Amsterdam, Holland.

The week after my trip to Stonehenge, I got the most wonderful gift of seeing my family! Papa K, Sloan, Paige and her friend Lindsey came all the way to Grantham just to see me...yeah right. Actually, I was just a good excuse for them to travel to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome ;). But I was excited for them to travel around Europe and so thrilled to spend time with them. We checked out Grantham and did some shopping there and went to Nottingham with my meet-a-family to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which is the oldest inn in England. We got to see Nottingham Castle and the pub was so neat in that it was built into a rock so you were basically in a cave inside! Bits of rock kept falling on everyone, so it was pretty legit. We stayed for the Storytellers of Nottingham and listened to all sorts of scary stories about murder. My favorite was definitely the tale of Mr. Fox. We had quite an adventure driving all over Nottingham trying to locate my parents' car which had gotten left behind at a stoplight. It was a seriously hilarious experience and I felt like a real family with my English mum and dad! We finally found them and made our way back to Harlaxton, where I packed and showered by 2 am in order to catch our cab to London.

Our good friend Grease Tail of Street Cars took Sarah, Clay, Kyle, Alex and I to Heathrow Airport where we easily made it through customs to wait in what was thankfully a heated airport for our flight to take off around 7 o'clock. We landed in the Netherlands and grabbed a cab to our hotel--not hostel!--called the Swisshotel right in the center of town. We sneakily checked five people into a two person room, and it was so nice to not have to lock up our luggage or take cold showers. The bit of extra money was definitely worth the stay, although we had to strategically plan our leaving and arrival so security wouldn't get suspicious.

We met for the free tour of Amsterdam at the town center, where the tours were split into Spanish-speaking and English-speaking. We were placed in a huge group with a tour guide we could hardly hear, so we joined Martijn's group (which we later found to not even be his real name) which had much fewer people. It was a cold, rainy day and Martijn/Clkejoewif (in Dutch) let me borrow his awesomely warm hat during the three hour tour. We learned about the architecture of the buildings (they were built at a tilt with hook at the top so cargo ships could deliver goods into the buildings via the second floor), saw Chinatown, the famous "I Amsterdam" sign, Napoleon's headquarters during the war which is now a library, the Marijuana Museum, the old Post Office which is now a shopping center, the bell tower which Anne Frank listened to everyday while in hiding, a squatter's home, the Amsterdam Historic Museum, the Protestant Church where the Pilgrims worshiped before they left on the Mayflower (which was ironically directly across from a Catholic Church), what was surely the happiest cat in Amsterdam, and heard a great story about revolt near the canals. The tours are always so awesome and informative! We caught a "free" tram ride ("because they never check your tickets") back to our hotel and got ready for the night. We went to the Jolly Joker where we saw and experienced some interesting Amsterdam-ish things. We made a glorious visit to Rene's Bakery where I got a delicious donut.

Saturday morning we did a bit of shopping and made our way to the Anne Frank museum. This was the office building where she and her family hid during World War II after fleeing Germany. It was absolutely indescribable to see the actual building, much less walk where she walked, looked at the walls (which she covered in magazine cut-outs) she looked at, and see the secret bookcase which kept them safe until they were betrayed and taken to concentration camps. The only survivor of their family was Anne's father, Otto, who took it upon himself to publish Anne's diary after he found it and achieve her dreams of becoming a journalist. It was a very sad, humbling place to visit, but as Otto Frank said in 1967, "To build a future, you have to know the past."

Once back at the Swisshotel we changed clothes and went out to check out the Red Light District (cue Luda!). It was sooo weird to see all those women selling themselves like that, but an interesting experience nonetheless. Let's just say I will never look at the trick where a magician pulls a handkerchief out of his mouth the same again.

Sunday morning we packed up and cleaned the room, then grabbed some delicious pizza and a drink for a mere 4 euros. We went to the world's largest floating flower market where I was sad to discover I couldn't bring any real tulip bulbs back because they weren't radiated properly to fly back to America. We got a few souvenirs and did even more shopping, which led to some hilariously entertaining events. A cab picked us up outside our hotel in the early afternoon and we cabbed (in a ridiculously awesome van), flew, and cabbed again (after an hour of searching for our driver in the rain) back to Harlaxton. Amsterdam was seriously a blast and I had so much fun hanging out with the group I went with. It was wonderful to be able to come home, shower, and relax and continue to enjoy my time here :)

Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath

Last week I had a tough time finding the time to actually write a decent blog, so now I'm playing catch up! Here is an update of the weekend of Feb. 20th.

