Ireland!

This morning as the snow continues to fall in London I am here to share with you my last few days. Everything except the helicopter crash I shall leave that part out. This will be a multi post event. As I need to tell you about Ireland, Tate Museum of Modern Art, my 4 mile run, Harry Potter world London, Borough Market, and Windsor Castle. Once I have hit all those points you will all be caught up on my adventures through London.

Ireland is beautiful and I ate so much good food there that I think I gained like 5lbs. However I will tell you it was all worth it. I have promised myself to run atleast twice a week and start my strength training again when I get back to the states and have a gym to go to. (Sorry not London adventures)

While in Ireland I went to the Garden of Remembrance, the Ireland national museum of art, National Geographic Ireland Museum of Photography, Temple Bar area, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Guinness Storehouse, and the Old Jameson Distillery. I drank more in one day then I have in a month I think.

The Guinness Storehouse will allow you to pour your perfect pint. It was really cool I have never been a bar tender or pour a pint of beer before that didn't come out of a pitcher! At the distillery I was one or eight chosen to do a whiskey taste testing. Jameson prides itself on being distilled 3 times which is why it is so smooth. So we had a shot of Jameson, a shot of Johnny Walker, and a shot of Jack Daniels. Now I am not a whiskey drinker but I can say the Jameson was not my favorite. It burned to much on the way down and I could feel it in my nose. Though I don't know if this is just because as a graduate student I am use to drinking cheap liquor or if that is how I really feel about it. Maybe I'll do a taste test of my own.
I shall let the pictures speak for themselves in the Land of churches.

  

 

 

After 2 drinking tours and a few sleepless nights i can say that I had a magnificent time getting lost in Dublin. Though as in London things in Dublin close earlier than one would think...like 7:00 on a Saturday night. But it was a great time and I can not wait to go back again. 

I am off to Camden market to buy some food for the week I hope! I'll be back a little later to write a few more posts. Enjoy your Sunday everyone and keep clocking miles! 

-Felicia 

 

The Lemons Keep Coming

Dear Friends,

I want to start with saying I am ok and staying with a friend. I am sure some of you have heard about the helicopter crash that happened in South London on Wednesday. Well said crash happened to be right outside my front door. So until further notice I have been evacuated without my computer, passport, or personal belongings. I was home when the accident happened, however was not home when they evacuated so I was unable to claim any belongings.
As soon as I get back in I will catch up on reading all your blogs posts, and write a few of my own about Ireland, Harry Potter, my run on Tuesday, the Whitney Houston musical I saw called Body Guard,  and the borough market.
Keep doin great things and adding miles to the Chilly Challenge if you are apart of it I totally am with all this extra walking!


-Felicia

Three Parts

So now that I have caught up with all of you and your blogs I would like to say congratulations! It seems everyone is doing amazing since i fell off the blog earth last Wednesday. Today's post is going to be long and in 3 parts. Part 1 the V&A museum with lots of pictures, Part 2 my failures are running since in London and asking for help on how to get ready for a possible 10 mile race on the 17 of February, Part 3 my homesickness.

On to the V&A! That place is amazing! It's real name is the Victoria and Albert museum, and man does it have everything. I only saw about a 1/4 of the collection which means I will be going back in the afternoons on class days. I did however go to there exhibition which cost me 9GBP but man was it worth it. I got to see and read about the costumes designs for Hollywoods greatest films! I believe there were somewhere close to 80 films on display in 3 rooms...sorry no cameras allowed so there are no pictures. But don't be discouraged there are tons of pictures from the rest of the museum.

Sorry for the terrible photo layout I just cant seem to get the hang of laying out photos on this site.

Part 2: My running. So the longest run I have accomplished since being in London is 3 miles. This is discouraging for me because the day I left the US I was back at 5 solid great miles and was loving running. Since I have gotten here though I have had no drive to want to go out and run. I am not sure if that is because the sun never comes out so it is always cloudy and grey, or if it is because I have no real way of tracking my run that is accurate in time and distance, or if it is because I am drinking half the amount of water eating half the amount of food and not eating the healthiest foods because I am trying to take in the culture. Whatever it is it needs to stop! I really want to run the 10 mile race in France (no idea how I will pay for it) but it is a once in a life time chance and I don't want to pass it up. So I am asking you guys to help me out I need your advice for travel running and no gps tracking running! Anybody got any?

Part 3: Homesickness. This weekend I was suppose to run my first half marathon with my boyfriend. We were suppose to run the Disney World Half Marathon. I didn't think about it to much seeing as I was in Ireland instead. But last night when I got home and found that my roommates had had a party while I was gone, someone had slept in my bed been through my stuff and peed on my bathroom floor everything just kind of rushed in. The culture here is different and personal space is not really a thing. It is common practice that if you have an empty bed you can fill it without asking the person it belongs to. It also seems to be common practice to smoke inside houses which is not my favorite thing. The last thing that seems to be common practice is not turning the heat on. It is 30 degrees outside and snowing right now meaning that it is maybe 45 degrees inside. I like heat and being warm but they say the cost to run it is to expensive and they can't afford it. So I gave up my wonderful 2 bedroom apartment in Ohio with my own room, my own stuff, and heat for a place where no one respects your space, things, and they don't like heat. Not sure how to handle all of this, but it is only 7 more weeks and to be honest I hope to not really be here except to sleep and cook dinner any ways so maybe it isn't such a big deal. They also don't seem to have any stores like walmart or target which means that if you want to buy 3 different things you have to go to three different stores. The European way of life doesn't seem to be very efficient.

