okay i know its been forever since i've written on here & thats only because I havent been in the country! We got back from Italy on April 3rd (last saturday) and it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGGGG!!!! I loved every town we visited: Milan, Florence, Venice, & Rome :) I kept a journal throughout the trip but its just too much to write it all on here so just check my pictures on facebook to get a glimpse of everything that happened. We walked along the canals of Venice, saw the expensive stores in Milan, listened to the Pope from about 30 feet away in Rome, & had our breath taken away by the beautiful views in Florence :) It was a fabulous trip!
The day after we got back, my family came for a week! They stayed here for the day & then we left for Paris this past Monday :) It was definitely an adventure because my dad rented a car (he rented it in the UK so the wheel was on the other side, but in France, the roads are the same as the US...that was interesting) and we seemed to get lost almost every day. Roads and highways are not clearly marked as they are in the States! But Paris was gorgeous :) We couldnt have asked for better weather and we were able to go all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower which was amazing! We spent all day there and then on Wednesday we left for London until Friday morning. London was gorgeous as usual and we went to a lot of different places that I had never been before so that was great :) I'm putting up pictures on facebook now so check that out ;) My family leaves tomorrow, but we had an awesome week and I am so grateful that they were able to come out here!
As for me, I leave tomorrow for another adventure :D Bring on southern France & Spain! Honestly, I feel a little crazy for all this busyness and my body is tired but I just cant get enough of Europe! I just want to be a big ol' sponge & soak it all in because who knows when I'll be back. Hopefully we can find some internet access while we're gone so I can keep everyone updated, but I'll be back on Saturday the 17th :) Keep us (me, Suzie, Jess, Bethany & Brittany) in your prayers for safe travels and nice weather! i love you all!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
ITALYYYY!!!
okay so no cool lyric title for this one (i know i know dont be too sad) because im literally writing this 15 mins before i have to leave for ITALY!!! ahhhhh!!!! I'll be there with Brittany, Jess, & Bethany for a whole week!
We'll be seeing Milan, Rome, Venice, & Florence & seeing some amazing things along the way :) Check back on facebook for updates! i love you all!!! <3
We'll be seeing Milan, Rome, Venice, & Florence & seeing some amazing things along the way :) Check back on facebook for updates! i love you all!!! <3
Monday, March 15, 2010
With friends like these, well who needs enemies?
Last Sunday (not yesterday, i know its been awhile since I've written!) Laura and Tara came to visit! Its so weird because i had been looking forward to their visit ever since i got here in January & it always seemed so far away but they really came! :) we had such a great time together!
Brittany and i picked them up from the bus station in town at around 2pm and we were so excited to see them that we literally ran across the street! It was amazing to see some familiar faces from home :) We helped them carry their suitcases to our building, which was sorta difficult because our area gets super busy on the weekends because of the horse races up at the racetrack. It was probably pretty overwhelming because there are literally people everywhere, but its not normally like that on the weekdays so that's good. They were pretty tired from traveling all night so we just showed them around the hall and just hung out for a bit before taking them to Tesco to buy some groceries. The bought some things to eat for breakfasts and lunches because Brittany and i both had class on monday and tuesday. Watching them with the different currency reminded me how confused i was when i first got here with the money, i always paid with wayy bigger notes just because i couldn't figure out the coins! Cashiers must have loooved me haha ;) Anyway, we brought their groceries back to my room and we just sat around and talked until dinner because they were too sleepy to do anything else (& i definitely don't blame them!) At 6, Brittany and i went to church and Laura & Tara stayed behind to get some rest, and when we came back at almost 9, they both had fallen asleep! We decided that i was going to sleep on an air mattress in Brittany's room so that we both could get up and get ready for class without waking them up. It was a good arrangement because Sunday night they both went to bed at 9 and Brittany & i stayed up late talking and reading. It was like we were back at Messiah again! :D I miss our roommate bonding time! Monday I had class all day, but the girls slept in and then Brittany took them to Gloucester to visit the cathedral for the afternoon. I'm really glad that she was able to take them there so that they weren't just sitting in my room while i was in class :) We all had dinner together & then it was time for our BCA class so the girls just hung out here and checked their facebooks. We decided that we wanted to take them out dancing because it's such a fun thing that we love to do, and Monday night was the only night we could. I was a little worried because that's the busiest night for students to go out, so i knew it was going to be a lot crazier than what we're normally used to. But we had already planned on going, so at around 11pm we all were dressed up and ready to go :) We took them to The Place, which isn't where we normally go but its really popular on Monday nights, which unfortunately meant there was a longgg line to get in. But we just talked while we waited (and laughed at the drunk people around us) and eventually got in. It was extremely busy inside, but we luckily found a little pocket of space on the dance floor and ended up having a great time! I really appreciate going out dancing with my best friends because i know they will protect me from guys who get too close ;) We got back around 2am because it took forever to get in, and we all just went straight to bed.
Tuesday I had class again at 11:15 and Brittany had class all day so after my class i came back and had lunch & then took them shopping. Of course, we went to my favorite place, Primark, which is basically heaven for bargain clothes shoppers :) All the clothes are really cute and actually affordable! I've gotten shoes there for 2 pounds, a headband for 1 pound, and lots of other cute things. Laura & Tara loved it too! They both bought a lot of really nice clothes and shoes and didn't even spend a lot of money so that was great. After that we just window shopped in some of the more expensive stores and then i took them to meet Brittany at our FCH campus so they could see it. We brought them to the library so they could print out some tickets they needed & then we headed back to the dorm. oh & we just had to pass the cute boy from my religion class on the way haha i didn't plan it i promise! When we got back, they put on some of their new clothes and we met up with Bethany & then went to Wetherspoons for dinner. I was excited because i had never eaten there before and the food was really great! Plus it was a deal for Tuesdays so that made it even better :) We all were definitely stuffed by the end, so the long-ish walk back was perfect. Right away we got into our comfy clothes and played cards & made cookies for the rest of the night :)
Brittany & i got up super early to bring them to the bus station on Wednesday and i was so sad to see them go! It was lots of fun having them here and i wish they could've stayed longer :/ But they spent the rest of the week in London so that was really cool!
