So its a little dorky how excited i get when i find the most perfect lyric for the titles of my blogs :) but seriously you would be excited too because this one was just SO perfect!
First of all, its by owl city who we SAW in LONDON last thursday! ehh no big deal..its not like it was even good or anything............JOKES! it was seriously soooo amazing!!! We left on the 9:45 bus & I spent the entire ride there with every owl city song on shuffle and trying to take a little nap :) We got there around 12:15ish and by that time we were pretty hungry (both of us not surprisingly woke up later than we should’ve and chose to spend more time getting ready than eating breakfast) so we ate in the coach station at one of the fast food places. The night before, I had checked the weather and it said that there would be rain until noon and after that it would be pretty warm and partly cloudy. I told that to Brittany & we both decided not to take umbrellas since they were kinda hard to fit in our purses anyway. Bad idea. It was raining the entire time we were there. When I tell people this and expect some sort of pity or at least an “aww”, instead I get “you do realize that you’re in England right?” I know I know, I should have expected it to rain, but I guess I just wanted to have a little faith in weather.com. So, we walked in the rain to the station where we could buy our underground tube tickets because the club where the concert was gonna be was on the complete other side of the city. I’m so lucky that Brittany pretty much knew how the underground system worked & how to read the tube maps because to me, they just looked like a confusing maze of pretty colors and dots ;) We finally figured out how to get to the closest station to the club and after switching trains a few times, we to the right side of the city. Let me just say that I am not a fan of riding trains or subways, theres just something about them that creeps me out. Plus im always so scared that the doors are gonna close on me and im gonna get stuck at the station all by myself :( Fortunately that didn’t happen! When we got to the other station, we then tried to read our map (very much looking like tourists) and find the Electric Ballroom. We wandered around this busy intersection for a bit until we saw this HUGE sign for owl city! The club was literally right down the street from the station! That was so great :) The really funny thing about this part of the city was that it was basically where the punk rockers are. I felt like I needed a Mohawk and bright colored clothes to fit in haha there was a piercing and tattoo place on every corner and each store was full of neon and plaid outfits…definitely not my thing ;) So we went to the club to pick up our tickets and the very tough looking security guard pointed at this random girl awkwardly standing on the sidewalk and said, “theres the line”. Okay, so this is at 2:00pm and the concert doesn’t start until 8pm..and there was already someone waiting in line! In the rain! We were shocked and sorta didn’t know what to do because he said that we couldn’t pick up our tickets until the doors opened at 7. So we found a place to eat and dry off and then we went and shopped for a little bit. There were lots of street vendor-type places that had lots of cute clothes so Brittany and I both got scarves and dresses :) (mine actually turned out to be a shirt..wayyy too short to be a dress!) Around 4:30ish we went back to the club and realized that there were about 20 more people in line, so we decided that we should get in line too. At this time, it was raining pretty hard and very cold, but in order to get a good place near the stage (there wasn’t assigned seating) we had to wait. We kept ourselves occupied by watching the interesting people walk by and the funny guys with Mohawks try to advertize their tattoo parlor with big signs and flyers. It was hilarious to watch people’s reactions when they tried to hand them the papers..im not sure if I would take anything from them either! So we waited. And waited. When it was close to 7, it started to feel like I was standing on a block of ice and I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. You know that feeling when you’re super cold and it starts to hurt really bad? Yeah that’s where I was. Finally, after 2 & a half hours of waiting in the rain and getting soaked (note to self: peacoats are NOT waterproof..they are pretty much sponges) it was finally time to go in! I have never been so excited to go inside a club in my entire life. Once we got in, we went to the ticket office, picked up our tickets, & then ran to the stage to get a good spot. We were about three people away from the stage & right in the middle :) I took our coats and our bags to the coatcheck counter but by the time I came back, there were so many more people that I couldn’t find Brittany anymore! I really hate those people who try and shove their way to the front at a concert, but I had to be one of them. I felt so awkward trying to make my way to her and I thought that I was gonna get beat up! Haha not really but I still felt really bad! ;) Anyway, I got up to her and that’s when my personal space became veryyyy small. Everyone wanted to get near the front obviously so they were pressing in on all sides and I could barely move! If you know me at all, you know that I have a very large personal space bubble and don’t like to be very close to people. Yeah, that was a problem. I literally had my feet together and my arms folded the entire concert haha I have never been so close to people in my entire life. But it was SO worth it because the concert was AMAZING! The opening act was a girl called Lights, who ive never heard before but she was really good. She was sorta like Owl City because she was electronic-y and had pretty interesting lyrics. She played a couple songs & then it was finally time for OWL CITY!