - 3 pm for studying in the daylight. After that, the productivity dwindles to pretty much nothing. Finals will be over a week from tomorrow, so I probably will not be doing much communicating in the next week.

After finals there is a large hope that I will be going to ski in the Alps. However, the trip details are still in progress and not set in stone. We have three weeks off before the next semester starts on February 9th, so my ideal break would be to go skiing for a few days and then join a friend on a trip through Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. I'll have to update you on these aspirations at a closer date. Hope everyone's 2009 has started out well! I look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to email at kglisson@alumni.unc.edu or call at 919 809 6760 anytime I cross your mind! :) Miss you all!

Happy New Year!!

January 1, 2009

Happy New Year and a late Merry Christmas to you all! It’s been a while since I last filled you in on what’s happening in my life. Let me begin…

The last few weeks of class were busy with finalizing projects and papers before I headed off for the Christmas holidays. Classes ended on December 19th, with final exams looming over our heads when we return in January. It’s been a change to not have finals before I leave for Christmas break, but no worries, I haven’t opened a book since I stepped foot out of St. Andrews. I guess I can thank the lack of space while traveling for that!

December 19th began my Christmas journeys around Europe. I left with 4 friends to embark on Bratislava, Slovakia first. We landed the evening of the 19th to this very pleasant city. We spent the next day there touring the entire city with a great tour guide. Through lots of research I was able to find a very affordable private 3-hour tour for the 5 of us, and it was well worth it! Never would I have learned so much about this city full of history without Eva the Tour Guide! Bratislava is a mixture of many colors of buildings, with lots of history as well. Remains from the days of Communism can still be seen on some buildings. It has a gorgeous town centre that gives the city a lot of character as well.

That evening, after a full day in Bratislava, we boarded the train for the one-hour ride to Vienna, Austria. We spent the next two days discovering this very beautiful city. Our days were filled with sitting in coffee houses enjoyed the great coffee culture Vienna is known for, touring the Hapsburg Palace and learning about the Hapsburg Dynasty, hearing the Vienna Boys Choir on Sunday morning at mass, being talked into hearing the Vienna Imperial Orchestra one evening, visiting the Sigmund Freud museum (which is at the site of the original house that he and his family lived in), many other museums, and enjoying more coffee. We couldn’t get enough coffee, as it has become our means of staying warm in all these cold cities we have visited! I must say though, there was not a more perfect time to visit Vienna. Nearly every corner we turned we would discover a new Christmas market. They were so much fun, as we would walk around sipping mulled wine to stay warm, eating typical Viennese cuisine and looking at the local produce and gifts for sale.

After our time in Vienna, our group split up, while two of my friends continued traveling, one went to meet their family in Italy, and I went with another friend back to England to experience a British Christmas. The holidays have been really nice. I didn’t realize how much I had missed being in a home for the past 3 months! It was nice to be able to relax, sit on a COUCH (something you don’t find often in University accommodations in St. Andrews!), and visit parts of southern England. Throughout the past week I’ve experienced what Boxing Day (the Brit’s day after Christmas) sales are like, visited Windsor Castle as well as the town of Windsor, and visited Cambridge University. The weather has been quite cold in the South of England, which makes me nervous for my return north to St. Andrews! Yesterday the temperatures didn’t reach above freezing! I am not exaggerating when I may not leave my room for days at the time when possible in St. Andrews in January and February!
Today begins the next leg of my journey around Europe. I’m off to Brussels, Belgium to meet back up with my friend, Meg, who is coming from Rome. We will meet back up with Emily and Lee (who are currently in Paris) tomorrow once they arrive in Brussels. We will see the city over the next two days, including sampling their famous chocolates and other delicacies as well as sites, and then venture to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where we will meet up with another friend as well as celebrate Emily’s birthday. On the agenda for Amsterdam includes the Ann Frank Museum, the Van Gogh art museum, admiring the architecture and canals, and whatever else we may find.

It’s back to the real world on January 7th, as when we arrive back in St. Andrews, the studying must begin hard core for the next two weeks. There’s a lot of studying to be done, as finals have to be passed, before we can embark again on more travels. We have a three week break between the end of finals and when the 2nd semester begins in February, and I can assure travels will abound!! Hopefully a ski trip will be in my future, as well as a trip to Italy, which has already been planned.
I look forward to hearing from you all, as you are very missed and loved! Please know that the invitation is open to anyone and everyone who wants to experience a bit of Scotland or any part of Europe! I’m always up for visitors!! Hope you all have a wonderful 2009!