Wednesday night, Brittany & I went out with Bethany to Boogie lounge like we normally do :) Unfortunately they didn't play very good music so we didn't stay very long, but it was fun anyway. After wednesday until now (monday) i haven't really been doing anything too exciting. I've been tackling my assignments that are due the week after spring break because i won't have any time to do them before that. I actually wrote a list of all the assignments and taped it to my laptop to hopefully motivate me to do them (unfortunately i taped it right where my wrist goes..so its pretty much covered up most of the time ;)) I did get one paper done last night so that was great! I don't really have anything going on this week so im gonna be good & get lots of work done :) Well, Friday night, most of the girls from our flat had gone home, so Suzie Brittany & i decided to make a video at 1am. We put a lot of time into acting it out and it turned out really cool! Suzie did a great job editing it, so hopefully we can put it on facebook or youtube soon :) Saturday night, i was convinced to step away from my paper and play dutch blitz with Brittany, Suzie, & Nate. I said i was only gonna play for twenty minutes..but it turned into six hours!! don't worry..we didn't play for the whole six hours haha It was really fun but i sorta regretted it when i had to finish my paper yesterday :/
Oh! it was mother's day in the UK yesterday & i got to talk to my "mum" for a bit so that was nice :) She was all excited because now that means she gets two mothers days haha we'll see about that ;)
Brittany and i picked them up from the bus station in town at around 2pm and we were so excited to see them that we literally ran across the street! It was amazing to see some familiar faces from home :) We helped them carry their suitcases to our building, which was sorta difficult because our area gets super busy on the weekends because of the horse races up at the racetrack. It was probably pretty overwhelming because there are literally people everywhere, but its not normally like that on the weekdays so that's good. They were pretty tired from traveling all night so we just showed them around the hall and just hung out for a bit before taking them to Tesco to buy some groceries. The bought some things to eat for breakfasts and lunches because Brittany and i both had class on monday and tuesday. Watching them with the different currency reminded me how confused i was when i first got here with the money, i always paid with wayy bigger notes just because i couldn't figure out the coins! Cashiers must have loooved me haha ;) Anyway, we brought their groceries back to my room and we just sat around and talked until dinner because they were too sleepy to do anything else (& i definitely don't blame them!) At 6, Brittany and i went to church and Laura & Tara stayed behind to get some rest, and when we came back at almost 9, they both had fallen asleep! We decided that i was going to sleep on an air mattress in Brittany's room so that we both could get up and get ready for class without waking them up. It was a good arrangement because Sunday night they both went to bed at 9 and Brittany & i stayed up late talking and reading. It was like we were back at Messiah again! :D I miss our roommate bonding time! Monday I had class all day, but the girls slept in and then Brittany took them to Gloucester to visit the cathedral for the afternoon. I'm really glad that she was able to take them there so that they weren't just sitting in my room while i was in class :) We all had dinner together & then it was time for our BCA class so the girls just hung out here and checked their facebooks. We decided that we wanted to take them out dancing because it's such a fun thing that we love to do, and Monday night was the only night we could. I was a little worried because that's the busiest night for students to go out, so i knew it was going to be a lot crazier than what we're normally used to. But we had already planned on going, so at around 11pm we all were dressed up and ready to go :) We took them to The Place, which isn't where we normally go but its really popular on Monday nights, which unfortunately meant there was a longgg line to get in. But we just talked while we waited (and laughed at the drunk people around us) and eventually got in. It was extremely busy inside, but we luckily found a little pocket of space on the dance floor and ended up having a great time! I really appreciate going out dancing with my best friends because i know they will protect me from guys who get too close ;) We got back around 2am because it took forever to get in, and we all just went straight to bed.
Tuesday I had class again at 11:15 and Brittany had class all day so after my class i came back and had lunch & then took them shopping. Of course, we went to my favorite place, Primark, which is basically heaven for bargain clothes shoppers :) All the clothes are really cute and actually affordable! I've gotten shoes there for 2 pounds, a headband for 1 pound, and lots of other cute things. Laura & Tara loved it too! They both bought a lot of really nice clothes and shoes and didn't even spend a lot of money so that was great. After that we just window shopped in some of the more expensive stores and then i took them to meet Brittany at our FCH campus so they could see it. We brought them to the library so they could print out some tickets they needed & then we headed back to the dorm. oh & we just had to pass the cute boy from my religion class on the way haha i didn't plan it i promise! When we got back, they put on some of their new clothes and we met up with Bethany & then went to Wetherspoons for dinner. I was excited because i had never eaten there before and the food was really great! Plus it was a deal for Tuesdays so that made it even better :) We all were definitely stuffed by the end, so the long-ish walk back was perfect. Right away we got into our comfy clothes and played cards & made cookies for the rest of the night :)
Brittany & i got up super early to bring them to the bus station on Wednesday and i was so sad to see them go! It was lots of fun having them here and i wish they could've stayed longer :/ But they spent the rest of the week in London so that was really cool!
Wednesday night, Brittany & I went out with Bethany to Boogie lounge like we normally do :) Unfortunately they didn't play very good music so we didn't stay very long, but it was fun anyway. After wednesday until now (monday) i haven't really been doing anything too exciting. I've been tackling my assignments that are due the week after spring break because i won't have any time to do them before that. I actually wrote a list of all the assignments and taped it to my laptop to hopefully motivate me to do them (unfortunately i taped it right where my wrist goes..so its pretty much covered up most of the time ;)) I did get one paper done last night so that was great! I don't really have anything going on this week so im gonna be good & get lots of work done :) Well, Friday night, most of the girls from our flat had gone home, so Suzie Brittany & i decided to make a video at 1am. We put a lot of time into acting it out and it turned out really cool! Suzie did a great job editing it, so hopefully we can put it on facebook or youtube soon :) Saturday night, i was convinced to step away from my paper and play dutch blitz with Brittany, Suzie, & Nate. I said i was only gonna play for twenty minutes..but it turned into six hours!! don't worry..we didn't play for the whole six hours haha It was really fun but i sorta regretted it when i had to finish my paper yesterday :/
Oh! it was mother's day in the UK yesterday & i got to talk to my "mum" for a bit so that was nice :) She was all excited because now that means she gets two mothers days haha we'll see about that ;)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
if you're still up when the ship's in the port, prepare to set sail; comb the beach and put those blue flowers up in your ponytail
okay i can't put this off anymore haha I'm not even exactly sure why i never feel like writing on here...I'm always like "I'm not in the mood" but what mood do you have to be in to write a blog?? I dont know, it just seems like I've been lacking a lot of motivation lately, which is a big problem because i have lots of assignments to do! I'll just keep reminding myself that in just under 3 weeks ill be jetsetting around Europe with my friends & family :D cant wait!
hmm where did i leave off? oh yeah, dinner with the murderer ;) well last saturday (whoa it really has been a week since Ive written! sorry!) we all got up and met downstairs at 8:30..which seemed tragically early because we stayed up super late the night before. Our whole group, which is about 40 people, loaded onto our bus and we started off for Stonehenge. Mostly everyone fell asleep, and I dozed off here & there for the almost two hour trip. The Monday before this trip, we had a class all about Stonehenge and its significance from an archaeologist. Honestly, I didn’t find what he was talking about to be very interesting because to me, it’s just a bunch of rocks. I don’t really care how they got in those positions! Haha there are so many theories about how they got there..some people believe it was aliens (that personally has my vote…yup a bunch of little green men came down to earth & all they did was stack some rocks in England..yeah that’s it) and some people believe that it was our ancestors who stacked them in some sort of ritual. My guess is that it had really no significance and they would just laugh at us if they knew that we’ve spent all this time theorizing and rigorously observing the rocks to find out their purpose ;)
Anyway that’s my little rant about Stonehenge haha so when we got there, we stood in line for tickets because that’s the only way you can even get close to the rocks. The sun was shining at that point but it was still a little chilly. Basically, there is a roped off path going all the way around the rocks and you just walk around and take pictures. The part I was a little bummed about is that we weren’t even close to the rocks! But I guess that’s realistic because if we were allowed to get closer, people would probably carve their names in the rocks or put graffiti on them. Bummer. So we pretty much just walked around in a giant circle, taking pictures from every possible angle…though im not sure how many pictures you can actually take of rocks and have them look different. My mom was looking through the pictures and she said that I have more of me and my friends acting crazy than the rocks ;) Since it’s basically in a big field with not much around it, it was veryyy windy and it ended up raining a little bit. So our hair was blowing everywhere and we were walking around in the mud. Oh well..it was pretty fun anyway ;) After we spent some time there, I stopped and got hot chocolate because the guy who spoke in our class said that it was amazing there (and it was really good!)We all met back at the bus and started off for Salisbury where we were going to have some time to explore on our own & eat lunch. It was a cute little town with an outdoor market filled mostly with useless things and happy people :) I walked around with Brittany & Bethany and as we were walking to the cathedral, we suddenly heard the most amazing voice singing love songs. No, not an angel, but a beautiful musician named Jimmy Hall...and yes, i know his name. We stopped and listened to him for a long time and took some pictures and video haha that sounds so creepy! but it wasn't i promise..other people were too ;) anyway, he literally sang all my favorite love songs and was very attractive while doing it hahaha it started to rain a bit and i just wanted to hold an umbrella over him! he kept playing though, and eventually it stopped. I'd like to believe his voice made the bad clouds go away :) As we were watching, we saw an older lady go and buy a cd from him that he had in his backpack for 5 pounds. of course we wanted one, so we set off to find somewhere to break our bigger bills. We stopped at the cathedral for a little bit though and took some pictures (i think its really funny because our director said that we needed to go there because its beautiful...but we ended up watching the musician instead ;) We got the money and wrote him a little note that said "you already have American fans, facebook us!" with our names at the end. Looking back, it doesn't sound like a good idea..but he doesn't seem like a psychopath. We went back to where he was playing and got a cd in between songs & he talked to us for a sec! it was very exciting :) We left and got some lunch and then went to meet the group. Oh! i stopped at a candy store where they had imported mountain dew from America!! i got two cans :) sooo good!
