Week 10: 23/07/10 - 25/07/10

Barcelona!!!!

23/07/10 - Our first day in Barcelona! The hostel was advertising a free Gaudi walking tour that started at 11, so we got up and made our way to the square where they meet. The square itself had great architecture and even included, as we found out later, Gaudi designed lamp-posts. After we found that out, it made total sense. They weren't your ordinary lamp-posts. I never thought that something so simple could be so interesting. It was a good start to the tour, that's for sure.

Our guide led us to the first sight. It wasn't too far away, but it was under construction. The Palau Guell, our first major sight that Gaudi laid his hands on. It was fairly obvious once you got in front of it, the entrance was exquisite. But the chimneys were amazing as well.

Our adventure led us to the Metro for the first time. It's not the most exciting thing except you had to be VERY aware of who was around you, because it was a picked-pocket waiting to happen. I relaxed once we were far away from the Metro, and at our next stop, the Casa Batllo. There were a ton of amazing buildings on that block including this building and the building next to the Casa Batllo. I was taking so many pictures, and though I had a legitimate excuse of being a tourist, I still felt odd. It was surreal to see these buildings that made Barcelona, Barcelona. We moved to the Casa Mila. It was supposed to look like the Casa Batllo, but Gaudi did what Gaudi did best - totally disregarded the agreement with the investor and made what he wanted to make. The owner and Gaudi didn't get along, so there were a bunch of hidden taunts towards the owner in the metal work. While I don't remember the stories behind the bird and mask, they weren't nice. Our last stop was the one I was really excited to see, possibly the most famous sight in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia. Immediately after getting off the Metro, we were met with this spectacular sight. It was truly amazing. There is so much detail in the front of this building, I didn't know how it was still upright. Granted, it's not going to be finished for at least 30 years, the whole thing was still enormous. I felt so insignificant, I can't imagine how I'd feel if it was done.

We were all slowly dying from a long night and a lot of walking, so we went to a small cafe where they only spoke Catalan (different from Spanish). Thankfully we were able to figure out something to eat. Slowly fading, we tried to figure out what to do next.

In an attempt to stay awake, we made our way to another famous landmark (that was also touched by Gaudi) Parc Guell. The trek up the hill to the park was enough to sway us, but some how we made it! We got separated, but Becky, Kristina and I kept climbing to the very top. We got a 360 degree view of Barcelona, the ocean and it's surroundings. Talk about beautiful! Thinking that we should try and find the others, we kept walking, following the path until we found what made the park famous. Of course, we had to walk around and see everything!

For dinner, our hostel called an Italian restuarant and said that "7 beautiful women" wanted a table, and we ended up getting free champagne! The resturaunt was so much fun and the food was fantastic! It was the first time that I tried sangria, and it was pretty darn delicious!

It was truly an amazing first day in Barcelona!

24/07/10 - After finally getting an acceptable amount of sleep, we wanted to relax, make this a REAL vacation (mother, I'm talking to you!). We were headed to the beach! In common form, our hostel suggested we take a short train to a small town outside of Barcelona, called Siget. The beaches were supposed to be much more beautiful than the Barcelona beach. It cost us 3 euros for a one-way ticket to Siget (I realized how excited I was to go back to US dollars after buying this ticket).

A short ride later, we arrived in the coastal town of Siget. Not knowing which way led us to the beach, we followed the crowd. Turns out, we could have turned right at about any time in our little walk and found the beach. It was beautiful white sand and the water looked so inviting! Not to mention that the architecture of the buildings... it looked like a true Mediterranean village. To lie in the sand was so relaxing. It was incredibly hot, but it didn't matter, because a quick run to the water cooled you off instantly. Thankfully, the water wasn't freezing, but a perfect temperature to just float and talk to friends.

Successfully fried from our hours outside, we got hungry. It was fairly obvious what we wanted: seafood and paella. When in Spain, do as Spainards do! The food was incredibly intense, with Meg befriending a shrimp that was in her dish. After dinner, the seven full, fried, and exhausted London ladies made our way back to the train station to head back to the hostel and Barcelona.

25 /07/10 - Our last day in Barcelona, we wanted to go to the market and see the Picasso muesum. Unfortunately, the market was closed, so we satisfied our shopping hunger with the daily market on Las Ramblas. No one got pick-pocketed (everyone went to bed thanking God they didn't get robbed, and counting the days they had to still get their pockets picked), one vendor shooed away a suspicious person, obviously a pick-pocketer, when I was near.

