Hi all-
Today I had an interview (which was more of a formality) for a hospitality company called "off to work" and then I had a four hour training session with them. Right now I am actually perusing the website to see which jobs I want to sign up for in the next couple weeks. Anyway, I am very excited to have a job and hopefully start bringing in money! I'll let you all know how it goes.
-Aubrey
31 August 2006
Possible Job!
Hi All-
Today was a good day because I got a call from one of the hospitality agancies I registered with online and I have an interview set up for 10:30 am my time and if they like me I will have a training session from 2 to 6pm my time. Pray that they like me! Especially because this is the only lead on a job that I have at the moment and I would love to start making money. Thank you so much for all of your support. I will do my best not to let anyone down. I'll let you all know how it went tomorrow.
-Aubrey
Today was a good day because I got a call from one of the hospitality agancies I registered with online and I have an interview set up for 10:30 am my time and if they like me I will have a training session from 2 to 6pm my time. Pray that they like me! Especially because this is the only lead on a job that I have at the moment and I would love to start making money. Thank you so much for all of your support. I will do my best not to let anyone down. I'll let you all know how it went tomorrow.
-Aubrey
29 August 2006
Notting Hill Carnival Pictures
One of the beautiful and detailed costumes.
This guy is actually trying not to fall over from the wind blowing against him.
The cutest little girl! She totally knew how to give a pose.
One of my better pictures. I'm so glad I got this!
One of the better masks/costumes.
One of the more scandelous and fancier dressed dancers.
Some of the dancers at the carnival, which is a huge parade that goes on for hours.
28 August 2006
Krakow pictures
This is in the town center in the evening. I would spend all my tim ein this town center if I could.
This is the castle in Krakow. I loved the garden!
We came upon this as we walked around a corner and I wanted one of the paintings so badly.
This is Lisa, Beth, and I at the vegetarian place in Krakow.
London, so far...
Hi all-
I know it's been a while, so I will try to update you without boring your brain out of your head. Today I decided to go to the Notting Hill Carnival. It's amazing how I didn't go to things like this by myself when I was home because I wanted people to go with, but when you're pretty much the only one you know in the whole country, it's easy to go to things alone. Because otherwise, I would never see anything. That aside, I decided to walk there (Notting Hill) from where I am staying in the Highgate Hill/Archway area, which is a fair distance. It took me about an hour and a half to walk there. I took the underground and bus back home. It was fun to hear all the music and see all the cool costumes and dancing. It's the first time I've been back to Notting Hill in six years and it still looks amazing, even though most of the stores were boarded up (for the Carnival). The stores that weren't boarded, up had music blasting and food being served on the street. There were also a ton of people in this tiny little area of a few blocks. It was also interesting to see all the cops around. One sad thing that I saw at the carnival was a woman who was getting CPR by the medical team and cops. From what I could tell, they couldn't get her heart to start again, but they shooed everyone away pretty quickly. It was also really sad to see her daughter or granddaughter standing there crying. I said a prayer for them and maybe I will find out more on the news. Something else interesting was that when I came out of King's Cross station, there was impromptu security screening set up that wasn't there a few days ago and it was only screening people coming from one direction, so maybe I will see more about that on the news too.
On the way to Notting Hill I walked through Regent's park, which I have never been to and is amazing. I think I will be spending a lot of time there. On this trip i have realized that I am both a city and country girl. I love the fast pace, excitement, and variety of things to do that a city offers, but I absolutely love colorful, beautiful, big, open spaces that I can run and jump and sleep in. There's almost a sense of being lost or losing yourself I love. I also love dressing up, but am never more happy than when I can let loose an get dirty. Another one of those things that makes my personality a paradox;)
I think I got a sunburn today! Which is saying a bit, because we are way more north than Oregon and it's always windy and rainy.
Yesterday I was walking by the church down the road and there was a wedding about to start and it was great to see all the women done up and wearing typical british, fancy hats. I felt like I had walked back in time a bit;)
Another funny thing is that at the bottom of the hill (because Highgate Hill is really on a hill) there is a McDonald's that I've eaten at a couple times for simplicity sake and it's on MacDonald road (funny enough).
