I'm back from Wales! :D it was an AMAZING trip and i had sooo much fun! It was filled with castles, sunshine, muddy pants, cute Welsh boys (i decided that Wales has the cutest boys, must be somethin in the water...i'm planning on moving here ;), and lots of laughter :) I'll be putting up pictures soon on Facebook (i took a lotttt) so check them out!
Well we left veryy early Saturday morning, when it was still dark and stores were just getting ready to open. We took the bus to the train station and got on the 7:20 train going to Bristol. After about a 40 minute ride (which felt like 10 minutes) we had to get off and switch trains really quick. The next one took us about an hour to the city of Cardiff, Wales. Since we were staying in a hostel and we couldn't check in until around 2 in the afternoon, we had to walk the whole morning with our backpacks and everything on. That was sorta a pain because they were pretty heavy and awkward but it wasn't too bad. We had a group of 10 total, some from Messiah and some from other colleges, so it was great to have this trip to meet new people :) Danielle was named "Mama Bear" because she planned basically the whole trip, having written down all the times and prices of everything and she always kept a close watch to see if we were all behind her. I know that we would have had a lot of trouble if it weren't for her, so that was really great. So after we got off the train, we went and got day passes for the bus, so that we could just use that instead of having to pay each time. It wasn't a lot of money so that worked out really well. We then took the bus to this beautiful cathedral that was pretty close to where we were. I honestly can't remember the name of it, but it was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was shining so we walked all around it and got some amazing pictures inside and out. It was huge so I don't even think i saw the whole thing. After spending some time there, we were all pretty hungry so we stopped into this adorable little tea shop in town and got sandwiches for lunch. It was really nice to come inside from the cold and finally take off our backpacks! Then we took the bus again to the town centre (i hate spelling it like that, but thats how they do it here!) and found this historical marketplace that has been running since the 1890's. It sorta reminded me of a flea market because it was filled with cheap useless stuff that no one really wants, except for these amazing pastry vendors. I got a veryy sugary donut that i never ended up finishing because it was so sweet and a traditional Welsh cake. It was sorta like a really really dry version of a silver-dollar pancake with raisins but it was pretty good. Then we took the bus to Cardiff Bay, which was right on the water, and it was soooo beautiful! The sun was really warm (i felt like i could have gotten a tan!) and made for some great pictures. I probably could have spent hours there taking pictures and basking in the sunshine :) There were sailboats in the water and lots of historical sites so it was definitely one of my favorite places we went. After that, we were getting pretty tired of carrying our backpacks so we went to check in at the hostel. It was not sketchy at all (as my mom was worried about) and was pretty much like a hotel because it was really clean. It had a full kitchen, tv room with wireless internet, a game room, and a bar-like area. We had booked two rooms, one for 6 people and the other with 4. Luckily, our group never had to share a room with people we didnt know so that was a blessing :) I was in the room of 6 people, with Suzie, Bethany, Steph, Greg, & Kelly and we pretty much spent the whole time together laughing. The room was really plain, with 3 bunkbeds, and the bathrooms were across the hall. We had to share the bathrooms with other people down the hall (we think they were french), but it was never a problem or anything. After checking in, we just relaxed and rested our tired feet for a bit, and then went off into the town centre for some shopping and dinner. It was really nice to not wear our backpacks for the rest of the night! After we found something to eat and shopped for a little bit, we went back to the hostel and played some card games and just hung out. Around 9pm, we were bored and didnt really want to go to bed that early, so we ventured out to find a pub. This one street that had tons of clubs and bars was i guess the cool place to be because it was soo busy with tons of people all dressed up (we felt really out of place with our sweatshirts and sneakers, and just really looking like tourists). We decided we didn't want to be there so we went a little further and found a pretty nice pub where we stayed for awhile and hung out. After that, we went back to our rooms and showered & relaxed and all fell asleep around midnight.
The next day, we woke up around 8:30 because the hostel provided a free breakfast of toast, cereal & tea (exciting i know!) and that ended at 9. Then we got ready and checked out at 10. Unfortunately we had to carry our backpacks again, but we got pretty used to it. The plan for today was to go to the National Museam and the Caerphilly Castle, which we could get to by bus. But, we somehow confused the bus schedule and closing time of the museam, so we only made it to the castle, which was totally fine with me. We actually had to take the train there, but it was really inexpensive and got us there a lot faster. And it was soo worth it because the castle was beautiful!!! It was surrounded by a huge moat and green grass and had this amazing historical essence about it. I probably could have taken thousands of pictures! We paid the little bit of money so that we could go in it, and it was awesome because we got to just wander around the grounds wherever we wanted to go. There were catapults and bridges that have withheld destruction and time and are still usable, which is so cool. Inside were tons of little rooms and hallways with spiral staircases made of stone so i definitely could have gotten lost in there (and i probably would have been fine with that ;) Probably my favorite room was this Great Hall that was probably used for big feasts because it had really tall ceilings, a big fireplace, and a really long wooden table. We took a "family" portrait there with the whole group & i cant wait to see how it came out :) Oh! so if you could use a laugh, you're in luck because i did something really embarrassing today (i know, its not really surprising right?) Well, everyone was looking at this deep cave-like thing with walls of rocks and i stayed at the top of the hill to take pictures of them. I was wearing my super-cool new sunglasses (if u saw them, you would think they were super-cool too) and snapping pictures & not really looking where i was going. So i was climbing up the small hill to get to the path when, in my head i was thinking about how the sunglasses made my perception really wierd, right then i fell flat on my face in the mud. Of course, some people from my group were able to see this act of grace and were nice enough to laugh at me. Okay, i was laughing pretty hard too. When i got up, my hands were totally covered in mud, as were my jeans and coat. Also, to add to the moment, my hair was everywhere so before i realized how much mud was on my hands, i proceeded to push my hair out of my face...and getting mud all over my forehead. Yup. I'm just that coordinated. It was a pretty funny moment except when i realized that i had to walk around for the rest of the day with mud all over my pants. I think it just added to the hip backpacker look ;) Anyway...after spending a lot of time at the castle, we left and got lunch/dinner at a pub in town and it was delicious. Then we caught the train right before it was about to leave, which meant that there were no seats, so we had to awkwardly stand in front of the bathrooms and doors, right where people needed to get to. It was an interesting trip back but some of us were able to find seats so that was really good :) We made it back to Cheltenham and after stopping at Wetherspoons for their amazing chocolate cake, i'm now cozy in my dorm, changed out of my muddy jeans and looking forward to climbing in my bed.