All forty of us loaded back into the bus and drove for about an hour or so until we stopped in Portsmouth. I was just about to doze off when we stopped, and our director told us to all hurry off the bus because we were only going to stay for about 15 minutes. I was a little flustered but we all went outside to see that we were at the beach! :D I was sooo excited! I think its really cool that its still the Atlantic ocean, just like back home :) somehow I felt connected to everyone in the states because of this. By this time, it was sunny which made the water look even more beautiful and we spent most of the time there taking pictures. I of course had to feel the water and it was super cold! I definitely didn’t wish I brought my bathing suit haha I loved just staring out at the water, watching the sailboats pass by and thinking about how beautiful God’s creation is! Well we only stayed there for a little bit, & then it was time to go and check into our hotel. Yup we were staying in a hotel for the night! It’s the little things like that which make me excited haha I was in a room with Brittany and Bethany, and they graciously let me have the single bed since I don’t like people very close to me ;) Our room was pretty normal for a hotel, with a tv (!) and comfy beds with big white pillows. All of us BCA kids were pretty much near each other so that was fun to just hang out with everyone. After resting for a little bit, we decided to venture into the city and shop, which of course I am never opposed to do :) Suzie & Jess went with us & went in lots of stores that i couldn't afford, but that was okay because i didn't waste any of my money. Then we met up with some more people and went to the Pizza Express for dinner and i got this delicious pasta dish that was sooo yummy! After that, we all were pretty tired and didn't feel like going out, so we just went to a Tesco nearby and got some junk food to bring back to the room. Everyone met in our room and we pigged out on desserts and watched the olympics on tv :) it was definitely a great night!
After going to bed early and getting a great nights sleep, everyone got ready and checked out by 10am the next day. We all loaded into the bus again and drove for literally 5 minutes down the road to the dock where the HMS Victory is held. We probably could have walked there, but it was raining pretty hard so i was grateful for the ride. Then, we went on a tour of the ship, which was nice because we could go at our own pace and take pictures the whole time. It was really cool! it looked like it was out of the pirates of the caribbean movies and was the original ship from Henry VIII's time (i think thats the right henry..but I'm not really sure). I wish i could have had some background on the history of this ship, because to me it was just a really cool boat. We were able to go deep into it, where the crew slept & ate, and all the different rooms which served lots of different purposes. After wandering around there for awhile, we all met at a museum down the street, which was all about the captain of the HMS Victory. Honestly, it wasn't really interesting to me because i didn't know much about him and it was a pretty small museum. We didn't stay there too long before going to another museum, which had artifacts from this ship that sunk in the 1400's, stayed underwater for 400 years until it was discovered and brought up. I thought this one was really cool because all the artifacts were over 600 years old and had been in the ocean for so long! Its amazing to see how they could still remain intact. The actual ship though, is in a warehouse where its sprayed with a wax mixture everyday and inspected by scientists to keep it preserved. Okay, my favorite part of the day: after the museum, we all left to find lunch, so Bethany, Jess, Britt & I found this ADORABLE little cafe that was sort of hidden by the bigger restaurants. It was owned by a man and his wife who were in their late 60's I'd guess, and she cooked while he took orders and brought the food to the tables. It was sooo cute! I literally felt as if i was sitting in their kitchen :) He called us dear and love when he took our orders like a grandfather, and kept checking back to make sure everything was alright. I wanted to stay there longer but it was soon time to meet our group again. Once we met up, we headed back to Cheltenham.
Hmm what have i done this past week? Well, it was my sisters birthday on monday! :D Tuesday we watched the bachelor finale and went to wetherspoons for the amazing chocolate cake (I'm so upset about who the bachelor chose, but i wont rant about it here) Other than that, Ive been just going to class and getting some work done. Tonight (Sunday) i went with the girls from my flat (and bethany ;) to see the new alice in wonderland movie in 3D. It actually was really good! It definitely draws you into another world for two hours and it kept me very entertained for the whole time :)
Right as i type this, laura and tara are in the air flying to England!! :D tomorrow we're going to pick them up at the bus station at 2pm and they'll be here until wednesday! I'm soo excited! I'll try to blog more during their visit so i wont be bombarded at the end...because then I'll never do it ;) Cheers! (that's a British saying..it sorta means thank you, goodbye, and anything else you want it to mean...i think ill be ending my blogs with it from now on :D )
hmm where did i leave off? oh yeah, dinner with the murderer ;) well last saturday (whoa it really has been a week since Ive written! sorry!) we all got up and met downstairs at 8:30..which seemed tragically early because we stayed up super late the night before. Our whole group, which is about 40 people, loaded onto our bus and we started off for Stonehenge. Mostly everyone fell asleep, and I dozed off here & there for the almost two hour trip. The Monday before this trip, we had a class all about Stonehenge and its significance from an archaeologist. Honestly, I didn’t find what he was talking about to be very interesting because to me, it’s just a bunch of rocks. I don’t really care how they got in those positions! Haha there are so many theories about how they got there..some people believe it was aliens (that personally has my vote…yup a bunch of little green men came down to earth & all they did was stack some rocks in England..yeah that’s it) and some people believe that it was our ancestors who stacked them in some sort of ritual. My guess is that it had really no significance and they would just laugh at us if they knew that we’ve spent all this time theorizing and rigorously observing the rocks to find out their purpose ;)
Anyway that’s my little rant about Stonehenge haha so when we got there, we stood in line for tickets because that’s the only way you can even get close to the rocks. The sun was shining at that point but it was still a little chilly. Basically, there is a roped off path going all the way around the rocks and you just walk around and take pictures. The part I was a little bummed about is that we weren’t even close to the rocks! But I guess that’s realistic because if we were allowed to get closer, people would probably carve their names in the rocks or put graffiti on them. Bummer. So we pretty much just walked around in a giant circle, taking pictures from every possible angle…though im not sure how many pictures you can actually take of rocks and have them look different. My mom was looking through the pictures and she said that I have more of me and my friends acting crazy than the rocks ;) Since it’s basically in a big field with not much around it, it was veryyy windy and it ended up raining a little bit. So our hair was blowing everywhere and we were walking around in the mud. Oh well..it was pretty fun anyway ;) After we spent some time there, I stopped and got hot chocolate because the guy who spoke in our class said that it was amazing there (and it was really good!)We all met back at the bus and started off for Salisbury where we were going to have some time to explore on our own & eat lunch. It was a cute little town with an outdoor market filled mostly with useless things and happy people :) I walked around with Brittany & Bethany and as we were walking to the cathedral, we suddenly heard the most amazing voice singing love songs. No, not an angel, but a beautiful musician named Jimmy Hall...and yes, i know his name. We stopped and listened to him for a long time and took some pictures and video haha that sounds so creepy! but it wasn't i promise..other people were too ;) anyway, he literally sang all my favorite love songs and was very attractive while doing it hahaha it started to rain a bit and i just wanted to hold an umbrella over him! he kept playing though, and eventually it stopped. I'd like to believe his voice made the bad clouds go away :) As we were watching, we saw an older lady go and buy a cd from him that he had in his backpack for 5 pounds. of course we wanted one, so we set off to find somewhere to break our bigger bills. We stopped at the cathedral for a little bit though and took some pictures (i think its really funny because our director said that we needed to go there because its beautiful...but we ended up watching the musician instead ;) We got the money and wrote him a little note that said "you already have American fans, facebook us!" with our names at the end. Looking back, it doesn't sound like a good idea..but he doesn't seem like a psychopath. We went back to where he was playing and got a cd in between songs & he talked to us for a sec! it was very exciting :) We left and got some lunch and then went to meet the group. Oh! i stopped at a candy store where they had imported mountain dew from America!! i got two cans :) sooo good!
