SPRING BREAK

Has officially started!!!!

I will be leaving tomorrow morning (3/28) at 5am to go pick up my friend Justine from the airport. Then things will get crazy!!!!! I will be taking my laptop because my teacher insists that if we want a good grade in his class then we must work on papers during the break. Ugh. Although it looks like I'm coming back early the day before classes start... so I might just not take it... Don't want to risk it, you know? Well anyways... the plan goes like this

Sat (3/28): Pick Justine up! Head over to the place we are staying. Get some dinner and see The Lion King!!!!
Sun (3/29): Switch to another place (Has better access to a bus service for the airport). Go sight seeing or whatever Justine wants to do while in London. Go to an ice bar... Yes... That is right... A bar made completely out of ice! Friend of mine have gone and said it is AMAZING! After that... probably sleep!
Mon (3/30): Wake up early! Catch a bus to the airport and FLY TO ITALY!!!!!! We will land in Pisa... so of course we have to go over to the Leaning Tower!!!!! Then we will get a train/ bus to Florence and check into the place we will be staying at.
Tues (3/31): Tour around Florence!!!!
Wed (4/1): Tour around Florence some more! My friend from this trip (Lindsey) will meet us in Florence later that night and we will take a train to Venice and check in to the place we will stay while there!!
Thurs (4/2): Tour around Venice!!!!
Fri (4/3): We will take a train down to Rome.... and check in to the place we will be staying while there...
Sat (4/4): Tour around Rome or possible day trip to Pompei!!!!!
Sun (4/5): Tour around Rome!!!!!
Mon (4/6): Fly back to London, check into the place we will be staying at, and see Wicked!!!
Tues (4/7): Say goodbye to Justine.... Take train back to Bath.

Oh my!!!! Crazy week ahead! But I think it will be lovely! I am really excited for everything we will be doing and super excited to see Justine! I made her a sign for when I pick her up at the airport... want to see??? Here it is....



Think she will like it? I couldn't think of what to put on it (besides her name) so it has a bunch of randomness on it. Lol... Still pretty sweet though!

Okay... well more later! And of course LOTS of pictures when I get back!

Love love
~Sar Bear

So this week--> the world stops...

The Killers: Goodnight, Travel Well

"...My spirit moans with a sacred pain/ And it's quiet now/ The universe is standing still/ There's nothing I can say/ There's nothing we can do now/ There's nothing I can say/ There's nothing we can do now/ And all that stands between the souls release/ This temporary flesh and bone..."

This song has been my favorite song for a few weeks now.... Same with another song... by The Fray called You Found Me. You can look up the lyrics to that song if you wish.

To those who do not know why my world has stopped... This past week has been very emotional for me. I feel like everything is hitting me from every side. I feel homesick, I'm missing you all back home, my lovely sister is sick and I'm not there to help her, school is kicking my butt, I am constantly traveling (takes a lot out of you), I have so much to plan for spring break still (NEXT WEEK), and yesterday my grandpa died. The hardest part about my grandfather's death is that I am MILES AND MILES away from anyone who loves me and understands. Death is never an easy thing to deal with and it never comes at a good time (for no one ever wants a loved one to die)... But to be away from ALL of you during this makes it feel that much harder to deal with. Makes me feel that much more alone throughout it all. I am struggling this week a lot. I'm trying to figure out what this all means--> does it even have a meaning? Can death ever be explained? Why people suffer under love... Even with God, some things just don't make sense. But I am glad that my grandpa is in a better place and no longer in pain. That is what really matters.

I called my dad yesterday... It was exactly what I needed to hear. As my dad explained how my grandpa died, nothing else was real. I broke down in the middle of a store and just cried (luckily I had a friend there with me to support me). As my dad told me, he had just given my grandpa a pain killer because he was in a lot of pain. After he took the painkiller, they looked at photo albums of the family. My dad said that he was so happy looking at all the pictures and hearing stories about the family. It was after that when he closed his eyes to sleep and passed away. I am so happy that he died happy and peacefully. I am also so grateful that I had called my dad (on skype) a week or so earlier because I got to see my grandpa. Thanks to skype I was able to say hi to my grandpa and tell him I loved him... We all loved him very much. And all I can do is keep him in my heart and honor him by my actions. I am happy that I was his grandchild and that he was a big part of my life.

