so very quickly, because I never have enough time on the internet, a couple things that have happened since last time I updated (or that I just forgot to mention...)

-Went to a Romanian wedding! Alexandru's son got married and invited us to the wedding (Eastern Orthodox) AND to the reception. It was awesome and so much fun. Only 3 of the girls decided to go, along with Eric, but we had a really great time and it was really cool seeing how they do the ceremony. Very different from how we do it.

-Took a weekend trip to Pitesti, Curtea de Arges, and Poienari Fortress (Dracula's real castle). We took an overnight bus from Zalau to Pitesti, where we arrived at about 5 am. We checked the first hotel we found for rooms (this was not a planned trip at all... we just kind of went with it) and they let us check in immediately and even go up to the rooms (because it was already 'today' so why wouldn't we be allowed to go up? Sometimes, I love Romanian logic). After a couple hour nap we set out to find the way to Curtea de Arges (took about 3 hours to find the right bus), and then took a taxi from Curtea de Arges to Poienari. Once we got to Poienari we faced the 1480-step ascent to the top... but boy was it worth it! The castle itself is just ruins now, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. No worries, I've got pictures :)
There's nothing else around Poienari so we had to hitchhike back to Curtea de Arges! We had a group of 7 people-4 boys and 3 girls. We decided to be safe and make sure that each girl went with a boy, and we also decided to go as a group of 3 and a group of 4 that could break into 2 groups of 2 if necessary. I ended up in the group of three, with 2 of the boys, not because I would be safer with 2 boys, but because they would be safer with the black belt. Oop.
Got picked up by a nice older couple (in a sweet Audi) that happened to be headed to the exact same destination, a monastery in Curtea de Arges. They told us about the legend of the monastery (a bit too long to type out but essentially the builder's wife is said to be entombed in the walls as a human sacrifice because otherwise the monastery would not remain standing) and when we got there we realized that it's the monument on the back of the 1 Lei bill! Pretty cool :)

Nothing else terribly exciting has happened... just been hanging around. We have no power or water at camp so... that sucks but hopefully it will be fixed soon. We've got one more week of digging and then home a few days after that. Time's flying by now!

Running out of time so just a super quick post to tell you all about the AMAZING find we excavated on Monday!
It's very rare to find pottery in this region with raised designs... even more rare to find those designs with human figures... well, we found a number of pottery sherds (yes it's sherds, not shards)with what appears to be a depiction of Ganymede in the embrace of an eagle. According to the myth, Ganymede was from Troy and was the most beautiful mortal. One day while he was tending flocks on a mountain (because all mythological heroes like to tend flocks for a while), Zeus came to him in the form of an eagle and abducted him, taking him to Mt. Olympus where he became cup-bearer to the gods. After debating whether the figure we had was ganymede and the eagle, or medusa and a demon, we found a new way to piece the sherds together and are not nearly positive that the figure is indeed the abduction of Ganymede. Even cooler (though it makes our job a bit more difficult) is that we can't find a similar depiction in any other piece of art. SCORE ONE for PFP2010!

Salut!

Been back in Romania for a week now and boy, what a week! Met up with Ashley and Dara in Bucharest and went to see Aerosmith! Had such a great time, I decided to go see them again in August when they're in NJ :)
Then we went to Brasov. First missed our train because they sold 2 of us tickets for the 1:00 and one a ticket on the 3:15, and while trying to decide what to do the 1:00 train pulled away... eventually we found someone who would refund our tickets and put us all on the same train. Unfortunately, that also left us on the slowest train of the day, and we didn't arrive in Brasov until 7:00 at night. Nothing terribly exciting happened after that, we went for dinner and then watched the world cup because we were pretty tired. Headed to Bran Castle on Sunday... we decided to leave around 10am so we could get there early. Good thing we decided to go early because it took us 3 hours to figure out how to actually get there. We were given about 4 conflicting sets of directions, and they usually ended up with us in the middle of nowhere. We rode the same bus line in circles for an hour and a half before going back to the train station/main bus station and asking how to get there... finally got decent directions and eventually made it there after changing 2 bus lines and sitting in a field for half an hour.

Bran Castle (the castle Bram Stoker got his inspiration for Dracula from), is set imposingly on top of a hill cliff... kind of spooky, right? The inside of the castle, though, is all bright white walls with beautiful wooden supports and an interior courtyard, complete with wishing well and a secret staircase hidden by a whimsical-looking tree. Not QUITE what I was expecting, but still pretty cool. After we toured the castle we hung around Bran, looking at all the touristy souveniers. They had some pretty funny ones, 'Dr. Acula, Romanian Cardiologist,' and 'I survived Transylvania' shirts that had a picture of an impaled person; all sorts of mugs with dracula and recipes for blood cocktails (1 part AB, 1 Part B-, 2 parts A-), etc.