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! He was so great! He played all my favorite songs and was just so adorable and quirky :) I felt really bad though because you could definitely tell that he was sick, because he would cough during some of the instrumental parts and during one song he held a cup of tea :( I just wanted to give him a hug! We had such a great spot in front of the stage, and I got some amazing pictures. It felt like he sang for two minutes because it was over so fast! I could have listened to him sing all night. After the concert, I was so excited to just be able to move my feet & my arms and have my personal space bubble back haha But after standing in the rain for 2 & a half hours and then standing during the 3 hour concert…it really felt as though we were hit by a truck! I was completely exhausted but somehow we made it to our bus station again. We both instantly fell asleep on the bus back because it was about 2:30 when we got back to Cheltenham. Im really surprised that I didn’t write about this sooner because it was such a GREAT day! A little wet, but still great :)
I spent the rest of the weekend working on a paper, yes i actually do work here! ;) I had a hard time getting a hold of the book i needed though, well, i put a hold on it but the previous user never brought it back :/ So i desparately asked my friend emily for her own copy of it and thankfully she let me use it, but then i only had one day to write the paper! So all day Sunday i worked on it and finally got it done :) Here, turning in an assignment is such a strange process..you dont just hand it to your professor. You have to put this confusing cover page on it and then go through this maze (okay its not really a maze, but it sure felt like one!) to the assignment room, where someone signs off on it and places it in the box with the right class name on it. soo weird. I guess the whole thing is just to make everything anonymous (haha it took me so long to figure out how to spell that!)..we don't even write our name on the paper!
Anyway, this is getting pretty long so ill wrap things up. I turned my paper in early on Tuesday because Wednesday a bunch of us were going to london to see the show WICKED!!! It was me, bethany, greg, brittany, kelly, & Danielle...all American students :) we got on the 9:45 bus again and of course, listened to nothing else but the Wicked soundtrack the entire ride! We got there and went to the theater to get our tickets & then found a great place to eat. We were all dressed up because i think its sorta an unspoken rule to get dressed up for a broadway show so we ate at a pretty fancy restaurant called Ha Ha :) After lunch, we headed over to the theater again because it was almost about to start. Our seats were soo good! we were on the floor (not literally on the floor, we had seats ;)) so we could see everything perfectly! From the moment the music started and the actors came out...all 6 of us had our mouths wide open. I literally had chills because the singing was SO AMAZING! I loved everything about it..the set, the costumes, the attractive lead character ;), and especially the music! If you dont know the story, its basically the story before the Wizard of Oz, like how the Wicked Witch became wicked and everything like that. I knew the entire soundtrack by heart but i was absolutely blown away by the talented singers! It felt like you were up there on stage with them and part of the story :) The show went by SO fast though, i never wanted it to end! It has always been a dream of mine to be on broadway someday and that show just made me want that even more :) After the show, we got some dinner and then caught the bus back home. When we got back, everyone convinced us to go out to Boogie Lounge with them, so we all just changed our clothes and went back out. It was so fun! I love just dancing like a crazy person with everyone..its definitely one of my new favorite things to do :) We actually went out last night (thursday) too! haha
Tonight we're having a murder mystery dinner & we all have fun characters to act out so check back here later & ill tell you all about it :)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
If you've anything to tell me, it had better be tonight
So i can definitely add blogging to my list of things I'm not good at. Yup, it goes: whistling, any type of math, directions, playing the flute, cartwheels, and blogging. Honestly, i just get so behind and then i just never feel like tackling the project & actually sitting down and writing everything down. I'm not sure if you got the lyric reference i put as the title (an amazing song by the way) but basically i told myself that it had to be tonight that i crossed this off my to-do list :) I don't mind though because I'm comfy & cozy in my pj's with my buddy frank sinatra serenading me in the background, could life get any better??