Speaking of family... I did go to Denmark last weekend. Went back to to the homeland (well one of them) were part of my family comes from. It was nice. I went there to visit my friend Heidi. It was great to see her and have a nice relaxing weekend. We watched movies, want to a castle that holds so much of Denmark's history, and then watched more movies! Haha. We tried to do homework, but it was hard to do. It was a great weekend though! It was just what I needed and it was cool to be in the land of my ancestors--> even if I didn't go to actual places where they lived :-(

Coming back from Denmark was scary! Okay... On my way to Denmark, the boarder control there was chill. The guy told me that my FULL name is Danish (Sarah Elizabeth Christiansen). He asked if I could speak Danish, when I told him no he just kind of laughed. I want to learn how to speak it now! After hearing Heidi and her family speak it, I don't kow if I could though. Seems really hard! Anyways... coming back was totally different. Basically the UK hates people who travel. The guys told me that because this would be my 4th stamp for England, I became questionable. So I had to show him my school papers and everything--> which he told me did not help for nothing on there helped tell him that I was for sure leaving the UK to go back to America. HELLO! It is called family and friends!!!! Oh well... he "let me go this time" but said I could have serious trouble next time. UGH! So I had to talk to my teachers about it who talked to the main lady (Mari) about it. Mari said that they can't refuse me entrance into the UK because I have a certain number of stamps or even if the stamps are in a short period of time. I have a right to travel about as I wish (as long as I can pay for it). But now I am scared to leave the country! Ugh. I go to Exactly in a week and a half... so we will see what happens upon my return!

---> one on the left is ice wine (GREAT sweet wine)!

So yeah... there is my life so far. I will put some random pictures below from St. Patty's Day and to this castle my class went to last Thursday. This weekend I am staying in and just relaxing and writing papers. I think I need it! Hope you all are doing ok back home. Know my heart is with you through this all! Please keep my informed on what is being planned.

I love you all... so much!

Paris!

Paris was amazing! I did so much that I can't even write it all... it would take so long. So I will give you the basic run down and let you just look at pictures.


Day 1:
We left Thursday night to head to London where we would then take a 8am Eurostar train to Paris. Before heading to the station we went to Platform 9 3/4!!! It was a lot of fun! I finally used my timer on the camera! HOURS later... We get into Paris around 12pm. We have a bus tour and get some money! After getting settled in our rooms, my friends and I decided to go to the Louvre. It was amazing in there, as you can see.





Day 2:
We got up late this day... we were really tired from the night before! Anyways we walked around Paris. Went into a little market on the street where we got some fresh fruit! It was soooo good! Loved it. Then we walked around the river to the Notre Dame. But had to leave to get over to a tour (which we missed) around Moulin Rouge. We ended up just walking around in that area anyways on our own, which was a LOT of fun. We got some cotton and candy too... which you can see was HUGE! We all shared, it was way too much even for the three of us. Lol. Later that night we went to the Eiffel Tour. Learned that every hour it does this sparkling light thing. It was great! After taking MILLIONS of pictures we went up the Eiffel Tour--> yup, to the EVERY top of it! It was amazing to see the city of Paris at night from way up there. Although the very top, with no windows just the metal fence, was VERY cold...






Day 3:
We got up early to head over to Versailles! It was amazing. We didn't go in but it was still lovely to see, even though it was raining... After that we saw gift shops and HAD to stop and look at them. Had some cute stuff. But we bought some of our stuff the night before. So we got back on the train to head to the Opera house. We got over there, I got my picture taken infornt of the Royal Enterance. We couldn't go in because a show was going on at the time. However, this Opera house is what inspired The Phantom of the Opera! Amazing, right? I wish we could have gone in... However, that gave us time to get back over to the Notre Dame. We got to go inside too! It was amazing inside, as you can see below! After being amazed, and me buying this pretty blue cross from the church, we looked at a few more gift shops. Then rushed back to the the hotel to meet our group. Once we got our stuff from the hotel, we headed to the Eurostar to go back to London and then back to Bath.