On Monday we headed up to Porolissum, taking a 6 hour train ride from Brasov to Cluj, where our friend from last year, Bogdan, picked us up and drove us to Porolissum. As soon as we got there it started pouring rain and it pretty much has not stopped since. Unfortuantely, that means I have no news on the excavation since we've only gotten a single layer up, with only the usual pottery and bone, and a single coin the romanians found, that is probably a commemorative Faustina coin that Pius Antonius (I think) had distributed after Empress Faustina died.

That's about all for now, look for another update sometime next week!

Pupici!

Last update for Ireland?

Ahhhhh life is still so busy! Even though we finished classes two weeks ago things definitely haven’t slowed down. Since classes ended, I’ve spent two days in Disneyland Paris (SUCH a good call), four days in Paris, two days touring Connemara, annnnnd the rest of the time writing papers…

1. Paris
1. Disneyland!

i. Super fun

ii. Left Galway ridiculously early in the morning with one of the other Lauren’s to catch our flight and made it to the park by 1pm, played at magic kingdom until 5, met Niki at the entrance (since she was coming from Berlin), did a few more rides, went to the hotel for a mediocre, French version of Mexican food, went back to the park until closing time at 10!

iii. Woke up super early the next morning to take advantage of the 2 extra hours people staying in Disney hotels get and ended up doing Space Mountain twice in about 20 minutes (WAY better than our space mountain!), did the peter pan ride (a lot cooler now that I’ve been to London and can pick out what the buildings are), AND did the tea cups, all before the park actually opened!

iv. Once the parks opened for real we went over to the MGM equivalent park and did Tower of Terror, Rock’N’RollerCoaster, saw the stunt show and a couple other shows in French (including one called ‘Animagique,’ a black light show full of Disney songs… it was actually really cute, and, after waiting in line for an hour and a half, went on the newest roller coaster they have, “Crush’s Coaster” where you get to ride the E.A.C. on the back of a turtle! Definitely a really cool new ride… hopefully DisneyWorld will open one, too!

v. Left around 7 to get to Paris at a reasonable time

2. Paris!

i. Went on a free walking tour of Paris with our favorite tour company, New Europe Tours

ii. Wandered around the city until our other friends met up with us

iii. Went to see Versailles Castle!

1. Amazingly ornate

2. Saw the Hall of Mirrors… so cool

3. Wandered through the gardens

4. Hunted for (but failed to find) Marie Antoinette’s pink sheep… we’re convinced PETA must have put up a fuss about dying the sheep pink because we could NOT find them anywhere

iv. Went to the Catacombs, where bones were moved and stacked underground, with some even being arranged into pictures. Creepy? Yes. Awesome? Also Yes!

v. Went to the Pompidou Center… modern art… still not such a huge fan… too much of their big exhibition right now is the artists ‘needing to feel pain’ so it was pictures of them cutting their palms, or with rows of thorns stuck into their arms, or hula-hooping with rings of barbed wire… not at all my definition of art, nor do I really think it’s something we should condone as art.

vi. Went to the Rodin Museum and saw the statue ‘The Thinker’ which was pretty cool

vii. Saw Napoleon’s tomb

viii. Wandered down the Champ d’Elysees to the Arc d’Triomph and then over to the Eiffel Tower

ix. Ate LOTS AND LOTS OF CREPES!

2. Connemara!
1. Took a bus tour up to Connemara with the same Lauren I went to Disney with and stopped to stay the night in a hostel in Connemara
2. While there, took a boat tour on the Killary Fjord, courtesy of Uncle Russ! The views were absolutely breathtaking and, while I got a few pictures, they just don’t do it justice. The boat had an interesting commentary about the area, and we even got to see some Dolphins!
3. Walked about 3 kilometers back to our hostel and hung around there the rest of the day. It was a beautiful day so it was really nice to just sit outside in this nice secluded spot with an AMAZING view and read a book. Very relaxing J
4. Caught the tour bus for the rest of the tour the next day, and headed back to Galway

3. Back in Galway now for less than two weeks! Still can’t believe it, still having mixed feelings, but I’ll be happy to go home. Have two big papers left to write by next Friday, and just packing and enjoying my last few days in Galway after that! I’m trying to spend as much time out in the nice weather and around town for the rest of the time so this is probably my last update for a while. See you all when I get home in a few weeks!

London weekend

Today is the last day of classes! That’s very strange but… oh so nice J Unfortunately, that means the due date for my massive pile of final papers is looming ever closer. My plan is to finish at least one of them by tonight… so naturally, I take this time to update you all on my life! See how much I care about you all?