After quite a few failed attempts to get a trip to Wales together, Clay, Chelsea, Molly and I decided we wanted to go on a day tour. We chose to visit Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath--all places Chelsea had already been, so she decided not to go. Molly wanted to save money so she stayed at Harlaxton as well. I spent most of Friday in the library working on papers (ick) and that evening Clay and I caught the 5:10 shuttle into Grantham. We hit up Morrison's (a kind of Kroger) and made ourselves a little dinner out of chicken, bread and juice for less than 4 pounds. We ate at the train station and caught our train to King's Cross with no problems. Somehow we ended up on the "Quiet Coach" of the train, meaning virtually no talking was allowed, so we just listened to my iPod all the way there.

Once we arrived, I of course reveled in the fact that Harry Potter himself left for school at King's Cross, London and began to search immediately for Platform 9 and three-quarters. The whole station was under construction so they had temporarily moved the wall. I asked a lady who worked there about it by starting with, "I have the most touristy question ever..." She didn't even bother to ask what I wanted and just dove straight into the directions. Finally we located the shopping cart that goes halfway into the wall, along with a sign and took the necessary pictures. That was something I definitely wanted to see while here!

Clay and I decided before the trip that we were going to walk everywhere to save money on transportation. We got our first dose of walking that night when we traipsed over four miles across London to get to our hostel, West Two Hostel. It was a long walk but enjoyable nonetheless. The best part of the walk was when I found myself in a situation that I'm not unfamiliar with, and that is tripping over/running into things. We were walking down the street with no troubles when out of nowhere I tripped over who knows what, and I went soaring through the air as though a 300 pound linebacker had pushed me as hard as he could. My camera flew out of my pocket and I was so jostled, but I immediately started laughing at how extreme I must have looked. It was hilarious. Finally we made it to our hostel where we made some tea and took it easy. We talked with our roommates (a girl from France studying in Brighton, and her brother) who were very nice and hit the hay early. We had all our clothes and necessities laid out and ready for the next morning because we had to wake up quite early.

My alarm went off at 5:50 and I was not too pleased about this, but I was excited about the day ahead so I managed to get out of bed. We showered and got ready and packed our things up to head out. We walked about three miles to Victoria Station, but we got to walk through Hyde Park (where Round Pond and the Serpentine are located), and it was very pretty early in the morning with fog and dew still around. We bought pastries at a cafe along the way, then made our way to Victoria Bus Station. While eating my croissant, I noticed a little machine that offered 20 business cards for 2 pounds. For some reason I thought it would be awesome to make business cards, so we made little cards with lions on them that say: "Harlaxton Hooligans: Leaving a trail of destruction across Europe; Harlax10." Perfect!

Our bus arrived at 8:30 and we loaded up, listening to the antics of our hilariously awesome tour guide. She had a very soothing voice and had all the best stories--not to mention an awesome English accent! We headed out of London toward Windsor, which was a relatively short drive. The castle was beautiful! It was built on a hill (as most defensive castles were) and the landscaping around the place was gorgeous. We got to check out a bridge built by Elizabeth I and then we headed inside. One of the neatest things we saw was Victoria's Dollhouse, which was just a miniature replica of a royal house including furniture and decorations, down to forks and knives and paintings on the wall. It was so neat! The next exhibit we checked out had REAL sketches drawn by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci...it was so freaking cool to see the actual marks he made with his pencil! And luckily for me, there was a lot of information about Henry VIII portraits and preliminary sketches of royalty by Hans Holbein.

We used the tour headsets and walked around the place, seeing all the different chambers for the king and queen. We got to see original artwork which was super neat. I love that kind of stuff so I was happy as could be. After touring the castle inside, I checked my phone and it was about 11:10. We had to be back on our coach by 11:45 and I still wanted to see Henry VIII's grave, so I told Clay we ought to go ahead and leave so we would have time to grab lunch. So we hurried to the chapel where there were 23,498,723 (at least) Spanish students going through the place so it was difficult to walk through at any decent pace. We were trying to peek into all the rooms and see where he was buried and by then I was getting a little worried about time. After dodging through all the students, we finally came upon a black marble slab in the floor stating that Henry's remains (along with Jane Seymour, his favorite wife, King Charles I, and an infant child of Queen Anne) were deposited underneath. Very anticlimactic. It was something I wanted to see nonetheless, so I took my picture and we skedaddled.