After we were done at the market, we headed to the muesum. I'm not a huge art person, but even this museum kept me interested. I learned so much about Piccaso and his work, as the museum was organized so that it went in chronological order. It was extremely interesting, and I would definitely call it a success.

That night, we decided to head to a fort where we could see Barcelona during the sunset. It was an amazing sight to see. Walking down the mountain, we were looking for a huge water show that only happened on the weekends. It seemed like a perfect end to our days in Barcelona. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties so they had to stop. We waited a while, but ended up leaving. It wasn't a perfect ending to the trip, but we all had a ton of fun!

Until next time.

Week 10: 19/07/10 - 22/07/10

This weekend, I went to Barcelona, so I put that weekend in a seperate post.

19/07/10 - Work went well. For class, we skyped with someone who's basically a social media expert. It was interesting to see how there are so many ways you can analyze something like Twitter. After, we went to the BBC center. It was the same that I went to at 4:00 in the morning earlier in the summer. They do tours of the facilities, but they didn't know a lot about the operations. Being journalists, we were asking questions that they weren't prepared for, and that was rather unfortuate. The tour wasn't that great because they couldn't answer pretty basic questions. Oh well, I'm glad that a few of us were able to go and watch a newscast take place and talk to a presenter. That was much more informational.

20-21/07/10 - Work, work, work! Though nothing changes from day to day, I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss it. It's gotten more interesting lately because people who were working on the World Cup were starting to come back.

22/07/10 - Class was really interesting today. We got to talk about the infamous Margeret Thatcher. I'd heard a little bit about her and had a bad feeling about her. Our class basically confirmed that. She was a tough cookie, which I definitely respect her for, but her policies were terrible. Our professor said that you either love her or you hate her. It's definitely the later for me. After we talked about Thatcher, we talked about the Olympics. Before long, class was ending and we were heading to the airport to go to Barcelona for the weekend! After a quick airplane ride, we were landing in Spain! The taxi ride was a little long, but we got to the hostel. The person greeting us was Alexis, and he turned out to be amazing. He was so funny and knew us as the 7 girls. Everyone that worked there knew our group as that. It was going to be a great weekend!

Week 9: 12/07/10 - 18/07/10

12/07/10 - Today's my birthday! I'm no longer a teenager anymore! Whoohoo! I had to go to work today and then we had class, both were weird to do because I usually, if anything, work on my birthday. I've never had class because it's July. Study abroad is just full of knew experiences. After work, class was meeting at another Public Relations firm, Ketchum. It definitely wasn't as interesting as the last PR firm we went to, but it was good to see the differences. After, I went to meet my family for dinner. They were at the Churchill War Rooms, so I met them there and we went to the West End because my class was going to see Mousetrap. It is the longest running play and the play can't be published in London or adapted into film until six months after its last show. Dinner was good, it was nice to see my brother and dad before they left the next day. The play was... interesting. I was sitting with my flatmates and at intermission we guessed how it was going to end. I can't say how, because they said to keep it a secret, and even though it was predictable, I'll respect their request.

13-14/07/10 - Nothing too exciting happened. I worked both days, unfortunately I found out that George Steinbrenner died. As an avid Yankee fan I was sad to not be with other Yankee fans during this time. But on Tuesday, a few of us decided to go to this club that celebrities went to and the Princes used to go to. Aka it was really posh. To top it off, our DJ was Macy Gray. Pretty cool! On Wednesday, Meredith, Mom, and I went to Wicked! I had heard the music, but never saw the musical. I was really excited because I didn't really know what to expect! Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. It was great. Definitely in my top three musicals!

15/07/10 - Happy Birthday Brendon! Sorry I couldn't be there! Work and class, once again, not terribly exciting! I got to eat dinner with my sister and mom for the last time before they went home. It was at a pretty nice Italian place, not quite the same as the French restaurant we went to early in the week which was amazing, but still quite good. I was sad to see them leave, but I would be coming home soon and would see them again soon too.