Last weekend I went to Paris with Lauren and Megan, my two friends from Villanova, and my roommate Niki. Thursday night we went to see Les Miserables which, as some of you may know, is one of my absolute favorite musicals of all time! The performance was incredible. Megan and I had each seen it already, but Niki and Lauren hadn’t so we were excited to see what they both thought. Everyone thought it was amazing… a wonderful way to start our trip!

Niki and Megan had both been to London before and done all the touristy things, so we all kind of broke apart and did our own thing for the day. Before we split up, though, the four of us went to see Abbey Road together and went to Kings Cross Station to try to get to Platform 9 ¾ . After that, Lauren and I decided to stick together and find our way to the Tower of London. We took a guided tour with one of the Yeoman Guards and got to see the Crown Jewels! The tour was very informative and a lot of fun. After that we headed over towards Buckingham Palace and ended up walking through St. James Park, which was beautiful! We did some bird watching and found the oddest-looking bird we have ever seen. The only way to describe it is it looked like a dinosaur bird. Unfortunately, searching “dinosaur bird” on google hasn’t returned any good results yet. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the streets of London, finding Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and the Millennium Bridge. The other girls met up after that because they were going to a concert but, since it was to see a band I wasn’t really familiar with, I decided to save the 30 pounds and wander around Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus for a while, then went to explore Harrods. All very good decisions, I must say. The Egyptian Elevator in Harrods is ridiculously cool.

Saturday we took a bus tour to Windsor Castle (the Queen was home!), Bath, and Stonehenge. Stonehenge was definitely my favorite part. It was so cool to finally get to see it! It was also kind of funny to see people protesting tourism at Stonehenge… people with signs that said things like “Let our ancestors that are laid to rest STAY at rest.” There really isn’t enough evidence to suggest that Stonehenge itself is a burial ground… nor do we know whose ancestors actually built it… Anyway, we also went to the reconstructed Roman Bath house in Bath. I got to nerd out and show off my archaeological knowledge… it was fun J

Sunday was… not that exciting. Just caught our flight home and started working on that massive pile of papers…

So Sunday I head off to Paris for a few days! Disneyland Paris is launching their “New Generation Festival” on Saturday so we got a pretty good deal to go down for it which should be fun. They’re officially opening a few new rides and a bunch of the more recent Disney characters will be around. Then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are exploring Paris and Versailles, and back to Galway on Friday! And then only a few more weeks until I’m back… how strange!

Bruges, Jess's Visit, Prague, and St. Patty's Day!

And once again I epically fail at keeping my blog updated in a timely fashion… ah well, I’m sure you’re all used to it by now J My latest adventures have taken me to Bruges, Belgium and to Prague, Czech Republic. Still working on posting Bruges pictures to facebook… they’ve been causing an annoying amount of trouble, but Prague pictures are up! My friend Jess from high school also came to visit over her spring break, which was really nice! So let’s see… bullet point time…

1. Bruges, Belgium
1. Ate lots and lots and lots of chocolate! Too delicious for its own good… or for my own good! We found this one chocolate shop called Dumon. It’s set a street back from one of the main squares and looks like a little cottage in the middle of the city (which is not entirely out of place since it’s one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe). It’s run by these two nice older ladies that were very chatty. We would go in pretty much every day to get a couple pieces of candy so they knew us well by the time we had to head home. Our last morning we stopped in to stock up on chocolates and they were very sad to see that we were leaving… probably because we were such reliable business!
2. Tried some of the “famous” Belgian beers… not my cup-o-tea… probably because I would take tea over beer anyway… but I’m glad I tried them. One of the girls I was traveling with really likes Belgian beers (family tradition at holidays) so she picked a couple out for me to try but… not a fan.
3. Went on a day trip out into the country and learned the difference between a Belgian castle (for military purposes) and château (for residential purposes). Also drove out to a nearby town and walked through a graveyard in which our guide told us that, because the ground was so waterlogged and coffins in Belgium aren’t very strong, you often find bones that have made their way to the surface. He then promptly picked up a vertebra to demonstrate this. Since he had been joking with us all day we thought he might have just planted it… until my (quite impressive) archaeological skills found a rib in another area… very eerie but kind of cool too. Definitely never heard of anything like that before! As part of the tour we also got waffles (delicious), saw how the chocolate pralines are made (complete with equally delicious free samples), and went on a beer tasting (not quite as delicious, but interesting to try… they had a cherry flavored beer which was interesting).
4. Went into the “Cathedral of the Holy Blood” which houses, you guessed it, a vial of the holy blood. Story says it was brought back from the crusades.
5. Ate more chocolates, and waffles!
6. Went on a canal tour
7. Saw the old almshouses where the poor could go to live and rich people would pay their living expenses, provided the poor prayed for the health and wellbeing of the rich.
8. Did lots of other site seeing, including a stop at a lace shop where the woman showed us how they make the lace.