The rest of my time has been spent running around trying to find a place to live and job. The home is on the back burner at the moment because I need to start getting an income. I don't have any solid leads yet, but I have been to 19 theatre houses and I have about 34 more to go to tomorrow. I also registered with one school district for supply teaching, and two different catering companies, but haven't heard from any of them. Although, it's a bank holiday, so everyone had today (monday) off. I'm trying to hold off on signing up with a supply agency because they take a portion of your pay, but I think that might be the best way to get any significant amount of money. There are two new shows opening up soon, so be praying that I might get a job at one of those theatre's, which I will be visiting tomorrow.
That' pretty much it for now. Miss you all!
-Aubrey
I know it's been a while, so I will try to update you without boring your brain out of your head. Today I decided to go to the Notting Hill Carnival. It's amazing how I didn't go to things like this by myself when I was home because I wanted people to go with, but when you're pretty much the only one you know in the whole country, it's easy to go to things alone. Because otherwise, I would never see anything. That aside, I decided to walk there (Notting Hill) from where I am staying in the Highgate Hill/Archway area, which is a fair distance. It took me about an hour and a half to walk there. I took the underground and bus back home. It was fun to hear all the music and see all the cool costumes and dancing. It's the first time I've been back to Notting Hill in six years and it still looks amazing, even though most of the stores were boarded up (for the Carnival). The stores that weren't boarded, up had music blasting and food being served on the street. There were also a ton of people in this tiny little area of a few blocks. It was also interesting to see all the cops around. One sad thing that I saw at the carnival was a woman who was getting CPR by the medical team and cops. From what I could tell, they couldn't get her heart to start again, but they shooed everyone away pretty quickly. It was also really sad to see her daughter or granddaughter standing there crying. I said a prayer for them and maybe I will find out more on the news. Something else interesting was that when I came out of King's Cross station, there was impromptu security screening set up that wasn't there a few days ago and it was only screening people coming from one direction, so maybe I will see more about that on the news too.
On the way to Notting Hill I walked through Regent's park, which I have never been to and is amazing. I think I will be spending a lot of time there. On this trip i have realized that I am both a city and country girl. I love the fast pace, excitement, and variety of things to do that a city offers, but I absolutely love colorful, beautiful, big, open spaces that I can run and jump and sleep in. There's almost a sense of being lost or losing yourself I love. I also love dressing up, but am never more happy than when I can let loose an get dirty. Another one of those things that makes my personality a paradox;)
I think I got a sunburn today! Which is saying a bit, because we are way more north than Oregon and it's always windy and rainy.
Yesterday I was walking by the church down the road and there was a wedding about to start and it was great to see all the women done up and wearing typical british, fancy hats. I felt like I had walked back in time a bit;)
Another funny thing is that at the bottom of the hill (because Highgate Hill is really on a hill) there is a McDonald's that I've eaten at a couple times for simplicity sake and it's on MacDonald road (funny enough).
The rest of my time has been spent running around trying to find a place to live and job. The home is on the back burner at the moment because I need to start getting an income. I don't have any solid leads yet, but I have been to 19 theatre houses and I have about 34 more to go to tomorrow. I also registered with one school district for supply teaching, and two different catering companies, but haven't heard from any of them. Although, it's a bank holiday, so everyone had today (monday) off. I'm trying to hold off on signing up with a supply agency because they take a portion of your pay, but I think that might be the best way to get any significant amount of money. There are two new shows opening up soon, so be praying that I might get a job at one of those theatre's, which I will be visiting tomorrow.
That' pretty much it for now. Miss you all!