Once we were back outside, we had trouble finding the proper exit because that Changing of the Guards was going on, blocking half the exits. We tried to leave one way before a lady redirected us to the right exit. At this point, I knew there was no way we had time to get lunch. We made it back onto the street and I, using my dangerously accurate sense of direction (not), tried to get us back to the coach park. By this time, we were running. Flat out running through the streets of Windsor, a town we knew nothing about, searching for a coach that was going to leave us in a matter of minutes, which would have been a pretty huge damper on the day. I didn't recognize anything around us anymore, so we ran to the train station and got ill-advised directions from a man at a bagel shop, tried to ask the turban man working the ticket station for directions, but to no avail--so we took off again. I was freaking out, absolutely sure we had missed our coach. We sprinted up to the window of a cab and frantically asked where the coach park was. After a few seconds of delay, the cab driver told us to hop in the back and he would take us there. I felt like we were in that steaming hot cab for an hour. We hung our heads out the window and I was literally on the verge of tears because I thought everything had gone wrong. We sat in traffic for at least 35 years until we turned the corner into the coach park and I held my breath, waiting to see our Evan Evan tour bus--which, praise God, was still sitting there. Our tour guide laughed out loud when we pulled up and remarked that no one had ever gotten that lost before. But, whew! Five pounds for the cab was totally worth it. So while everyone else on the bus enjoyed their deli sandwiches, Clay and I were sweating and starving all the way to Stonehenge.

The ride to Stonehenge took about an hour and it was so odd because one minute we were driving through English countryside, and the next I looked out my window and I was looking at Stonehenge. We just pulled up right next to it! It was so strange to see such a famous image right before my eyes. The area around the stones was roped in so we couldn't get close enough to touch, but it wasn't a far distance away. We got some awesome pictures and walked all the way around the structure. It was kind of difficult to take it in while we were there. When I look at the pictures, I feel so amazed that I was standing so close to it and looking at it. I'm so glad I got to see it! Clay and I were so hungry so we got some toasted tuna sandwiches and enjoyed those which were delicious.

We hopped back on our coach and drove a little over an hour to the city of Bath, which was a really neat area. It wasn't big and crowded and it had a nice, welcoming feel to it. We went through the Roman Baths Museum, which has the best preserved ancient baths and temple complex in norther Europe. It was a sight to see! It's really just what it sounds like--a huge square pool of water where the Romans bathed when they lived in England. The structure around it is a temple, and the parts that were preserved were so neat to see. We made our way through the museum, learning about the Goddess Minvera who was basically the bomb.com to the Romans, and all the rituals they performed. We hung out around the actual bath area (and even touched the water! shh) and took a few pictures.

Our attentions were then stolen by a Ben & Jerry's across the way from the museum, so I got a delicious double chocolate chip scoop in a waffle cone...heavenly. We saw a man setting up a show for tips in the street, so we hung around to watch his talents of juggling torches that were on fire, riding unicycles with children on his shoulders, and riding the tallest unicycle I've ever seen (Clay was his assistant in this task!) while juggling flaming torches. It was intense and the guy was so funny! We returned to our coach in plenty of time and got to see the beautiful countryside of Bath (which inspired Jane Austen's novels when she lived there!) and enjoyed the scenery on our ride back to London.

We returned about three hours later and made our shortest walk of the trip to our hostel near Victoria Bus Station, and checked in to find that we were put in the "Weeklys" room, where people stay for longer periods of time. It was kind of weird because they had way more stuff than we did and we were only staying for a night. So we decided to get out of there and have a good meal, which we kind of found at an Italian restaurant a bit of a walk away. It was pretty good and filling. We turned in early after the day of traveling and woke up super early to get ready and head out again. We grabbed a breakfast of toast and cereal in the kitchen and left at about 8:30.