16/07/10 - Today was exciting. I did a little shopping, but then I went to the Globe with Becky for the performance of King Henry IV Part 1. We originally wanted to see King Henry VIII, but that wasn't showing. We weren't disappointed. It was a really good show. If you were to read the play itself, you wouldn't be impressed, but the acting was superb and made it absolutely hilarious. I wanted to see Part 2, but I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe I'll read it and imagine the actors I saw in Part 1.

17/07/10 - Today, I met up with Becky, Michelle, and Chelsey and we went to lunch at a place called Sketch. It had great food and was pretty posh, but it felt like you were in a Woody Allen movie and on acid. The bathroom had bedazzled toilet seat covers. There were turning doors and mysteriously covered entryways. After lunch, Michelle, Chelsey and I went to Portobello Market. It was cool to walk around Notting Hill. It felt like we were in a different place. There was no sense that you were in a city. It was cool to see the different stalls. I actually found a Les Mis book that was published in 1955. I was really excited to find it, as I had been thinking about getting a copy, but it's cool that it's an older copy... very vintage. We went to the Hummingbird Bakery to get some cupcakes. They were famous, and they were very good.

18/07/10 - Today was a lazy day. Lazy days are so much better in London if I do say so myself!

Until next week

Week 8: 05/07/10 - 11/07/10

05/07/10 - It was an early day today because we had to catch our train at 6:59 a.m. back to London. To be safe, we got to the train station at 5:45 a.m. and ate breakfast at a cafe. At 6, we made our way the dreaded desk to get seats for the train. We were informed that second class was full, so instead of getting seats in the very open first class, we were placed in seats in between the train cars. Yeah, I didn't know those seats existed. After we got through customs, the officer said welcome back to Britain. I wanted to cry. I didn't, but I never felt so excited to be back somewhere! We tried to get as much sleep away from the questioning eyes of the other passengers and I literally wanted to cry again. I learned that I loved London so much that I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to react when I got back to the states.

We hit rush hour in the tube, but I didn't care. I was focused on getting back to Edgware Road to our flat and to my bed before we met for class at 11. We were visiting Fleishman Hillard, a Public Relations company. Seeing as I was debating switching from Broadcast to Strategic Communications, this was really important for me to get to, even though I had so little sleep the night before! After dragging myself out of bed, Meg and I headed to met the rest of class at Fleishman Hillard. We sat through a couple of presentations that each of the departments put together. Though they were very long, they were interesting and confirmed to me that I want to go into Strat Comm! We headed back to CAPA to meet up with someone who is part of the newspaper complaint committee. They basically make sure that the newspapers are following certain rules, especially privacy ones, when it comes to the people in the stories.

When we got home, I started on a list for things to do with the family this weekend! There's so much that I wanted to get done with them and that I wanted to see myself. It was getting stressful deciding what to do on each of the three full days I had with everyone!

06/07/10 - Internship day! Not much happened today.

07/07/10 - Today was the Five year anniversary of the London bombings. I didn't realize that one of the bombs that went off was at the tube stop that I use almost everyday. It was pretty crazy to realize that one of the bombs went off there. No one in our group knew that, so they were pretty shocked to find that out too.

After the internship, I went to meet my family for dinner. They had just gotten in, so they were pretty tired. It was great to see them, even though they were pretty out of it.

08/07/10 - Internship and then class! We got to go to the East End for a walking tour. It was really interesting to hear about the way the area developed with immigrants moving in. It's a pretty hip place to be - we saw where Keira Knightly lives, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately we didn't see her.

09/07/10 - Shopping! Whoohoo! I met my family for a full English breakfast near their apartment. After, we headed to Harrods to hit up their sale. It was ending on Sunday, so we had to go. Everyone was in awe of it. I don't blame them, every time I went it was pretty shocking. We slowly made our way through, and ended up getting my birthday present there. After, we went to Lillywhites for the boys. It was kind of a disappointment because there was very little selection. While we were in the Piccadilly area, we went to Her Majesty's Theatre to get tickets for Phantom of the Opera. We got them for Saturday night. I was really excited because I wanted to see it really badly while I was here, and it was perfect that everyone else did too!