-Aubrey
20 August 2006
Krakow wins best place to visit award (after London that is)
Beth and I absolutely love Krakow, Poland! The town is so quaint and has such a great quality or energy about it. We are also at the best hostel ever and have met some of the coolest people. Right now there are two girls in our room named Lisa and Donna. Lisa is from New Jersey and is a teacher who has been on many travels, is so animated and always has a story to tell. Donna is a from Northern England and currently teaches English in a small town in Japan and has been all over the world (east of the US that is). We have also met this guy, named Sonny Daze, from California who has been traveling all over the world (literally everywhere) for the last year. We will have a party at the hostel tomorrow to celebrate this feat. We have had the most interesting conversations and hung out over the last twenty-four hours. Last night we went to a local pub and were talking until 4:30 in the morning and then we all went to lunch at a vegetarian place for lunch at about 2pm. Beth also went to see a competition where they played Chopin with both Donna and Lisa. The veggie place was the best food I’ve had since we left Germany. It was all fresh and light and had such great flavor! I also have to say that the best part about Krakow is the main market. It is so big and so beautiful. There are great buildings, statues, and kiosks to enjoy and explore. I will totally come back and visit this place!
17 August 2006
Praise the Lord
I have successfully and safely immigrated to the United Kingdom. Now it's off to the dirty work of finding a job and living quarters. I will put more up later about Krakow and such.
13 August 2006
PICTURES!
Our first laundry day since Germany and there were no clothes lines. There was more than what is in the picture and we did it all by hand!
This is one of the coolest memorial sculptures yet. It is for all those who were affected by the destruction of communism.
See if you can find Beth!
For Renee: This is an ice cream vending machine we came acroos in the airport in Stuttgart, Germany.
Budapest and some rants
After Bratislava, we headed off to Budapest, Hungary. This is a cool town, but a bit touristy as well. The worst part about Budapest was the hostel we stayed in. It was so dirty and disgusting that I was constantly thinking about trying to touch as little as possible. There was also a lot of noise very late at night after we had been asleep for a couple of hours. The people also smoked a ton and I was hacking out a lung most of the time.
This would be a good time to mention that I pretty much hate all smokers (except my few smoker friends who have always been polite and been away from me and outside while smoking), but besides that… Oh, and Europeans stink (literally). I have never had such smells invade my space as I have in Europe. I can never (almost) get away from cigarette smoke, especially when eating, and this sucks because I come from lovely Oregon where people have to go outside or sit in a tiny room away from the rest of society to have their nicotine fix. Also, there is way too much cologne and perfume use and on top of which, those who use it, use way too much of it! I hate walking by someone and then getting an entire breath of chemicals instead of air.
Ok, back to the good parts of Budapest. One of the coolest parts was walking up the hill on the Buda side to see The Citadel because it was like being back in Eugene and going on a little nature hike. Seeing Parliament (Pest side) was also cool because it was like a palace and has really only been a true parliament since 1956 (I think). It was also cool to see the castle (Pest)(it was cute) and the other thing was to see Heroes Square (Pest), which is massive and honors 14 or so heroes. It has a statue for each and a depiction of what they did (from what I could infer). There was also a castle in Buda that was built into the hillside and looked like a sandcastle. The food in Budapest wasn’t the greatest, but was doable and we enjoyed ourselves for the most part. The only thing we didn’t realize was that the Buda side of Budapest is all hills (at least where all the sights are) and we wanted to do them all in one day, which meant climbing the hill three or four times! We also found out about the terror plot disruption while we were in Budapest, which was really weird because we were the only Americans or Brits we were in contact with. But that’s a different blog;)
This would be a good time to mention that I pretty much hate all smokers (except my few smoker friends who have always been polite and been away from me and outside while smoking), but besides that… Oh, and Europeans stink (literally). I have never had such smells invade my space as I have in Europe. I can never (almost) get away from cigarette smoke, especially when eating, and this sucks because I come from lovely Oregon where people have to go outside or sit in a tiny room away from the rest of society to have their nicotine fix. Also, there is way too much cologne and perfume use and on top of which, those who use it, use way too much of it! I hate walking by someone and then getting an entire breath of chemicals instead of air.