I know this was super long and i hope people actually made it to the end (congratulations!) but it was an amazing trip and it was really hard to write everything down. If you wanna know more details or other funny stories, just skype me! :) goodnight everyone! <3
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
If my heart was a house, you'd be home
I decided to put owl city lyrics as the title of this one because i just bought tickets to see him in LONDON!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! :D :D I really wish you could have seen me when i saw that 2 tickets were available because i was jumping up & down and bolted across the hall to tell Brittany :) I've been searching for tickets to see him for the past like two weeks and they've all been sold out. I knew the whole Ticketmaster routine, change the amount of tickets to two, click find tickets, type in the stupid word picture thing that makes sure I'm human (what else would i be??), & then the screen comes up saying that there are no tickets available. I had done that soo many times so when i tried just one more time for the London show i was definitely expecting that same screen again. But i got them!! :D :D yayyy! Its Feb 18th so its not even that far away! oh & if you have no idea who owl city is...pleeeease look him up right now because he's amazing! :)
....but I'm really not that excited about it hahaha anyway, i haven't written on here in almost a week so sorry about that! i honestly just forget to do it when theres nothing really exciting to talk about. This week has been pretty good, same old thing with classes & such. I decided that Monday is my least favorite day because i have 3 two-hour long classes :/ yuck. I go to New Religious Movements at the FCH campus ten blocks away at 9:15 til 11:15 then i run back (well not literally run..i cant even remember the last time i even walked fast ;) to meet up with people to get the bus to the Oxstalls campus 15 minutes away. Then i have my health class from 1:15 to 3:15 and then get the bus back. I have a little bit of time to eat & relax and then i have our BCA class at the FCH campus again about British history and culture from 5:45 till 7:45. We cant even skip that one (which i would never do haha ;) because that's when we get our food money! Ugh. What a long day! i was soo tired afterwards and couldn't wait to just go to bed :) Tuesday i had my Geography-ish class which i actually don't mind because i like the professor. He's pretty funny. I cant remember what i did tuesday night, but i probably just hung out & watched movies like normal haha Wednesday I didn't have any classes so i got to sleep in pretty late & then a bunch of us went to buy train tickets for Wales this weekend! yayy! The train station was pretty far away from where we live which we weren't expecting, but it was a nice walk because it was actually sunny out :) After deciding to the get the bus back, Brittany and i went shopping at these little shops that we've never been in before, and we found these mall-type places that had lots of expensive stores. A little window shopping never hurts :) She got these awesome Barbie-pink heels for 2 pounds on clearance and i got some purple tights to wear with the black dress i bought last week. Wednesday night apparently is when lots of people go out, so Brittany, Suzie & i met up with some girls from the fourth floor and we got all dressed up & went out to find some dessert ;) Unfortunately, all of the places we went to stopped serving food so we never found any. So we went to this place called Revolution, which is in an old church (weird, i know) and its sorta a club i guess, but we just hung out there for a bit. Then we met up with some other people from the fourth floor at Boogie Lounge, which is another club and headed straight for the dance floor :) they played great music so we all had a blast just dancing like idiots haha One thing i learned though, is to definitely wear flats because my feet were killing me afterwards! On the way home, i walked barefoot, which felt a lot better. It was a fun night and we might go again next week :) Thursday I didn't have class till 3:15 so i slept in again because i had gotten to bed past 2am the night before. I really enjoy that class because the professor is great and the other students are really funny and nice :) I have some entertaining stories from that class but maybe i'll tell them another time. Last night, Brittany and i went out to eat at this American-type restaurant called Frankie & Benny's which was really cute and had great food. They played music from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra so i totally loved that. Then we went back to Regency and spent some time skyping friends and watching movies of course ;) Today I accidentally slept in (for real! i really didn't mean to haha) and then Brittany and i went out to run some errands, and get Auntie Annes Pretzels! Yes they have them here!! you have no idea how excited i was when i found that out! yummm :D
Well, tonight i'll be packing because early tomorrow i'll be on my way to Wales! A whole bunch of us, which keeps growing haha, are taking a train 2 hours and will be spending all of saturday there, sleeping over in a hostel, and then coming back Sunday night. Honestly, i'm not sure what exactly is there, but i heard that the castles and old buildings are absolutely beautiful so i'm looking forward to taking lots of good pictures. Check back here Monday or Tuesday and i'll blog about the trip :)
Oh! a quick funny story from today: So britt & i were walking back from the store and i looked up and thought it had started to rain a little bit. But then, we realized that it wasn't rain, but it was snow! Only this wasn't your ordinary snow, it was hard and didn't really melt or stick to the ground. It seriously looked like the Dots ice cream that you get from amusement parks! It was like a blizzard of Dots for about 2 minutes and then stopped. Weirdest thing ever. I wish i had taken my camera!
....but I'm really not that excited about it hahaha anyway, i haven't written on here in almost a week so sorry about that! i honestly just forget to do it when theres nothing really exciting to talk about. This week has been pretty good, same old thing with classes & such. I decided that Monday is my least favorite day because i have 3 two-hour long classes :/ yuck. I go to New Religious Movements at the FCH campus ten blocks away at 9:15 til 11:15 then i run back (well not literally run..i cant even remember the last time i even walked fast ;) to meet up with people to get the bus to the Oxstalls campus 15 minutes away. Then i have my health class from 1:15 to 3:15 and then get the bus back. I have a little bit of time to eat & relax and then i have our BCA class at the FCH campus again about British history and culture from 5:45 till 7:45. We cant even skip that one (which i would never do haha ;) because that's when we get our food money! Ugh. What a long day! i was soo tired afterwards and couldn't wait to just go to bed :) Tuesday i had my Geography-ish class which i actually don't mind because i like the professor. He's pretty funny. I cant remember what i did tuesday night, but i probably just hung out & watched movies like normal haha Wednesday I didn't have any classes so i got to sleep in pretty late & then a bunch of us went to buy train tickets for Wales this weekend! yayy! The train station was pretty far away from where we live which we weren't expecting, but it was a nice walk because it was actually sunny out :) After deciding to the get the bus back, Brittany and i went shopping at these little shops that we've never been in before, and we found these mall-type places that had lots of expensive stores. A little window shopping never hurts :) She got these awesome Barbie-pink heels for 2 pounds on clearance and i got some purple tights to wear with the black dress i bought last week. Wednesday night apparently is when lots of people go out, so Brittany, Suzie & i met up with some girls from the fourth floor and we got all dressed up & went out to find some dessert ;) Unfortunately, all of the places we went to stopped serving food so we never found any. So we went to this place called Revolution, which is in an old church (weird, i know) and its sorta a club i guess, but we just hung out there for a bit. Then we met up with some other people from the fourth floor at Boogie Lounge, which is another club and headed straight for the dance floor :) they played great music so we all had a blast just dancing like idiots haha One thing i learned though, is to definitely wear flats because my feet were killing me afterwards! On the way home, i walked barefoot, which felt a lot better. It was a fun night and we might go again next week :) Thursday I didn't have class till 3:15 so i slept in again because i had gotten to bed past 2am the night before. I really enjoy that class because the professor is great and the other students are really funny and nice :) I have some entertaining stories from that class but maybe i'll tell them another time. Last night, Brittany and i went out to eat at this American-type restaurant called Frankie & Benny's which was really cute and had great food. They played music from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra so i totally loved that. Then we went back to Regency and spent some time skyping friends and watching movies of course ;) Today I accidentally slept in (for real! i really didn't mean to haha) and then Brittany and i went out to run some errands, and get Auntie Annes Pretzels! Yes they have them here!! you have no idea how excited i was when i found that out! yummm :D
Well, tonight i'll be packing because early tomorrow i'll be on my way to Wales! A whole bunch of us, which keeps growing haha, are taking a train 2 hours and will be spending all of saturday there, sleeping over in a hostel, and then coming back Sunday night. Honestly, i'm not sure what exactly is there, but i heard that the castles and old buildings are absolutely beautiful so i'm looking forward to taking lots of good pictures. Check back here Monday or Tuesday and i'll blog about the trip :)
Oh! a quick funny story from today: So britt & i were walking back from the store and i looked up and thought it had started to rain a little bit. But then, we realized that it wasn't rain, but it was snow! Only this wasn't your ordinary snow, it was hard and didn't really melt or stick to the ground. It seriously looked like the Dots ice cream that you get from amusement parks! It was like a blizzard of Dots for about 2 minutes and then stopped. Weirdest thing ever. I wish i had taken my camera!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I'd walk a thousand miles just to see you tonight
So if i ever wanted to know what it felt like to be hit by a truck, i now know. Don't worry, i wasn't actually hit by a truck, but walking around London all day it sure felt like it. I still am really sore and it feels like i ran a marathon (not that i have any idea what that feels like) but it was sooo worth it! :D
We got up super early and got the 7:45 bus to London and tried to sleep on the 2 hour ride there. I dozed on & off a little but mostly was awake the whole time. When we got there, we weren't exactly sure what to do or where to go, but followed a map to Buckingham Palace. There were tons of tourists around (i didn't hear a British accent alot so that was sorta funny) but the palace was gorgeous! It was a lot bigger than i thought with gold gates surrounding it. The flag was up on top of the building and Tyler said that that means the Queen is there, but I'm not sure that's right haha It would be pretty cool if it was though! We were all sorta disappointed because the guards in red coats with the funny hats weren't there and i really wanted a picture with one. I'm not sure why they weren't there that day, but my dad told me that the city was on alert for some terrorist thing yesterday so maybe that's why, but i didn't get any feeling that people were afraid at all. (though, i am glad that i found out about that after i was back at school ;) So we took tons of pictures there and at the fountain across the street for awhile, then we noticed a bunch of guard-looking guys wearing helmets and carrying swords on horses were trotting down the street and all the tourists rushed to the road to take pictures. I got really excited because i thought it was a motorcade (or i guess a horse-cade in this case ha!) for the queen or the princes but then realized that the cars behind the horses were just ordinary taxis and street sweepers and just wanted to get around them. We realized later that the guys on horses were headed to this other building (we still didnt know what it was) for some sort of changing of the guard thing. We just saw a huggge crowd of people surrounding a roped off area where the guys in red were lined up facing these guys in black all on horses. They just stood there for awhile & then at exactly 11:30..more guys in red came, got in line, and then they all left. I'm still not sure what this meant, but it seemed pretty exciting! We Then we walked to Westminster Abbey which was soo beautiful! we got tickets to go inside and i was pretty bummed when i found out we couldn't take pictures. Brittany and i still snuck some though ;) The inside of it was absolutely breathtaking and i really dont think pictures would have done it justice. The coolest part for me was walking around the rooms with all the graves of past kings and royal people. As we were looking at the graves, i was thinking about how cool it is that these people were so important that people like us today want to take pictures of where they're buried. How cool is that?! I can't even imagine being that prominent that tourists are paying to see my grave. Whoa. Maybe it'll happen someday when i marry prince harry ;) So we stayed in there for a long time and then left to take 9837459834 pictures of Big Ben. I felt like I needed to take pictures of "him" from every single angle and ended up with a bunch that looked exactly the same haha We then went to the London Eye, which is like a big ferris wheel (the biggest in the world actually) but there are like 30 people in each "pod" and you can walk around in it and take pictures. We had ordered tickets for it ahead of time so the line wasn't too long. It took us about 30 mins to get the whole way around and it was soooo cool! No matter how many pictures i took, i just couldn't capture how beautiful the view was. After our ride, we walked along the river for a long time and saw mimes and other street performers and also the millenium bridge (which u can see in the most recent harry potter movie :) and the globe theatre. By this time, it was dark so the view of London was gorgeous. We decided to walk all the way back to where our bus was going to pick us up and then have dinner, but it was a veryyy long walk. We were starting to get kind of grumpy and tired by the time we found somewhere decent to eat. Ironically it was called "The American Steakhouse" or something like that, but i got my cheeseburger that i was craving for so long so i was okay with not eating somewhere British. Then we ran to catch our bus and collapsed the second we got in our seats. Brittany googled it when we got back to school and we had walked over 10 miles the whole day and i was definitely feeling it. I was very sore and tired and couldn't wait to climb into bed :) I slept for a really really long time!