The past week (and a half) has been pretty normal, with the usual ups and downs and a trip to Hogwarts haha okay maybe that part's not normal unless you're Hermione ;) Sunday, our university had a superbowl party so that was pretty cool but since there's a 5 hour time difference, the game wouldn't start until around midnight, so i didn't end up going. I was a little bummed because i would have liked to go and hang out with everyone, but i probably would have been up till 4 or 5am and Monday is my busiest day. Plus, i wasn't too concerned about either of the teams this year. I did though, check online before my first class on Monday to see who won just in case anyone asked haha I definitely decided that my Health class is absolutely my least favorite class of the week. First of all, its about 15 mins away by bus so i have to leave a lot earlier than normal which leaves me hardly any time for lunch. But the main reason is that i have never had any sort of health class before and its not really related to my major at all because its about policies and government documents so i usually am completely lost the whole lecture. It just makes me really uncomfortable not knowing what the professor is talking about and having everything go over my head, especially when she has us do group work and present to the class. Last week i was totally honest with my group members and told them that i had no idea what we were supposed to be talking about, but they said that i had to say something anyway during the presentation. I'm not really sure what i said, but it was really short and probably made no sense. I'm hoping that things get better for me in that class because i don't know how much more useless babble i can come up with for each presentation ;) Monday night, we had our BCA class about British Culture. Of course, it was boring, so Brittany and i entertained ourselves by planning our majorly epic, gonna-tell-our-grandchildren-about-it-someday, super awesome spring break trips! :D haha i like that name. I wont tell you guys about it yet because its not totally finalized but once we figure everything out (which could be awhile..it takes A LOT of planning! i now know how amazingly talented my dad is because he always plans great vacations for our family..my husband better be like that too haha) So ill just keep you in suspense for now ;)
Wednesday I slept in, which is always my favorite thing to do, and later that night we all got dressed up to go to Boogie Lounge. I just want to clear something up though, that when i talk about this place, it is a bar but i have never gotten anything to drink there. I literally only go there to dance with my friends :) My idea of a good time does not include passing out, not remembering what happened, and being sick as a dog the next day. No thanks. Anyway, thursday I had my favorite class and we had a speaker from a school for children with special needs and she talked to us about Autism. It was super interesting because she gave teaching techniques that help benefit children on the Autism spectrum, which is something that i found really useful. I felt like my pen couldn't write fast enough to catch everything she said! We're going to her school in a few weeks so that will be really great :)
On Friday, Brittany, Bethany & i went to Gloucester for the day because none of us had classes and its only a town away from us and less than a pound for the bus. We went out to lunch first at a little place in town that has great food and then went to catch the bus. Unfortunately Bethany had to pay the full adult price because she forgot her student id but for Brittany & i it was less than a pound so that was great! We weren't totally sure which stop to get off at and considering my amazing sense of directions (ha!) i was pretty worried that we would get lost. But, obviously enough, we could see the cathedral (it is really big) from the bus so we got off at one of the stops and walked over to it. When we got there, we were asked to make a small donation in order to take pictures, so of course we all gave a little bit because it was too gorgeous not to take pictures! I am really starting to love old cathedrals; everything is quietly beautiful with amazing architecture that has lasted for centuries. You just don't get this kind of stuff in the states! One of the cool things about this cathedral was that you could get a free tour by one of the workers and if you ever get to go here, definitely do it because we learned sooo much from our tour that we never would have noticed otherwise. He told us about the history behind the different monuments and what some of the many beautiful stained glass windows were images of. One window was the size of a tennis court! So, although this cathedral was packed with historical significance, probably my favorite part of it was turning the corner and walking straight into Hogwarts! It was sort of funny because our tour guide turned to us and quietly asked if we were harry potter fans...ha! if he only knew ;) Yup, part of the first, third, and sixth movies were shot in the cloisters within this cathedral. They make up some of the hallways in the movies..& it was SO cool to be walking them just like the characters did! I felt like hermione :) Brittany & i had a duel with our pretend wands while Bethany laughed and took pictures (shes not really interested in harry potter..i dont even know why i'm friends with her). It was a lot of fun to wander around there and imagine parts of the movie taking place. After staying for awhile longer taking pictures, we walked around the town of Gloucester for a bit and shopped until we caught the bus again to come back. That night, we all had bought lots of candy at the "dollar store" aka Poundland, so we were super hyper and full of energy. We watched the latest harry potter movie so that we could see parts of the cathedral, but then afterwards we were all too scared to go to bed! Since we were still on our sugar high, we decided to have a little dance party in the kitchen at 2am and made funny videos for our friends back home. It was hilarious and if you want to see one of the videos, just ask me and ill send you the link :) We finally got to bed around 4ish but we had such a fun time just dressing up in crazy outfits and dancing around the hall (don't worry..all my flatmates had gone home for the weekend)
Sunday was valentines day, and if you know me at all, you know that it is not my favorite holiday (but i wont get into that here ;) Most of my friends here are single, so we decided that it would be fun to throw a little singles party and celebrate our independence haha The boyfriend of one of the girls on our flat was coming to surprise her so we all dressed up so that she would too, & he took her out for a nice dinner. It was fun to get dressed up and just hang out with friends for the night :) We just played poker and our own version of twister that we made up the night before, with the dots on the floor and on the wall. Monday was Bethany's birthday and our night class was cancelled so some of us went out to see the movie Valentines Day, which was really good, and then out for dessert afterwards.