I had a great time! It was so much fun! Katie and Lindsey were great to hang out with too! We all had a great time and are very glad that we went :-)

Love,

Sarah

FRIST TRIP outside of England!

Hello everyone!!!!

First.... We had PANCAKE day last Tuesday. Not your big fluffy pancakes, but thin and basically crazy sweet (after all the toppings)! Pretty good. After two though, oh man I was DONE! And yes... Those are some picture below. The first is Tracy and Ian (the parents) and the second is Tom and Tegan (Tom is Tegan's boyfriend. Tegan is the daughter). And then you get the picture of one of the pancakes I had. Lol

On Thursday, I went with my class to Oxford. There we went on a tour of Christ Church College. Just in case some of you do not know about Christ Church College, I will tell you some interesting facts that I learned. First off, this is a college that MANY seek but only 600 students are actually accepted into. The school is enclosed, has its own library and dining hall. There are NO classrooms on campus, just student and teacher housing. The teachers, also known as tutors, are provided for students based on their area of interest. So if I went there, I would have a teacher that just helps me learn kinesiology. Pretty cool! It is hard to get into this school though! Not even money is enough to get by. A student accepted into Christ Church College must have GREAT grades, be good at least one sport, have a music talent, and be involved with the community. OH DANG! They only want the best of the best.

Now FUN facts... Harry Potter was filmed there!!! If you look at the first two pictures in the group below, you might notice they look familiar to scenes from the first Harry Potter movie. The picture of me in the dining hall is what inspired the dining hall in Harry Potter. Then there is a picture of me looking down from a railing. That is from the end of the movie when Harry asks Ron and Hermione how they are (after Harry is released from the hospital). Very sweet! It was great to stand where they had once stood! Also the picture of the random green door is what inspired the story Alice and Wonderland. A student wrote the story about the dean's daughter Alice who would always look through the door into this "forbidden" garden. You can see part of a tree in right side of the picture-that is where Alice's cat use to always get stuck. Make sense?? Lol. So interesting!!!!!

AMSTERDAM and HOLLAND

This last weekend I went to Amsterdam! I also got to go to Holland. I had a GREAT time though. So amazing. I flew in Friday night to be met at the airport by Maaike and her friends Nine and Tim. We then went to the market to pick up some food (they cooked for me!) and headed to Nine's place. They made me this dish that looks gross but is AMAZING! I loved it. After that we went to the RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Whole other world over there... It is really crazy to see. Women in windows selling their body... It was interesting. The next day we went to markets and walked around. We had a girls night later that night- watched a Dutch film, talked, and Maaike made these sweet cookie things. On Sunday, before I had to be a the airport, Maaike took me to her city. She showed me where she goes to college, where she works, and just around that area. We later went and saw New in Town (they have AMAZING chairs- so comfortable) because Maaike can get people in for free since she works there. After that we grabbed some Dutch food (from a food wall *see picture below of a bunch of windows) and headed to the airport. We got there really earlier, so we had fun eating chocolate and taking pictures. Overall, the weekend was GREAT! I am so glad I was able to go. Plus I got to meet Nine and Tim who are such funny, amazing, great people! I will miss hanging out with them and Maaike. SO much fun!!!! *Gina- if you are reading this, YOU WILL have such a great time there. And I am pretty sure you will LOVE Nine and Tim too!

This weekend:

I will be leaving this Thursday for Paris!! So next week look for a blog on Paris! I am so excited! Also, I am officially going to Italy for spring break (March 30th- April 6th)! It is going to be too much fun! Lol

Miss and love you all!

Hope everything is going well for all of you!

~Sar Bear