Today, after getting up at almost 2pm, i went to the store with Britt to get food because tonight i was making dinner! We came back, made the shepherds pie and popped it in the oven right before we went to church. The service was pretty good, although we didn't sing any songs i knew, which bugs me a little bit. Next week we're going to try the earlier service to see if we like it more. We got back and dinner was delicious :) it definitely reminded me of home! Well i should head to bed because i have a veryyy busy day tomorrow, complete with 3 two hour classes, so I'll need all the energy i can get. Sorry this is so long! goodnight :)
We got up super early and got the 7:45 bus to London and tried to sleep on the 2 hour ride there. I dozed on & off a little but mostly was awake the whole time. When we got there, we weren't exactly sure what to do or where to go, but followed a map to Buckingham Palace. There were tons of tourists around (i didn't hear a British accent alot so that was sorta funny) but the palace was gorgeous! It was a lot bigger than i thought with gold gates surrounding it. The flag was up on top of the building and Tyler said that that means the Queen is there, but I'm not sure that's right haha It would be pretty cool if it was though! We were all sorta disappointed because the guards in red coats with the funny hats weren't there and i really wanted a picture with one. I'm not sure why they weren't there that day, but my dad told me that the city was on alert for some terrorist thing yesterday so maybe that's why, but i didn't get any feeling that people were afraid at all. (though, i am glad that i found out about that after i was back at school ;) So we took tons of pictures there and at the fountain across the street for awhile, then we noticed a bunch of guard-looking guys wearing helmets and carrying swords on horses were trotting down the street and all the tourists rushed to the road to take pictures. I got really excited because i thought it was a motorcade (or i guess a horse-cade in this case ha!) for the queen or the princes but then realized that the cars behind the horses were just ordinary taxis and street sweepers and just wanted to get around them. We realized later that the guys on horses were headed to this other building (we still didnt know what it was) for some sort of changing of the guard thing. We just saw a huggge crowd of people surrounding a roped off area where the guys in red were lined up facing these guys in black all on horses. They just stood there for awhile & then at exactly 11:30..more guys in red came, got in line, and then they all left. I'm still not sure what this meant, but it seemed pretty exciting! We Then we walked to Westminster Abbey which was soo beautiful! we got tickets to go inside and i was pretty bummed when i found out we couldn't take pictures. Brittany and i still snuck some though ;) The inside of it was absolutely breathtaking and i really dont think pictures would have done it justice. The coolest part for me was walking around the rooms with all the graves of past kings and royal people. As we were looking at the graves, i was thinking about how cool it is that these people were so important that people like us today want to take pictures of where they're buried. How cool is that?! I can't even imagine being that prominent that tourists are paying to see my grave. Whoa. Maybe it'll happen someday when i marry prince harry ;) So we stayed in there for a long time and then left to take 9837459834 pictures of Big Ben. I felt like I needed to take pictures of "him" from every single angle and ended up with a bunch that looked exactly the same haha We then went to the London Eye, which is like a big ferris wheel (the biggest in the world actually) but there are like 30 people in each "pod" and you can walk around in it and take pictures. We had ordered tickets for it ahead of time so the line wasn't too long. It took us about 30 mins to get the whole way around and it was soooo cool! No matter how many pictures i took, i just couldn't capture how beautiful the view was. After our ride, we walked along the river for a long time and saw mimes and other street performers and also the millenium bridge (which u can see in the most recent harry potter movie :) and the globe theatre. By this time, it was dark so the view of London was gorgeous. We decided to walk all the way back to where our bus was going to pick us up and then have dinner, but it was a veryyy long walk. We were starting to get kind of grumpy and tired by the time we found somewhere decent to eat. Ironically it was called "The American Steakhouse" or something like that, but i got my cheeseburger that i was craving for so long so i was okay with not eating somewhere British. Then we ran to catch our bus and collapsed the second we got in our seats. Brittany googled it when we got back to school and we had walked over 10 miles the whole day and i was definitely feeling it. I was very sore and tired and couldn't wait to climb into bed :) I slept for a really really long time!
Today, after getting up at almost 2pm, i went to the store with Britt to get food because tonight i was making dinner! We came back, made the shepherds pie and popped it in the oven right before we went to church. The service was pretty good, although we didn't sing any songs i knew, which bugs me a little bit. Next week we're going to try the earlier service to see if we like it more. We got back and dinner was delicious :) it definitely reminded me of home! Well i should head to bed because i have a veryyy busy day tomorrow, complete with 3 two hour classes, so I'll need all the energy i can get. Sorry this is so long! goodnight :)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Can't read my p-p-pokerface ;)
Well I'm feeling better! haha I was actually feeling a lot better monday night and went to my geography class on tuesday, but i havent written on here since then. Sorry about that! The reason I've been putting this off was because i havent really anything too exciting lately. It's something that I've really had to get used to, because back at Messiah i usually don't even have time to let my feet touch the ground, running from meetings to rehearsals and class, of course ;) So its definitely different, I've had a lot of time to think (which can be dangerous for me sometimes) and get myself organized (which also can be dangerous, especially when i hit my head on low pointy shelves...that happened to me about 20 mins ago actually). Anyway, i still have a lot of adjusting to do with all my free time and hopefully i'll find something worthwhile to do with my time haha that's kinda funny because right now as I'm writing this..I'm also watching youtube videos and painting my nails both of which i find very worthwhile.