We had a walk that was more than four miles this time, but we got to see parts of London we'd never been to before which was neat. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Banquet House for the second time this semester. This is where another epic fail of my life occurred, right outside the Banquet House, the same place where Charles I met his fate. I was excitedly looking for the Banquet House because it was dark when we saw it in London the first time. Once I found the sign proclaiming it to be said building, I twirled around, whipping out my camera--and then I got hit by a car. Or so I thought. This man who had clearly eaten a plane engine for breakfast was FLYING down the street, absolutely sprinting, and apparently when I turned around he didn't have enough time to stop and he ran smack into me. I screamed like a crazy person because I honestly had no idea what would have hit me that hard. The man was in such a rush he said hurriedly apologized and kept running. But of course after I realized I was safe, I thought it was hilarious. I think that describes my life pretty well.

We returned to King's Cross once more and took the train back to Grantham (during which time I made a Jewish boyfriend) where we found that our friend Eileen was going back to Harlaxton from the train station too. We had planned to walk back to the school, but it was snowing in Grantham and we decided splitting the cab three ways wouldn't be too bad. So we returned safely and did all the things we set out to do!

I'll have my Amsterdam blog up as soon as possible! :)

Harlaxton Weekend & Dublin and Galway, Ireland

It's been a while, I know! But I'm ready to dive into what will surely be my longest blog yet...

Here at Harlaxton, we normally don't have classes on Fridays which makes it easier for us to travel. In order to have long weekends (meaning no class on Thursday) we have to make up for the missed day. So we had class on Friday, Feb. 4 and just about the entire school decided to stay at Harlaxton on the short weekend, including me. Friday night a group of us (Sarah, Russell, Susan, Kyle, Molly, Clay, Kyle, Chelsea, and Alex) got together in the Carriage House and played Catch Phrase for a couple hours. As usual, the game provided plenty of frustration and laughs to go around. It was fun to just relax at school and spend time with each other without worrying about traveling.

I spent some time on Saturday working on homework, which unfortunately piles up quickly here. That night, basically all of Harlaxton went into Grantham to the most popular pub, The Goose. All the girls got ready together and dressed up, so that made it even more fun. We learned of a new drink called Cheeky Vimto, whose name was the source of a lot of laughter that night. We spent a couple of hours at the pub, hanging out with each other (we took up nearly half the place!) and then headed to the night club called Vibe. It was fun dancing around and acting silly, but the guys there are SO creepy! They seriously don't give up. I literally said to a 40-year-old dude: "Please stop creeping on us." And it had no effect. It's harmless but also annoying!

Monday morning brought our second British Studies quiz, which Clay, Sarah and I carefully studied for. I got a 9/10 on the quiz (stupid question about England and Scotland's treaty!) which I was still very pleased with. I had basketball practice that night, which I'm still enjoying. Several of us have started playing soccer a night or two a week in the gym, which I am absolutely loving. It's such a stress relief and one of my favorite things to do. Anyway, Tuesday brought with it the prospect of doom for the next day: my first British Studies exam. To begin studying, Sarah, Clay and I made an outline of every single English king (sometimes queen) and their importance. Then we moved on to learning about Lincoln, the town we took a field trip to, and how the city's architecture influenced different ways of life. We then studied different portraits of monarchs, as one of the questions would be to analyze a portrait. We studied together for nearly six hours and then I stayed in the library for another hour or so by myself. When I got back to the Carriage House, I still didn't feel confident, so I stayed up until about 3:30, practicing writing outlines from previous tests. We still had to go to British Studies Lecture and Seminar the next morning (all information that could be on our test too, eek!), and then I spent another hour or so looking over all our study guides.

Finally, the time came to take the test in the Long Hall and I felt like I was in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, about to take my OWLs. We had two hours to answer three essays, and you will probably not be surprised to learn I was in there until nearly the last second. The portrait was of Queen Elizabeth I, which I found to be very lucky, considering I had studied that exact portrait of her the night before. I rocked that essay. The next question was about Lincoln's architecture and I felt like I gave a solid answer but it was definitely the one I felt least secure about. The last question had four options, and I chose to talk about how church and state were related throughout British history. I wrote a freaking novel about Henry VIII and included all sorts of random, unnecessary facts, but I felt awesome about the essay. Hopefully I'll pull away with a B, an A if Bujak is feeling nice! It was such a relief to be done with the test and start looking forward to IRELAND!

