Last stop Dublin!!!

Well coming to Dublin was probably the best place we could have chosen to end this wonderful trip with. It is such a relaxing place with nice people, beautiful senary and wonderful crisp fresh air. So far it has been the coldest place we have visited, London was rather warm, so warm that I actually wore just my rain jacket and one pair of pants, Paris was a tad colder and yet muggy gross cloudy and we had to wear our heavy coats and hats with mits and a few extra layers. However here in Dublin we wear our warmest clothes and I wore 3 pairs of tights and a pair of pants just to keep warm with my toque and mits and my very warm scarf. At points in our day I am still cold. When you get closer to the water you freeze becuase there is this very cool crisp air that passes right through you. 

When we finally arrived and got to our hostel which is the nicest hostel we have been in. I could probably live here it is so quant and clean and the beds are comfier then my bed at capers and everyone is really friendly and it is really just very awesome. Its called Four courts hostel so if you ever need some where to stay in Dublin stay here. Anywho we got here and we needed to eat and I dont remember if I mentioned it in my last entry but we walked around trying to find a pub to eat in and we finally found O'Neills which is very Irish and we got back corner table and some amazing food, 3 of us had this Dubliner Cheese burger which was literally a massive the size of a baseball piece of meat squished down to fit on a massive bun that was bigger then my hand. It was probably the size of my head maybe a little smaller. I finished mine  and most of my fries, it was difficult to eat just becuase the burger barely fit in my mouth but I did it and it was so delicious. 

Monday we woke up bright and early, earlier then we were suppose to becuase you see I forgot to set my cloak on my phone back and hour and so we were an hour ahead still in Paris time so both me and Zach didnt realize this till we got down stairs for breakfast only to have Zach look at his watch and realize it was only 8 and thats why Christy wasnt down there yet to meet us. Rather silly of us but of well. We got stuff done before going out for the day, I finished writing stuff out and I actually got some bible reading and some much needed alone time. They have a reading room here that no one uses so  I went down and took advantage of it, I havent really had anytime to my self in 3 weeks and even before that its been 3 months. I miss being able to be alone for more then 20 mins. We spent the day on a walking tour of Dublin which I suggest for everyone to do, if you are spending more then 3 days in a place to do on day one of your travels. We did one with the same company called Sandmans, in Paris but we did it half way through our trip and so we had seen a lot of the city already. The walking tours are really nice becuase the guides give you a lot of extra historical information about the city plus some secert tips on different things of the city. You also get to see where everything is as well a good idea of the lay out of the place. Our walking tour in Dublin we had a very funny Irish who told us a lot of really good stories if I could remember any of them or if any of them are actually relevant to anything I'd tell you but I cant remember any of them well enough to tell. It was a rather long tour but well worth it we froze our butts off, even though it was very very sunny. We went back to our hostel and ate our frozen pizza, with a very plain salad which is just lettuce. The life of a student travelling with little money.

Tuesday we decided we wanted breakfast  but the place we wanted to go was closed so we went to this pub beside it so we had scrambled eggs with toast. I really wanted pancakes or french toasted, but no such luck. We three girls went out to spend our day shopping while Zach took the opportunity to go out and spend some much needed time alone to explore and so he made his way to howth. Its this village along the coast. He spent the day doing whatever he was doing, exploring, hiking slipping in mud all that good stuff while us girls went to shop. We ended up not shopping for long, we went down this road that has all these shops on it and stopping every now and then but not really wanting to buy anything or spend time looking. None of us have money or space left for anything. So we took a turn that lead us out further away from anything shopping wise and lead us to middle of no where, well it was somewhere we were still in Dublin we were just more or less entering suburbs and then we entered the ghetto and business area and we made our way towards the ocean. We hit the coast coast where all the ships and ferries leave from, it was at this point that we decided we were hungry, very cold from the wind and we thought we should head back. It took a good hour at least to walk back along the water/river/canal, whatever you wanna call it. It was fantastic though because we saw parts of Dublin we would have never other wise saw, and we meet some really nice people who help us find our way back to the hostel. We had the perfect sunny day for it too, it was rather chilly and we were tired, so we went back to the hostel where Brianna napped and me and Christy set out to find this place called Pennys, everyone has been holding these Pennys bags that look the same as Primark, and so we were curious. We eventually found it and its pretty much the same, its owned by the same company just different names. For those who dont know what Primark is, it is only a very big awesome department store in the Uk. It is wonderful truly, you can get a lot of stuff and its all rather cheap, of course it is not good quality but it works for some things. After hitting up Pennys and buying stuff we dont need we walked to this gelatoes place to get some gelatoes of course, in the middle of January whatelse do you do in january besides eat cold snacks. They were so good and both of us can eat them with out getting sick, I got Tiramasueand cookies and spoons. We headed back where we made our cheap unhealthy dinner and watched movies