10/07/10 - Today was full of sightseeing. We started early, meeting at the London Bridge and heading to Borough Market. I thought it would be a good for everyone to see a London market. I absolutely love Borough, and we were going to be in the area, so it was perfect. We headed to the Globe for a tour. Though it isn't the original, the history that they discussed about Shakespeare and the Globe was really interesting. After, we went to the other side of the river to go to Westminster Abbey. Outside of the Abbey was crazy. There were so many people around it was stressful. Once we got into the Abbey, it was easy. We got audio guides that took us around the entire Abbey, it told us the history of each crypt we saw, who the person was, etc. The church was extremely impressive and was so historic. It was huge and amazing.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Tower of London. I was particularly excited to see the Crown Jewels. What can a girl do? When we got to the Tower, we were in time for a Yeomen tour. They're the guards of the Tower and actually live inside of the Tower. The guide that we had was really great. He was absolutely hilarious, but was really informative. He told us about the entire complex, the different towers, the famous ones and stories about people who were executed on Tower hill. After, we headed straight to where the Jewels were being held. There was video playing of the Queen's coronation and during the ceremony it showed the different Jewels being used and described them. We finally got to the main part and I was incredibly impressed. I found my engagement ring. Just kidding. But what was really intriguing was that some of the Jewels were missing because they were in use. I assumed that it was because the Queen had opened Parliament not too long before and was doing some Queenly duties, but I don't know. Very mysterious. After the Crown Jewels, we went into the chapel on the grounds to sit down for a bit. It wasn't huge, but it had some memorials to people and was cool to look around in. After, we went to the White Tower. It held suits of armour that were owned by past monarchs and it was cool to explore.

We were a little close on time, so I went back to the flat while my family went to their place to get ready for the Phantom later that night. It was an amazing performance. My favorite musical is still Les Miserables, but this was a very close second.

11/07/10 - The last full day with the family and today we were meeting at the British Museum. It is apparently the oldest museum in the world, and it was huge. After two hours, we made little progress so we decided to cut to the chase and go straight to the Rosetta Stone. I didn't realize how big it is, but it's definitely impressive! Eventually, we got out and went to meet Becky for tea at the Orangery. I was really excited about it because I loved it so much when I went with my flatmates. And because they're in England, they had to experience cream tea. I think that they enjoyed it. It's an interesting experience, but it was really great. After the Orangery, we went to the Kensington Palace to see the Enchanted exhibit. They had taken away all of Princess Diana's dresses because they were doing work on the Palace, but the exhibit was really cool. Each of the rooms were connected to seven princesses that lived in the Palace. The other rooms were decorated with some sort of theme. One had just one chair in the center and if you sat in it, you were supposed to feel powerful. For some reason, I did feel a little more powerful. After a long day, I headed back to the flat with Becky and I watched the World Cup final with the flatmates.

Until next week

Week 7: 02/07/10 - 04/07/10

I decided to put this trip as one post, as there is a lot that happened during the weekend and it would be unfortunate to break it up.

02/07/10 - It was an early morning to get to the train. We got up just after 4 and got to Kings Cross/ St. Pancras and our train left at 6:30ish. Though it was really early, we were both excited to ride through the Chunnel (a personal goal of mine, I'm not really sure why, but ever since I saw Mission Impossible I've wanted to go on it) and go to a really random place to visit. We got a decent amount of sleep in on the train which was much needed, but as soon as we pulled into the train station, I knew it was going to be a shock.

The shock came slowly. At first it was partially masked by excitement. Then it got worse as we made our way through the station. I realized that they spoke French and Flemish in Belgium, but for some reason, it didn't really hit me until we got there. But it wasn't just the language, it was the whole environment. For the first time this summer, I realized that London and England are not really Europe. They're a separate entity. It's part of the mindset, but it's really striking comparing the differences between Brussels and London. I gained a huge appreciation for London that day.

We weren't going to be able to drop off our stuff off at the flat until 1:00 and it was around 10:00, so we decided to walk around and see some of the sites. We went to Gran Plas, basically a huge plaza with cool old buildings. After, we had to get a waffle at a place called Elisabeth. It was amazing. It was fresh and hot with chocolate and fresh strawberries on it. Definitely the best I've ever had and probably the best in all of Brussels. We then went to the only working brewery in Brussels. It was cool to walk around and see how making beer works. Their beer is different because it ferments spontaneously and they don't add yeast to it. It tastes sour, but it's pretty good. And it was nice to sit down for a bit because we did a lot of walking.