After the test, we (Sarah, Molly, Kyle, Alex, Clay, Susan, E-Ho and I) gathered up our luggage and waited for the Refectory to open at 5:15. I then proceeded to shove a tuna sandwich down my throat and hopped in a cab at 5:20. Our hour long cab ride took us to the East Midlands Airport (it was cheaper to take a cab than train in this case) and we went through security (they took my lotion AND patted me down and used the scanner on me!) and got all checked in. Our flight left soon after and we flew with RyanAir to Dublin, Ireland. The plane ride was only about 40 minutes and not bad at all! Once we arrived, we grabbed a cab to our hostel, called Abigail's. We made our beds and got settled in, and decided it was time to celebrate Sarah's birthday since she had spent the whole of it studying for our exam. We made up a card game called Hooligans, and the basic point was to ask people questions and learn about each other. It was such a blast! We had the most fun thinking of ridiculous questions, and sometimes answers. It was a late night, but so much fun, and luckily we were able to sleep until about 11 the next day...

As we had to share a bathroom in the hostel, we hurriedly got ready and set out to find a quick lunch, which we located at Subway. Then we found the meeting spot for our free three-hour tour (with the same company we used in Edinburgh), and found that several other friends from Harlaxton were joining us. Our tour guide was named Garven, and although he was no Alan, he was still awesome with curly red hair (so Irish) and a cool accent. We checked out City Hall, Dublin Castle, an awesomely designed helicopter pad, Christ Church Cathedral (where Handel's Messiah was first performed!), along with the bridges along the river which made up the center of the city, a private school in the city called Trinity, Leinster House, and an adorable park where we had fun taking fake senior pictures. It was a great way to learn about the city. Honestly though, I'm not sure where the phrase "luck of the Irish" comes from. Ireland's history is full of things going wrong, failed rebellions, and shortcomings. Poor country!

On the way back to the hostel we saw a guy performing in the street, fully clothed in leopard from head to toe, dancing to Michael Jackson, doing the limbo under burning sticks. It was interesting to say the least. That night, Sarah, Clay and I went to a little pizza parlour for dinner, which surprisingly had awesome chips (French fries in America). Everyone went out to pubs/clubs that night, but Clay and I decided to check out the city outside. We ended up meeting an awesomely drunk guy (who was SO drunk it was impossible to tell if he was retarded when sober), who informed us he was an artist and told us all the best views of Dublin. It was very entertaining. We walked around a bit more and I saw a shop that was open and suddenly I wanted a snack. We walked in and, low and behold, standing there in all its glory, was an ice cream bar, complete with mint chocolate chip ice cream and waffle cones to put them in. I ecstatically ate my ice cream like a starving child and it tasted just like it does at home--delicious. We turned in fairly early and were excited to hear all our friends went to a club where Ne-Yo performed. No big deal, right?

The next morning, everyone had different plans: Alex and Susan went on a day tour; Kyle, E-Ho, Molly and a few of her friends who are studying abroad also went on a paddy wagon; and Sarah, Clay and I took a train to Galway, a city on the western coast of Ireland. After about a mile walk to the train station, we all practically passed out on the train (which was super nice--the train, and the nap too I suppose) for most of the three hour ride. We arrived in Galway around noon and spent more time than was necessary searching for our hostel, Barnacles. It happened to be located pretty might right in the center of the main shopping street. So we checked into our room and headed out to try and find a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. Little did we know, that requires an entire day tour, and the bus left at 10 in the morning. Unfortunately for us, we already had train tickets back to Dublin for 9:30 in the morning. But, being the smart kids we are, we found a coach that would take us back to Dublin the following night for €7 and a tour that would take us to the Cliffs for €10 the next morning. So we only lost out on £10 for the train ticket back to Dublin, which was totally worth it to me!

