The Month of Awesome Begins

After a weekend of studying and finishing details for April, I made myself a delicious treat of strawberry cobbler. Now, I know you normally don't put strawberries in cobbler, but this was absolutely amazing. It turned out looking kind of pretty too. Here's a picture of my masterpiece:

Monday I went to class, as usual, and then headed to basketball practice. It was our last before our tournament on Wednesday. On Tuesday, in between classes, I went to get the last things I needed for April, including an eye mask, ear plugs, and a book to read...Wuthering Heights. Not quite sure why I picked Wuthering Heights, but it happened. Wednesday was the tournament. Our first game was at 12 against Manchester. Manchester only had 5 players, so they got tired pretty quickly and we won! I then got roped into doing the scoreboard for the boy's game against Manchester, where I got yelled at by both sides while the refs calmly told me to just listen to them. I was rather glad when the game ended, even though the Leeds boys' team lost. Our next game was at 4 against Liverpool. Again, we won! It was so awesome to play in a game again. It was even more awesome that we won our Christie Cup. Later there was an award ceremony where there some crazy large trophies and cups. We each got a medal there, which I'm so excited to bring home and show off. There were probably around 25 different sports (including the boys and girls teams of each sport), but overall Leeds wound up winning first! 

Afterwards I got some pizza with the team and went out to a special night of Fruity at the Union to celebrate the Christie Cup. Today was filled with last minute preparations, including stuffing my bag full of everything I will need for the next month. Its as full as it can get (though it does have a few sweaters to trade off for some shorts with my parents. Here's of picture of how legit I'm going to look. Of course, it should be warmer, so imagine more sunny clothes.

My next post will be from miles away in warm, lovely Italy!

Your Christie Cup Champion,

Jessica

EUROPA

I feel exactly how I did 2 months ago all over again. In 5 days and 12 hours I will be yet again boarding a plane off to another country all by myself. This time I'm headed off to meet my parents in Italy to begin my crazy month off. I land in Milan and have a few hours to kill by myself before my parents are done with a tour they are taking. My mom suggested looking at the Duomo there (which is a cathedral), so I'm going to explore a building (surprise, surprise). Once I meet up with them, we are off to take the train to Bologna, Italy, where we will be staying for a few days. I'm excited to get to know an Italian city. We're then off to Venice for a day, then back to Milan to catch a flight to Athens, Greece. I'm so excited to see Athens, even in spite of the current financial and political situation there. Its going to be amazing to visit the Acropolis, along with everything else Athens has to offer. We will then be flying back to Milan, where I leave my parents for them to return back to the states. I fly to Rome, then, to meet up with my friends Quinn and Santiago. From Rome, we will be taking a day trip to Siena on our way to Florence. We then travel to Nice, France, where I hope its nice enough to enjoy some quality beach time. From Nice we got to Barcelona, then Madrid, and finish Spain in Valencia. We take a bus back to Barcelona so we can travel to Munich, Germany. Because buying a bus pass called Europass was our cheapest option, we will be traveling by coach the entire month. This means I will be sitting on a bus for literally 24 hours from Barcelona to Munich. After Munich, its off to Prague in the Czech Republic. After Prague, we're off to our last stop in Berlin. We then take another fun twelve hour bus ride to London from Berlin, eventually catching a bus to Leeds from London. I'm pretty positive I'm not going to want to ride a bus for a VERY long time after April is over.
I've spent so long planning April with my friends, but it still doesn't seem like its real. It seems like a fairy tale that I will actually be backpacking across Europe for an entire month, really being able to explore so many different cultures and experience so many new things (especially food). I'm so excited, but so incredibly nervous for what is to come. I whipped the backpack out today to begin laying out what I need to bring, whether it be clothes to wear or swap with my parents, study materials (because I actually do have finals and tests when I get back), toiletries, or some entertainment. I think my mind is even more blown over this concept than it was when I first came over here. I will literally be living out of a single backpack for an entire month. Its going to be an adventure, and I am so excited to experience it.
Now, because I will be traveling so much (new place just about every 2 or 3 days), I have a nifty new element to my blog. On the right sidebar, you will notice a new addition. This beauty if Google Latitude, which, just be logging into the internet, will let you know what city I'm in. I will try and update my blog as much as I can while off on this epic adventure, but I'm not quite sure where and when I'll get internet. Hopefully it'll be more than less, but this way, even if I'm on a terrible connection or don't have too much time to update the good old blog, it possible to know where in the world I am. So get excited (and prepared to be extraordinarily jealous).

The Soon-to-be Backpacker Across Europe,
Jessica