Well, well, well....

A lot can change in a short amount of time.  I last posted in late August and since then I have injured my leg, went to the doctor multiple times, had an MRI plus X-rays, finally found out I tore my meniscus, and have had knee arthroscopy surgery (a partial meniscectomy).  Well then!  Recovery has been difficult just because I am an independent person and asking people to do everything for me has been tough.  It's been a week since my surgery and my knee is feeling pretty good though!  I went from not being able to walk, to crutches, and then to a cane.  I actually can walk without anything right now, but keep the cane around just in case.  :]

However, this month and a half long process has started to make me nervous for my upcoming Peru trip.  I believe walking around will be fine, but the hike may be an issue.  There is an option to take a train for those who are unable to do the hike, but I just can't bring myself to be okay with taking that.  I just feel like I made it all the way to Peru for this trip, and then I can't even do the biggest highlight.  I'll keep you posted on what happens.

How about some good news?!  :D

I am in Texas right now for Thanksgiving.  We stayed with my sister last year, but this year there's more of us so we decided to rent a house about an hour away from my sister's house.  It's beautiful!  It's high up on a hill and overlooks a lake.  :]  I'll post more about it later since we just got here yesterday.  We left Illinois at 7p.m. and just drive throughout the night.....needless to say we all slept very well last night when we were in beds instead of a car packed with stuff.  haha Today we are going wine tasting, because isn't that what all families do the day before Thanksgiving?  ;)  I'll leave you with a picture from the balcony of the house.  

Three years later....

Well!  It's almost been three years since I was living in England.  I do realize I never made a few posts still, but I think we'll all survive without them!  :]  Or at least, you will have to survive because I'm not about to write them now.  haha

I haven't done much traveling, except for a few trips around the midwest area.  I'm planning on doing another pretty soon, so I'll post about that one and the others soon!

I wanted to start up my blog since I am planning a trip to South America very soon!  It's especially exciting because it's another continent that I haven't been to.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on here before or not, but I'm trying to go to every continent before I'm 40 years old.  So far, I've been on three and I'm almost 23.  I'd say I'm making good time so far.  :D

Well, this was just a quick update!  Be on the lookout for posts with pictures!

sorry sorrrrry sorry

I am currently writing my last essay and studying for my in class essays tomorrow. I haven't had time at all to update this! But, I will have time thursday and friday when I'm in London and a long flight on Saturday. I will spend a lot of that time writing it out in Word and then transferring it. again, soorry. :[

The final weekend

So, I just have one more paper...mmm so Italy should be coming during this weekend when I have free time. I did change my picture to one from Italy so you aren't waiting too long.

I am going somewhere else this weekend!

The last place is Germany and Belgium. I'm going to visit the Christmas markets, so I'm really excited! I just loooove Christmas...it's my favourite. I can't believe this is my last weekend, but at least I'm going to do something instead of just sitting around waiting for it. Just 1 week and 1 day left in the UK. I can't wait to come home. :]

SNOW!

I promise promise promise to do a post on Netherlands and Italy...right after I finish all of these papers that the teachers just assigned. "Don't wait until the last minute to do your papers!" Then don't assign them at the last minute! blah anyway

Just wanted to post and say I'm in the library sitting next to a window and it just now started to snow! :D It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Only 1 week and 6 days until I'm home. Very excited for that to happen.

This weekend's trip

This weekend I am going somewhere where I have always wanted to go: Italy! It's pretty much my last big trip by myself (since I have another weekend trip, but it's a tour). It's very expensive over there, so I've been trying to budget money like crazy. I already have where I'm staying (made sure they serve breakfast), and a day tour on saturday. I still need train tickets, but I read everywhere that it's much easier to just buy them when you get there. I may just get a rail pass so I can just use it...but I may end up spending more money for it. :[ I think I'll just wait since I'm only going somewhere on a train one time.