Last night was a big night for drinking in our town, with the event called Carnage. Basically, you pay a certain amount of money for a t-shirt and you go from bar to bar to bar all night until everyone is really really drunk. Of course, none of my friends were going, so we planned our spring break trips and watched the Bachelor :) Around 4:30am this morning, a big group of really drunk people came onto our floor screaming and running around and woke up our whole flat. It was really crazy but they eventually left. Its things like this that make me appreciate Messiah a whole lot more. Today I didn't really do much because i slept in really late but we had a little girls night instead of going out :) We made homemade facial masks out of bananas, honey, and lemon juice (it ended up looking like vomit which was disgusting,but it really worked!...my sink is still clogged with it though :/). Then we exfoliated our hands and feet, ate some ice cream and junk food, and then painted our nails while watching Beauty & the Beast :) It was so much fun!
Well, i really should go to bed because TOMORROW IS OWL CITY IN LONDON!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! i am sooooooooooo excited!!!! :D :D Check back here on Saturday and ill tell you all about it :) goodnight!
The past week (and a half) has been pretty normal, with the usual ups and downs and a trip to Hogwarts haha okay maybe that part's not normal unless you're Hermione ;) Sunday, our university had a superbowl party so that was pretty cool but since there's a 5 hour time difference, the game wouldn't start until around midnight, so i didn't end up going. I was a little bummed because i would have liked to go and hang out with everyone, but i probably would have been up till 4 or 5am and Monday is my busiest day. Plus, i wasn't too concerned about either of the teams this year. I did though, check online before my first class on Monday to see who won just in case anyone asked haha I definitely decided that my Health class is absolutely my least favorite class of the week. First of all, its about 15 mins away by bus so i have to leave a lot earlier than normal which leaves me hardly any time for lunch. But the main reason is that i have never had any sort of health class before and its not really related to my major at all because its about policies and government documents so i usually am completely lost the whole lecture. It just makes me really uncomfortable not knowing what the professor is talking about and having everything go over my head, especially when she has us do group work and present to the class. Last week i was totally honest with my group members and told them that i had no idea what we were supposed to be talking about, but they said that i had to say something anyway during the presentation. I'm not really sure what i said, but it was really short and probably made no sense. I'm hoping that things get better for me in that class because i don't know how much more useless babble i can come up with for each presentation ;) Monday night, we had our BCA class about British Culture. Of course, it was boring, so Brittany and i entertained ourselves by planning our majorly epic, gonna-tell-our-grandchildren-about-it-someday, super awesome spring break trips! :D haha i like that name. I wont tell you guys about it yet because its not totally finalized but once we figure everything out (which could be awhile..it takes A LOT of planning! i now know how amazingly talented my dad is because he always plans great vacations for our family..my husband better be like that too haha) So ill just keep you in suspense for now ;)
Wednesday I slept in, which is always my favorite thing to do, and later that night we all got dressed up to go to Boogie Lounge. I just want to clear something up though, that when i talk about this place, it is a bar but i have never gotten anything to drink there. I literally only go there to dance with my friends :) My idea of a good time does not include passing out, not remembering what happened, and being sick as a dog the next day. No thanks. Anyway, thursday I had my favorite class and we had a speaker from a school for children with special needs and she talked to us about Autism. It was super interesting because she gave teaching techniques that help benefit children on the Autism spectrum, which is something that i found really useful. I felt like my pen couldn't write fast enough to catch everything she said! We're going to her school in a few weeks so that will be really great :)
