So… wow…. It’s been a long week.
Let see…there was the ten page paper I did over Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Most of it was written in the early hours of the morning, while I was surrounded my coke and junk food.
My sister came to visit this week for her spring break, so that was awesome—minus the both of us being crammed into my little twin bed in my dorm room. She brought American snacks with her, so it was totally worth it.
We went to Prague this weekend, and that was INCREDIBLY AWESOME. Definitely one of my favorite places I’ve seen so far. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we got really lucky and got really good weather—well, it was cold, but no rain or snow, which is always good. I bought way too many souvenirs. Normally, I’m not a souvenir kind of person, but my sister was there buying them like crazy, and I just could resist. I did manage to resist buying a Harry Potter puppet… but only just barely. If it hadn’t been 1000 czech kruny… about forty euro. It was very cool though, check out the picture.




We also saw a production of Faust at a Black Light Theatre. It sounded cool, it was supposed to be all done with black lights and neon props with cool spectacles. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like the people had never even read Faust. Basically, the play (if you can call it that) started with Faust signing over his soul (though there were no words, only music and pantomime) , and then Mephistopheles proceeded to show him everything they could do with their powers—from conjuring cats and camels, to being under water in the ocean, to making random neon things appear and disappear. In all, I think that they just need an excuse to use all their old costumes and props from other shows. And then at the end, when Faust is in hell… his girlfriend (???) shows up and thrusts her crucifix necklace at Mephistopheles and manages to save Faust.
….
….
Yeah… it sucked. We got scammed. But it was a hilarious experience nonetheless.
Some old Czech guy offered me free souvenirs for my phone number, then asked me to be his wife. Random.
Also… there was a bowling alley by our hotel, so one night, we were like ‘Hey! Let’s go bowling!’ only to enter the place and see that there is only a single bowling lane and a huge line…. I blame the communists.
But yeah, Prague was beautiful! We did a lot of walking, took many stairs, and climbed many hills—which translates to me being exhausted. So I’m off to sleep.

We're beginning our month-long-no-sleep-shower-in-train-stations-European-Adventure! In a few days... once we finish up the last of our independent study work....

Peace out! Oh... and pictures below....

Liege Pics
Amsterdam Pics
Prague 1
Prague 2
Prague 3
Prague 4

Summary of my week: lots of coughing...

Oh, and we went to Brugge, Belgium...
Here is the evidence of our trip...
Evidence Part One

Evidence Part Two


I won't make you look at the evidence of my coughing...

Hey! It's Brittany. So... Erica, our friend Kristin, and I spent the weekend in Berlin... and by weekend... I mean 30 hours. We arrived in Berlin, to learn that our hostel had messed up with the booking and we had a place to stay Friday night and Sunday night, but not Saturday. We tried to find another place to stay Saturday, but we were all feeling a bit tired and under the weather, so we just decided to cancel our room on Sunday and head home Saturday night. What could we possible have accomplished in Berlin in only 30 hours you ask? Well... here goes.