All forty of us loaded back into the bus and drove for about an hour or so until we stopped in Portsmouth. I was just about to doze off when we stopped, and our director told us to all hurry off the bus because we were only going to stay for about 15 minutes. I was a little flustered but we all went outside to see that we were at the beach! :D I was sooo excited! I think its really cool that its still the Atlantic ocean, just like back home :) somehow I felt connected to everyone in the states because of this. By this time, it was sunny which made the water look even more beautiful and we spent most of the time there taking pictures. I of course had to feel the water and it was super cold! I definitely didn’t wish I brought my bathing suit haha I loved just staring out at the water, watching the sailboats pass by and thinking about how beautiful God’s creation is! Well we only stayed there for a little bit, & then it was time to go and check into our hotel. Yup we were staying in a hotel for the night! It’s the little things like that which make me excited haha I was in a room with Brittany and Bethany, and they graciously let me have the single bed since I don’t like people very close to me ;) Our room was pretty normal for a hotel, with a tv (!) and comfy beds with big white pillows. All of us BCA kids were pretty much near each other so that was fun to just hang out with everyone. After resting for a little bit, we decided to venture into the city and shop, which of course I am never opposed to do :) Suzie & Jess went with us & went in lots of stores that i couldn't afford, but that was okay because i didn't waste any of my money. Then we met up with some more people and went to the Pizza Express for dinner and i got this delicious pasta dish that was sooo yummy! After that, we all were pretty tired and didn't feel like going out, so we just went to a Tesco nearby and got some junk food to bring back to the room. Everyone met in our room and we pigged out on desserts and watched the olympics on tv :) it was definitely a great night!
After going to bed early and getting a great nights sleep, everyone got ready and checked out by 10am the next day. We all loaded into the bus again and drove for literally 5 minutes down the road to the dock where the HMS Victory is held. We probably could have walked there, but it was raining pretty hard so i was grateful for the ride. Then, we went on a tour of the ship, which was nice because we could go at our own pace and take pictures the whole time. It was really cool! it looked like it was out of the pirates of the caribbean movies and was the original ship from Henry VIII's time (i think thats the right henry..but I'm not really sure). I wish i could have had some background on the history of this ship, because to me it was just a really cool boat. We were able to go deep into it, where the crew slept & ate, and all the different rooms which served lots of different purposes. After wandering around there for awhile, we all met at a museum down the street, which was all about the captain of the HMS Victory. Honestly, it wasn't really interesting to me because i didn't know much about him and it was a pretty small museum. We didn't stay there too long before going to another museum, which had artifacts from this ship that sunk in the 1400's, stayed underwater for 400 years until it was discovered and brought up. I thought this one was really cool because all the artifacts were over 600 years old and had been in the ocean for so long! Its amazing to see how they could still remain intact. The actual ship though, is in a warehouse where its sprayed with a wax mixture everyday and inspected by scientists to keep it preserved. Okay, my favorite part of the day: after the museum, we all left to find lunch, so Bethany, Jess, Britt & I found this ADORABLE little cafe that was sort of hidden by the bigger restaurants. It was owned by a man and his wife who were in their late 60's I'd guess, and she cooked while he took orders and brought the food to the tables. It was sooo cute! I literally felt as if i was sitting in their kitchen :) He called us dear and love when he took our orders like a grandfather, and kept checking back to make sure everything was alright. I wanted to stay there longer but it was soon time to meet our group again. Once we met up, we headed back to Cheltenham.
Hmm what have i done this past week? Well, it was my sisters birthday on monday! :D Tuesday we watched the bachelor finale and went to wetherspoons for the amazing chocolate cake (I'm so upset about who the bachelor chose, but i wont rant about it here) Other than that, Ive been just going to class and getting some work done. Tonight (Sunday) i went with the girls from my flat (and bethany ;) to see the new alice in wonderland movie in 3D. It actually was really good! It definitely draws you into another world for two hours and it kept me very entertained for the whole time :)
Right as i type this, laura and tara are in the air flying to England!! :D tomorrow we're going to pick them up at the bus station at 2pm and they'll be here until wednesday! I'm soo excited! I'll try to blog more during their visit so i wont be bombarded at the end...because then I'll never do it ;) Cheers! (that's a British saying..it sorta means thank you, goodbye, and anything else you want it to mean...i think ill be ending my blogs with it from now on :D )
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
This is a lovely way to spend an evening; I want to save all my nights and spend them with you
Last Friday night, I had dinner with a murderer. He killed my ex-boyfriend.
Okay before you go off & have a heart attack, don't; because it was only for our murder mystery dinner ;) Bethany was the hostess since it was for her birthday, and she assigned each guest with a character that we each had to be for the night. Mine was "Denise Divine", a glamorous soap opera star who was very beautiful, talented, and thinks that the whole world should be in love with her. Typecasting perhaps? ;) haha jk! We weren't really told what to wear but after reading my character description, i was instantly inspired by that famous Audrey Hepburn picture where she's wearing the modest black dress, a simple string of white pearls, and big black sunglasses. I was super excited to be someone else for a night, especially after seeing Wicked and really missing the stage. Suzie, Brittany & I shopped Friday morning for the final details of our outfits (we got into it a bit more than other people did ;) haha) and i couldn't wait to try it all on. We came back and i began the complex and time-consuming caterpillar-into-a-butterfly transformation of becoming Miss Hepburn. I had my hair curled and pulled back, a string of pearls (fake of course!), bright red lipstick, fake eyelashes (man that was a scary process..i don't know how people do that all the time!), a black dress & black high heels. When i walked into the room, i threw on my black scarf and giant sunglasses to top it all off :) At the party, there was a flamboyantly gay psychic, a posh English socialite, an opinionated talk show host, a filmmaker, a cleaning lady, a security guard, a reality tv "star", a famous pop singer, the victims Greek mother, and a feminist radio show host. Suzie made a delicious dinner that looked like it was out of a cooking magazine and we were given our booklets that contained our "scripts" for the night. It was really fun to have dinner with all my friends, while we were all pretending to be someone else. Each character was somehow related to the murder victim, but it was our job to figure out who killed him. I felt like i was in a marykate & Ashley movie..."we'll solve any crime by dinner time!" haha We all tried to stick to our scripts but i had a hard time following the conversation so unfortunately i didn't say much. It was hilarious though, and we ended up laughing most of the time :) At the end, we all made our choice for the murderer and were surprised when it turned out to be Nate's character, the filmmaker! (i secretly wanted to be the murderer, just because it would be fun to try to get everyone to think it was someone else ;) haha) It was a great night!
After that, we all cleaned up the kitchen and turned back into ourselves; off came the fake eyelashes and on went the sweatpants. just the way i like it :) Just when most of us were settling into our rooms to go to bed, we had another fire alarm and had to go outside and wait for the firemen. That sorta woke us up and we came back inside and played some poker until around 1:30am. The next day we woke up early (and kinda regretted our decision to stay up late!) and went with the whole BCA group to Stonehenge and Portsmouth for the weekend. I'll write about that trip a little later because its time for dinner :)
oh by the way...the title is from a frank sinatra song because i felt like i was channeling that era during the dinner party :) you should look it up because its a great song!