Well, Wednesday night a bunch of the girls from this flat and i went to the movies to see Up in the Air. I actually had no idea what it was about except that George Clooney was in it, so that was enough for me. Seriously, i decided that it is critical that my future husband looks like that when hes older. I'm allowed to let myself go and eat whatever i want and never do my hair but nope, he has to look exactly like george clooney all the time. The movie was pretty good and entertaining and it was cute up until the veryy end when it dropped off the depressing cliff. I only like to leave movie theaters either laughing or feeling inspired to be a better person..but that just left me sad. Eh, it was fun anyway :) Yesterday, I went to my class (at the right time this week yay!) and it was really interesting. This is the only class that i actually look forward to, mainly because i pretty much know what the professors talking about and i didnt feel dumb like in my other classes. We watched a kinda strange video made by people who are disabled and in it there was a lot of swearing, which is weird for me because that really wouldn't happen at Messiah. But I learned a lot and actually participated in the discussion, which is also new for me :) Last night, i played spoons and poker with some people from the fourth floor and it was a lot of fun. I actually won some rounds of poker! :D Mostly by luck..aka not knowing what i was doing at all..but i think I'm finally starting to understand it.
Today I slept in pretty late by accident because i never heard my alarm. I didn't really have anywhere i needed to go, but i really need to get out of this habit of sleeping until noon. I got up and went to go do laundry but apparently all the cool people do laundry on Friday mornings so they were all full :/ I'm really glad that no one was in the laundry room when i first went down there because i was sooo confused! First of all i couldn't tell which were dryers and which were washers, so i was scared that i was just gonna dry my dirty clothes instead of washing them. Also, i had no idea how to pay for them because the machine is super confusing. (By the way, it cost me 5 pounds to do laundry today! soo annoying!) But eventually i figured it out...okay i made Brittany show me how to do it haha Then she and i went with Bethany from the 4th floor to this store called Matalan down the street which is sorta like a target but only for clothes. They have some pretty nice stuff and some pretty hideous stuff, and we all picked out an ugly outfit for someone else to try on haha i got stuck with this awful sequined shirt the color of pennies which scratched my arms and was super uncomfortable. I ended up buying a really cute black dress that looks like its from the 50's for only 8 pounds! :) We ran some other errands and came back to a yummy spaghetti dinner. Later tonight, Brittany, Suzie, Jess & i went to a pub called Wetherspoons for dessert, which was really fun.
I'm super excited because tomorrow I'm going to London! Britt & i are going with Michelle & Tyler and we're catching a very early bus so that we can spend the whole day there. We're planning on seeing Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and probably a whole bunch more. So check back here tomorrow night because I'll tell u all about it :) I should probably head to bed because my alarm will be going off wayy too soon...Goodnight!
Well, Wednesday night a bunch of the girls from this flat and i went to the movies to see Up in the Air. I actually had no idea what it was about except that George Clooney was in it, so that was enough for me. Seriously, i decided that it is critical that my future husband looks like that when hes older. I'm allowed to let myself go and eat whatever i want and never do my hair but nope, he has to look exactly like george clooney all the time. The movie was pretty good and entertaining and it was cute up until the veryy end when it dropped off the depressing cliff. I only like to leave movie theaters either laughing or feeling inspired to be a better person..but that just left me sad. Eh, it was fun anyway :) Yesterday, I went to my class (at the right time this week yay!) and it was really interesting. This is the only class that i actually look forward to, mainly because i pretty much know what the professors talking about and i didnt feel dumb like in my other classes. We watched a kinda strange video made by people who are disabled and in it there was a lot of swearing, which is weird for me because that really wouldn't happen at Messiah. But I learned a lot and actually participated in the discussion, which is also new for me :) Last night, i played spoons and poker with some people from the fourth floor and it was a lot of fun. I actually won some rounds of poker! :D Mostly by luck..aka not knowing what i was doing at all..but i think I'm finally starting to understand it.
Today I slept in pretty late by accident because i never heard my alarm. I didn't really have anywhere i needed to go, but i really need to get out of this habit of sleeping until noon. I got up and went to go do laundry but apparently all the cool people do laundry on Friday mornings so they were all full :/ I'm really glad that no one was in the laundry room when i first went down there because i was sooo confused! First of all i couldn't tell which were dryers and which were washers, so i was scared that i was just gonna dry my dirty clothes instead of washing them. Also, i had no idea how to pay for them because the machine is super confusing. (By the way, it cost me 5 pounds to do laundry today! soo annoying!) But eventually i figured it out...okay i made Brittany show me how to do it haha Then she and i went with Bethany from the 4th floor to this store called Matalan down the street which is sorta like a target but only for clothes. They have some pretty nice stuff and some pretty hideous stuff, and we all picked out an ugly outfit for someone else to try on haha i got stuck with this awful sequined shirt the color of pennies which scratched my arms and was super uncomfortable. I ended up buying a really cute black dress that looks like its from the 50's for only 8 pounds! :) We ran some other errands and came back to a yummy spaghetti dinner. Later tonight, Brittany, Suzie, Jess & i went to a pub called Wetherspoons for dessert, which was really fun.
I'm super excited because tomorrow I'm going to London! Britt & i are going with Michelle & Tyler and we're catching a very early bus so that we can spend the whole day there. We're planning on seeing Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and probably a whole bunch more. So check back here tomorrow night because I'll tell u all about it :) I should probably head to bed because my alarm will be going off wayy too soon...Goodnight!
Monday, January 18, 2010
I am 14 going on 15...
Nope, not my age, that's just the amount hours i have spent in bed since midnight last night. & its not because they are super comfortable - they're actually not at all, i can feel every spring and wake up every morning holding my back like i belong in a nursing home - it is actually because i've caught the stomach bug and was sick all last night.
Yesterday i slept in really late, so i blamed the fact that i wasn't feeling the best on that. I didn't really do much, just wasted a lot of time on the computer because i didn't feel up to doing anything else, even though the weather was absolutely gorgeous outside! :( At dinner, Suzie made this amazing stir-fry and I felt so bad when i couldn't eat everything she gave me because she thought i didn't like it, which i really did. After that, Tyler, Michelle, Britt & I went to a local Baptist church for the evening service which reminded me a lot of Lifepoint back home, well except for the accents ;) Brittany and i were saying afterward that it was really hard not to sing the songs or recite the verses in a British accent haha I think next week we're going to try going to the morning service; the only reason we didn't this week is because we thought that evening services are sometimes more casual and contemporary, but really there just weren't a lot of people there. After we got back, I started to talk to Nate on skype, but felt the need to lay down instead because i was getting really nauseous. I'll spare you all the great details from last night but basically I was up every hour and couldn't even keep down a sip of water. I was scared to get out of bed this morning, or afternoon, because it seemed like i would get sick if i even sat up, so my amazing friend Tyler went to the store & bought me some Coke. I'm really bummed that I didn't make it to either of my classes today, its the only day that i have more than one, because we were told that it is important to go to each class because our director had to try really hard to get us in those classes, so it's rude to not show up. I emailed my professors and apologized, so hopefully it will be okay.
Well I think i might turn on a movie and relax a bit more (i know, soon I'll become a part of this bed!) so i don't overdo it and get sick again. Oh, & this blog wasn't supposed to be me complaining about everything but just so certain people, ahem my mom, knows whats up.
Yesterday i slept in really late, so i blamed the fact that i wasn't feeling the best on that. I didn't really do much, just wasted a lot of time on the computer because i didn't feel up to doing anything else, even though the weather was absolutely gorgeous outside! :( At dinner, Suzie made this amazing stir-fry and I felt so bad when i couldn't eat everything she gave me because she thought i didn't like it, which i really did. After that, Tyler, Michelle, Britt & I went to a local Baptist church for the evening service which reminded me a lot of Lifepoint back home, well except for the accents ;) Brittany and i were saying afterward that it was really hard not to sing the songs or recite the verses in a British accent haha I think next week we're going to try going to the morning service; the only reason we didn't this week is because we thought that evening services are sometimes more casual and contemporary, but really there just weren't a lot of people there. After we got back, I started to talk to Nate on skype, but felt the need to lay down instead because i was getting really nauseous. I'll spare you all the great details from last night but basically I was up every hour and couldn't even keep down a sip of water. I was scared to get out of bed this morning, or afternoon, because it seemed like i would get sick if i even sat up, so my amazing friend Tyler went to the store & bought me some Coke. I'm really bummed that I didn't make it to either of my classes today, its the only day that i have more than one, because we were told that it is important to go to each class because our director had to try really hard to get us in those classes, so it's rude to not show up. I emailed my professors and apologized, so hopefully it will be okay.
