It has been ages

Sorry for the huge lack in posting, things got a little bit wild with traveling and then I finally moved into a flat in London and started working again! Glory days! To have a job again! It was and still is a wonderful feeling to now be settled and a real resident of London after all that work to get here. But that aside, let me show you where I've been traveling and what I've been up to, eh?


First, Scotland! My gal pal George and I took a tumultuous overnight bus to Edinburg, Scotland for some exploring and Gloria joined in on the adventures a few days later. So here's what we did:

(I can't remember what this monument was for!)

(High Street! Tons of whisky and kilt shops)

It's been a while

Sorry it's been so long since I've up dated, but I've been all over the place and then trying to get everything settled so I can FINALLY move to London tomorrow! Very excited! So needless to say I don't have all my cords and electronics to transfer photos from my adventures so I leave you this. A photo I took leaving wonderful Madrid where Gloria and I had many adventures!

Paris

Internet is spotty but here's a view from Paris you might enjoy

London!

Currently cruising the beautiful city of London! Since I'm about to embark on about 4 weeks of travel I've left my luggage and computer at the office and I'll be updating with iPhone photos when I can. Here's a view that I could never tire of:

Also I leave tomorrow on the over night bus to Edinburgh, Scotland! Yeeeehaawwww!

OH YEAH!

I FINISHED MY CLASS! NOW TIME FOR SOME MORE TRAVELS!

COMING UP: Scotland with George and Gloria! Then I'm off on a 2 week tour around 8 different countries in Europe including France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and they count England since it's our starting point. So what I'm saying is that I'll be leaving Poole on Tuesday and then it will be fairly quiet around here, but don't worry I'll be back!

Bath!

Remember how I love Jane Austen? No, really? Cause I'm pretty sure I told you, hmmmm, interesting. Well either way, I LOVE JANE AUSTEN! So much so, that George and I went to Bath for the Jane Austen Festival! I love Bath, it is so beautiful. I could live there and get lost in all the little streets and eat amazing chocolate (Jenn- I went back to that chocolate place and the rose and lavender candies were amazing! Again!) and go swimming in the natural hot baths. It is very quant and has a very old world feel.  

Well, the weekend started off horribly. We rented a car since Bath is a little less than 2 hours away from Poole. George was driving and seeing the country side was great, but our car was 3 HOUR LATE! So we missed a few events of the weekend we were desperate to see. Mostly we wanted to see the promenade, the parade of all the people dressed in period clothing. Then once we were on the road the GPS wouldn't work, then there were detours on the road that took us an hour out of our way! When we finally got there we were a bit cranky. We did see a few people dressed up and managed to get to the Jane Austen museum on our first day. We did some exploring around town and even found the apartment where Jane lived for a short while, which is now a dentist office. Want to see? 

 If you can imagine, it was rainy off and on all day. 

A few dressed up ladies

Swanage

Here is a little treat from me to you! These are Morris dancers, traditional English folk dancers in traditional dress. There were many different groups when George and I went to the Swanage Folk Festival, which all in all was a little sad. But we had a mission to see these dancers since Rich was so annoyed at the thought of them! Tracey and Rich are the couple I've been living with for the past month. They are lovely and both come from Swanage, so we had to see what this was all about. 

Holland part 2- Leiden!

Me and Gloria hanging by the canal after the market!

So this is going to be a post with a slew of iPhone pictures. Sorry, I know they are really crappy, but like I said my camera was low on battery so I had to conserve! Anyway, I documented some adventures with my trusty iPhone (seriously what did I do without it?!). Most of these photos will be food and that's because Gloria and I ate like Kings! Ok, well, at least we were really loving our choice in foods. So here we go! 

Holland Part 1

Alright I'm sorry I've taken so long to update with photos and such from Holland. The only excuse I can give is that I was lazy, but also that I had many more photos than I remember taking to sort through in order to share them with you. So without any more delays let me show you what I got to explore while visiting Gloria in The Netherlands. The first two photos are of Gloria's dorm room at Leiden University where she is spending her fall semester. I was lucky that someone had an extra mattress in their room so I didn't have to sleep on the floor! Isn't her room big?

(Warning:This is very photo heavy, so I'm putting it behind this link. Just click and enjoy!)

Welp...

        I'm sorry to report that I don't have any photos to show you. I know, I know, I'm bad. It's just that my camera said it had a full charge when I left the house and then as soon as I got to Holland it decided that, nope, sorry no battery at all! Also my iPhone isn't working properly over here, so I guess what I'm getting at is you just have to wait til I get back to the UK. Oh, I forgot to say, I'm in Holland!!!!!! Specifically I'm crashing at Gloria's dorm room at Leiden University, just about a 15 minute train ride outside of Amsterdam. It is beautiful here and I'm having a ton of fun hanging with Gloria and meeting new people from all over the world. I'm starting to feel like I'm back at college. I love talking to new people about anything and playing charades (as glo likes to call it) in order to communicate. It has been simply lovely.


     So since I haven't been able to use my camera I've been learning to take more mental photos. When I find myself feeling overwhelmed with happiness and wanting to take a photo, I take it all in and remember exactly what is happening in that moment. It's pure happiness, but I have to admit later I wish I had a photo to show you all and let you in on what was so great. So with that said I'm going to leave you with a quick mental photo that I will keep with me forever, I felt disgustingly and immensely over run with joy.


     Gloria and I were going out with some of her pals and they wanted to ride bikes, so in true dutch style we climbed on the back of the bikes (skirts and all) and headed out into the warm summer night. The most important part is this: A gaggle of girls riding through the town, giggling, smiling at each other and racing bicycles through town. It might not seem like it was DA BOMB, but in that moment I just felt so much admiration for all these lovely girls who have been so kind to me and they don't even know me. The smell of Holland at night and feeling like a kid on the back of a bicycle.  