On Friday, Brittany, Bethany & i went to Gloucester for the day because none of us had classes and its only a town away from us and less than a pound for the bus. We went out to lunch first at a little place in town that has great food and then went to catch the bus. Unfortunately Bethany had to pay the full adult price because she forgot her student id but for Brittany & i it was less than a pound so that was great! We weren't totally sure which stop to get off at and considering my amazing sense of directions (ha!) i was pretty worried that we would get lost. But, obviously enough, we could see the cathedral (it is really big) from the bus so we got off at one of the stops and walked over to it. When we got there, we were asked to make a small donation in order to take pictures, so of course we all gave a little bit because it was too gorgeous not to take pictures! I am really starting to love old cathedrals; everything is quietly beautiful with amazing architecture that has lasted for centuries. You just don't get this kind of stuff in the states! One of the cool things about this cathedral was that you could get a free tour by one of the workers and if you ever get to go here, definitely do it because we learned sooo much from our tour that we never would have noticed otherwise. He told us about the history behind the different monuments and what some of the many beautiful stained glass windows were images of. One window was the size of a tennis court! So, although this cathedral was packed with historical significance, probably my favorite part of it was turning the corner and walking straight into Hogwarts! It was sort of funny because our tour guide turned to us and quietly asked if we were harry potter fans...ha! if he only knew ;) Yup, part of the first, third, and sixth movies were shot in the cloisters within this cathedral. They make up some of the hallways in the movies..& it was SO cool to be walking them just like the characters did! I felt like hermione :) Brittany & i had a duel with our pretend wands while Bethany laughed and took pictures (shes not really interested in harry potter..i dont even know why i'm friends with her). It was a lot of fun to wander around there and imagine parts of the movie taking place. After staying for awhile longer taking pictures, we walked around the town of Gloucester for a bit and shopped until we caught the bus again to come back. That night, we all had bought lots of candy at the "dollar store" aka Poundland, so we were super hyper and full of energy. We watched the latest harry potter movie so that we could see parts of the cathedral, but then afterwards we were all too scared to go to bed! Since we were still on our sugar high, we decided to have a little dance party in the kitchen at 2am and made funny videos for our friends back home. It was hilarious and if you want to see one of the videos, just ask me and ill send you the link :) We finally got to bed around 4ish but we had such a fun time just dressing up in crazy outfits and dancing around the hall (don't worry..all my flatmates had gone home for the weekend)
Sunday was valentines day, and if you know me at all, you know that it is not my favorite holiday (but i wont get into that here ;) Most of my friends here are single, so we decided that it would be fun to throw a little singles party and celebrate our independence haha The boyfriend of one of the girls on our flat was coming to surprise her so we all dressed up so that she would too, & he took her out for a nice dinner. It was fun to get dressed up and just hang out with friends for the night :) We just played poker and our own version of twister that we made up the night before, with the dots on the floor and on the wall. Monday was Bethany's birthday and our night class was cancelled so some of us went out to see the movie Valentines Day, which was really good, and then out for dessert afterwards.
Last night was a big night for drinking in our town, with the event called Carnage. Basically, you pay a certain amount of money for a t-shirt and you go from bar to bar to bar all night until everyone is really really drunk. Of course, none of my friends were going, so we planned our spring break trips and watched the Bachelor :) Around 4:30am this morning, a big group of really drunk people came onto our floor screaming and running around and woke up our whole flat. It was really crazy but they eventually left. Its things like this that make me appreciate Messiah a whole lot more. Today I didn't really do much because i slept in really late but we had a little girls night instead of going out :) We made homemade facial masks out of bananas, honey, and lemon juice (it ended up looking like vomit which was disgusting,but it really worked!...my sink is still clogged with it though :/). Then we exfoliated our hands and feet, ate some ice cream and junk food, and then painted our nails while watching Beauty & the Beast :) It was so much fun!