Wed, Christys friend Mandy was suppose to meet up with us again, however she missed her plane so she didnt end up coming in till 4 and then she didnt get to the hostel till about 7 so spent a lot of unnessasary time waiting around for her. So all we got done was breakfast where we had "american" bacon and eggs with PANCAKES. This is very exciting for me because at school, for breakfast I eat oatmeal during the week and saturday we have hash browns, eggs, and sausages with beans and tomatoes and toast. By the time we actually had breakfast it was lunch and so we waited till 5 to have lunch and then we waited till 8 to have dinner it was wonderful, we went out for pub food which was really good. Pubs here are fantastic, they have good music and great food and just an awesome environment. Anywho the rest of our day was spent waiting for Mandy and going to this Jail, which was only suppose to take "15 mins" to walk to but ended up taking 45 mins. The jail wasn't that exciting or at least not for me. Overall the day wasn't that exciting or great. I ended the day by watching Dexter and just chillaxin. 

Thursday was our trip outta town we decided to go visit the fishing village Zach went to the other day, Howth. We had to take a train there, it only took half hour and then once we got there we walked around the costal cliffs, it was pretty amazing. Kinda reminded me a little of home and the ocean, It was a gorgeous day with a lot of wind and a little rain but overall a great day to see a bit more of Ireland. I loved it there and could have probably moved there if I actually could. The houses are so cute and the everything is beautiful. We stayed there for a bit before heading back for a rest before going for dinner at the Porteerhouse for dinner/appeies. The food here is amazing if I havent already said this before. In the end it was a great relaxing day. 

Friday was our last full day here so we went to visit the Guiness Store house. It was interesting to say the least and some people poured "the perfect pint". After we went had our last Tesco sandwiches for this trip and headed off to shop and just look around. We came back early to nap before dinner. We went to a Pub where no one was and had decent food before going back to pack and get ready for our way back home. Me and Zach decided to make the most of our night and try and find somewhere to have dessert and cofffee. But you see we ran into a problem because restaurants close early and pubs stop making food at like 9 and so we visited the Hardrock cafe were we got ID and had coffee and Apple cobbler. We are now just spending the night hanging out doing an all nighter before heading off to Manchester to go back to school. We have to leave for the airport at 3:30 so there was no point to sleep. I have yet to pack and dont feel the need. We are having quite the interesting hilarious night full of funny faces, noises and some random interesting convosations. 

I cant wait to get back to Capers and find out who all my new room mates are and all the new things and everything that are to come. It has been quite the three weeks of travels. Not bad but we have had some moments. I am ready to get back to some normal life again 

lots of love moriah

I see London I see France... I see Paris underpants!! Hello and Good bye Paris

So we have arrived in Paris safe and sound after leaving London around 8:30 pm and then arriving 11:45 Paris time. So a good 2 hour train ride through the underground tunnel. It was what seemed like a long train ride but really it wasn't. I had enough time to think of every possible bad out come when it came to our hostel. I also had enough time to prethink french phrases that I might need to know and I did a good two hour amount of worrying.  However once we got off the train we had to find a taxi to get to our hostel and we found one outside the train station of course we paid far too much but oh well he found the place we needed to be and he told me where all the things I needed to know where. Also he didn't really speak English and so I spoke to him in French. You should all be pretty impressed and proud of my french speaking ability. I am so glad for french immersion, and I have been using it and apparently I am decent enough for people who are french to understand me and people who are english to not understand me. Haha its funny because all of us Canadians know enough french but I have become the desinated translator for the group. Never thought that would happen. We got to our hostel and I spoke to the guy and figured out our room and then we got to our room where it is very simple. Nothing special just 5 beds and a sink with a very bizarre shower. 

The 27th being tuesday Zach joined up with us in the morning meeting us in the hostel and then all of us being extremely tired and exhausted made our way out into the city. We had to get metro passes and try and figure out how exactly this metro worked in comparision with the subway in London. London metro is much cleaner and faster. We found our way to city center where we walked around and found arc du Triomphe. By the time we had walked there and back and around we were all pretty much exhausted and so we found food to bring back and make at our hostel and then we chilled. 

The 28th, Wed was spent picking up Christys friend Mandy and then going off to the lourve, where we waited in a 2 hour queue ( line up for all those not in the british lingo). It was a very massive line and it was also a very cold wet day so once we got in we were very happy to be there. We probably walked around for a good 2 and half hour, seeing the Mona lisa which is rather small and a whole bunch of other statures that have no clothes on and other paintings and artifacts. We were very done by the end up of it, all of our feet hurt and we were very hungry. It is defiantly a place where you can not see everything in one day you have to do a few days of it, in small chunks. We have realized that by us buying food and making it at the hostel we can eat for pretty much a euro a person. So we ate and watched movies and stayed up late, we had to change rooms again so the guys are in one room and the 4 girls are in another. 