1. We found an awesome 5 story bookstore (the top floor of which housed only books in English... le gasp!)
2. We waited with hundreds of other young, obsessive, fan girls to meet Stephenie Meyer, author of the book Twilight and its companion books and to get her autograph. The difference between us and those other girls? A. We had Twilight themed t-shirts B. We spoke English.
3. We managed to get our friend Kristin hopelessly addicted to said series of books.
4. I took over one hundred and fifty photos. If you don't count time spent sleeping, that's an average of about 7 or 8 pictures an hour.
5. We googled and then attempted to find a TGI Friday's only to be rained on furiously until we gave up and went to the first restaurant we saw.
6. In said restaurant, I ordered a New York Burger (I know, very American of me) only to receive a giant meat patty and one piece of garlic bread. Hmmm.... Now I've been to New York... and something about that just didn't add up.
7. We learned that the Friday's we'd been searching for, closed down two years ago.
8. We overslept (we're very good at that).
9. We ate at Burger King (several times).
10. We took a 3 hour walking tour in the rain, which ended up being about 4 hours, but we didn't mind because our tour guide had a lovely British/Scottish accent. Moral of the story= all you need to convince me to walk for hours in the rain is a pretty accent.
11. We did actually manage to see tons of things during the walking tour. Ex: Brandenburg gate, Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, a segment of the old wall, Bebelplatz, the Babelplatz book burning memorial, and let us not forget... a schlotsky's!
12. I managed to run for several minutes, while desperately needing a bathroom break, and carrying not one, but TWO backpacks in order to make our train. We made it with two minutes to spare, only to learn that our train was delayed 15 minutes.
13. We managed to get on a wrong train, ended up in Aachen, Germany (30 miles from Maastricht) after Midnight, when there were no more trains or Buses running. So rather than spending the evening sleeping outside on a bench, we managed to flag down a taxi with a nice driver from Istanbul who didn't speak English (But never fear! We knew some Turkish... like Hello (Mer Habba!) and Where is the Bathroom? (Tuve leta nadaday?... P.S. that is probably spelled incredibly wrong)) But all in all, we ended up taking a taxi from Germany to the Netherlands for around 50 euros.

All in all, a rather productive trip. Oh, but I forgot the best part!

14. In our spare time, we decided it would be fun to write Twilight- The Musical! Here's what we've got so far

It's blood-typing day in Biology!
(Blood-typing Day!)
Prick your finger and you will know,
if your blood-type is A, B, or O!

Erm... that's all we've got so far. But I must admit... it is rather catchy.

Picture time!!!

Click me!
Click me too!

So we spent the weekend in London! We did most of the classic tourist-y things like Big Ben, Westminster, and the Globe Theatre. We also saw Wicked! And it was amazing! The girl who played Elphaba was awesome! Erica was sick for most of our stay, so we didn't get out quite as much as we liked, but we still had a blast. Besides the normal tourist-y things, we did things that only really obsessive people do... like take pictures at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We literally made a trip to the station for that soul purpose... we didn't need to take a train. Our hostel was really cool... there was a theatre and a restaurant attached, so that was good. We were delighted to find American restaurants besides fast food. We ate a Chili's! And although it was a little pricey... it was definately the best meal of my trip so far. And I got to eat ranch for the first time in a month! It was amazing. Also, our hostel had what is called push showers... were basically instead of turning a knob, you push a button for water and it has a set temperature. Doesn't sound too horrible, except for the water only lasts 15 seconds, so you have to keep pushing the button every 15 seconds if you want water. And it usually goes cold for about two seconds about halfway through (the 8th and 9th seconds to be exact... I counted). And after about 6 pushes... the water just starts to stay cold. In order to fit everything into my backpack on the way back, I had to wear several layers... and by several I mean six shirts, two pairs of jeans, a coat, and two scarfs. I was actually a little proud. London reminded me so much of New York, especially the underground, if it weren't for the British accent over the loud speaker, I could have convinced myself I was back in NYC. I won't tell you how much money I spent... because frankly... you don't want to know. And by you, I of course mean me... I don't want to know how much money I spent. I have tons of pictures for you... about 200... so enjoy!

Brittany

Click here!
Click here too!
Uno Mas!
Last one, promise!

Hey Upper East Manhattanites, Gossip Girl here.

SPOTTED: Brittany Howard and Erica Ferguson back in Maastricht. How long will these jetsetters stay put before taking off once again?

Can you tell how we spent our night tonight? I think I got Brittany hooked.

Anyway, the point of this post is to FINALLY post my photo albums for Turkey and random Maastricht stuff. I meant to do it days ago, but I caught some illness going around. Yuck.

Here is Turkey! and More Maastricht stuff.