Well I think i might turn on a movie and relax a bit more (i know, soon I'll become a part of this bed!) so i don't overdo it and get sick again. Oh, & this blog wasn't supposed to be me complaining about everything but just so certain people, ahem my mom, knows whats up.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
A Foggy Day in London Town
well..not really London, just a foggy day ;)
I guess Ive been slacking off when it comes to these blogs..i just sorta forget about them sometimes. It's not like I'm super busy and never come back to earth for a half hour to write one, its actually quite the opposite. It's definitely like the strangest thing to not have classes all day everyday which means i have a lot of free time. Normally, i never would have thought I'd be complaining about that, but i get soooo bored sometimes! I know that it won't be this easy and we've only had the first week of awkward introduction classes, so I'm sure that I'll have a lot more school work to do later on.
Hmm where did I leave off? Well, on Thursday, i was soo excited for my special ed class that i showed up 2 hours early. Ha! yeahh right. Well i was really excited about it but that's not why i got there so early. I actually misread the timetable sheet i had written out (dumb 24 hour clock) so I thought that it started at 1:15 when really it was at 3:15. I was super happy to find some other BCA students in the lobby leaving at 1 for class too because then i would have some people to walk with, which is always nice. When i got to the building, i found my classroom pretty quick, but there was a lecture going on! I must have looked really confused because the maintenance man that was standing there asked if i needed any help. He showed me on the door a paper that had the schedule for that classroom and yup, my class was not for 2 whole hours. So i walked the 10 blocks all the way back to my room, but i guess a little exercise never hurt anyone ;) I wasted some time on facebook until it was time to leave again and walked back to the campus. This time, i asked the students in the classroom if i was in the right place, which i was :) Anyway, i am sooo excited for this class! Not only am i learning about something that i love and is really interesting but we get to go on field tripsssss! :D i really hope we take a school bus...that would be the best day ever. The class is basically about the history of special education in England, which is super interesting, and we're gonna visit some local schools throughout the semester. yay! Oh funny British saying i've learned recently: Instead of saying "How are you doing?", sometimes they say "Are you okay?" To me, I consider saying Are you Okay when someone is clearly not okay or hurt or something. It was pretty funny when i walked into my Thursday class, i was already really nervous to go in the classroom but when i sat down, one girl turned to me and asked if i was okay. I thought in my head, Man i must really look flustered or embarrassed! But i just replied.."um..yeah I'm okay...." I asked some girls on my flat how i should have responded and they said that most people say "I'm doing fine, how are you?" Guess ill try that instead next time ;)
I had friday off, so i slept in pretty late & then britt and i walked to the campus library to figure out some stuff and then to the bookstore in town so she could get her books. That night, some of the girls on my flat were going to salsa dancing lessons, but it cost some money and I didn't really feel like going so i stayed here. I'll probably go next time because it sounded like it was a lot of fun! Jess Britt & i stayed here and played some dutch blitz and just hung out.
We were gonna go to London to visit Kendall today (Saturday) and i was sooo excited to see her, but it was just wayy too complicated and expensive so we decided not to go. I was a pretty bummed, but Michelle and Tyler (my friends from Messiah) had planned a trip to a town called Bourton on the Water which is like 30 mins away from here, so Brittany & i went with them. We had heard great things about this town, people saying how beautiful it was and how amazing everything is there. Yup pretty much like its streets were made of gold and everything. haha jk ;) After trying to figure out the bus schedule, we made it there and did not find gold plated roads or sidewalks covered rose petals, but a very ordinary town. There was basically nothing to do there. Sure, it was pretty but because of the weather, it just looked dreary and empty. One really cool part on the bus was that there was soo much fog that everything around us was pure white. It was like we were going through a cloud :D We were planning on staying there for the afternoon, but after taking some pictures and walking the one busy street back and forth, we left after an hour. It was okay though, it was nice to see something different and take some good pictures :) After that we ate lunch at this cafe down the street which was sooo yummy and really inexpensive.
Later, we got some people together to play some card games in the kitchen. First, we played Bull**** (i wont put the whole word here haha) which i am terrible at. I guess I'm just a really bad liar, but i don't necessarily think that's a bad thing ;) Then, they taught me how to play poker and we got together some candy to use as chips. I paired up with Brittany, but she ended up playing the whole thing for me because I just didn't get it. Looks like my career as a dealer in Vegas is gone ;) We got a little bored of poker so we taught the British people how to play spoons, which is one of my favorites. It was hilarious and we ended up laughing the whole time. It was really nice to meet some new people tonight and i hope we will hang out again :)
Tomorrow we're going to sleep in a bit but later go to a night service at a nearby baptist church so it should be really cool :) I'll try to put up pictures from today up on facebook soon.
ps another music reference in the title..this one is superrr easy. if you don't get it, I'm sorry we cant be friends ;)
I guess Ive been slacking off when it comes to these blogs..i just sorta forget about them sometimes. It's not like I'm super busy and never come back to earth for a half hour to write one, its actually quite the opposite. It's definitely like the strangest thing to not have classes all day everyday which means i have a lot of free time. Normally, i never would have thought I'd be complaining about that, but i get soooo bored sometimes! I know that it won't be this easy and we've only had the first week of awkward introduction classes, so I'm sure that I'll have a lot more school work to do later on.
Hmm where did I leave off? Well, on Thursday, i was soo excited for my special ed class that i showed up 2 hours early. Ha! yeahh right. Well i was really excited about it but that's not why i got there so early. I actually misread the timetable sheet i had written out (dumb 24 hour clock) so I thought that it started at 1:15 when really it was at 3:15. I was super happy to find some other BCA students in the lobby leaving at 1 for class too because then i would have some people to walk with, which is always nice. When i got to the building, i found my classroom pretty quick, but there was a lecture going on! I must have looked really confused because the maintenance man that was standing there asked if i needed any help. He showed me on the door a paper that had the schedule for that classroom and yup, my class was not for 2 whole hours. So i walked the 10 blocks all the way back to my room, but i guess a little exercise never hurt anyone ;) I wasted some time on facebook until it was time to leave again and walked back to the campus. This time, i asked the students in the classroom if i was in the right place, which i was :) Anyway, i am sooo excited for this class! Not only am i learning about something that i love and is really interesting but we get to go on field tripsssss! :D i really hope we take a school bus...that would be the best day ever. The class is basically about the history of special education in England, which is super interesting, and we're gonna visit some local schools throughout the semester. yay! Oh funny British saying i've learned recently: Instead of saying "How are you doing?", sometimes they say "Are you okay?" To me, I consider saying Are you Okay when someone is clearly not okay or hurt or something. It was pretty funny when i walked into my Thursday class, i was already really nervous to go in the classroom but when i sat down, one girl turned to me and asked if i was okay. I thought in my head, Man i must really look flustered or embarrassed! But i just replied.."um..yeah I'm okay...." I asked some girls on my flat how i should have responded and they said that most people say "I'm doing fine, how are you?" Guess ill try that instead next time ;)
I had friday off, so i slept in pretty late & then britt and i walked to the campus library to figure out some stuff and then to the bookstore in town so she could get her books. That night, some of the girls on my flat were going to salsa dancing lessons, but it cost some money and I didn't really feel like going so i stayed here. I'll probably go next time because it sounded like it was a lot of fun! Jess Britt & i stayed here and played some dutch blitz and just hung out.
We were gonna go to London to visit Kendall today (Saturday) and i was sooo excited to see her, but it was just wayy too complicated and expensive so we decided not to go. I was a pretty bummed, but Michelle and Tyler (my friends from Messiah) had planned a trip to a town called Bourton on the Water which is like 30 mins away from here, so Brittany & i went with them. We had heard great things about this town, people saying how beautiful it was and how amazing everything is there. Yup pretty much like its streets were made of gold and everything. haha jk ;) After trying to figure out the bus schedule, we made it there and did not find gold plated roads or sidewalks covered rose petals, but a very ordinary town. There was basically nothing to do there. Sure, it was pretty but because of the weather, it just looked dreary and empty. One really cool part on the bus was that there was soo much fog that everything around us was pure white. It was like we were going through a cloud :D We were planning on staying there for the afternoon, but after taking some pictures and walking the one busy street back and forth, we left after an hour. It was okay though, it was nice to see something different and take some good pictures :) After that we ate lunch at this cafe down the street which was sooo yummy and really inexpensive.