Thursday, Mandy stayed back while the rest of us went out to find a walking tour. It took us awhile to find where this random group of people where meeting but we found them and we walked around Paris. We had perfect weather for it, it didnt rain and it wasnt overly cloudy, we had clear blue skies, however it was rather chilly but its been cold the whole time we have been here. On this walking tour we started at Saint Micheal Fountain and walked all the way to this militaire musuem. We saw lots and learn lots, we saw the famous bridge with all the drunk people heads on that the king wanted made. We did a lot of walking and we ended up going for lunch with the group at this cute little french restraunt where some of us ate duck which was really good and others ate frog legs which took too much effort to eat if you ask me. They where tiny, and not my favourite thing, I had the duck which was good and fatty. By the time it was done it was rather late so we made a early start back to the french version of Wal mart to pick up a very inexpensive but rather yummy dinner where we made grilled cheese and soup, With of course a few baguettes, they are soo cheep its like 40 cents for one and it can feed 4. 

Friday was a very busy and full day, we headed out for Versaille, which took longer to get to then we thought. We also managed to take the longest route possible but we made it and found it after a metro, a tram and a train ride. We also found starbucks, which was extremely expensive even for starbucks standards. Versaille is huge, we should have gotten there earlier becuase there is so much to see and we didnt have enough time to go through all the gardens. When you get there you first have to stand in a line the is like a maze to buy your tickets, which it turns out becuase we are in europe with visas for more then 6 months we could get in for free so we didnt have to stand in this line but we did just for kicks. Well we only realized half way through plus Mandy needed tickets which we made a short cut to the machines which no one was waiting for and made our way out of the first line of the day. But then we had to stand in another queue to get into the place this one was longer a good hour of so. Once we got in we walked around and in and through the palace and marvelled at the massive gorgeous detailed rooms and then wandered out to the gardens. Which have ponds and trees and all sorts of things, you have to walk through the garden to get to Marie Antionettes house, which was not as impressive as I thought it would be but cool to see none the less. Once we were done we had to make our way back to the city for me and Zachs date, yes that is right we are dating and we did go out for a very nice date in Paris with some amazing food at a very nice french restraunrant where I had Pumpkin and blue cheese soup and veal with figs and ricotta  and Zach had some lovely snails and streak tartare which is rare meat. He liked it, I cant say I am a very big fan. We shared an amazing hot chocolate cake which really I could have eaten two of them by my self. We went and walked to a cafe to have some coffee, coffee here is sooo ridiculously expensive and you get a rather small amount. We finished off the night by walking through Paris and admiring the eiffel tower all lite up from a distance. It was so cool cause you could only see about half of the tower the rest was hidden in the clouds. I must say it was a very very wonderful first date, with a very amazing boy. 

Saturday was New years and what do you do for new years eve in a foreign country, well you start by heading for a croissant at a local bakery which eat the most amazing piece of heaven ever. We then headed out to go visit Notre-Dame  which we waited in a 30 minute queue to get into to see this massive beautiful building. However if you ask me the outside of the building is far more impressive then inside. It is still magnificant inside but it does look very much like all the other cathedals I have visited but you should defiantly see it. We also decided we wanted to climb 400 stairs to get to the top however the problem with this was the fact that the line up to pay to climb stairs was a good two hour line, one of the slowest queues I have ever stood in before. Yes we did wait and we did climb some stairs. While we waited we went and ate some french food and took turns leaving this immensiley  horrible slow moving queue. The Q was defiantly worth it once you got to the top. You where able to see a beautiful view of Paris plus a view of the top of Notre-Dame gargols included. Yes you did have to go all the way down these very narrow circular stair case, which by the end you were very dizzy and your legs felt rather funny. That did not stop us from making our way to our next New years Eve stop.... The Eiffel Tower. Yes on our last day in Paris we finally made our way there to visit this rather famous piece of metal structure build as a radio tower. It was amazing truly it was, we got there just as it was getting dark so that the lights went on as we were waiting in yet another queue! This queue was not as long as Notre Dame but it was still on going. You had to wait to get your tickets, to go up the lift to up another lift, in all I think we spent a good 5 hours in at least one queue or another. On going joke is that we love queues we want to go in one make it to the front and go stand in another!!  We made it all the way to the very top and no words can describe how absolutely amazing it was, defiantly worth all the queues. I loved it, it was the moment I was long waiting for. I love Paris dont get me wrong but during the cloudy dreary days its not what you think it is suppose to look like but as soon as you get very high up on a clearish night that you can see all of Paris all lite up that is when you see the beauty of the city. Or at least when I see it. It was so sweet to be up there at night when all the houses are lite up and you can see little little cars and buildings defiantly worth it.  As we were walking I found a block that I thought I could jump up on but I missed and slipped and landed on my butt and bruising my self. It was lovely and rather a pain. We went for dinner after which wasnt the greatest we had a rather rude waiter and we think Brianna got food poisoning from. After we did that lovely experience we thought we'd make our way to the main part of the city to find somewhere for drinks and dessert. We found this fancy restraunt that we had creme brule and tiramasu  and we had some nice white wine. Afterward we walk to this famous bridge with all the heads on it and watched the eiffel tower as the count down took place, it was a wonderful full day with some amazing people. And now we are in a New Year 2012 here we come. 