We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the neat shops all over town. We ate lunch at a sandwich shop called O'Briens. The servers were so nice--everyone in Ireland is nice! It was definitely a trend I noticed. Then we headed to the other side of the city, where we found an oceanish body of water that was high enough to come right up to a set of steps where we sat and enjoyed the view. When we first sat down, the whole place was swarmed with seagulls. They were flying all around us in all directions and it was really neat. We had seen a few swans in the water, but apparently there was an entire herd of swans (did you know they're called a "wedge" while in the air?) who were not at all afraid of us. They came so close to us that we backed away for fear of attack. But they are such beautiful creatures! It was fun to watch them for a bit. In an embankment behind us, we noticed people looking down into the water and cheering, so we decided to check it out. We ended up stumbling upon a kind of water polo/soccer in kayaks match, which I had never seen before. We tried to learn some of the rules and watch the way they scored, etc. It was a really neat thing to see--it's crazy what a different world it is over here.

We headed back to the hostel to change for the evening when we noticed it was really quite cold in our room. The heater said not to try and turn it on, so we didn't mess with it, but on the way out we asked when it would be turned on. The desk clerk assured us it would turn on by 7:30, so we went on our merry way to an Italian restaurant next door, which was tasty, especially the chocolate dessert we shared. Yum! We checked out a few of the pubs, searching for a good place to listen to some local music, but they were all so crowded and uncomfortable that we ended up finding the nicest McDonald's ever, splitting a large fry, and just hanging out. We had a good time and decided we ought to get to bed at a decent time since our tour was leaving at 10 the next morning. We returned to our room to find that it was just as cold, if not colder, than when we left. And when I say cold, I'm talking below freezing. Sleeping outside would have felt the same. So in order to adapt and survive, ALL THREE OF US slept in a TWIN sized bed with THREE blankets all night. It was so ridiculously miserable! It was freezing cold outside the blankets, but kind of warm underneath, not to mention I was breaking out in hives and AHH--it was awful! Taking a shower the next morning was the worst; I honestly have no idea how I made myself do it. But we grabbed some tasty toast from the kitchen and got out of there as soon as possible. Everything else about the hostel was perfect, but nothing made sleeping in 30 degree weather worth it.

So we headed to the coach station and located our bus for the day. We left at about 10 and our driver/tour guide told us all sorts of Irish stories along the way. We stopped at a spot where Celtics used to live and saw how they protected themselves from enemies, and we checked out a super old tomb stone that was really awesome to see. We stopped in a little village called Doolin for lunch, where I had some of the most amazing potato soup I have ever had the privilege of eating. And finally, we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely breathtaking. I honestly can't do the place justice; pictures can come close, but seeing it with your own eyes is another thing entirely. The cliffs cascaded down the shore, creating an amazing landscape around the huge expansion of the Atlantic Ocean. The sun even came out while we were taking pictures and I was able to get some awesome shots of the cliffs with the sun shining through the clouds, creating "crepuscular rays" also known as "Jesus rays."

I also thought this story was funny: I had the bright idea to climb up on one of the walls that had flat grass behind it, to get an epic photo with the cliffs in the background. Instead of simply jumping in the air to snap the photo and landing back in the grass, I for some reason thought it was necessary to jump OFF the wall entirely, making about a 7 foot drop by the time I jumped in the air. Needless to say, my feet were stinging and the picture was a fail after that. Then I realized that I could save myself some pain if I just jumped straight up and landed back where I started. I was ready to do this when Clay, who was taking the picture, said, "Okay, one--two--th--" during which time I began to jump, but he abruptly abandoned the picture to move to a better location, sending me flailing my arms in an attempt to regain balance. Finally I did, and the perfect picture was snapped. I refused to jump down again, so Clay lifted me down and intelligently put his camera string in his mouth, sending his camera free falling toward my face, which it collided with and put the cherry on top of my less than graceful experience. I got the picture though, right?

We explored the cliffs, viewing them from all different angles for about an hour and a half before we loaded the tour bus again. We stopped at Galway Bay on the way back to the city, which I LOVED. It was so gorgeous! The sun was setting in the background and the water was so blue and beautiful. We took a few fun pictures and just stood in awe of the beauty of the place. It took about two hours to get back to Galway, meaning we had only about 10 minutes between arriving and getting onto our next coach back to Dublin (we brought our luggage with us on the tour for this reason) at the bus station. We loaded up again and spent the next three hours listening to a pair of grown adults watch Alvin the Chipmunk on a computer with no headphones. Talk about annoying. Our day totaled about seven and a half hours on a bus--totally worth it!