Ok, back to the good parts of Budapest. One of the coolest parts was walking up the hill on the Buda side to see The Citadel because it was like being back in Eugene and going on a little nature hike. Seeing Parliament (Pest side) was also cool because it was like a palace and has really only been a true parliament since 1956 (I think). It was also cool to see the castle (Pest)(it was cute) and the other thing was to see Heroes Square (Pest), which is massive and honors 14 or so heroes. It has a statue for each and a depiction of what they did (from what I could infer). There was also a castle in Buda that was built into the hillside and looked like a sandcastle. The food in Budapest wasn’t the greatest, but was doable and we enjoyed ourselves for the most part. The only thing we didn’t realize was that the Buda side of Budapest is all hills (at least where all the sights are) and we wanted to do them all in one day, which meant climbing the hill three or four times! We also found out about the terror plot disruption while we were in Budapest, which was really weird because we were the only Americans or Brits we were in contact with. But that’s a different blog;)
12 August 2006
Bratislava
I was still sick, but on the mend while we were in Bratislava. So far, this is the quaintest, favorite city outside of Germany that we've been to. We stayed right next to the old town and it was so easy to get around. The town had such great character and all the sites worth seeing were right next to each other. Although, this town ranks the absolute lowest for transportation systems. It took us over an hour to problem solve how to buy our bus ticket because the only kiosk to buy them from is electronic and only takes coins, but when you change your money, they only give you bills. So, we had to buy lunch (disgusting and the worst to date) in order to have enough coins to buy the tickets. Then there are two places where the buses stop. The left side is supposedly where they take a break because the bus driver wouldn't let us on and told us we needed o go to the right side and then not even two minutes later he cam driving to the right side to pick us up. The supermarket (yes they have one) is also insane. The top part is more like a Fred Meyer, except that you have to buy things from the specific department before you go on to the next. The downstairs is where all the food is and it is worse than a southern wal*mart! We were constantly running into people and even the little kids get shopping carts, which is the stupidest idea to date. There are about 18 different check out stands and the store is shaped like a "u" around the stands, so you end up walking around the store a million times and running into a million people. And don't forget to weigh your produce in the produce department because you can't buy it at the checkout stand without the sticker. I will totally go back to this town, just not during tourist season, Especially because I love all the little statues they have hidden around the town. I'll put some pictures up later. I hope this catches you up a bit and I will do my best to catch up more, even though it might be out of sequence. Cheers!
catching up: Vienna
Once we left Prague, I got pretty sick. My whole time in Vienna was a little lackluster due to this. The best thing we did in Vienna was go to the music film festival held at the city hall (which looks like a palace) and plays films of the viennese people's opera (which is fabulous and I don't particularly fancy opera). This was also open air and you could just go and find a seat. It was such a cool experience. I wish that things like this happened in Eugene. I loved it! We also got to see where the royals used to hang out and visited a modern art museum (to get out of the rain). The entire time we were in Vienna, it was raining and felt like we were in Oregon in the fall. The people there were very nice for the most part and we shared a room with two french and two italian girls. The french girls ended up watching "center stage" with us one night. This was also the first time we hand washed our laundry and a random girl would always walk through and tell us what strong, good women we were. There were also several families at this hostel, which was a new sight. I learned the hard way that in europe you must weigh your produce before you get to the check out counter because they can't weigh it there. This lesson was also reiterated in Bratislava, which is a whole story in itself that I will share later! Overall, Vienna is nice and I would go again.
02 August 2006
A LOT
Hallo-
So, a couple days ago, after Beth and I went IKEA for the first time, we got to go to the cute town of Tubingen (not to be confused with Boblingen or any other german town ending in –ingen). Here we (Beth, Konstanze, Christiane, and I) walked to a Biergarten by the Neckar River and had sausage salad, baked potato with a sort of ranch sauce, and huge bread pretzel (which is a huge thing here). We then met up with Konstanze’s parents to go on a sort of gondola (but for 20 people) ride in the Neckar River. It was great, especially because it was dusk and we got to see the river in the light and at night. The guy who pushed us along also sang us a song at one point (in German of course).
Yesterday, Beth and I went to school with Rosi who is an Elementary art and English teacher. We got to play “heads up, 7 up” with the kids (which they loved) and then we answered their questions about American schools and children. We also got to meet many of the teachers (most of whom spoke English). One of the teachers has an Australian accent when speaking English and one of the others knew where Eugene, Oregon was. She had actually had her car break down there!