We went to Gryon, Switzerland last weekend and had a blast. Brittany didn't ski, but I did, and I took videos of everyone in our group falling and attempting to be graceful in the snow. Didn't happen. I also made a mini-youtube blog in front of the alps. Isn't that exciting? Yeah, none of the pictures or the videos are up yet. I'm bad. I'll post them likely tomorrow...

We're going to London this weekend! So excited. Brittany and I want to see as many plays as possible and check out all the Harry Potter sites. Unfortunately, we might not get to see Stonehenge...so much to do, so little time!

Hope everyone is having a great time working/being schooled. Our classes are long and interesting, but it's hard to get excited about school when there's so much to see and do here!

My email has been off and on, but feel free to drop me a line at my Baylor email, or if that doesn't work, notaprincess@dfwair.net

You know you love me.
XOXO
Erica

So, this past weekend, after a 17 hour train trip, we finally managed to make it to the very small town of Gryon, Switzerland. During those seventeen hours, we found ourselves stuck from midnight to 5 a.m. in a train station in Basil, Switzerland. The train station was open, which meant it was the same temperature inside the building as outside...and since we were in the ALPS... it was pretty cold. And everything in the train station was closed, which meant no food, and we were starving because we hadn't eaten since 4 p.m. the day before. So, we pretty much stayed up all night long, freezing cold and starving. But it was worth it! The alps were gorgeous and our hostel, the Chalet Martin, was really a wonderful hostel! We were in the attic, and it was like our own little cottage, and I could see the Alps, out the window while laying on my bed. The hostel threw a pink party for Valentine's Day... I hate pink, so all I really did was put a pink tank top on underneath the shirt I was already wearing and put on a pink headband. Thursday we're leaving for London for 3 1/2 days, which was a spur of the minute decision, and we were barely able to find a hostel, but we're excited nonetheless... yay for possibly going to see Lord of the Rings the Musical!!! (We're excited to make fun of it). We've also decided to go to Berlin the next weekend, where we will hopefully be meeting Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight) when she makes an appearance at a shopping mall there! We're also thinking of staying in a hostel that's entirely in the theme of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... Yess!!! Also, I've now seen Harry Potter books in 4 different languages!!! And last, but not least, it's been another week filled with MASH! We played Disney Mash on the train rides to pass the time and today during our literature class, during a discussion of Joseph Conrad's book, we decided to just play MASH with the characters. That's right... we played HEART OF DARKNESS MASH!!! We're probably going to take pictures of them and put them on facebook. But here's a slight hint.... My BFF was a head on a pole.... :)

Oh yeah... Pictures.... Look at them!

Click me!

Hey everyone! It's Brittany! We're back in Maastricht after a visit to Istanbul (or Constantinople... or even Byzantium, if you wish) which managed to be fantastic/scary all at the same time! Life there is very fast paced (as well as the traffic)! Geez, I though New York taxis were bad, I swear one of our taxi drivers nearly killed like seven people. The whole time I kept thinking, "I do NOT need to be involved in a hit and run right now." At one point, he was driving like 90 (kilometers per hour, I guess?) in a 30...and it was on a curve. I think I Momma-armed the girl next to me like ten times.

Besides that though, Istanbul was incredibly interesting! So much history and the Grand Bazaar was fantastic! I haggled and bought a few scarves and little knick-knacks! Hagia Sofia was absolutely gorgeous and beyond interesting! We visited the Blue Mosque (also gorgeous) and the Basilisca Cistern (also amazing). We took a cruise down the Bosphorous and saw the opening to the Black Sea and made a short stop on the other side of the river, on the Asian side, so I've officially been to Asia! Also, if you ever need a self-esteem boost... go to Istanbul. I think I got hit on more times in those three days than the rest of my life combined...and I'm seriously not even exaggerating. I basically had to stop making eye contact with everyone, because the slightest eye contact and the guy would try to pick you up. Like, I made the mistake of making eye contact with a group of guys while eating at KFC ( I know... I couldn't stop myself, I missed knowing what animal provided the meat I was eating)...anyway, at first it wasn't a big deal... the guys were just you know, staring at us. But then it started to get a little creepy. One of the guys left his booth and sat in a booth near us (maybe to hear us talk to know where we were from?)... then even though they'd already eaten, they ordered more food to stay longer...and then we got up to leave and they followed us, leaving the food they'd just ordered untouched. Needless to say, we practically sprinted back to our Hotel (Notice the past tense of the word "sprinted", Dad... as in, it's over... so you don't have to worry or freakout :) ). On a funnier note, while we were in KFC, there was a brief break in the Turkish Music, and they randomly played the theme song from Phantom of the Opera... who would have thought?

