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 )