Later that day, 8pm, we met a guy at the main train station in Stuttgart who was going to give us a ride to Dresden. Konstanze found this ride by looking at advertisements on the internet, which is supposedly very common and safe here. Although, this guy had just purchased his car a couple days ago for 300 Euros on Ebay and was the classic punk, German youth. He was wearing an inside-out button up shirt and had a shaved head except for about five dreadlocks coming from the middle/back. He also listened to the loudest, noisiest, non-music music the entire five and a half hour trip. It was so loud that when he turned it off on our one bathroom break, my ears couldn’t hear at any lower of a decibel. This guy also went an average of 150km/hr on the autobahn. Trust me, It’s fast and nothing like I-5.
Today, we went to Konstanze’s college and looked at the architecture final projects while she met with an advisor. They were very interesting even though they were in German. We then went to see the VW plant in Dresden that has a modern building and supposedly creates the most expensive cars. Then, we went to the old part of town with the old churches and castles and building that was built specifically for the King’s daughter’s wedding. I would love to be married there. It has the most amazing courtyard and fountains everywhere! Later that evening we had a potluck picnic with a few of Konstanze’s college friends on the Elbe River bank. It was gorgeous! Beth and I also got to practice recognizing our German for at least three or four hours. All of the people were really nice and seem like they would be totally fun to hang out with (if we lived there).
We finally arrived back at Konstanze’s parent’s house after nine hours of train rides and had a fabulous bbq dinner and a cream cake dessert that Christiane made. We then played a game and realized we needed to start packing for the flight the next day. We both went to bed at about one thirty or two and were up at eight to get ready to leave. We had the most amazing breakfast and headed out the door. I wish we could have stayed longer with the family, but alas, time moves forward. If I were to be an exchange student, this would be a fabulous family of which to be apart.
The next stop is Prague (Praha). This European city is one of those that I most recognized and that many people have said is fabulous and yet I find it somewhat lacking. It’s nice enough and the hostel we are staying at is great. The tourist attrctions are nice and very beautiful like every other European city I’ve been to, but there is a sense of down-troddenness and defeat/neglect about it. There are very few areas of this city that I have truly enjoyed (partly because of all the tourists). I know that last part sounds funny because I’m one of them, but it’s true. In germany it was kind of stressful because everywhere we went we were two of very few tourists and there was no English (but at least I knew it was authentic). Here there are millions (it seems) of non-native people and everyone speaks English.
Sorry for the rant…the places you should go to in Prague are the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge. You should NOT go to Astronomical clock. The big park is your choice, but it’s incredibly dirty (especially the grass…we sat on a bench instead). There is some interesting art (sculptures) as you walk around and some of the buildings are nice. We have also had our first good rain of the trip (yesterday) and we were the only crazy ones walking around in it (Oregonian Traning)! We have also noticed that you can tell we are Americans because we laugh a lot and most of the people here look pretty worn.
The people in the Hostel are interesting, but mostly immature and way too much into getting drunk. We had a very interesting conversation with a mechanical engineer from Lubbock, Texas and a guy from Sweden about Politics (the UN and EU and The US’ participation in those and Iraq). The guy from Sweden rocked and the guy from Texas was a typical conservative republican who wanted to complain about everything, but not actually take any positive steps to change anything.
Just to let you all know, I am cooking up list topics, such as Places I would live and places you couldn’t even kidnap and make me live in and I would marry guys from these countries.
Ahoj (ahoy)
P.S. This is an atypical Czech word because it uses too many vowels and doesn’t four to five consonants in a row.
So, a couple days ago, after Beth and I went IKEA for the first time, we got to go to the cute town of Tubingen (not to be confused with Boblingen or any other german town ending in –ingen). Here we (Beth, Konstanze, Christiane, and I) walked to a Biergarten by the Neckar River and had sausage salad, baked potato with a sort of ranch sauce, and huge bread pretzel (which is a huge thing here). We then met up with Konstanze’s parents to go on a sort of gondola (but for 20 people) ride in the Neckar River. It was great, especially because it was dusk and we got to see the river in the light and at night. The guy who pushed us along also sang us a song at one point (in German of course).