Sunday being 1st of Jan. we up and left Paris, we were very happy to go and leave finally, however we were travelling with a very sick Brianna. We were all a little bit grumpy tired and just wanted to get here and so we are in Dublin and so far we love it here. It we walked around last night and found a nice pub where we had some massive amazing burger. I was glad to hit the sack last night. I wont bore you with our travel stories as I have already gone on rather long and if you are still reading that is pretty impressive. I am safe and sound here in Dublin in a very nice hostel. I am having a great time here, I miss you all at home and I will be home again in about 3 months dont worry, I am not going to stay over in Europe the rest of my life.  Continue to pray for safety and health but also for unity of the group that we can put up with each other for another week. We head back to Capers in a matter of a week. Lots of love Moriah 

And so I conquered London now off to PARIS!!!!!

Well Merry Merry Christmas everyone! 

This week and month have flown by so quickly, my time here in London is coming to a close. Its sad but  I am ready to head of to Paris. But first here is a quick recap since last time. I ended on Wed and so I will begin with Thursday. i have realized that my days have all become mixed together and so I will try my best to remember everything and their appropriate dates. I must start writing it all down each day but by the end of the day I am tired and just want to sleep. Any who thursday we took a trip down to see the Tate Britain. I would suggest to see well in general all the musuems in London are free to go in and so if you are here go see them all if you are here for a period of time. There was art that was really old and then there was some freaky weird modern art. Later that day Beths family went out and so they said that us three girls ( Christy, Brianna and I) could stay and hang out in their flat. So we got our laundry from the hostel, picked up frozen pizza, chips dounuts and reeses and had a girls night. We watch 27 dresses, chilled and just hung out untll it was time to head back. The thing was that the washer/ dryer wasnt working so our clothes were still soaking wet after 2 hours of drying so we took them back to our hostel where I stayed up till 1 finishing and drying them. 

Friday was Beths birthday and so we spent the day with her doing what she wanted to do. So stop number one  was Primart. If you have never heard of this place, let me put it like this, it is a massive clothing/ everything under the sun shop that Zach bought his wonderous tiger onsie at or you can buy cheap anything thing really. I got some much needed warm nylons and leggings and a few head bands and a pair of shoes to go with a dress. We then continued our shopping where I bought new walking shoes that were a good price. Later we went and hung out at Beths went out for really good greek food. It was a different way of doing it. You sort of all order appies and share them among the table it was yummy, I wasnt really that hungry or feeling a hundred percent either. I also had ginger beer for the first time, which isnt beer its this pop kinda like ginger ale but stronger and more gingery and I shared a greek yogurt with rasberries and honey with Christy, So the two lactose people shared a highly dairy concentrated dessert. To put in a gross note here it just ment after we could have started a forrest fire if you got a match close to the two of us. 

Saturday being Christmas Eve, the Tuckers went out to see a show and so me and Brianna were left to our own devices. So what else do you do on Christmas Eve in London. Well of course you go to one of the biggest department stores in London one that, you could afford none of it. We went and visited the one and only Harrods. It was fantastic, if you ever get a chance go go go see it. 5 stories of amaziness, clothes that cost a fortune. A jacket for a baby that cost a 1000 pounds do the math in canadian and its insane. I touched designer clothes, for adults and for children. I laid my hands on things I could never buy, but wish i could. I did some in my head shopping. i wanted to have a house to decorate and a baby to dress and a reason to wear a gown with amazing heels. It was wonderful probably  most girls dream. I loved it. Me and brianna where in heaven. Side note I saw sugar cubes in the shape of hearts, insane right they were like 15 pounds. They also came in little silver balls and frogs and everything you could imagine. We finished Harrods in 2 hours or more and then decided to wander so we tubed to St Pauls, walked around there and saw protesters and long lines. We walked across the millenium bridge and walked along the river. The best part was as we were trying to find a tube again we saw the London eye with the sun going down behind it and we could see a bit of Big ben. the sky looked like it was on fire. It was amazing, as we were walking acorss the bridge to get to Big Ben and westminsiter abbey we took some amazing pictures of the sun going down behind it. So sweet and amazing. Later that evening we went to Christmas eve evening service at this local church, it was angelican/ catholic, which was really neat to see and hear.  It was a lot different of a service from anything I was used to ever seeing.  