Okay before you go off & have a heart attack, don't; because it was only for our murder mystery dinner ;) Bethany was the hostess since it was for her birthday, and she assigned each guest with a character that we each had to be for the night. Mine was "Denise Divine", a glamorous soap opera star who was very beautiful, talented, and thinks that the whole world should be in love with her. Typecasting perhaps? ;) haha jk! We weren't really told what to wear but after reading my character description, i was instantly inspired by that famous Audrey Hepburn picture where she's wearing the modest black dress, a simple string of white pearls, and big black sunglasses. I was super excited to be someone else for a night, especially after seeing Wicked and really missing the stage. Suzie, Brittany & I shopped Friday morning for the final details of our outfits (we got into it a bit more than other people did ;) haha) and i couldn't wait to try it all on. We came back and i began the complex and time-consuming caterpillar-into-a-butterfly transformation of becoming Miss Hepburn. I had my hair curled and pulled back, a string of pearls (fake of course!), bright red lipstick, fake eyelashes (man that was a scary process..i don't know how people do that all the time!), a black dress & black high heels. When i walked into the room, i threw on my black scarf and giant sunglasses to top it all off :) At the party, there was a flamboyantly gay psychic, a posh English socialite, an opinionated talk show host, a filmmaker, a cleaning lady, a security guard, a reality tv "star", a famous pop singer, the victims Greek mother, and a feminist radio show host. Suzie made a delicious dinner that looked like it was out of a cooking magazine and we were given our booklets that contained our "scripts" for the night. It was really fun to have dinner with all my friends, while we were all pretending to be someone else. Each character was somehow related to the murder victim, but it was our job to figure out who killed him. I felt like i was in a marykate & Ashley movie..."we'll solve any crime by dinner time!" haha We all tried to stick to our scripts but i had a hard time following the conversation so unfortunately i didn't say much. It was hilarious though, and we ended up laughing most of the time :) At the end, we all made our choice for the murderer and were surprised when it turned out to be Nate's character, the filmmaker! (i secretly wanted to be the murderer, just because it would be fun to try to get everyone to think it was someone else ;) haha) It was a great night!
After that, we all cleaned up the kitchen and turned back into ourselves; off came the fake eyelashes and on went the sweatpants. just the way i like it :) Just when most of us were settling into our rooms to go to bed, we had another fire alarm and had to go outside and wait for the firemen. That sorta woke us up and we came back inside and played some poker until around 1:30am. The next day we woke up early (and kinda regretted our decision to stay up late!) and went with the whole BCA group to Stonehenge and Portsmouth for the weekend. I'll write about that trip a little later because its time for dinner :)
oh by the way...the title is from a frank sinatra song because i felt like i was channeling that era during the dinner party :) you should look it up because its a great song!
Monday, February 22, 2010
As we wait in this winter storm, so we snuggle close in the darkness & keep each other so warm
So its a little dorky how excited i get when i find the most perfect lyric for the titles of my blogs :) but seriously you would be excited too because this one was just SO perfect!
First of all, its by owl city who we SAW in LONDON last thursday! ehh no big deal..its not like it was even good or anything............JOKES! it was seriously soooo amazing!!! We left on the 9:45 bus & I spent the entire ride there with every owl city song on shuffle and trying to take a little nap :) We got there around 12:15ish and by that time we were pretty hungry (both of us not surprisingly woke up later than we should’ve and chose to spend more time getting ready than eating breakfast) so we ate in the coach station at one of the fast food places. The night before, I had checked the weather and it said that there would be rain until noon and after that it would be pretty warm and partly cloudy. I told that to Brittany & we both decided not to take umbrellas since they were kinda hard to fit in our purses anyway. Bad idea. It was raining the entire time we were there. When I tell people this and expect some sort of pity or at least an “aww”, instead I get “you do realize that you’re in England right?” I know I know, I should have expected it to rain, but I guess I just wanted to have a little faith in weather.com. So, we walked in the rain to the station where we could buy our underground tube tickets because the club where the concert was gonna be was on the complete other side of the city. I’m so lucky that Brittany pretty much knew how the underground system worked & how to read the tube maps because to me, they just looked like a confusing maze of pretty colors and dots ;) We finally figured out how to get to the closest station to the club and after switching trains a few times, we to the right side of the city. Let me just say that I am not a fan of riding trains or subways, theres just something about them that creeps me out. Plus im always so scared that the doors are gonna close on me and im gonna get stuck at the station all by myself :( Fortunately that didn’t happen! When we got to the other station, we then tried to read our map (very much looking like tourists) and find the Electric Ballroom. We wandered around this busy intersection for a bit until we saw this HUGE sign for owl city! The club was literally right down the street from the station! That was so great :) The really funny thing about this part of the city was that it was basically where the punk rockers are. I felt like I needed a Mohawk and bright colored clothes to fit in haha there was a piercing and tattoo place on every corner and each store was full of neon and plaid outfits…definitely not my thing ;) So we went to the club to pick up our tickets and the very tough looking security guard pointed at this random girl awkwardly standing on the sidewalk and said, “theres the line”. Okay, so this is at 2:00pm and the concert doesn’t start until 8pm..and there was already someone waiting in line! In the rain! We were shocked and sorta didn’t know what to do because he said that we couldn’t pick up our tickets until the doors opened at 7. So we found a place to eat and dry off and then we went and shopped for a little bit. There were lots of street vendor-type places that had lots of cute clothes so Brittany and I both got scarves and dresses :) (mine actually turned out to be a shirt..wayyy too short to be a dress!) Around 4:30ish we went back to the club and realized that there were about 20 more people in line, so we decided that we should get in line too. At this time, it was raining pretty hard and very cold, but in order to get a good place near the stage (there wasn’t assigned seating) we had to wait. We kept ourselves occupied by watching the interesting people walk by and the funny guys with Mohawks try to advertize their tattoo parlor with big signs and flyers. It was hilarious to watch people’s reactions when they tried to hand them the papers..im not sure if I would take anything from them either! So we waited. And waited. When it was close to 7, it started to feel like I was standing on a block of ice and I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. You know that feeling when you’re super cold and it starts to hurt really bad? Yeah that’s where I was. Finally, after 2 & a half hours of waiting in the rain and getting soaked (note to self: peacoats are NOT waterproof..they are pretty much sponges) it was finally time to go in! I have never been so excited to go inside a club in my entire life. Once we got in, we went to the ticket office, picked up our tickets, & then ran to the stage to get a good spot. We were about three people away from the stage & right in the middle :) I took our coats and our bags to the coatcheck counter but by the time I came back, there were so many more people that I couldn’t find Brittany anymore! I really hate those people who try and shove their way to the front at a concert, but I had to be one of them. I felt so awkward trying to make my way to her and I thought that I was gonna get beat up! Haha not really but I still felt really bad! ;) Anyway, I got up to her and that’s when my personal space became veryyyy small. Everyone wanted to get near the front obviously so they were pressing in on all sides and I could barely move! If you know me at all, you know that I have a very large personal space bubble and don’t like to be very close to people. Yeah, that was a problem. I literally had my feet together and my arms folded the entire concert haha I have never been so close to people in my entire life. But it was SO worth it because the concert was AMAZING! The opening act was a girl called Lights, who ive never heard before but she was really good. She was sorta like Owl City because she was electronic-y and had pretty interesting lyrics. She played a couple songs & then it was finally time for OWL CITY!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! He was so great! He played all my favorite songs and was just so adorable and quirky :) I felt really bad though because you could definitely tell that he was sick, because he would cough during some of the instrumental parts and during one song he held a cup of tea :( I just wanted to give him a hug! We had such a great spot in front of the stage, and I got some amazing pictures. It felt like he sang for two minutes because it was over so fast! I could have listened to him sing all night. After the concert, I was so excited to just be able to move my feet & my arms and have my personal space bubble back haha But after standing in the rain for 2 & a half hours and then standing during the 3 hour concert…it really felt as though we were hit by a truck! I was completely exhausted but somehow we made it to our bus station again. We both instantly fell asleep on the bus back because it was about 2:30 when we got back to Cheltenham. Im really surprised that I didn’t write about this sooner because it was such a GREAT day! A little wet, but still great :)
I spent the rest of the weekend working on a paper, yes i actually do work here! ;) I had a hard time getting a hold of the book i needed though, well, i put a hold on it but the previous user never brought it back :/ So i desparately asked my friend emily for her own copy of it and thankfully she let me use it, but then i only had one day to write the paper! So all day Sunday i worked on it and finally got it done :) Here, turning in an assignment is such a strange process..you dont just hand it to your professor. You have to put this confusing cover page on it and then go through this maze (okay its not really a maze, but it sure felt like one!) to the assignment room, where someone signs off on it and places it in the box with the right class name on it. soo weird. I guess the whole thing is just to make everything anonymous (haha it took me so long to figure out how to spell that!)..we don't even write our name on the paper!