Yesterday, Beth and I went to school with Rosi who is an Elementary art and English teacher. We got to play “heads up, 7 up” with the kids (which they loved) and then we answered their questions about American schools and children. We also got to meet many of the teachers (most of whom spoke English). One of the teachers has an Australian accent when speaking English and one of the others knew where Eugene, Oregon was. She had actually had her car break down there!
Later that day, 8pm, we met a guy at the main train station in Stuttgart who was going to give us a ride to Dresden. Konstanze found this ride by looking at advertisements on the internet, which is supposedly very common and safe here. Although, this guy had just purchased his car a couple days ago for 300 Euros on Ebay and was the classic punk, German youth. He was wearing an inside-out button up shirt and had a shaved head except for about five dreadlocks coming from the middle/back. He also listened to the loudest, noisiest, non-music music the entire five and a half hour trip. It was so loud that when he turned it off on our one bathroom break, my ears couldn’t hear at any lower of a decibel. This guy also went an average of 150km/hr on the autobahn. Trust me, It’s fast and nothing like I-5.
Today, we went to Konstanze’s college and looked at the architecture final projects while she met with an advisor. They were very interesting even though they were in German. We then went to see the VW plant in Dresden that has a modern building and supposedly creates the most expensive cars. Then, we went to the old part of town with the old churches and castles and building that was built specifically for the King’s daughter’s wedding. I would love to be married there. It has the most amazing courtyard and fountains everywhere! Later that evening we had a potluck picnic with a few of Konstanze’s college friends on the Elbe River bank. It was gorgeous! Beth and I also got to practice recognizing our German for at least three or four hours. All of the people were really nice and seem like they would be totally fun to hang out with (if we lived there).
We finally arrived back at Konstanze’s parent’s house after nine hours of train rides and had a fabulous bbq dinner and a cream cake dessert that Christiane made. We then played a game and realized we needed to start packing for the flight the next day. We both went to bed at about one thirty or two and were up at eight to get ready to leave. We had the most amazing breakfast and headed out the door. I wish we could have stayed longer with the family, but alas, time moves forward. If I were to be an exchange student, this would be a fabulous family of which to be apart.
The next stop is Prague (Praha). This European city is one of those that I most recognized and that many people have said is fabulous and yet I find it somewhat lacking. It’s nice enough and the hostel we are staying at is great. The tourist attrctions are nice and very beautiful like every other European city I’ve been to, but there is a sense of down-troddenness and defeat/neglect about it. There are very few areas of this city that I have truly enjoyed (partly because of all the tourists). I know that last part sounds funny because I’m one of them, but it’s true. In germany it was kind of stressful because everywhere we went we were two of very few tourists and there was no English (but at least I knew it was authentic). Here there are millions (it seems) of non-native people and everyone speaks English.
Sorry for the rant…the places you should go to in Prague are the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge. You should NOT go to Astronomical clock. The big park is your choice, but it’s incredibly dirty (especially the grass…we sat on a bench instead). There is some interesting art (sculptures) as you walk around and some of the buildings are nice. We have also had our first good rain of the trip (yesterday) and we were the only crazy ones walking around in it (Oregonian Traning)! We have also noticed that you can tell we are Americans because we laugh a lot and most of the people here look pretty worn.
The people in the Hostel are interesting, but mostly immature and way too much into getting drunk. We had a very interesting conversation with a mechanical engineer from Lubbock, Texas and a guy from Sweden about Politics (the UN and EU and The US’ participation in those and Iraq). The guy from Sweden rocked and the guy from Texas was a typical conservative republican who wanted to complain about everything, but not actually take any positive steps to change anything.
Just to let you all know, I am cooking up list topics, such as Places I would live and places you couldn’t even kidnap and make me live in and I would marry guys from these countries.
Ahoj (ahoy)
P.S. This is an atypical Czech word because it uses too many vowels and doesn’t four to five consonants in a row.
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