Well, i really should go to bed because TOMORROW IS OWL CITY IN LONDON!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhh!!! i am sooooooooooo excited!!!! :D :D Check back here on Saturday and ill tell you all about it :) goodnight!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
She was like a princess straight from a dreamy castle in the air
So today we visited another place where the queen lives sometimes, the Windsor Castle...aka my future home :D It was about almost a two hour drive and most of us dozed off because we had to meet at 8:30 (of course i was the last one downstairs haha) We got there and had to hurry up and get our tickets to get in the castle because we really wanted to see the changing of the guard at 11. The security was pretty much like an airport and we had to go through metal detectors and have our bags scanned. I don't know why, but i always get nervous walking through the detectors, even though i don't have anything illegal in my pockets. I usually hold my breath when i walk through. Anyway, we went through security and all that and made our way to where the changing of the guard was happening. I was so excited to see the guards actually wearing the funny fuzzy hats because we had missed them at Buckingham Palace a couple weeks ago. When i first saw them, i just had to laugh (as did most of my group) because they looked so hilarious with those hats on! I decided that they looked like Qtips. My friend told me that they were made out of bear fur which made me really want to touch one because they looked sooo soft! Some of the guards looked like they could have been in high school and were really short and awkward :) I took a picture of one because i couldn't even see his eyes! Well, they stood there for a bit and did some routine marching things and then a band came into the courtyard. They were all dressed in red coats and had their own funny hats (wouldn't want to be left out i guess) & they played a couple songs and marched around. Then more guards came out and marched with swords and yelled some stuff that sounded like another language (special guard code language perhaps?). Probably the funniest part - okay i shouldn't be laughing, it probably had a lot of historical significance, but it was hilarious - was when they would all march in a big pack, stomp their feet, and then shuffle with really really small steps to the side. I really wish you could have seen it because we couldn't help but laugh out loud! It just all looked so silly with their fuzzy Qtip hats and shuffling all around. After we stood there for awhile watching and then left for St Paul's Cathedral because it was closing at 1pm today. I got super excited when i found out that it was closing early because of a wedding!! :D & i decided after seeing how beautiful it is, that that's where Prince Harry and i will get married. Well, either that or Westminster Abbey ;) I'll let him decide. When we got there, we were given headsets so that we could hear all about the history of the cathedral, which was actually pretty cool. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside (and i didn't sneak any this time) but it was absolutely beautiful! I could have stared at the ceiling alone for hours, with its intricately decorated arches covered in gold trims. The cathedral had such historical significance, containing tombs of past rulers and military leaders and artifacts from hundreds of years ago. It was killing me that i couldn't take any pictures! :( Well after we stayed in there for awhile, we all realized how hungry we were, so we set off to find a good place to eat. We walked all over and some places were too busy, some were way to expensive, and some had pictures of naked people on the walls (yeah, you think I'm kidding...there were even little children eating in there!). Eventually, we found this little pub, which turned out to be really good! After eating a delicious meal and relaxing for a bit, we ventured out again into the sunshine & blue skies on our way to the castle. We had to go through security again and we got our headsets back. The first place we went was into the room that held the queen's dollhouse. This was the coolest thing because it wasn't meant for little children, but actually the queen collected miniature items and were placed into this dollhouse. It had working plumbing (!), wooden tables and chairs, a tiny piano, electric lamps, tiny plates and silverware, and anything else you could imagine. It was soo cool! Brittany snuck some pictures in there so check her facebook soon ;) After that, we went into the state apartments which is the part of the castle that is actually used. We still couldn't take any pictures, and i cant really describe how gorgeous each room was. The history of everything was overwhelming, with the original paintings, chairs, tables, and decorations that were there hundreds of years ago. Everything was ornately decorated with gold and classical paintings of past rulers and children of the kings. I really wish i could have taken pictures because i feel like i cant even start to talk about it. The coolest part for me was getting to this one room with a big dining table because it is actually used now by the queen to entertain really important leaders and royalties (I'll be there someday ;) Well, after spending a lottt of time in the castle, we realized that we were almost out of time and had to start heading back to the bus. The blue sky made a great backdrop for all the pictures i took walking back :)
I had a nice little nap on the way home because i was exhausted (staying up till 2:30am the night before wasn't a great idea). We came home and Suzie made our favorite meal, chicken ceasar wraps, which were sooo yummy :) Then Hannah, a girl from our flat, invited us to a water polo match because she knows someone on the team. So we walked over to the pool, which was past our FCH campus a little ways, and cheered on our colleges team :) It was cool because i had never seen water polo before, but i still don't quite understand all the rules. Seeing tons of boys in speedos was a bit awkward though. Yuck. Anyway, it was fun and we laughed the whole way back to our dorm, where we cleaned up the dishes from dinner and all went back to our rooms to relax. I'm probably gonna watch a movie soon & then head to bed early because Brittany & i are trying a new church in town so we have to leave a bit earlier. Goodnight! :D
I had a nice little nap on the way home because i was exhausted (staying up till 2:30am the night before wasn't a great idea). We came home and Suzie made our favorite meal, chicken ceasar wraps, which were sooo yummy :) Then Hannah, a girl from our flat, invited us to a water polo match because she knows someone on the team. So we walked over to the pool, which was past our FCH campus a little ways, and cheered on our colleges team :) It was cool because i had never seen water polo before, but i still don't quite understand all the rules. Seeing tons of boys in speedos was a bit awkward though. Yuck. Anyway, it was fun and we laughed the whole way back to our dorm, where we cleaned up the dishes from dinner and all went back to our rooms to relax. I'm probably gonna watch a movie soon & then head to bed early because Brittany & i are trying a new church in town so we have to leave a bit earlier. Goodnight! :D
Friday, February 5, 2010
My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room.