Anyway, this is getting pretty long so ill wrap things up. I turned my paper in early on Tuesday because Wednesday a bunch of us were going to london to see the show WICKED!!! It was me, bethany, greg, brittany, kelly, & Danielle...all American students :) we got on the 9:45 bus again and of course, listened to nothing else but the Wicked soundtrack the entire ride! We got there and went to the theater to get our tickets & then found a great place to eat. We were all dressed up because i think its sorta an unspoken rule to get dressed up for a broadway show so we ate at a pretty fancy restaurant called Ha Ha :) After lunch, we headed over to the theater again because it was almost about to start. Our seats were soo good! we were on the floor (not literally on the floor, we had seats ;)) so we could see everything perfectly! From the moment the music started and the actors came out...all 6 of us had our mouths wide open. I literally had chills because the singing was SO AMAZING! I loved everything about it..the set, the costumes, the attractive lead character ;), and especially the music! If you dont know the story, its basically the story before the Wizard of Oz, like how the Wicked Witch became wicked and everything like that. I knew the entire soundtrack by heart but i was absolutely blown away by the talented singers! It felt like you were up there on stage with them and part of the story :) The show went by SO fast though, i never wanted it to end! It has always been a dream of mine to be on broadway someday and that show just made me want that even more :) After the show, we got some dinner and then caught the bus back home. When we got back, everyone convinced us to go out to Boogie Lounge with them, so we all just changed our clothes and went back out. It was so fun! I love just dancing like a crazy person with everyone..its definitely one of my new favorite things to do :) We actually went out last night (thursday) too! haha
Tonight we're having a murder mystery dinner & we all have fun characters to act out so check back here later & ill tell you all about it :)
First of all, its by owl city who we SAW in LONDON last thursday! ehh no big deal..its not like it was even good or anything............JOKES! it was seriously soooo amazing!!! We left on the 9:45 bus & I spent the entire ride there with every owl city song on shuffle and trying to take a little nap :) We got there around 12:15ish and by that time we were pretty hungry (both of us not surprisingly woke up later than we should’ve and chose to spend more time getting ready than eating breakfast) so we ate in the coach station at one of the fast food places. The night before, I had checked the weather and it said that there would be rain until noon and after that it would be pretty warm and partly cloudy. I told that to Brittany & we both decided not to take umbrellas since they were kinda hard to fit in our purses anyway. Bad idea. It was raining the entire time we were there. When I tell people this and expect some sort of pity or at least an “aww”, instead I get “you do realize that you’re in England right?” I know I know, I should have expected it to rain, but I guess I just wanted to have a little faith in weather.com. So, we walked in the rain to the station where we could buy our underground tube tickets because the club where the concert was gonna be was on the complete other side of the city. I’m so lucky that Brittany pretty much knew how the underground system worked & how to read the tube maps because to me, they just looked like a confusing maze of pretty colors and dots ;) We finally figured out how to get to the closest station to the club and after switching trains a few times, we to the right side of the city. Let me just say that I am not a fan of riding trains or subways, theres just something about them that creeps me out. Plus im always so scared that the doors are gonna close on me and im gonna get stuck at the station all by myself :( Fortunately that didn’t happen! When we got to the other station, we then tried to read our map (very much looking like tourists) and find the Electric Ballroom. We wandered around this busy intersection for a bit until we saw this HUGE sign for owl city! The club was literally right down the street from the station! That was so great :) The really funny thing about this part of the city was that it was basically where the punk rockers are. I felt like I needed a Mohawk and bright colored clothes to fit in haha there was a piercing and tattoo place on every corner and each store was full of neon and plaid outfits…definitely not my thing ;) So we went to the club to pick up our tickets and the very tough looking security guard pointed at this random girl awkwardly standing on the sidewalk and said, “theres the line”. Okay, so this is at 2:00pm and the concert doesn’t start until 8pm..and there was already someone waiting in line! In the rain! We were shocked and sorta didn’t know what to do because he said that we couldn’t pick up our tickets until the doors opened at 7. So we found a place to eat and dry off and then we went and shopped for a little bit. There were lots of street vendor-type places that had lots of cute clothes so Brittany and I both got scarves and dresses :) (mine actually turned out to be a shirt..wayyy too short to be a dress!) Around 4:30ish we went back to the club and realized that there were about 20 more people in line, so we decided that we should get in line too. At this time, it was raining pretty hard and very cold, but in order to get a good place near the stage (there wasn’t assigned seating) we had to wait. We kept ourselves occupied by watching the interesting people walk by and the funny guys with Mohawks try to advertize their tattoo parlor with big signs and flyers. It was hilarious to watch people’s reactions when they tried to hand them the papers..im not sure if I would take anything from them either! So we waited. And waited. When it was close to 7, it started to feel like I was standing on a block of ice and I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. You know that feeling when you’re super cold and it starts to hurt really bad? Yeah that’s where I was. Finally, after 2 & a half hours of waiting in the rain and getting soaked (note to self: peacoats are NOT waterproof..they are pretty much sponges) it was finally time to go in! I have never been so excited to go inside a club in my entire life. Once we got in, we went to the ticket office, picked up our tickets, & then ran to the stage to get a good spot. We were about three people away from the stage & right in the middle :) I took our coats and our bags to the coatcheck counter but by the time I came back, there were so many more people that I couldn’t find Brittany anymore! I really hate those people who try and shove their way to the front at a concert, but I had to be one of them. I felt so awkward trying to make my way to her and I thought that I was gonna get beat up! Haha not really but I still felt really bad! ;) Anyway, I got up to her and that’s when my personal space became veryyyy small. Everyone wanted to get near the front obviously so they were pressing in on all sides and I could barely move! If you know me at all, you know that I have a very large personal space bubble and don’t like to be very close to people. Yeah, that was a problem. I literally had my feet together and my arms folded the entire concert haha I have never been so close to people in my entire life. But it was SO worth it because the concert was AMAZING! The opening act was a girl called Lights, who ive never heard before but she was really good. She was sorta like Owl City because she was electronic-y and had pretty interesting lyrics. She played a couple songs & then it was finally time for OWL CITY!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! He was so great! He played all my favorite songs and was just so adorable and quirky :) I felt really bad though because you could definitely tell that he was sick, because he would cough during some of the instrumental parts and during one song he held a cup of tea :( I just wanted to give him a hug! We had such a great spot in front of the stage, and I got some amazing pictures. It felt like he sang for two minutes because it was over so fast! I could have listened to him sing all night. After the concert, I was so excited to just be able to move my feet & my arms and have my personal space bubble back haha But after standing in the rain for 2 & a half hours and then standing during the 3 hour concert…it really felt as though we were hit by a truck! I was completely exhausted but somehow we made it to our bus station again. We both instantly fell asleep on the bus back because it was about 2:30 when we got back to Cheltenham. Im really surprised that I didn’t write about this sooner because it was such a GREAT day! A little wet, but still great :)
I spent the rest of the weekend working on a paper, yes i actually do work here! ;) I had a hard time getting a hold of the book i needed though, well, i put a hold on it but the previous user never brought it back :/ So i desparately asked my friend emily for her own copy of it and thankfully she let me use it, but then i only had one day to write the paper! So all day Sunday i worked on it and finally got it done :) Here, turning in an assignment is such a strange process..you dont just hand it to your professor. You have to put this confusing cover page on it and then go through this maze (okay its not really a maze, but it sure felt like one!) to the assignment room, where someone signs off on it and places it in the box with the right class name on it. soo weird. I guess the whole thing is just to make everything anonymous (haha it took me so long to figure out how to spell that!)..we don't even write our name on the paper!