Later, we got some people together to play some card games in the kitchen. First, we played Bull**** (i wont put the whole word here haha) which i am terrible at. I guess I'm just a really bad liar, but i don't necessarily think that's a bad thing ;) Then, they taught me how to play poker and we got together some candy to use as chips. I paired up with Brittany, but she ended up playing the whole thing for me because I just didn't get it. Looks like my career as a dealer in Vegas is gone ;) We got a little bored of poker so we taught the British people how to play spoons, which is one of my favorites. It was hilarious and we ended up laughing the whole time. It was really nice to meet some new people tonight and i hope we will hang out again :)
Tomorrow we're going to sleep in a bit but later go to a night service at a nearby baptist church so it should be really cool :) I'll try to put up pictures from today up on facebook soon.
ps another music reference in the title..this one is superrr easy. if you don't get it, I'm sorry we cant be friends ;)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
well, considering the time differences, I have been going to bed pretty late every night skyping with people and chatting on facebook. not that I'm complaining..i look forward to those conversations all day! :D So it was really nice today because I didn't have any classes..or modules as they call them here (although i think that sounds very space-y like it should be a part of a spaceship or UFO or something). I slept in really late, which could have been a mistake because i was very lazy the rest of the day. I wasted lots of time on facebook after getting up and watching the american idol episode from last night, which I was really really excited to find. Around 3ish, Brittany came to my door and i glanced in the mirror before answering and noticed that i was still in my pajamas and still hadn't showered haha oh well. After we chatted for a bit i finally got ready and soon enough it was time to eat. Tonight's menu consisted of yummy crepes with mint fruit salad to put on top. Yup, we eat a five-star restaurant every night. Jealous? ;) After that we really didn't want to sit around bored all night so we got some girls from the flat together and went to see It's Complicated in the nearby cinemas. The movie wasn't as awkward as i originally thought and was actually really funny! It was nice hanging out with the other girls, they are super sweet and we really get along great. It was about 11pm when we came back so everyone went to get ready for bed and I skyped with my mom and dad for a bit & then I was soooo excited to talk to Chrystal for awhile! <3 I have one class tomorrow at 1:15 and it should be pretty interesting because it's about the history of special ed in the UK so I'm excited :) Well its 1:30am here so i should head to bed. Goodnight!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! :D :D i love youuuu!! xoxo
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! :D :D i love youuuu!! xoxo
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
just a day, just an ordinary day :)
Well today was pretty normal, nothing too exciting happened, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like normal, it gives me time to recharge and get myself organized because its on the crazy days when i start to unravel. I got up around 9:30, got myself ready and then met a couple people to walk to our Geography class. We got there early of course (like dorky Americans) and i felt a little dumb when we all sat next to each other in a long row because it was a pretty big classroom with lots of seats haha. Other students came and sat in rows behind us, so even though we didn't want to sit in the front..we sort of ended up that way. The class wasn't really what I expected, mainly because I kept calling it Geography (like i did earlier) but it's really Living in a Global World. So i assumed we would be learning where Moldova or Kazakhstan really are (i still have noo idea) but really its about current globalization of the world and specific countries. This lecture was about food, so we learned about the food chains and the growing fast food infatuation and how that affected the populations. It was sort of funny because the lecturer kept asking our row about different customs or facts about the US so I feel like i need to read up on some current US happenings to make sure i say the right answer ;) Anyway, after a lonnng 2 hour class, we walked back to Regency in the freezing cold weather and turned on the heat in our rooms right away. I ate some lunch, toast with Nutella and scrambled eggs (yum!) and then took a lovely 2 hour nap. I think that's a pretty good system...two hour class = two hour nap :D Soon it was time for dinner..and Suzie had bought things to make chicken caesar wraps which were sooo good! we'll definitely be having those again. I spent some time emailing and Skyping with my mom & Lys and then Brittany and i went grocery shopping. I bought a lot of things and only spent 13 pounds! sweeeeet. Then we just hung out and i cleaned my room finally. That's pretty much it so I guess I'll head to bed even though i have no class tomorrow! yayy!
ps pray for kendall because she leaves early tomorrow morning! :) I'm really excited because Britt & i might be able to see her in London during her layover on saturday!
oh, and bonus points if you can name the song i quoted in the title ;) its an easy one.
ps pray for kendall because she leaves early tomorrow morning! :) I'm really excited because Britt & i might be able to see her in London during her layover on saturday!
oh, and bonus points if you can name the song i quoted in the title ;) its an easy one.
Monday, January 11, 2010
don't worry...i'm still alive
okay okay i know its been forever since I've written on here, but so much stuff has been happening so i got a bit overwhelmed. But tonight I'm wide awake at midnight as usual and weirdly, no one is skyping me or facebooking me so i figured i should cross this off of my to-do list :)
Where did I even leave off? haha well, we were taken on a tour of one of the campuses on Thursday afternoon which was really exciting because basically i'm now going to Hogwarts. No really, it looks just like it! Buildings are beautifully old with vines and trees growing up the sides and doors that have probably been there for many, many years. It was a little weird (okay side note: i definitely have been spelling the world weird wrong for basically my entire life..thank you spellcheck) to be there knowing that this was my new school, and knowing that i wasn't going to be walking into a Boyer or Frey buildings anytime soon. On the tour, i felt pretty comfortable getting around, even though we just went through the library, or learning centre as they call it, because everything is pretty well labeled. I was able to take lots of pictures of the campus without feeling awkward and touristy because no students were actually there yet ;) Oh! funny moment from before the tour: during orientation that day we were put into groups and had to list our hopes and fears about this trip. My group decided that the main fear would be running out of my or not fitting in and I decided that my biggest hope would be to marry Prince Harry :D even though u probably already knew that! haha our director got a kick out of that one. After our tour, Jess, Suzie, Britt & I went on our first shopping trip for groceries with our list of the dinners we wanted to make. Oh, and by "we" I really mean Suzie..shes an amazing cook and is definitely saving us from a diet of frozen pizza and cereal. That night, she made chicken that was marinated in a curry-like sauce on top of white rice. It was so good!
I guess I should be blogging more because I really can't remember what happened on Friday haha But I was really excited for Saturday to come because we were going on a group trip to the city of Bath. I honestly didn't know much about the city, but once I got there, I absolutely loved it! The architecture of the buildings was stunning and I loved walking around a town with so much history and beauty to offer. I really couldn't take enough pictures to really capture it all. The city is basically known for the Roman baths, which take place in a natural hot spring and were used by the ancient Romans as a place of worship and relaxation. We were able to walk around them and learn more about the history of them which was really cool especially because it still uses all the same stones and linings as it did back then. We also went to a the Sally Lunn house, which is the oldest house in Bath and widely known for its tea and the Sally Lunn buns :) We were all soo excited to have real English tea, which was actually pretty good! That's saying a lot because I'm not a tea drinker at all haha The buns we had for breakfast were pretty much like a giant English muffin but were like 80000 times better! yummmm! After that, we were given time off to just walk around by ourselves so Britt & I spent the day exploring and taking tons of pictures :)
Sunday was a great day because we didn't have anything planned as a group so we were all able to sleep in late and catch up on some much needed rest. Brittany and I went to the FCH campus to find the classrooms we had to go to on Monday but unfortunately they were all closed. That made me soooo nervous about the first day of classes, and if you talked to me at all Sunday night, you would know that haha
Phew. Now we're up to date. Right now, its Monday night and I have officially made it through my first day of class! :D yayy! it really wasn't as scary as i thought, of course. I woke up pretty early just to check if they were canceled because of the snow, but they weren't so i got ready as normal. Luckily, i signed on facebook real quick and Jess asked me if i wanted to walk with her to the campus, which was a great relief. Once i got there, i found my first class fairly quickly, New Religious Movements. There were about 15 students total, which was pretty surprising but i was soo excited when 3 other girls i knew from our American group were in the class too. It sounds like its going to be really interesting because we're talking about topics i've never heard before. After that class, i ran back to my room, made a quick sandwich because my stomach was growling like a monster and then met a bunch of people headed to the farthest campus. We took the bus there (a little scary) and had a little tour of the building. My next class, Public Health, seems like it will be a bit boring but the other people in it are really entertaining and loved to ask us questions about the US. I felt like a celebrity ;) haha jk! Anyway, we took the bus back and then Suzie made us nachos for dinner and we all just hung out. Some girls on our flat went out to a club but we decided it would be best to just stay here and we watched the bachelor instead ;) much better decision.