And then there was Christmas, which was really good, I wasn't sure how it was going to be, with being away from home and being in a hostel and just not being anything like normal. And yeah it was quite different, We slept in took our time went our for breakfast to the only open place anywhere near where we are staying. We went back to the hostel, hung out read, and then watched some episodes of Community and then had pumpkin soup for lunch with Christmas cookies that we had bought the other day. We had to walk to the Tuckers flat, because the subway was closed for the day. It was only like a half hour walk, it wasn't bad, we took the long way so it was more like 45 mins. We got the flat and watched the queens message and played some Uno where I won and I wasn't really even paying attention. I then got to talk to Zach on Skype which was really really nice. We helped make Turkey dinner and then I got to call my mom and talk to her and my brother on the phone. It was such a comfort and I enjoyed it when you don't get to be home for the holidays, you realise just how much you wish you were there. I can only imagine how different it is for my family back home to not have me there for Christmas plus my sister Bailey is not coming home for Christmas this year so it was I am sure a rather quiet Christmas. We spent the rest of the evening drinking tea and coffee and watching Christmas things. We watched the cartoon version of The Grinch and then The Christmas episode of Glee. I got to talk to my dad and step mom today which was really good. Overall the day turned our pretty decent. 

And then today we are off to Paris to spend 5 days there. Wish us luck and continue to pray for my group of travel buddies. We are heading off on a train later tonight and will arrive late in Paris and then taxi to our hostel which hopefully we find. I am a little bit nervous but I am very excited and I am sure once I get there it will be all good. I am sure my hostel could not be nearly as bad as sleeping on the ground of a circus tent, which is what my mom and dad tell me they did when they travelled. So I just have to continue to pray and have faith and trust that everything will work out just fine. We are also meeting up with Zach in Paris, he comes in on the 27th so just pray for his safe travels as he is travelling alone. 

I will continue to keep  you all updated as much as possible. I am missing you all very much and hope you guys had a marvellous Christmas wherever you were and who ever you were with because I realised Christmas is more then just about the presents and food, its about the people who are with you and about the birth of a wonderful Jesus. Happy Christmas as the Brits would say. 

Love Moriah

It's been a week and I am still Alive!!!

So I left off on what we did Saturday and so Sunday morning we woke up rather early to go to a communion service at Westminster abbey. The service was a lot shorter then we had thought and so we were left to figure out last minute what we wanted to do for the day. We ended up seeing people from Capers at the service and afterwards we went and had coffee and figured out what there was so do so early on sun. We walked around the old part of London for awhile and just took in the old buildings and such and then made our way down to  Buckingham place and walked through the gardens and this cute path thing towards where all the embassies are. The group found the only Timmies in London which is just Timmies coffee at this little store. Apparently not really the real deal but good enough for most of us. We continued to walk and look in shops and that. I found myself a really pretty dress for really cheap for when we are in Paris. We went and picked up Beths family from the Airport and then me and Brianna and Aaron headed back to the hostel to eat and then head out to Hillsong United Church Service. It was soo amazing and sweet and I loved every minute of it. They had awesome music and an awesome message of Faith, Hope and Love. There was so many people there and they do it inside of this Theatre. 

Monday was a very  stressful unhappy day. It was probably the worst days on our trip. It was me and Brianna stuck with our fellow Aaron who we felt like we were dragging around the city. Plus it was rainning all day. Not a very pleasant way to spend the day. Our day went like this we went to the tower Bridge and the sites around there where we walked across the bridge and and then we had lunch. We were suppose to meet up with Beth and Christy and family at Hyde Park Christmas market but they left before we got there so we three went anyway. It really wasnt the day to do an outside Christmas, cause it was pouring rain out side. But when we entered the park we believe that we saw Will and Kate driving. It looked exactly like them and they were in a nice car and then we found a picture on line of them in that same area. As we were walking around the market we happened to have lost Aaron and we did not purposely lose him, we didnt mind but we didnt do it on purpose. We waited around and looked for him for a good half hour but we were cold and tired and done. We were becoming grumpy unhappy people and so we walked to where Beth and company where and found them and walked around the expensive shopping district and did some window shopping which made our moods a lot better. Turns out Aaron stayed at the market looking for us for a few hours. We saw the place where Beth and company are staying, my pants where really wet and so we tried to dry them in the washer/ dryer but it washed them instead of dried them and I still dont have them back because we have washed them I think 3 times now. For some reason we cant figure out how to dry.  Oh and our night got even better we had a orange flashing light outside our room all night and then a fire alarm go off on a regular bases throughout the night