Anyway, this is getting pretty long so ill wrap things up. I turned my paper in early on Tuesday because Wednesday a bunch of us were going to london to see the show WICKED!!! It was me, bethany, greg, brittany, kelly, & Danielle...all American students :) we got on the 9:45 bus again and of course, listened to nothing else but the Wicked soundtrack the entire ride! We got there and went to the theater to get our tickets & then found a great place to eat. We were all dressed up because i think its sorta an unspoken rule to get dressed up for a broadway show so we ate at a pretty fancy restaurant called Ha Ha :) After lunch, we headed over to the theater again because it was almost about to start. Our seats were soo good! we were on the floor (not literally on the floor, we had seats ;)) so we could see everything perfectly! From the moment the music started and the actors came out...all 6 of us had our mouths wide open. I literally had chills because the singing was SO AMAZING! I loved everything about it..the set, the costumes, the attractive lead character ;), and especially the music! If you dont know the story, its basically the story before the Wizard of Oz, like how the Wicked Witch became wicked and everything like that. I knew the entire soundtrack by heart but i was absolutely blown away by the talented singers! It felt like you were up there on stage with them and part of the story :) The show went by SO fast though, i never wanted it to end! It has always been a dream of mine to be on broadway someday and that show just made me want that even more :) After the show, we got some dinner and then caught the bus back home. When we got back, everyone convinced us to go out to Boogie Lounge with them, so we all just changed our clothes and went back out. It was so fun! I love just dancing like a crazy person with everyone..its definitely one of my new favorite things to do :) We actually went out last night (thursday) too! haha
Tonight we're having a murder mystery dinner & we all have fun characters to act out so check back here later & ill tell you all about it :)
Monday, February 15, 2010
If you've anything to tell me, it had better be tonight
So i can definitely add blogging to my list of things I'm not good at. Yup, it goes: whistling, any type of math, directions, playing the flute, cartwheels, and blogging. Honestly, i just get so behind and then i just never feel like tackling the project & actually sitting down and writing everything down. I'm not sure if you got the lyric reference i put as the title (an amazing song by the way) but basically i told myself that it had to be tonight that i crossed this off my to-do list :) I don't mind though because I'm comfy & cozy in my pj's with my buddy frank sinatra serenading me in the background, could life get any better??
The past week (and a half) has been pretty normal, with the usual ups and downs and a trip to Hogwarts haha okay maybe that part's not normal unless you're Hermione ;) Sunday, our university had a superbowl party so that was pretty cool but since there's a 5 hour time difference, the game wouldn't start until around midnight, so i didn't end up going. I was a little bummed because i would have liked to go and hang out with everyone, but i probably would have been up till 4 or 5am and Monday is my busiest day. Plus, i wasn't too concerned about either of the teams this year. I did though, check online before my first class on Monday to see who won just in case anyone asked haha I definitely decided that my Health class is absolutely my least favorite class of the week. First of all, its about 15 mins away by bus so i have to leave a lot earlier than normal which leaves me hardly any time for lunch. But the main reason is that i have never had any sort of health class before and its not really related to my major at all because its about policies and government documents so i usually am completely lost the whole lecture. It just makes me really uncomfortable not knowing what the professor is talking about and having everything go over my head, especially when she has us do group work and present to the class. Last week i was totally honest with my group members and told them that i had no idea what we were supposed to be talking about, but they said that i had to say something anyway during the presentation. I'm not really sure what i said, but it was really short and probably made no sense. I'm hoping that things get better for me in that class because i don't know how much more useless babble i can come up with for each presentation ;) Monday night, we had our BCA class about British Culture. Of course, it was boring, so Brittany and i entertained ourselves by planning our majorly epic, gonna-tell-our-grandchildren-about-it-someday, super awesome spring break trips! :D haha i like that name. I wont tell you guys about it yet because its not totally finalized but once we figure everything out (which could be awhile..it takes A LOT of planning! i now know how amazingly talented my dad is because he always plans great vacations for our family..my husband better be like that too haha) So ill just keep you in suspense for now ;)
Wednesday I slept in, which is always my favorite thing to do, and later that night we all got dressed up to go to Boogie Lounge. I just want to clear something up though, that when i talk about this place, it is a bar but i have never gotten anything to drink there. I literally only go there to dance with my friends :) My idea of a good time does not include passing out, not remembering what happened, and being sick as a dog the next day. No thanks. Anyway, thursday I had my favorite class and we had a speaker from a school for children with special needs and she talked to us about Autism. It was super interesting because she gave teaching techniques that help benefit children on the Autism spectrum, which is something that i found really useful. I felt like my pen couldn't write fast enough to catch everything she said! We're going to her school in a few weeks so that will be really great :)
On Friday, Brittany, Bethany & i went to Gloucester for the day because none of us had classes and its only a town away from us and less than a pound for the bus. We went out to lunch first at a little place in town that has great food and then went to catch the bus. Unfortunately Bethany had to pay the full adult price because she forgot her student id but for Brittany & i it was less than a pound so that was great! We weren't totally sure which stop to get off at and considering my amazing sense of directions (ha!) i was pretty worried that we would get lost. But, obviously enough, we could see the cathedral (it is really big) from the bus so we got off at one of the stops and walked over to it. When we got there, we were asked to make a small donation in order to take pictures, so of course we all gave a little bit because it was too gorgeous not to take pictures! I am really starting to love old cathedrals; everything is quietly beautiful with amazing architecture that has lasted for centuries. You just don't get this kind of stuff in the states! One of the cool things about this cathedral was that you could get a free tour by one of the workers and if you ever get to go here, definitely do it because we learned sooo much from our tour that we never would have noticed otherwise. He told us about the history behind the different monuments and what some of the many beautiful stained glass windows were images of. One window was the size of a tennis court! So, although this cathedral was packed with historical significance, probably my favorite part of it was turning the corner and walking straight into Hogwarts! It was sort of funny because our tour guide turned to us and quietly asked if we were harry potter fans...ha! if he only knew ;) Yup, part of the first, third, and sixth movies were shot in the cloisters within this cathedral. They make up some of the hallways in the movies..& it was SO cool to be walking them just like the characters did! I felt like hermione :) Brittany & i had a duel with our pretend wands while Bethany laughed and took pictures (shes not really interested in harry potter..i dont even know why i'm friends with her). It was a lot of fun to wander around there and imagine parts of the movie taking place. After staying for awhile longer taking pictures, we walked around the town of Gloucester for a bit and shopped until we caught the bus again to come back. That night, we all had bought lots of candy at the "dollar store" aka Poundland, so we were super hyper and full of energy. We watched the latest harry potter movie so that we could see parts of the cathedral, but then afterwards we were all too scared to go to bed! Since we were still on our sugar high, we decided to have a little dance party in the kitchen at 2am and made funny videos for our friends back home. It was hilarious and if you want to see one of the videos, just ask me and ill send you the link :) We finally got to bed around 4ish but we had such a fun time just dressing up in crazy outfits and dancing around the hall (don't worry..all my flatmates had gone home for the weekend)
Sunday was valentines day, and if you know me at all, you know that it is not my favorite holiday (but i wont get into that here ;) Most of my friends here are single, so we decided that it would be fun to throw a little singles party and celebrate our independence haha The boyfriend of one of the girls on our flat was coming to surprise her so we all dressed up so that she would too, & he took her out for a nice dinner. It was fun to get dressed up and just hang out with friends for the night :) We just played poker and our own version of twister that we made up the night before, with the dots on the floor and on the wall. Monday was Bethany's birthday and our night class was cancelled so some of us went out to see the movie Valentines Day, which was really good, and then out for dessert afterwards.