In other news, I made the worst macaroni in the history of the world today. It's hard to buy cheese at the store, because they don't exactly have Velveeta or Kraft (I've got the blue box blues!)... so we just found a block of yellow cheese and bought it. Needless to say, I felt slightly queasy after a few bites.

Classes have started, they are fairly interesting. Both of our teachers have accents, which makes understanding the lectures an interesting affair. This week was just the standard introductory class with discussion of Schedules and such. Erica and I got bored and played MASH (you know, the game that you're supposed to stop playing when you hit 3rd grade)... But so as not to be entirely immature, we played MASH- Twilight style! As in, when we picked the possibilities for our future husbands, rather than picking real people, we picked Edward, Jasper, and Emmett Cullen. Slightly Pathetic??? We know. But we're okay with that.

Here are a few pictures... A few stray Carnivaal pictures, some from around Maastricht, and the few pictures I managed to take in Istanbul (My Camera died halfway through the first day and I forgot to bring it with me on the second day... I'll just have to steal people's pics from facebook).


I Gotta Go My Own Way... In Istanbul???

By the way, we're leaving to spend the weekend in Gryon, Switzerland tomorrow... Jealous?

Pictures and Post about Switzerland will come soon!

So, we got lost for several hours the other day, and in those lost hours, we managed to find a castle. Not something you can say every day, huh?

Carnivaal is officially over and now it is time for some much needed sleep.

We're making a day trip tomorrow to Brussels, Belgium for Erica's Birthday... (yay Happy Birthday!)

But here are those pictures of our castle.... Pictures of Brussels to come...

yay! Pictures!Click Here!

Hey, this is Erica! I'm just going to tell ya'll that we're going to be a bit MIA due to Carnival. It is really crazy over here, but we will have videos and pictures! Here's my album, because I'm dumb and forgot to post it. Enjoy!

Here!

Good Evening! 

Welcome to the first post in Accio Europe! A livejournal by Brittany Howard and Erica Ferguson about our time spent studying abroad in Maastricht, Netherlands. 

We've been in Maastricht for a few days now, and it's pretty surreal. It's crazy walking down the picturesque streets and knowing that we actually live here! Our dorms are nice (much nicer than our awful Kokernot dorms freshman year). Maastricht is beautiful! Very quaint, but with plenty of things to keep us busy! We're slowly picking up a few dutch phrases, like Groedenavond! (or Good Evening!) It's pretty cold here, with some harsh winds, but we're bundling up! And it's a little exhausting walking everywhere, it adds up to several hours of walking a day, but there's so much to see (and take pictures of) that it's really okay. 

Speaking of pictures, we've added a link were you can view some pictures we've taken so far! A few of them are pictures at the airport in Amsterdam and hanging out around our dorms. You'll also see some pictures of the town of Maastricht, a few churches, buildings, statues, etc. We also visited the Netherland's only memorial for American soldiers in World War II. It was a very interesting and moving visit. And last but not least, you'll see a few of the preparations we are making for Carnivaal (the equivalent of Mardi Gras). We hope you like the pictures! If you have any questions about what we're doing so far, feel free to comment and we'll try to answer them as quickly as possible! 

 http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2154610&l=b4f20&id=9215498

Love Love Love!

Brittany