Tuesday was a much better day. It started off soo much better, it was sunny and sorta warm. We have really nice hostel roommates from Austria who are heading over to Canada in a week to snowboard, anywho I was talking to the girl who was such a sweetheart and we were sitting and planning what we were both going to do. We went and got coffee, I had a London fog that actually tasted like one, no one knows what it is. We meet up with Beth and Company at Abbey road where the Beatles crossed, and yes we took the wonderful picture of us 4 girls crossing and we sign our names on  the wall and then we headed over to Regents Park, which is gorgeous and beautiful. We stopped at the London Zoo and spent the afternoon there. It was cool we got to see all sorts of animals including, llamas, reptiles, giraffes and soo much more. It started getting cold and the zoo closed early because of the season so we didnt get to see everything. Afterward we walked down to Camden Market and looked around for a bit. It is such different shopping down there then where we are used to shopping. It was kinda like where all the immigrants go to get work and hang out. We went back to the where Beth is staying and hung out before going for dinner at this East Indian food place. It was really yummy and I miss actual Indian food. We got back to the hostel late and slept and woke up to Wed. 

Which is today, Today it was just Brianna and I hanging out, we went to the National Gallery and National Portait gallery where we realized after awhile all the old photos that are painted of people start looking the same. We enjoyed the modern photography and the Paintings of landscapes or random cool looking things that dont envovle people. After we were done we had a lot of time left and didnt know what to do so we wandered up and down the streets of London looking in shops and what not. We went into a few modern photo galleries and found an antique maps place. The guy was really nice and let us look around and actually let us touch this 400 year old map of England which was so cool. Didnt look anything like England but was so sweet to touch it. i found my self better walking shoes as well and found awesome couture shops where the clothes where on the runway. That made my day it was so cool and the guy didnt care if we touched them. We were really tired so we headed back early took a peek in the Library again and then we are off to bed. 

Missing you all right now but I am having a great time. I am getting used to being with prettty much me and Brianna and exploring and not feeling so frightened and stressed. We have figure out how to work the Subway and we use it all the time. I love it best invention ever. We are eating sandwiches and soup from tesco, cheapest way to eat plus we eat rather little and walk a lot so I am hoping those extra pounds from school that I have gained come off my body. I am wearing the same clothes again and feel like a traveling student who has very little money and on a very tight budget. I have to say we have found places around here that sell Reeses Chocolate bars which have made us girls soo very happy its been 3 months with out chocolate with peanut butter in it. I have missed them a lot. That Is all for now, Pray for safety and that I might not be too homesick with in the coming days of Christmas being around the corner. I am looking forward to the rest of my travels and will continue to update. 

Lots of Love Moriah

London, london london...

So for those who are curious, which I am sure if you are reading this you must be.  i have made my way to London, safe and sound. We arrived here thursday morning at 3:30, after leaving the school at around 10 pm Wed night. It was a long not so comfy, lack of sleep bus ride. The bus stop didnt really have anywhere for us to sleep or stay warm, so the 5 of us ( Beth and Christy from Burnaby, Brianna and me from Chilliwack and then Aaron from somewhere in Alberta) decided to call a taxi to take us to our hostel. We arrived asked to keep our backpacks in their storage until we could check in. They kindly allowed us to use their tv room to sit and relax until it we wanted to go out and have coffee. However they specifically told us not to sleep. As you know 5 young people who have had a lack of sleep can be very tired and so the 4 of them slept while, I read my bible and watched the news for once. We left for coffee and breakfast at around 7 and then bought oyster cards for the underground. Which is amazing and I love the underground soo much. We took our first tube to Oxford St and did a bit of shopping, you guys should be proud, I only bought magic markers with the girls. I am trying not spend a lot of money on things other then food and things of need and some fun stuff. We got back to our hostel having a lack of energy and had our make shift dinner and hit the sack early. Friday we went to the British National Museum and spent a few hours there just looking around and seeing everything. Its so cool to see things that you have learned about in school. We wandered the streets some more and found some really cute shopping area with Christmas decorations everywhere. i love how I am in London for Christmas, the decorations around here are amazing and festive. After wandering we got on the tube and headed over to the British Library where we saw all these old books and even pieces of a really old bible in greek. We also saw music that the beatles wrote out long time ago, and lots of other such things. We had dinner at this pub, where we ate real food instead of sandwiches. We were soo happy to have all the ketchup we want, actual salad thats good looking with SALAD DRESSING! and warm food that we could choose. Our waitress said we were the happiest people she served. 

Today being Saturday we woke up and decided to go across the river to this awesome Christmas Market. It was so festive and sweet. The London Eye was right there, so I took a trip on it, and got to see the whole city. It was so amazing and beautiful, i went on the perfect day. The weather here has been turning better throughout the day and so it starts out raining and then gets nice and sunny, but always cold. We ended our day by heading over and saw big ben and the parliament. We went on the tube and found Primark and shopped got stressed out and realized how much we hate people. There are so many people all over the place, its last minute Christmas shopping. By the end of our shopping we took so side roads and just slowly made our way back to our hostel where we made some soup and dinner. 