Okay so I'm really sorry that was so long and crazy! i promise I'll stay up to date from now on...haha yeah right ;) I'll do my best! well i have one class tomorrow at 11:15 so i get to sleep in, but im gonna go to bed now & catch up on my sleep :) goodnight!
Where did I even leave off? haha well, we were taken on a tour of one of the campuses on Thursday afternoon which was really exciting because basically i'm now going to Hogwarts. No really, it looks just like it! Buildings are beautifully old with vines and trees growing up the sides and doors that have probably been there for many, many years. It was a little weird (okay side note: i definitely have been spelling the world weird wrong for basically my entire life..thank you spellcheck) to be there knowing that this was my new school, and knowing that i wasn't going to be walking into a Boyer or Frey buildings anytime soon. On the tour, i felt pretty comfortable getting around, even though we just went through the library, or learning centre as they call it, because everything is pretty well labeled. I was able to take lots of pictures of the campus without feeling awkward and touristy because no students were actually there yet ;) Oh! funny moment from before the tour: during orientation that day we were put into groups and had to list our hopes and fears about this trip. My group decided that the main fear would be running out of my or not fitting in and I decided that my biggest hope would be to marry Prince Harry :D even though u probably already knew that! haha our director got a kick out of that one. After our tour, Jess, Suzie, Britt & I went on our first shopping trip for groceries with our list of the dinners we wanted to make. Oh, and by "we" I really mean Suzie..shes an amazing cook and is definitely saving us from a diet of frozen pizza and cereal. That night, she made chicken that was marinated in a curry-like sauce on top of white rice. It was so good!
I guess I should be blogging more because I really can't remember what happened on Friday haha But I was really excited for Saturday to come because we were going on a group trip to the city of Bath. I honestly didn't know much about the city, but once I got there, I absolutely loved it! The architecture of the buildings was stunning and I loved walking around a town with so much history and beauty to offer. I really couldn't take enough pictures to really capture it all. The city is basically known for the Roman baths, which take place in a natural hot spring and were used by the ancient Romans as a place of worship and relaxation. We were able to walk around them and learn more about the history of them which was really cool especially because it still uses all the same stones and linings as it did back then. We also went to a the Sally Lunn house, which is the oldest house in Bath and widely known for its tea and the Sally Lunn buns :) We were all soo excited to have real English tea, which was actually pretty good! That's saying a lot because I'm not a tea drinker at all haha The buns we had for breakfast were pretty much like a giant English muffin but were like 80000 times better! yummmm! After that, we were given time off to just walk around by ourselves so Britt & I spent the day exploring and taking tons of pictures :)
Sunday was a great day because we didn't have anything planned as a group so we were all able to sleep in late and catch up on some much needed rest. Brittany and I went to the FCH campus to find the classrooms we had to go to on Monday but unfortunately they were all closed. That made me soooo nervous about the first day of classes, and if you talked to me at all Sunday night, you would know that haha
Phew. Now we're up to date. Right now, its Monday night and I have officially made it through my first day of class! :D yayy! it really wasn't as scary as i thought, of course. I woke up pretty early just to check if they were canceled because of the snow, but they weren't so i got ready as normal. Luckily, i signed on facebook real quick and Jess asked me if i wanted to walk with her to the campus, which was a great relief. Once i got there, i found my first class fairly quickly, New Religious Movements. There were about 15 students total, which was pretty surprising but i was soo excited when 3 other girls i knew from our American group were in the class too. It sounds like its going to be really interesting because we're talking about topics i've never heard before. After that class, i ran back to my room, made a quick sandwich because my stomach was growling like a monster and then met a bunch of people headed to the farthest campus. We took the bus there (a little scary) and had a little tour of the building. My next class, Public Health, seems like it will be a bit boring but the other people in it are really entertaining and loved to ask us questions about the US. I felt like a celebrity ;) haha jk! Anyway, we took the bus back and then Suzie made us nachos for dinner and we all just hung out. Some girls on our flat went out to a club but we decided it would be best to just stay here and we watched the bachelor instead ;) much better decision.
Okay so I'm really sorry that was so long and crazy! i promise I'll stay up to date from now on...haha yeah right ;) I'll do my best! well i have one class tomorrow at 11:15 so i get to sleep in, but im gonna go to bed now & catch up on my sleep :) goodnight!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
& the orientation begins...
Thankfully, we were able to sleep in today and were supposed to start orientation at 10am. The directors had a whole schedule for us including breakfast at the university, which is about 10 blocks away from our dorm building and then doing some other stuff there. But, since no one here is accustomed to the snow, everything was shut down; most of the shops and the university. Our directors had to go out in the snow and buy us breakfast foods like dry cereal and bread and we ate it in one of the floor kitchens. Then, we had a shortened version of the orientation stuff they needed to go over like the rules and expectations & also helpful information about traveling. It was sort of interesting when they brought up the subject of alchohol because here you're allowed to keep it in your rooms because the drinking age is 18 and apparently thats what all the students do. I'm not planning on drinking while i'm over here but it is really different because its actually legal for me. After the short orientation, we were split up into groups and taken into the town of Cheltenham where the university is, which is soooo cute :) There are tons of little shops everywhere and the iconic red telephone booths and it was a lot of fun to finally interact with the local people here and of course hear their accents haha. We were able to buy anything we needed and walk around for a couple hours, so I bought a cheap blanket because my room is like a freezer during the night. I thought I was in England, but apparently its really Antarctica. Needless to say i'll be sleeping in a sweatshirt and sweatpants tonight. After we got back to the building, we then met up and took a double-decker bus(!) to a restaurant called Zizzi's for our welcome dinner. It was the coolest place: it was in an old catholic church built in the 1800's and 8 years ago it was turned into a restaurant. The funny thing is, where the altar should be is where the kitchen is, which is all exposed and we can actually see the cooks make our food. The food there was amazing, I got a fetuccine dish with bacon mixed in (it sounds really wierd but it was soo good) and a melted chocolate cake thing for dessert with vanilla gelato. yummm :) We were all stuffed after that so luckily we got to walk back to the building instead of taking the bus. We didn't have anything else scheduled for the night so i spent some time organizing my stuff and talking with some pretty cool people online ;) Unfortunately, we had a ton of things to do at the university campus tomorrow but it's closed again due to the weather so I'm not sure what's actually gonna happen. Anyway, its bedtime for me so goodnight all! <3
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Greetings from England!
Well, I'm here! :D After a very long and hectic journey, complete with trying to carry 2 fifty pound suitcases up an escalator, a seven hour flight where my seat was directly in the middle of two people, and a 5 and a half hour bus ride that was supposed to only be 2 hours, I made it! :) I am very, very happy to say that I am writing this blog in the comfort of my new dorm room, with my emptied suitcases neatly stowed away under my bed and my clothes hanging in the closet. I can't even believe that I'm really here, after all the paperwork and intense planning that went into this trip.