After, we headed out to the inferno to find the mysterious frites that Belgium is famous for. I got a suggestion to go to a specific place that was award winning, so we searched for them high and low... and we found them! They were absolutely delicious and we got so many of them for a serving, I couldn't eat all of them! When we done with our frites, it was time to continue our trek and meet Becky's friends who are from Belgium. They were really nice and showed us to the very famous statute of the boy peeing. I'm not kidding. They like to dress him up too.

By the time that we visited Gran Plas a second time, it was time for us to meet up with Becky's friends from Mizzou who were giving us a place to stay in for the weekend. It was such a long day and we were going to go to Brugge in the morning that we both crashed.

03/07/10 - Brugge!!! I was so excited to see more of Belgium and just discover what it had to offer. We didn't have any idea of what it had to offer, but we were going to find out. We were planning on getting up early so that we could get a free train ride, but unfortunately I forgot to change the time on my phone, our alarm, and we woke up an hour later than we anticipated. In a way I'm glad, because we were both dead tired.

When we made it there, it was much cooler and a little rainy. It was like we were back home in England! After getting to the center of town, we walked to try and find the canal tours that they have. It was really cool because there were so many old buildings lining the canal. They call Brugge - Venice of the North, and from what I've heard about Venice, I think Brugge is better. It doesn't smell.

After our canal adventure, it was raining a little harder so we decided to try and find a place to eat along the canal. There were lots of options that we saw on the boat ride, but we didn't end up finding any. We did find a nice restaurant that had some outdoor seating (with a awning so we didn't get wet) and looked out to the quaint little plaza. Becky ordered mussels and frites, a specialty and so I had to try mussels for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were, but I really enjoyed my salmon pasta. Delicious!

After a successful lunch, we wanted to find the carriage rides that passed by while we were eating. On the way, we had to stop by a chocolate shop. It claimed to be the best in Brugge, where the chocolate is even better than Brussels. There were lots of tempting options, but we stuck with a sampler box.

Finding the carriages was a task, and after a lot of searching and asking, we went to the plaza where we started. We had a great guide who told us about the old buildings that we passed and our horse was great. It definitely made up for the one we lacked in Kent. We also found out that the chocolate we got was, in fact, very good from the guide who lived in Brugge.

After our ride, we went back to a Plaza we passed that was Burg Plas... I insisted that Becky had to get a picture with the sign! It was lined with really old buildings that were used for the government, including one that was built in the 9th century.

We made our way back to the main Plaza to take pictures and climb the tower to see over Brugge. Unfortunately, the 366 step tower was closed so we didn't get to work off any of the delicious food we ate! Our substitute? Visiting a very fancy chocolate shop we saw earlier in the day. They were so good that they had cleats (football cleats) along with jersey's and footballs made of chocolate. I was tempted to get one, but I decided against and got two pieces that one worker suggested. One was milk chocolate and carmel. The carmel literally poured out of the chocolate. The other was just as delicious. It was a hazelnut chocolate (no actual nuts in it, so all the better!) but was so creamy and perfect I wanted more! I resisted, but they were very good!

Becky and I were both so exhausted that we fell asleep the moment we found seats on the train. They like to overbook, so for a part of the trip, we sat in the entrance of the car until enough people left there were seats available.

04/07/10 - Happy Fourth of July! To celebrate the joyous occasion, Becky and two girls who we stayed with went to where the Tour de France would end. I didn't realize that the Tour went through other countries besides France, but I was not going to give up an opportunity to see it even if we weren't in France! It was reported that this was going to be Lance Armstrong's last Tour, so, being the sports fan I am... this was even more of a reason to go! I was also able to write a story on Mark Cavendish, a British sprinter who is trying to win the green jersey (given to the best sprinter of the Tour) so seeing him in action would be great too!

It was an extremely sunny day, but with the wind it was beautiful. We got to see the Atomium, basically a huge silver structure that looked... well... it's hard to explain! Here's a link to the picture. We walked around the festivities for a bit, looking for souvenirs. Slowly we made our way to the finish line to get as close as we could to the barricade. We eventually found a really great spot and reserved it. I ended up going to find a shirt and bottle of water because it was very sunny and without the wind, hot. Eventually, floats made by the sponsors of the Tour started to come, which meant the team cars were starting to come. It started to get really exciting, even though it was one of the first stages of the race. The riders came whizzing by, so quick we didn't know if we saw anyone famous. Becky got brilliant pictures and as they started going by, we saw Lance Armstrong and I could have sworn I saw Mark Cavendish who I was able to interview not too long ago! As soon as they came, they were gone, so we headed back to the tube to go back to the flat, grab our bags and head to the train!