So wednesday night is apparently when everybody goes out (i think thats strange, its a school night! ;), so Suzie, Jess, and i got all ready and were gonna go out with some of our flatmates. The plan was to go to this one dance club called Dakota before 10pm so that we could get in free, which was perfect because i wasn't planning on drinking so that meant a free night for me :) But, the girls weren't ready before ten of course, and since we didn't know how to get there on our own, we decided to meet up with some people we knew who were going to another club nearby. The bad part was, that this place didn't have a dance floor so we just sat and talked while they all drank their super expensive mixed drinks. 5 pounds for a drink? yeah, no thanks. Then they all decided that they wanted to go to Dakota, which would cost 4 pounds to get in because it was after 10. The deal is that it costs that much to get in, and then the drinks are pretty cheap, but that was sorta a rip off for me. So Suzie, Jess & i left and went to the Tesco grocery store (all dressed up, so that was pretty funny) and bought ingredients to make pizza back at the dorm. that's my idea of a good night: sweatpants, great friends, homemade pizza, and being able to remember it ;) So we all went to our rooms to go to bed around midnight, but i couldn't fall asleep until around 2:30. I was dreaming about something until, at like 3:30 after only being asleep for about an hour, my flatmates came onto the hall drunk out of their minds screaming and talking really loud. They finally quieted down for a bit and i was just drifting off to sleep when i was woken up by the most shrill noise i had ever heard. Yup, it was the fire alarm at 4am. It scared me so much that i jumped out of my bed, luckily remembered to grab my keys, and stumbled out into the hallway, where most of my flatmates were doing the same. I asked them if we really had to go outside, and one said that she was just going to hide out in her room but i just needed to get away from that noise so i went outside with everyone. It was pretty funny to see everybody from our building gathered into the courtyard because you could definitely tell who was actually sleeping at 4am and who was just coming in from the club. So there were some in their pajamas with no makeup on & their hair all messed up and then there were others who were still all dressed up with high heels and skanky dresses. (yeah, thats a great way to get a guy's attention, wear the least amount of clothes possible, he'll definitely be interested in your personality) Anyway, we stood out there for about 20 mins until the firemen (i thought they were good looking at first, but considering it was 4am, i was greatly mistaken once i looked again). I was sleepy and didn't remember to grab a coat or shoes so i was happy to get out of the cold when they finally let us back in. One guy from the 2nd floor actually took his mattress with him, which i still don't fully understand, but if you knew him, you would know not to ask questions. It took me awhile to fall back asleep but i was thankful that my class on Thursday didn't start until 3:15 so i was able to sleep in a bit. I did have to get up and do some reading for it but that wasn't too bad.
I was really excited for my Special Ed class because we were having some students come from the National Star College come and give a presentation. I had no idea what this college was until yesterday and it is an amazing place. It's a college just like any other one except that it is for people who have special needs, physically or mentally. I got really excited about it because i had never heard of a college like that before in the states, but i really think there should be a lot more of them. The students there can either live there in dorm-like housing or commute from off campus. They are placed into vocational training courses of their choice, ranging from healthcare to sports management to creative arts. They're typcially enrolled for up to 4 years, but it usually is about three, like the college i'm at now. It has all the typical college activities like dances and a campus bar (well that's only typical over here ;) as well as therapies for those who need them. The students who visited us had a variety of disabilities; some were in wheelchairs and seemed to have cerebral palsy, others i think had learning disabilities, and two had speech impairments. I probably looked pretty funny because i was smiling the whole class because these students just made me so happy :) They talked to us about their college experience and we were able to ask questions about the college and other things. My professor asked one of them about whether or not he thought that society was getting better about adapting to people with disabilities. He said that for the most part he was very able to do what anyone else can, but there are some room for improvement of course. One thing that sort of convicted me was when he said that the one thing that makes him upset is when people talk to his mom or whoever he is out with instead of talking to him directly. He said, "Just because I'm in a wheelchair doesn't mean i cant understand you. I have a voice too!" That really struck me because i think we all think that sometimes. We think that just because they might walk with a limp or use a wheelchair, that their minds wont be able to comprehend what we're saying, which is completely wrong. These students spoke eloquently and clearly and were mostly able to answer all our questions. One girl, who couldn't speak at all, used a device on her iphone, where she would type in what she wanted to say and it was played through a little speaker. I am so amazed and grateful for the assistive technology that is available right now, it has helped so many people be able to communicate who had much difficulty doing so before. After their presentation, we were able to mingle and chat with the students, which was a little intimidating at first, but soon i felt as if i was just chatting with a friend. I sat down next to a guy named Alex who was in a wheelchair and seemed to have cerebral palsy, but i'm not quite sure. He is the president of their student union, so we had a great time talking about