I have yet another layover on this trip. This time to Switzerland! So I will have *technically* been in Switzerland too! :]

I plan on taking lots of pictures because it's all about art over there! :D

However, before I take this trip, I am going to see in Opera in London. Me and two of my friends are leaving on a 3:30 train to London to see La Boheme. I am very excited! I'm just going to stay around and hang out at the airport until my flight at 9 in the morning. I hope they'll be okay with me bringing my back pack to the opera since I have no where else to put it. =/ I guess we'll find out!

Scotland! with pictures!

So! I should probably add pictures before it's too late and I get too lazy to do it *cough*Netherlands*cough*. So! I have about 10 of them.


This is the night train I took. You could pay for a bed, but it's so much more...plus these seats were really comfy anyway! I decided to take the night train because then I wouldn't have to worry about a place to stay. My train was at 11:50 at night, but there was an earlier one at 9:15...which I should've taken so I wouldn't have missed my freaking tour! BLAH! I can't do anything about it now, but I am still mad about wasting the money. I'm going to be very poor after this, so donations would be nice! :D So, I went to sleep pretty fast and then...


woke up to this! It's so pretty and it seems to just go on forever! Plus, there's sheep everywhere! :] The sheep were very cute. It was nice to see big fields of green grass because I don't see that much in England. Even in some parks in London don't have it because they just have other plants and sidewalks in them. I took a lot of pictures from the train and I'm sure people were annoyed by it, but it was just so nice to see.


This is from the train station. It almost looked like a little town inside. Kind of Harry Potter ish. :] I had time to take pictures since I missed my tour and all. >:[ The station was still cool. I had to walk to a different one to go to Inverness, but it was less than 5 minutes to walk there. It wasn't as cool or impressive, so I won't put a picture up. But, a train and bus ride later (totaling a little over 4 hours) I was in Inverness! It just so happened that that weekend, the train going all the way to Inverness was out, so you only went an hour and then took a bus the rest of the way, BUT the bus had to drive to EVERY train stop on the way! BLAAH. I obviously slept...even though it was freezing on the coach!


This is in Inverness. It's right by the train station and it's called Falcon Square. I first saw it and was just confused. It's a unicorn...I still don't get it. Plus, there's birds below the unicorn and one has some other small animal in it's beak. Scotland has some pretty crazy stuff. Unless the unicorn actually means something and I just don't know.


This is Inverness! This is on a bridge over the Ness river. It's from the Loch Ness. I was about 13 miles north east of Loch Ness, so unfortunately, I didn't get to see it. Next time, I will for sure not miss a tour! >.< It was still very pretty to see. There's a lot of older buildings and lots of mountains in the background...something I never see at home


SO CLOSE! :[ I have to go see it again. Not on this trip, but next time I'm around, it will be at the top of my list. It's probably not even that impressive to see since it's just a giant lake, but it's the meaning behind it. Also, quick story. My zoom stopped working so I went out, got a small screwdriver set and fixed it myself. Then, the next day we were in London for a school trip and it STOPPED WORKING! blah. So I figured it would just have to be okay in Scotland to not have zoom. But then while in Inverness, it just started working again! It's a early christmas miracle. :]


I almost bought kilts for people back home, but they were not cheap! The funny thing is, guys actually wear them around. I saw a couple of men in brown boots, kilts, and sweatshirts. I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to creep them out, but it was so weird! It was very cold up there, so I don't know how they could go around wearing a skirt. It's weird how you can think of stereotypes, but they end up coming true.





This is a small market I found on my way back to the train station. There were a lot of places with food and lots of random clothing. It was pretty much just like the market out in Canterbury, but with different accents. I still love Scottish accents! After staying the night with three other women, we talked in the morning. they were all from Scotland and were down for a weekend nurse training thing. During one of their stories, one of them said "lass". It was awesome.


The next morning I went to the train station and headed back to Canterbury (which took a total 10 hours O.O ). This is what it looked like outside. It had snowed soooo much over night. As I headed back down south it there was less, but still! I can't believe that happened! It made me excited for Christmas though!


This is a picture from more south when all the snow had melted. You can see some sheep. Just thought it was a pretty picture to share. :]