I am having a pretty good time. The weather has been holding up really well for us and all of us girls are getting along really well. It is so much fun hanging out with these girls. Aaron brings some interestingness to the mix, we are learning a lot of patients with him. We have been eating sandwiches and some nice random cheap food. We have been walking and exploring, drinking coffee and hanging out, we have been using the underground and are learning to walk around lots of people and find our way around London. I am so looking forward to the rest of our time traveling. Tomorrow Beths family is coming into town and we are going to Church but Beth and Christy are going and staying with Beths family so its me and Brianna at the Hostel but we are learning our way around and I think we will be good. Continue to pray for safety and our health but also for patience with each other. Lots of love Moriah 

And away we go... oh how time has flown

As far as this week has been concerned it has been pretty boring, uneventful, less happening then other weeks, I have done little to nothing. Mon-thurs has just been lectures which is cool and all but not anything new nad exciting. We have started two new lecture series this week one on The Early Life of Abram by Rob  W. It is a really interesting series, he literally picks apart the verses one by one and explains it from different perspective. The last lecture he did was one of my favourites he talked about the will of God. There was an awesome illustration to why He allows it. The illustration he used was Rob allows his daughter to touch the hot stove so that she can learn from it, he doesnt go and force her hand on the hot stove to teach her but he allows it to happen so that she will learn from it and not do it again. It is very much like that way with God he allows us to do things so that we hopefully learn from them and that we will draw near to Him.  Our other lecturer Mark Thomas, the head guy at the school is doing a lecture series on 1 and 2 Corinthians. I quite enjoy these books however, his voice puts me to sleep. I have been able to write quite a few letters during his lectures. I do listen from time to time but he talks on one thing for half hour and you can get his point in 10 mins of listening. I did start focusing more near the end of the week. I also went through the chapters before he talked on them and studied them for my self.
Friday was our seminar day and we had our seminar on daily devotion. Which was really awesome, and such a great reminder, Sue was the speaker and she talked on how we should see God everywhere, becuase he is everywhere. Not just praise Him at church but everywhere you are and everywhere you go. She also talked about finding a time a place and a method to daily devotions. This past week I had already been focusing on alone time with me and God. And so I have been waking up really early like 6:30 am early, so that I can email quickly and then read my bible and then later when i have few time i can pray and read and do my devotion. I have been enjoying waking up early as well it makes me wake up by breakfast and to be fully awake during lectures. Oh but another thing that has pushed me this week is that Thursday night we had New Testament discussion group and I realized that I want to just dig into the books of the bible and spend time in the word really studing and know it. After our seminar on Friday we just had a few day but we had a tea party in the afternoon that I went to for a bit and then left to work on my essay. Friday night we had the dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert.
Saturday I had such a productive day I woke up at 630, talked with Jessica on facebook, then did my Old testament reading and then did my devotional and started my essay all before brunch. Then we went for a walk around the loop twice and then I sat in the lounge all after noon, working on Christmas cards, reading this new book I grabbed and then finishing my essay. Saturday night was a Christmas party, in the lounge with apple cidar and cookies with people playing games and music playing all around. I ended up having a really nice chat with one of the girls here. After that we did a block party with all the rooms in our hall, which was a lot of fun. Sun we had our church service in the lounge again and then, I literally hung out in here getting to know my RA finally a little bit better, wwhich was really nice, becuase I dont think i had ever really talked to her before. Then after lunch me and Jessica from alaska went with 3 of the staff girls to a staffs house and we baked all afternoon. Then there was Christmas choir production so I hung out and went to bed early for once.
I probably wont get another chance to post before I leave considering I leave tomorrow night at 11 pm to go down to London. I still havent packed yet, I dont know when i am going to but I have to pack my room up plus all the stuff I want to bring with me travelling. I am realizing I have a lot of stuff. This week is pretty slack we only have morning lectures which is nice and tonight we have our Christmas banquet where we get to get all dressed up and we get our food that is going to be amazing served to us. It should be a very fun evening. I am also having my room get together today and we are doing our secert santas. We are going to just hang out, pack together and get ready for tonight. We also find out who our secert sister is today. And then I just have to pack and last min details. Tomorrow we are cleaning and preparing and just hanging out and relaxing before we go away. I'll be gone travelling for 3 weeks and will probably keep you all updated. Please pray for safety and health as we go out. That we might just enjoy each others company and not want to strangle each other, but also that we might take what we are learning here and apply it in the real world and not forget but continue to live in the Word while we are out exploring
Lots of love and miss you guys in this Holiday season, Wishing I was home to celebrate.