We got into Dublin and met up with the rest of the crew who had stayed there, and checked out a few of the pubs. We found a couple neat places and ended up at a place called the Temple Bar. We ran into Chelsea there, who had gone on the trip with the school, and we decided to find the pub where P.S. I Love You was filmed. It was only about a fifteen minute walk and we found Whelan's Pub and took a picture outside. Clay and I realized we hadn't eaten since lunch and across the street was Eddie Rocket's (basically the exact same thing as Johnny Rocket's), so I loaded up on cheese fries and a burger and it was heavenly. We had a good time talking and recounting stories from the weekend.

After a bit we walked Chelsea back to our hotel (when we met some Irish guys who were fascinated that we were Americans) and hung out at a pub called Legends, which was much more relaxed and chill than any others we had been to. Then we headed to the hostel where our friends had stayed at the night before, called Abbey Court. Our cab was supposed to pick us up from there at 3 AM, but somehow the times got mixed up and our driver thought it was 4. So we were sitting in the lobby of a hostel we weren't even staying at, with a pissed off Ukrainian chick working the desk, telling her friends about us in another language. She basically kicked us out of the lobby to which Kyle cleverly responded, "Alright, you enjoy your cheeseburger!" It might help to know she was not the thinnest or most attractive person. She said, "I VILL enjoy my cheeseburger!" and that was that. Then Kyle, being the lucky person he is, said "I bet if we just stand here long enough a van will come--oh wait, here's on--hi, five Euro a person? Yeah? Perfect." I don't know how he does it!

We headed back to the airport after an awesome weekend, and waited on security to open. I fell asleep sitting up with my head against my suitcase but woke up to get through security with no troubles this time. All we wanted to do was get to the waiting area so we could sleep until our plane left at 7:30. Ah, but this is Europe, and Europe is much much different from America, especially in the fact that they do not heat buildings regularly. So we were in Dublin's airport at 5 in the morning, might as well have been sitting outside, trying to sleep. It was so freaking miserable! I wanted nothing more than a shower and a warm bed. I'd say I slept for about thirty minutes out of sheer exhaustion. Eventually the time came and we boarded our plane, on which I slept the full 40 minutes, and we were back in the East Midlands Airport. We waited for about 15 minutes (I fell asleep) for our cab, and then I slept the hour back to Harlaxton. I had a blast in Ireland but I was so happy to see that Carriage House again. I showered for ages and took a four hour nap before dinner, and it felt amazing.

Dublin was a fun city, but I liked Galway so much more. It was much smaller and homier; I felt it gave a truer sense of the Irish people. It's like New York City isn't really a representation of America, but many people think of that first thing. The Cliffs of Moher and Galway Bay were definitely my favorite parts of the trip.

Monday night the Bistro hosted a Valentine's Day Dance, so we all dressed up ridiculously (I wore a terribly mismatched outfit with red and pink clothes) and had a great time together. Karaoke night is coming up soon so I'm excited for that one! I have an incredibly ridiculous to-do list right now--all sorts of papers and projects coming up. It's so hard to focus when I'm thinking about my plans for the weekend, but it has to be done. I hope all is well back home. Miss you!

Edinburgh, Scotland

In the midst of an absolutely crazy academic week and a half, I'm ready to update everyone on the latest events abroad! I think I mentioned before that we were having a Jersey Shore (show on MTV) themed party, which we did, and it was an absolute success. We all dressed up like "guidos" and went down to the Bistro. We danced with some Irish cloggers, took lots of pictures, and had a fun experience when the fire alarm went off in the midst of the festivities. It was absolutely freezing outside but we had a blast pretending to be trashy Italians.

We had our first basketball game last Wednesday against a team called the Outlaws. It is unnecessary for me to describe each player individually because this is what they all looked like: at least six feet tall males, potential candidates for a body-building contest, wearing sponsored red uniforms. It was extremely intimidating for the Harlaxton Lions considering we had had three practices ever and not everyone was a seasoned player. The Outlaws were kind enough to give us a 35 point head start (charming) and we still lost by about 20. It was a bit like Reidland playing Paducah Tilghman in basketball, except worse. I had fun with the game though; I had missed playing! Hopefully our next game won't be against a team with quite so much experience.