2. Jess’s visit!
1. Me, Jess, and one of Jess’s sorority sisters from Villanova (and thus one of my sorority sisters as well) mostly hung out around Galway, showing her the pubs and shops and the claddagh and such
2. Had a really nice day so we walked down to Salthill and hung out by the beach before going out to dinner
3. Took a day trip around Connemara which was absolutely beautiful
4. It was so nice getting to see one of my friends from home! I miss everyone so much that it’s really nice when I get to see a familiar face.

3. Prague, Czech Republic
1. Went to visit my UMD roommate from the past two year’s Beth in Prague, where she’s studying for the semester!
2. Went out to lunch near her apartment the first day and got some delicious Czech food that later decided it didn’t like me eating it L
3. Went on a field trip with her program to a glass blowing factory where we actually got to make our own pieces! I made a decorative (and non-functioning) water jug. I blew the jug myself, and added the handle! Buuuut wasn’t allowed to add the spout… oop haha.
4. Went to the town of Litomerice where we had lunch and then went to a wine tasting!
5. Did a free walking tour of the city one day while Beth was in class. It was a great tour (with a company that I’ve done tours with before in other cities) and I learned a lot about the extensive history of the city. Convinced Beth to come along on their castle tour and, even though Beth knew most of the info already, we had fun and learned a few things.
6. Again, it was soooo nice to be able to see a friend from home, especially since I hadn’t seen Beth since around June or July.

4. St. Patrick’s Day!
1. Celebrated St. Patty’s here in Galway, which was amazing! The parade started at 12:30 so we went down around 11:45 and it was already ridiculously crowded! The most people I have ever seen in Galway!
2. Parade theme was “Over the Moon” so instead of being St. Patrick’s Day themed everything was space themed and the parade came complete with dancing stormtroopers… yeah, that’s right, DANCING stormtroopers.
3. Spent the rest of the day hanging out in pubs, going out for a fish and chips dinner, and watching everyone celebrate dressed up in Irish flags, wigs, face paint, the works.
4. Went to a pub after dinner and heard the WORST pickup line ever used on one of my friends!

-“Is your second name Jacobs?”

~”Um… no?”

-“Oh, cuz you’re a real cracker!”

~”I…don’t understand…”

Apparently telling someone they’re a “cracker” in Ireland means they’re very attractive but… doesn’t exactly translate haha

5. Sadly, the Irish party HARD and I got pushed into by a very drunk Irishman, fell down, and twisted my knee again L 3 days later and I’m still pretty much confined to my apartment. Hopefully it gets better soon!

Off to London next weekend, classes end March 31^st, spending a couple days in Paris and Euro Disney during NUIG’s spring break, and then home April 26^th… mixed feelings about that but I think I’m ready to come home. It’ll be nice to see everyone again!

Maybe if y’all are lucky I’ll get another update in before coming home… I think it’s doable… especially since I’ll have lots of papers to procrastinate writing!

Short update time! And I guess I’ll make this one in bullet points since I know Nick likes them that way…

1. Went to the Cliffs of Moher last Thursday. Got lucky and had an absolutely GORGEOUS day… barely any fog at all! I think I got a few good pictures so I’ll put those up on facebook and snapfish (along with all the other pictures I never got around to putting on snapfish)
1. Also stopped at Ailwee Cave… very cool. Saw stalactites and stalagmites, an underground waterfall, a huge cavern that tends to completely flood a few times a year, and a rare bat.
2. Volunteered at the Teddy Bear Hospital on Friday.
1. It’s run by the Med students society on campus and brings in about 1300 children over two days to take their sick teddy bears to the doctor.
2. Its aim is to help make kids less afraid of going to the doctor and, whether it worked or not, it was still a lot of fun!
3. Got yelled at by many little kids for spelling their names wrong… they certainly were not shy about telling you if you were wrong! Ended up having to have on of the Irish students make a cheat sheet with name spellings… like Aoife (pronounced like Eva with an f instead of a v), Oisin (pronounced kinda like ocean), and Georoid pronounced like you would assume they would pronounce Garath since they say th like t…
3. Other news: have plans to go to Belgium at the end of February. Will be spending a weekend in Bruge, eating lots of chocolate and waffles J

That’s about it for now… still working on making some other travel plans, and looking forward to Jess’s visit in March! I’ll keep you updated if I do anything else exciting J