I just glanced at my first blog on here where I was talking about how I still feel like a little kid, and I had to laugh. During this whole trip so far, I had to be a real adult for the first time. I flew by myself for the first time, having to claim my bags at the next airport and recheck them in (something I have never done without my parents to help me). Honestly, I was terrified. I walked off that plane, expecting to see someone I knew to greet me and help me in the direction I needed to go in, but I was on my own. After silently freaking out for a couple minutes, I took a deep breath...and called my mom. (You thought I was gonna say I became this beacon of confidence and bravery huh?) Nope, I had so many questions and I called my reliable source who will calm me down and help me even if she had no idea what I was talking about. So I finally made it to the baggage claim, after riding on a scary shuttle filled with strangers and not knowing if I was even supposed to have gotten on it or not. But when I got the baggage claim 11 (I repeated in my head over & over as I walked there), it didn't say my airline, like I knew it was supposed to. Again, I silently freaked out, until I saw him. The man with the eye patch! Okay, it was really scary having a man with an eye patch sit behind you in an airplane, but at that moment, seeing him waiting at baggage claim 10, I was never more relieved to see his pirate attire. The next challenge: maneuvering two painfully heavy suitcases and a carry-on up an escalator. If you have never done that, I don't suggest it, its incredibly embarrassing and makes you feel like you're staring in a scene from the movie Elf. Anyway, I finally found my ticket counter, rechecked my bags and made my way to the gate. Once I got there, I was sooo relieved to see my friends waiting there for me because I knew that I didn't have to go it alone anymore. Like I said, my seat was directly in the middle of 2 seats and our row was in the middle of two more rows on either side, so I was dead-center. Of course, haha, I really didn't expect it to be any different ;) The flight was normal, I slept a little bit and watched some movies on the little screen while eating gross food and listening to a little boy get sick a couple rows back. Once we arrived in Heathrow, I was again met with my enemies, the 50 pound suitcases. The whole group went through customs (again we had to go alone, another test of our adult-ness), and lugged our bags to this big bus, which was to take us 2 hours to the university. Well, it was supposed to be two hours. When I woke up from a little nap on the bus about an hour into the drive, I looked out the window to see a blizzard all around us, covering everything with white. That's a problem: The drivers on the road are not used to snow like that, they usually drive in sleet or rain most of the time. Sure enough, every car on the road was at a stand-still, with people getting out of the cars not knowing what to do. Our bus was sliding all over the road too, and I don't think we made it over 10 mph for a loooong time. The two hour drive turned into a 5 and a half hour drive, on top of a 7 hour flight and a 2 hour flight. We were exhausted, so most people slept and the rest of us just sat there bored out of our minds. We made it, and brought up our luggage to our rooms, which are really little but manageable because we have our own bathrooms! :)Our group then had some pizza for a late dinner and were given instructions for tomorrow.
So here I am, pretty much unpacked, in my pajamas and totally looking forward to climbing into bed. Tomorrow we have orientation stuff all day, starting at 10am, which includes a trip to the town, so that'll be really cool. It's now 12:23am...so goodnight everyone! :)
ps. my posts won't probably ever be this long again, don't worry ;) haha I just had a lot to say this time :)
I just glanced at my first blog on here where I was talking about how I still feel like a little kid, and I had to laugh. During this whole trip so far, I had to be a real adult for the first time. I flew by myself for the first time, having to claim my bags at the next airport and recheck them in (something I have never done without my parents to help me). Honestly, I was terrified. I walked off that plane, expecting to see someone I knew to greet me and help me in the direction I needed to go in, but I was on my own. After silently freaking out for a couple minutes, I took a deep breath...and called my mom. (You thought I was gonna say I became this beacon of confidence and bravery huh?) Nope, I had so many questions and I called my reliable source who will calm me down and help me even if she had no idea what I was talking about. So I finally made it to the baggage claim, after riding on a scary shuttle filled with strangers and not knowing if I was even supposed to have gotten on it or not. But when I got the baggage claim 11 (I repeated in my head over & over as I walked there), it didn't say my airline, like I knew it was supposed to. Again, I silently freaked out, until I saw him. The man with the eye patch! Okay, it was really scary having a man with an eye patch sit behind you in an airplane, but at that moment, seeing him waiting at baggage claim 10, I was never more relieved to see his pirate attire. The next challenge: maneuvering two painfully heavy suitcases and a carry-on up an escalator. If you have never done that, I don't suggest it, its incredibly embarrassing and makes you feel like you're staring in a scene from the movie Elf. Anyway, I finally found my ticket counter, rechecked my bags and made my way to the gate. Once I got there, I was sooo relieved to see my friends waiting there for me because I knew that I didn't have to go it alone anymore. Like I said, my seat was directly in the middle of 2 seats and our row was in the middle of two more rows on either side, so I was dead-center. Of course, haha, I really didn't expect it to be any different ;) The flight was normal, I slept a little bit and watched some movies on the little screen while eating gross food and listening to a little boy get sick a couple rows back. Once we arrived in Heathrow, I was again met with my enemies, the 50 pound suitcases. The whole group went through customs (again we had to go alone, another test of our adult-ness), and lugged our bags to this big bus, which was to take us 2 hours to the university. Well, it was supposed to be two hours. When I woke up from a little nap on the bus about an hour into the drive, I looked out the window to see a blizzard all around us, covering everything with white. That's a problem: The drivers on the road are not used to snow like that, they usually drive in sleet or rain most of the time. Sure enough, every car on the road was at a stand-still, with people getting out of the cars not knowing what to do. Our bus was sliding all over the road too, and I don't think we made it over 10 mph for a loooong time. The two hour drive turned into a 5 and a half hour drive, on top of a 7 hour flight and a 2 hour flight. We were exhausted, so most people slept and the rest of us just sat there bored out of our minds. We made it, and brought up our luggage to our rooms, which are really little but manageable because we have our own bathrooms! :)Our group then had some pizza for a late dinner and were given instructions for tomorrow.
So here I am, pretty much unpacked, in my pajamas and totally looking forward to climbing into bed. Tomorrow we have orientation stuff all day, starting at 10am, which includes a trip to the town, so that'll be really cool. It's now 12:23am...so goodnight everyone! :)
ps. my posts won't probably ever be this long again, don't worry ;) haha I just had a lot to say this time :)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, only a day away...
Whoa. I'm really leaving for England tomorrow. It all still seems so surreal to me that in a little more than 24 hours I'll be boarding a plane & leaving my home and family until May. (It'll probably hit me when I'm on the plane...then i'll freak out). Even though I am sooo excited about the experience, I am also a little nervous and apprehensive about whether or not I'm ready for it. I actually got really emotional about this trip last night...I know, I know, the girl who is so passionate about travel and missons was crying on the sofa because shes scared to leave in two days. Why? Not because I'm scared of flying or culture shock, but because I still feel like a little kid trapped in a 19 year olds body. I am independent by nature,but I still get scared leaving my cozy comfortable life in Chicopee Massachusetts. Well You know what? I think thats okay sometimes.
At church this morning, I felt as if my pastor this morning was sitting across from me telling me exactly what I needed to hear. He started talking about trusting God in this new year that He will do everything He wants to do in my life. He mentioned the passage in Joshua 3 when he addresses his people and says: "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." When my pastor read that part, while I was still trying to find the verse of course, I felt my heart skip a beat. It was like God wrote that with my name on it. That was exactly what I needed to hear, that He was going to do amazing things in my life...tomorrow. Whoa, does God know me or what?! Going back to the first chapter in the same book, one of my favorite passages jumped out at me. I've read it tons of times but it's never really spoke to me as it did today sitting in the pew with my parents. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." See? God is telling me, Deanne Williamson, that He'll be sitting in the plane seat next to me all the way to my newest adventure tomorrow night at 10:10pm. My little anxieties and emotional breakdowns were for nothing! With Him sitting next to me, what (or who) do I have to be afraid of? Even though God is with me right now, sitting on the couch again in little Chicopee, He'll be waiting for my plane to arrive in London. And with that knowledge, I'm ready to face the world. Want to come with me?! :D
At church this morning, I felt as if my pastor this morning was sitting across from me telling me exactly what I needed to hear. He started talking about trusting God in this new year that He will do everything He wants to do in my life. He mentioned the passage in Joshua 3 when he addresses his people and says: "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." When my pastor read that part, while I was still trying to find the verse of course, I felt my heart skip a beat. It was like God wrote that with my name on it. That was exactly what I needed to hear, that He was going to do amazing things in my life...tomorrow. Whoa, does God know me or what?! Going back to the first chapter in the same book, one of my favorite passages jumped out at me. I've read it tons of times but it's never really spoke to me as it did today sitting in the pew with my parents. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." See? God is telling me, Deanne Williamson, that He'll be sitting in the plane seat next to me all the way to my newest adventure tomorrow night at 10:10pm. My little anxieties and emotional breakdowns were for nothing! With Him sitting next to me, what (or who) do I have to be afraid of? Even though God is with me right now, sitting on the couch again in little Chicopee, He'll be waiting for my plane to arrive in London. And with that knowledge, I'm ready to face the world. Want to come with me?! :D
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