Last night was a big night for drinking in our town, with the event called Carnage. Basically, you pay a certain amount of money for a t-shirt and you go from bar to bar to bar all night until everyone is really really drunk. Of course, none of my friends were going, so we planned our spring break trips and watched the Bachelor :) Around 4:30am this morning, a big group of really drunk people came onto our floor screaming and running around and woke up our whole flat. It was really crazy but they eventually left. Its things like this that make me appreciate Messiah a whole lot more. Today I didn't really do much because i slept in really late but we had a little girls night instead of going out :) We made homemade facial masks out of bananas, honey, and lemon juice (it ended up looking like vomit which was disgusting,but it really worked!...my sink is still clogged with it though :/). Then we exfoliated our hands and feet, ate some ice cream and junk food, and then painted our nails while watching Beauty & the Beast :) It was so much fun!
Well, i really should go to bed because TOMORROW IS OWL CITY IN LONDON!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! i am sooooooooooo excited!!!! :D :D Check back here on Saturday and ill tell you all about it :) goodnight!
The past week (and a half) has been pretty normal, with the usual ups and downs and a trip to Hogwarts haha okay maybe that part's not normal unless you're Hermione ;) Sunday, our university had a superbowl party so that was pretty cool but since there's a 5 hour time difference, the game wouldn't start until around midnight, so i didn't end up going. I was a little bummed because i would have liked to go and hang out with everyone, but i probably would have been up till 4 or 5am and Monday is my busiest day. Plus, i wasn't too concerned about either of the teams this year. I did though, check online before my first class on Monday to see who won just in case anyone asked haha I definitely decided that my Health class is absolutely my least favorite class of the week. First of all, its about 15 mins away by bus so i have to leave a lot earlier than normal which leaves me hardly any time for lunch. But the main reason is that i have never had any sort of health class before and its not really related to my major at all because its about policies and government documents so i usually am completely lost the whole lecture. It just makes me really uncomfortable not knowing what the professor is talking about and having everything go over my head, especially when she has us do group work and present to the class. Last week i was totally honest with my group members and told them that i had no idea what we were supposed to be talking about, but they said that i had to say something anyway during the presentation. I'm not really sure what i said, but it was really short and probably made no sense. I'm hoping that things get better for me in that class because i don't know how much more useless babble i can come up with for each presentation ;) Monday night, we had our BCA class about British Culture. Of course, it was boring, so Brittany and i entertained ourselves by planning our majorly epic, gonna-tell-our-grandchildren-about-it-someday, super awesome spring break trips! :D haha i like that name. I wont tell you guys about it yet because its not totally finalized but once we figure everything out (which could be awhile..it takes A LOT of planning! i now know how amazingly talented my dad is because he always plans great vacations for our family..my husband better be like that too haha) So ill just keep you in suspense for now ;)
Wednesday I slept in, which is always my favorite thing to do, and later that night we all got dressed up to go to Boogie Lounge. I just want to clear something up though, that when i talk about this place, it is a bar but i have never gotten anything to drink there. I literally only go there to dance with my friends :) My idea of a good time does not include passing out, not remembering what happened, and being sick as a dog the next day. No thanks. Anyway, thursday I had my favorite class and we had a speaker from a school for children with special needs and she talked to us about Autism. It was super interesting because she gave teaching techniques that help benefit children on the Autism spectrum, which is something that i found really useful. I felt like my pen couldn't write fast enough to catch everything she said! We're going to her school in a few weeks so that will be really great :)
On Friday, Brittany, Bethany & i went to Gloucester for the day because none of us had classes and its only a town away from us and less than a pound for the bus. We went out to lunch first at a little place in town that has great food and then went to catch the bus. Unfortunately Bethany had to pay the full adult price because she forgot her student id but for Brittany & i it was less than a pound so that was great! We weren't totally sure which stop to get off at and considering my amazing sense of directions (ha!) i was pretty worried that we would get lost. But, obviously enough, we could see the cathedral (it is really big) from the bus so we got off at one of the stops and walked over to it. When we got there, we were asked to make a small donation in order to take pictures, so of course we all gave a little bit because it was too gorgeous not to take pictures! I am really starting to love old cathedrals; everything is quietly beautiful with amazing architecture that has lasted for centuries. You just don't get this kind of stuff in the states! One of the cool things about this cathedral was that you could get a free tour by one of the workers and if you ever get to go here, definitely do it because we learned sooo much from our tour that we never would have noticed otherwise. He told us about the history behind the different monuments and what some of the many beautiful stained glass windows were images of. One window was the size of a tennis court! So, although this cathedral was packed with historical significance, probably my favorite part of it was turning the corner and walking straight into Hogwarts! It was sort of funny because our tour guide turned to us and quietly asked if we were harry potter fans...ha! if he only knew ;) Yup, part of the first, third, and sixth movies were shot in the cloisters within this cathedral. They make up some of the hallways in the movies..& it was SO cool to be walking them just like the characters did! I felt like hermione :) Brittany & i had a duel with our pretend wands while Bethany laughed and took pictures (shes not really interested in harry potter..i dont even know why i'm friends with her). It was a lot of fun to wander around there and imagine parts of the movie taking place. After staying for awhile longer taking pictures, we walked around the town of Gloucester for a bit and shopped until we caught the bus again to come back. That night, we all had bought lots of candy at the "dollar store" aka Poundland, so we were super hyper and full of energy. We watched the latest harry potter movie so that we could see parts of the cathedral, but then afterwards we were all too scared to go to bed! Since we were still on our sugar high, we decided to have a little dance party in the kitchen at 2am and made funny videos for our friends back home. It was hilarious and if you want to see one of the videos, just ask me and ill send you the link :) We finally got to bed around 4ish but we had such a fun time just dressing up in crazy outfits and dancing around the hall (don't worry..all my flatmates had gone home for the weekend)
Sunday was valentines day, and if you know me at all, you know that it is not my favorite holiday (but i wont get into that here ;) Most of my friends here are single, so we decided that it would be fun to throw a little singles party and celebrate our independence haha The boyfriend of one of the girls on our flat was coming to surprise her so we all dressed up so that she would too, & he took her out for a nice dinner. It was fun to get dressed up and just hang out with friends for the night :) We just played poker and our own version of twister that we made up the night before, with the dots on the floor and on the wall. Monday was Bethany's birthday and our night class was cancelled so some of us went out to see the movie Valentines Day, which was really good, and then out for dessert afterwards.
Last night was a big night for drinking in our town, with the event called Carnage. Basically, you pay a certain amount of money for a t-shirt and you go from bar to bar to bar all night until everyone is really really drunk. Of course, none of my friends were going, so we planned our spring break trips and watched the Bachelor :) Around 4:30am this morning, a big group of really drunk people came onto our floor screaming and running around and woke up our whole flat. It was really crazy but they eventually left. Its things like this that make me appreciate Messiah a whole lot more. Today I didn't really do much because i slept in really late but we had a little girls night instead of going out :) We made homemade facial masks out of bananas, honey, and lemon juice (it ended up looking like vomit which was disgusting,but it really worked!...my sink is still clogged with it though :/). Then we exfoliated our hands and feet, ate some ice cream and junk food, and then painted our nails while watching Beauty & the Beast :) It was so much fun!
Well, i really should go to bed because TOMORROW IS OWL CITY IN LONDON!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! i am sooooooooooo excited!!!! :D :D Check back here on Saturday and ill tell you all about it :) goodnight!
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