My journey to England

I have already been writing about traveling quite a lot but up to now it was all rather theoretical and to be honest only daydreaming. Because of this I thought about writing about a trip I actually did so you guys don’t think I’m just sitting at home picturing my perfect journey (though lately that’s about all the traveling I do).

So about two years ago my class went to Oxford with a day trip to London. Differently than going by plane which would be the most convenient and logical way to get there, we traveled all the way by coach. Yeah, you read right, by COACH which took us almost a whole day. Though, the whole journey was very wearying it was a very unique experience and we got to see a lot of different landscapes since we went through Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France until we got to the ferry to England. (A little advice: If you use the restroom at a service area on a Belgian freeway, make sure you don’t forget to pay the fee and don’t even think of just sneaking by. Chances are pretty good that you get yelled at and even hit by toilet paper by a rather grumpy guy sitting at a table in front of the washroom. I’m not kidding, this really happened to one of us. XD)

After we took the ferry to England we continued our journey towards Oxford where we stayed at host families in groups of two to three students each. I was a little worried at first since I didn’t really know what to expect but luckily the host family I stayed with was very nice and already had some experience since we weren’t the first exchange students staying there. There were also staying two other students with us at the same time and our host-mom was very friendly and talked a lot with us, unlike some of the other hosts who just communicated to say dinner is ready.

 

 

While staying in Oxford we did a lot of sightseeing to near places and visited Stonehenge, Stratford upon Avon where Shakespeare’s houses are located and last but not least the world-famous Oxford University where we had the opportunity to take a guided tour to all the scenes which were used in the Harry Potter movies. We also went to see Madame Tussaud’s and their wax figures of famous celebrities such as George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Marilyn Monroe.

One day we paid a visit to London where we had some free time to explore the city on our own. My friends and I turned this opportunity into a brief sightseeing tour of the most important places like Big Ben, London Eye and Buckingham Palace as well as a quick shopping spree.

  

 

 

 

All in all, it was an incredible experience to get to know the culture, people and significant places of Oxford and London better and if I ever got the chance to go there again, I’d say yes without any hesitation (but probably I’d take my classmates with me again ;))

Christmas Specials

Bells ringing here, Christmas is near (Sorry for my bad rhymes)

So in a few days it’s already Christmas which means there are gonna be a lot of cookies, a festively decorated tree, a huge dinner most likely with your family, traditional songs, a few gifts and last but not least Christmas movies or TV show specials.

This leads me to the topic I actually wanted to talk about, Christmas specials of TV shows. Almost every show has its own, some are more festive and rather peaceful, others are troublesome and yet others are somewhat weird and confusing. To give you a few examples I picked Christmas special episodes of some of my favorite TV Shows:

 

 

1)    Supernatural (A Very Supernatural Christmas): This episode deals with the Winchester brothers working a case on Christmas while they remember the last time they really celebrated Christmas “as a family”. Of course monsters (this time Pagan Gods) are involved as well. Here’s the promo:

 

 

2)    How I met your mother (How Lily stole Christmas): There are actually several Christmas related episode of this TV show but I personally think this one is the most-related one. Lily takes off the Christmas decoration and almost spoils it for everyone when she finds out that Ted has called her a grinch when she and Marshall were broken up. (Sorry, I couldn’t find a promo for this one.)
 

 

3)    Big Bang Theory (The Santa Simulation): Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj play a game of Dungeons & Dragons with a Christmas theme while they discuss their childhood Christmas experiences. Here is the promo video:

 

 

4)    New girl (Santa): Jess, Nick, Winston, Schmidt & Cece attend many different Christmas parties on Christmas Eve and there are quite a few surprises. Have a look at the trailer:

 

 

Of course there are many more but for now this should be enough.

So have a Merry Christmas everyone or how Spanish-speaking people would say

¡Feliz Navidad!

Traveling the US part 2

Quite some time ago I made a post about my favorite destinations to travel to in the US. I want to pick up this topic again since I came across something very interesting the other day. I found an offer of a cross-country road trip through 48 states of the US. It starts in the very south of Florida and then literally goes all across the country up to the very north in Seattle. Along this trip there is a lot of sightseeing including Washington D.C., Mount Rushmore, the Great Canyon and many many more. Of course the major cities such as New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles are also counted in. Plus you get a tour guide who accompanies you, private transportation and all accommodation in a package.

here is a map of the trail:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To sum up, I would love to do a journey like this and if I ever got the chance to do so I would take along my best friend and discover the US.
 

I hope someday all of this is more than just day-dreaming and who knows maybe I’ll get to take a likely trip one day.

 

This website offers a lot of different trips around the USA including the one I was talking about: http://www.trekamerica.co.uk/tours/grt.html

 

 

Odd girl out...

So I was just surfing the internet the other day when I came across this movie. It’s called “Odd girl out” and deals with a very frequent problem at schools – bullying.

Now you might think, so what another movie that shows how mean schoolgirls/boys can be. Well then think again. “Odd girl out” is an amazing movie because it doesn’t only make aware of the problem but also gives solutions how to stand up and make it stop. Besides that the leading actress, Alexa Vega (you might know her from “Spy kids”) is simply awesome.

So if you’ve got some time just take a look at it, you surely won’t regret it ;)

 

Here’s the trailer of the movie:

You're never too old for an advent calendar

Since it’s already December which means Christmas is not too far away, a lot of people especially kids have an advent calendar to make the time until this special holiday go by faster. But not only children are fond of these little pictures or treats which can be candy (mostly chocolate), little toys, scented candles or pretty much everything you’d like to have in it. If you’ve got the time you can even make your own, unique one.

 

I personally think it’s a very nice idea especially in such a cold and sometimes also dreary month and I have to admit that I got one myself ;)