that with him and he asked us questions about our college as well. He asked me what i wanted to do once i graduated and i said that i would love to teach special ed in the primary grades overseas. He said, "That's going to be one of the most challenging and most rewarding jobs you could have. The little support and attention that you give the children will have such a huge impact on their lives." That was one of the most encouraging things anyone could say to me, especially from him. He also told me that i should start my own Star College in the states because i don't think college like that exist there. How cool would that be?! I seriously could go on and on about how much i loved that class but this is getting to be pretty long. It really did affirm to me about how much i was meant for this major and how excited i am about my future career. Those students encouraged me so much and i left that class with a huge smile on my face :)
Sorry that was so long! haha i couldn't help it ;) Well, last night i played some poker with Suzie, Steph and Kelly, and i actually won some rounds! I don't think i could ever play with real money though haha Today I've been just basically doing nothing but starting to look into my upcoming assignments and getting organized for them. Tomorrow we go on a BCA trip to the Windsor Castle so I'm really excited for that! Check back here tomorrow night or Sunday for stories about that. I'll put up pictures on facebook too :)
I was really excited for my Special Ed class because we were having some students come from the National Star College come and give a presentation. I had no idea what this college was until yesterday and it is an amazing place. It's a college just like any other one except that it is for people who have special needs, physically or mentally. I got really excited about it because i had never heard of a college like that before in the states, but i really think there should be a lot more of them. The students there can either live there in dorm-like housing or commute from off campus. They are placed into vocational training courses of their choice, ranging from healthcare to sports management to creative arts. They're typcially enrolled for up to 4 years, but it usually is about three, like the college i'm at now. It has all the typical college activities like dances and a campus bar (well that's only typical over here ;) as well as therapies for those who need them. The students who visited us had a variety of disabilities; some were in wheelchairs and seemed to have cerebral palsy, others i think had learning disabilities, and two had speech impairments. I probably looked pretty funny because i was smiling the whole class because these students just made me so happy :) They talked to us about their college experience and we were able to ask questions about the college and other things. My professor asked one of them about whether or not he thought that society was getting better about adapting to people with disabilities. He said that for the most part he was very able to do what anyone else can, but there are some room for improvement of course. One thing that sort of convicted me was when he said that the one thing that makes him upset is when people talk to his mom or whoever he is out with instead of talking to him directly. He said, "Just because I'm in a wheelchair doesn't mean i cant understand you. I have a voice too!" That really struck me because i think we all think that sometimes. We think that just because they might walk with a limp or use a wheelchair, that their minds wont be able to comprehend what we're saying, which is completely wrong. These students spoke eloquently and clearly and were mostly able to answer all our questions. One girl, who couldn't speak at all, used a device on her iphone, where she would type in what she wanted to say and it was played through a little speaker. I am so amazed and grateful for the assistive technology that is available right now, it has helped so many people be able to communicate who had much difficulty doing so before. After their presentation, we were able to mingle and chat with the students, which was a little intimidating at first, but soon i felt as if i was just chatting with a friend. I sat down next to a guy named Alex who was in a wheelchair and seemed to have cerebral palsy, but i'm not quite sure. He is the president of their student union, so we had a great time talking about that with him and he asked us questions about our college as well. He asked me what i wanted to do once i graduated and i said that i would love to teach special ed in the primary grades overseas. He said, "That's going to be one of the most challenging and most rewarding jobs you could have. The little support and attention that you give the children will have such a huge impact on their lives." That was one of the most encouraging things anyone could say to me, especially from him. He also told me that i should start my own Star College in the states because i don't think college like that exist there. How cool would that be?! I seriously could go on and on about how much i loved that class but this is getting to be pretty long. It really did affirm to me about how much i was meant for this major and how excited i am about my future career. Those students encouraged me so much and i left that class with a huge smile on my face :)
Sorry that was so long! haha i couldn't help it ;) Well, last night i played some poker with Suzie, Steph and Kelly, and i actually won some rounds! I don't think i could ever play with real money though haha Today I've been just basically doing nothing but starting to look into my upcoming assignments and getting organized for them. Tomorrow we go on a BCA trip to the Windsor Castle so I'm really excited for that! Check back here tomorrow night or Sunday for stories about that. I'll put up pictures on facebook too :)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
So many sights to see so wake up like an early birdie
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
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
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 :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