The Father Son and Holy Spirit

So this week was pretty decent over all, Our principle Rob Whittaker came back from lecturing at Two other Torchbearer schools. So it was nice to have him back here lecturing to us, he finished his lecture series on The Upper Room Discourse and then Ian our dean of students did a lecture on The Holy Spirit. Both lectures were really good this week and got us all thinking about what we believe and it brought up some good conversations on just the different beliefs of people. We talked about how the holy spirit works in us and just being filled and what the holy spirit is all about but also the spiritual gifts.
Monday the beginning of the week i headed into town (Carnforth) and went for coffee at this cute little coffee shop with Jordi. Tueday we went to Lancaster to finish all our travel plans, we are officially done. So just so you know I am heading to London till the 26th and then to Paris to spend new years theres and we are finishing off this wonderous journey in Dublin from the 1st to 7th and then back to school for 12 more weeks of life here at Capernwray. Wed and Thurs were chill days we walked the loop and worked on homework and just hung out. Friday was work day so i cleaned rooms and washed window ands bathrooms and hall ways with my dear friend Christy from Burnaby. We decided that we are going to know each other so well by the end of our 3 weeks of travel that we wont want to seperate. So when we get home we are going to spend all our time together. When i get home its going to be such a culture shock going from always being with the same people to being pretty much at home alone. Going to be slightly crazy.
The fact of the matter is that this week has been a slightly emotional week I have felt grumpy that there is always people around and I have felt like I just want to go home. I have missed my daddy and my family and friends and a normal life but I have also realized that I dont want to leave this place. I am loving what I am learning and I love most of the people here. I am having a blast and I feel so blessed to have a great group of frriends here who live in burnaby, surrey, lowermainlan area so that when I do go home we can still stay connected. It is so hard to believe that we are leaving to go to london in less then 2 weeks it is coming up so fast and I am so looking forward to it. It is crazy and i love the people I am traveling with.
Friday night was family group night(Family groups is every wed. morning and they divide all the students up randomly and place a staff memember or two with them and call it a family.) So after a lazy friday we went to our family leaders house and watched Elf and played apples to apples and ate some food. Our family groups baked or decorated or played games or watched movies as well. It was a pretty good night, if I was feeling better then it would have been better and more enjoyable.
Saturday is our free day, but I decided to go with the school to Manchester on the coach to do some Christmas Shopping. I didnt really do a whole lot of Christmas shopping but I did shop. I have to buy something for my secert sister and my secert Santa that we are doing in my room. Other then that I found some really cute stuff. I found a red purse which I love and i found hobbo gloves to match and then a black dress for the christmas formal, which hopefully if my sister likes it I can use it for her wedding. There was also this vintage, crazy, few decades ago but now in style store that was over whelmed with Big ugly sweaters and big bold printed everything! It was so crazy and awesome, I found some sweet shoes. Later in the evening we had a basketball 3 on 3 tournment. It was a lot of fun to watch but it was far to long and so I got bored rather quickly. However The Brady bunch won the tournment. The team consisted of Zach, Brady (our RA), Kaitlyn (my roomie) and Vanessa Funke. I ended up hanging out with Beth and Christy from Burnaby during the game and I went shopping with them during the day which was a blast and a half. I quite enjoyed my time with them and am really looking forward to spending Christmas travels with them.  After the basketball a few of us watch this show called Community.
Sunday we did service a little bit different then normal, usually we do it out in the conference hall, (where we do lecture). However we had it in the lounge which was tight and a lot of people had to sit on the floor. But we had the fire on and sung a few christmas songs, and did advent service. We had cookies and tea after and hung out and talked in the lounge till lunch. As the day progressed, it went on in a typical sunday at capernwray manner. We walked the loop twice and we came back and chilled in the lounge till Tea (dinner), I sat with Beth and just talked all afternoon it was really nice and relaxing. Later on in the evening we did our usually night service however it was slightly different, a lady came in and talked to us on the persecuted church. It is such a sad topic but one that needs to be discussed, it really made me think of how little I am willing to stand up for my faith. She was talking about how people die for what they believe all the time, and that isn't right in anyway. Its hard to hear but at the same time I can barely stick up for what I believe at home, yet people sign their name saying they are willing to die for God. Its a hard thing to think about because a lot of us have families and friends we love and we aren't willing to give them up yet. So I felt really challenged last night for when I come home to stick up for my faith and not let people walk all over me.
It has started to get really cold and sorta wet here, we have been trully blessed to have had nice weather thus far but now it is freezing, I have bought myself stuff to keep my hands and head cold. At night I sleep with multitudes of clothes on and blankets and hot water bottle. The castle is freezing and out side is freezing. Half the school population is suffering from a stuffed, running noise. My hands are contently cold, and never really warm up. The roof of the school leeks from time to time and our windows never really close. Dont feel sorry for me I live in an awesome castle with a week and a half left to go. I leave for London on the 14 at like midnight or something like that. I am very excited and happy and cant wait.
Love you all