Corfe Castle

Today George and I decided to take advantage of the sunny (yes! I said sunny!) weather and took a trip to Corfe Castle. Well, it would have been a fantastic idea had we remembered that it was the Bank Holiday, being the end of summer and school just about to start in England. There was a ton of traffic, but finally we made it and got to enjoy the sun up on the top of the castle's hill and had lunch in the grass. Corfe Castle is unbelievably old and it's history is full of interesting stories. They think that it may have existed before as a wooden castle and it was in personal possession of a family up until the 1980's when it was given to the national trust. There is a sweet little town below the castle, Corfe, that is a classic stone english village that even has a sweet shop. I loved that you could walk all over the castle, climb some of the stairs and go through little passages. Basically it felt like you could do whatever you wanted. It was also nice to see that families were allowed to bring their dogs. Here are some of the photos I took:

(walking up the path to the castle)

(walking up the path again)

(AND AGAIN)

(Entrance to the remaining castle)

(Inside the front entrance)

(The view from the top was amazing and yes it really was that green)

(a little taste of the english country side)

(One more)

(My Australian pal George, she is awesome!)

(Inside the castle walls, or at least what is left of them)

(Inside)

(Inside the castle)

(Inside the castle again)

(It was a bit windy, but we had a good time)

Bournemouth!

So I'm currently taking a course at the University of Bournemouth as the last part of getting my license here in the UK. It's called to ONP- Over seas Nursing Program and basically it means I go to a class 3 days over a 20 day period and then in my free time I have to complete a giant workbook. Let me just tell you, I feel like I'm back in college with all the moaning I've been doing and all the procrastination I've had. Either way I'm already making good headway in this book, but the material is so dry! So far it's been about legislation in the UK, how the NHS (national health service) works, what it does and how it's all FREE! Yes, it's still a little bit wild in my mind, I mean come on look at where I've just come from. The land of sending you a medical bill for thousands of dollars expecting you to pay up NOW! But enough about that. Anyway, so I went to my class and then after did a little bit of exploring. Here are a few photos of downtown Bournemouth, it's so cute.

(A hot air ballon that sits in the down park, which is beautiful. You can pay 12.50 pounds and it will take you up in the air. It doesn't go very far, but hey you could always pretend you were flying around the world)

(Shopping in Bournemouth. Like most towns in the England, the shopping almost looks like a little village setting.)

(More shopping!)

(Random building on campus at Bournemouth. You know all that fancy stuff)

Poole

So like I said before I'm staying in the town of Poole, just by the sea. It is along with Bournemouth and Christchurch the boroughs of the Dorset country. Poole is fairly small and has been a little erratic with its weather. Sometimes it will rain for 5 minutes and be cold and then after it has pasted the sun will come out and you will be ablaze with warmth. It just feels like it's not sure what exactly it wants to do. Either way I'm enjoying it, learning a little bit more each day and taking adventures around town with my nursing pal Georgina. She has a very adventurous spirit and I'm trying to learn something from that. She's also great at trying to defuse stress, yes I know the poor girl has hardly known me for 4 days and she's already seen the ball of stress I can become. Anyway, here are a few photos of Poole I've taken over the last few days.

(Secretly hidden shopping center)

(View of the harbor on a rainy day)

This is ASDA, in case you are wondering what it reminds you of, think no more! It's owned by Walmart and is basically the UK's answer to the superstore. We went to explore it the other day and as soon as I walked in I noticed it even smells like walmart! They have some of the same brands that they have back home, but ironically enough, it looks a little bit better.

basically...

This is all I have to say...

HERE!

I'M HERE!!!!!!!!! Finally, I've made my way to Poole! This is where I'll be staying for the next 4 weeks while I take a class at the university. After that is completed I'll be heading for London for my first assignment (if all goes right)!

What am I doing you ask? Well I'm spending the next year-year and a half roaming around the UK as a travel nurse. The pay will be crappy, but the experience will be worth it. I might have to opportunity to work in all the UK countries (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and of course England), but due to everyones economy being in a downfall I might just stay in England. Either way I'll be a happy camper, I am loving being in a new place, but I can't lie I do miss my friends and family already.

So on my way over I was mid-flight when my entire body broke out into hives, I'm talking palms of my hands, throat, chest, stomach, arms, legs, back, even the soles of my feet! I'm fairly certain it was stress induced since I hadn't consumed anything new or different that day. Once I got into London, I took the coach into Poole and have been enjoying the sea side town.

Here's a photo from when

I was attempting to pack all my junk into 2 suitcases and 1 hiking pack. This photo of me (and Frankenstein) was before I jammed too much stuff in it and then killed my back lugging it around England. (Excuse the crappy iPhone photos)

This is a photo of all the things I brought to the UK, only 3 bags and of course my wellies!

Currently I'm living in a house that a very fun couple own and rent to nurses coming for the class at Bournemouth University. They are really kind and have 2 fuzzy cats they let me love on endlessly. Do you see why I love them? haha! There is another nurse living here for the next 4 weeks as well. She is working with the same agency as I am and her name is George (yes, it really is). She is Australian and I'm really enjoying her company. At the class today I found out I was the only American there! There were 3 Canadians and then the rest were Australians and Kiwis, it's insane. I love hearing all the different accents, but then I feel a little left out ha.

So all together, everything so far has gone very well, hopefully I'll do a little more exploring around Poole tomorrow and have photos for you all. It is a really small and quaint sea side town. Did you know, they have the second largest natural harbor? It really is beautiful.

21 DAYS