That is all for now. I will try and write another post tonight about Ireland! Enjoy your week everyone!

-Felicia 

First half of week 1!

I have been missing for a few days but things have been crazy!

Sunday: Rain: Wondered around one of London's versions of a US flea market. I was late getting there and I was alone so I wasn't really comfortable having my camera out in all of the angry people. Then the grocery store...it is a strange little place kind of like walmart on a super tiny tiny scale. Like a 1/4 of the size. But I did learn Sunday afternoons is the time to shop around here. There is so much food in the market and the selection is great, however there are 1,000,000 people there so you have to be prepared for that. I also ran 2 very slow miles in the dark (it get dark faster then I thought it would here) Plus some planks and core work.

 

Monday: Clouds: First day of school! Ok so it was kind of exciting, but a little terrifying all at the same time. We had been given no information ahead of time about what we were suppose to be doing or where to go. The only reason I knew to show up at 10:30am was because the girl i am exchanging with told me to go. So introduction to a new term meeting, not so different from the US. Guided tour of building, awesome! I'll be taking pictures soon. Sat through what they call a Unit 7 lecture about the 2,500-3,000 word word and image document they have to write...not sure if we are doing this or not though the topics are fun. Lastly we met with the head of the exchange program who gave us our timetable for the next 2 weeks. I only have lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays mostly in the afternoons. This is crazy to me! In Ohio I go to school every day from 9:00-9:00 almost every day and then have non-studio homework on top of that! So this is a welcomed artistic vacation.
Following lessons we went to a place called Yo Sushi...they basically serve sushi on a belt that goes around the whole restaurant and you pick up whatever plate you want. There are 2-3 pieces on each plate and several different kinds on the belt, as well as edemame, seaweed salad, gyoza, and other things I didn't recognize. they then come around an count the number of plates you have in each color and give you your total. We followed this by playing bingo which is different in the UK then in the US. I will take a picture of my card next week and explain it better! Last thing I did today was book my ticket to the Guinness Storehouse in Ireland this weekend, and my ticket to Windsor Palace with a tour of the great kitchen for next weekend.

Tuesday: Sun: Second day of school. I went in early so I was sure to get my new ID card which you need to get any farther than the lobby. Once I received mine i wondered up to the library to get my computer and phone set up on the schools wifi system. I realized I had about 1.5 hours to kill so I sat in the library catching up on blogs and emails. Followed by what felt like a very long lecture about the Performativity and fluidity of text. (Yes I promise I spelled that correct). It was interesting though scattered so I am not sure i picked up on everything, but it stirred good conversation at dinner with one of my new class mates. Which leads me to the end of my day. I had rice with chicken and a little curry sauce for dinner in the train station. (Weird thing to think coming from the US) We sat and chatted and ate while we waited for her train. Me I take the tube so I can go whenever I want she however has to follow the train schedule.

Though my running numbers are down, my walking numbers are way way up so in the end the balance out and still count as miles for team giraffe. I also feel good which is a nice change of pace. Tomorrow I will run at least 3 but maybe 5 depending on how I feel since i have the day off. I also plan on finding a post office and buying international stamps to mail all the post cards I bought back home! I hope everyone is well and I love reading about all the progress you are making in your goals!

Sorry so wordy the next one will have more pictures I promise!
-Felicia

Adventure Day 1

Today I walked almost 9 miles. 9 I tell you is a lot in a city where you have no idea where you are going. But with that being said I saw all these really cool things and learned how to navigate parts of the tube by myself.

I also learned today it is difficult to take pictures of ones self and other things at the same time with a Canon Rebel T3i...I have time to perfect the skill.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day! Tomorrow is a running day! No GPS and no timing devices I am not sure how to work this out but I'll figure something out.

-Felicia 

Here

Well I made it to London in one piece. It is a little scary to live someone elses life in a place you know nothing but I guess that is what adventure is? Today I will be going to see at least the outside of Buckingham Palace.

I will start reading other peoples blogs at night due to the time difference. I am hoping this will help me be able to stay on top of them.

Have a great day everyone!

-Felicia

Today is the Day!

This morning started with a great 3.1 mile run to start. This fills my first race of the year the 5 by 5 race series has begun! I also PR today by at least 3 minutes!!!! I think the 19 degree weather helped.






 Then I realized that who would want to pass up this view to continue running with.

So I completed another 2 very slow miles. So today I covered 5 miles across the city of St. Louis! Also this means that I ran half of the 10 miler FRANCE HERE I COME!!!! 


Just so everyone knows this blog will be becoming a documentation of my travels as well as my journey in running. Also I am behind in reading every ones blogs I promise I will catch up and comment in the evenings once I hit London.
My next post will be coming from London!

-Felicia