When we headed to the train, we realized that it left earlier than we expected. Thank goodness we left in plenty of time! It still got us a little frazzled, so we ran to the departure gate. As we got to where Eurostar's terminal was, we saw a couple going through right before us, feet away. When we got to the entrance, one of the workers was closing it, so even more perfect! We just beat it! Apparently not. She directed us to the desk (we had 10 minutes to spare) where they informed us that we were too late. "No more Americans allowed," they told us. As this went one, both Becky and I were getting upset. I looked at her and saw that she looked like she was going to cry, and then she looked me and saw the exact same thing. So out of strategy and pure frustration, we both started to cry. The one guy who was being an arse left, so one of the ladies was able to give us comp tickets for the next morning at 6:59 a.m.

When we left the counter, there were no words to describe the frustration we felt. We walked out of the station to a random, dirty, concrete block and just sat down. Neither of us could form a full sentence for at least a half an hour. The only consolation was that there was a crazy, drunk person running around the entrance and I realized that life could have been worse. After offer up our first born child to our Brussels hosts, we headed back to their flat to crash and get some sleep before our early departure the next morning.

Week 7: 27/06/10 - 01/07/10

27/06/10 - I can honestly say that I don't remember what I did today except watch England get pounded by Germany. It was terrible. I seriously felt sorry for the English because they got so destroyed. I could feel the English hopes get squashed around me, and it wasn't fun to experience, that's for sure.

28/06/10 - We had a day off from work and class today, so Meg, Becky and I decided we wanted to get out of London and explore the county of Kent. Specifically, we really wanted to go and check out Groombridge Place where parts of Pride and Prejudice were filmed. A cheap train ride in the morning, we were at Tunbridge Wells. We had to navigate the transportation system to get us outside of the entrance to Groombridge. Thankfully, the bus stop literally dropped us feet away from the drive. We were actually between counties: Kent and East Sussex. That was kind of cool.

We were very excited to see the house where the Bennetts lived in the movie. We all love that film, but Meg was particularly excited. We walked for a few minutes and then we started to get a glimpse through the trees. It was so beautiful and just like what is in the movie. I felt like Keira Knightly running through the field to the house, minus the running and add a lot of heat. It was incredibly hot and sunny, but we didn't notice. After taking pictures of the front of the house, we moved to uncover the famous gardens the house boasts. We weren't disappointed. They were picturesque and I now know what I want my garden to look like. They put most gardens to shame. It was really indescribably how beautiful those gardens were. And they had a gigantic chess board! It was pretty perfect.

After our fascination with the home was filled (at least mostly, we had to tear Meg away) we went to find a place where we could ride horses. We were going for the full Pride and Prejudice effect. Unfortunately, Kent is fit for the English who want to bring their own horses to ride, not to rent and then ride. We were successful in finding a place to park your horse trailer though, just in case you want to know.

Giving up on our dream to ride through the countryside, we decided to get some of the touristy stuff done in London. We visited the oldest wine bar in the city, got dripped on by stalactites that were forming in the cellar, but it was so cool to see all of the old wine and the decorations. Their walls were full of headlines and clippings from the past who knows how many years. Needless to say, the Queen looks a lot younger than how she looks now.

After a quick pop in, we headed to the London Eye. We got 10 % off by booking online and we timed it so we would see the sunset while on the ride. It was pretty brilliant. Very touristy, except at night (that's when you should go) and the view was spectacular. You could see everything in London. I'm pretty sure we found where we are living. It was definitely worth the price!

29-30/06/10 - Internship!

01/07/10 - First of all, I can't believe that it's July. Secondly... we had class today. Third, I can't wait for tomorrow because Becky and I are going to Brussels for the weekend! I've never even thought of Belgium as a place to visit, but Becky has friends in Brussels on the Mizzou program there, so that meant a free bed! I'm all about getting stuff for free. Unfortunately, it was a long night because we were packing and getting ready and even more unfortunately was the time we had to get up the next morning.