Thursday night we (Sarah, Kyle, Alex, Molly, Eric, Susan and I) caught the 5:10 shuttle from Harlaxton to the Grantham train station and hung out until our train left around 7. I sat with Eric (also known as E-Ho) on the train and we had a good time talking and trying to keep warm on the ice cold train. We switched trains at Doncaster and were finally on our way to Edinburgh (said like Edin-boro), Scotland. We got to the city around 11:30 and searched for our hostel, called the Princes Street East Backpackers Hostel, which was luckily hardly a block from the train station! It was located high above the streets, meaning I had a wonderful time carrying my little suitcase up a tight, spiral staircase with at least 60 stairs. The inside of the hostel was so neat! The walls were covered with different paintings and pictures of all types and styles, the carpet was psychedelic, and the kitchen (with free tea and coffee) was really homey and cute.

That night, using the expertise I learned from my lovely sister Paige, I cut Kyle's hair in the bathroom. It was a hilarious experience because he didn't want to get hair all over his clothes, so he just wore his boxers and sat on the toilet while I cut his hair. We got a few funny looks. It turned out well though! I'm thinking about charging some money for haircuts because everyone is in desperate need of them over here! I think my shop would be called Katie's Kuts. After Kyle and I returned to the room, we played getting-to-know-each-other games which was so much fun. It was so strange to realize I didn't know any of the people I was with a mere three weeks beforehand, but I felt like I had known them forever. It was great to learn more about each other and become closer. We stayed up talking until almost 4 in the morning! This is not the place to come if you want to catch up on sleep, I'll tell you that...

The next morning we grabbed some lunch (Sarah and I bought food at the grocery to save money so we just snacked all day) and headed to what was to be my first viewing of a Squash match! Susan and Molly met a couple on the train who told them about a Squash tournament going on in the city and they wanted to check it out, so we thought it would be a cool cultural experience. The walk ended up taking about 45 minutes, but we got to see a lot of the less populated areas which was nice. We didn't actually get to see the guy they met on the train play, but we stayed to watch a game between the #2 seed in all of Ireland and his opponent. It was very similar to racquetball, except the ball is smaller and quicker. I really enjoyed watching it and trying to learn the rules!

We spent the rest of the day checking out shops, stores, and taking in all the scenery around us. We decided to splurge for one night and ate at an Italian restaurant called the Patio Restaurant. It was one of the most delicious things I have tasted since arriving here. I got pasta fagioli which was delectable (everyone tried it and loved it too) and I ate every last bit, even finished the sauce with my tasty bread. E-Ho and I split a cheese pizza for our meal. It was so wonderfully delicious. I wish I could have that meal every night!

We went back to the hostel and freshened up, then headed out to go on a ghost tour of the city. We walked over the "haunted North Bridge" and went to the cemetery, where we saw lots of supposedly haunted things, including George Mackenzie's mausoleum. He was responsible for thousands of deaths in Scotland. It was very interesting, but unfortunately it was below freezing and our tour guide was somewhat annoying, so we headed back to the hostel before the tour was over. It was just unbearably cold! We then checked out a gay bar, but personally I didn't find much gay about it, then headed to a club called Mood. It was a blast! Sarah and I danced together all night. Dancing here is so much different than in America--you just get to have your own personal space and do whatever you want. I loved it! Once we got back to the hostel, Sarah and I made some tea and split an hour of internet for a pound and checked up on all the necessities.

The next morning we went to a few shops and checked out an interesting art museum before going to a quaint Mexican restaurant, where Sarah and I split an appetizer of chips and chicken (very tasty) and snacked the rest of the time. We went to the meeting spot of the free three hour bus tour we had read about only to discover...it was a free three hour WALKING tour. This was very unfortunate news because it was so ridiculously cold. I was pretty bummed and was not looking forward to being outside for so long, but fate stepped in and gave us the most awesome tour guide ever, Alan! We walked all over the city and he kept us entertained with so many neat, interesting stories that he was very passionate about sharing. I learned so much history which is something I find so much joy in doing. We learned about Charles I, who was the King of England, and his attempts to get the Scottish people to love him; we spit on the Heart of Midlothian, which used to be the front door of a building, which shows disdain toward the government; we learned how people used to catch burglars with trip steps; we checked out the graveyard in the daylight and learned more neat stories (I even got to correct our tour guide when he said Jamestown was founded in 1620...silly Alan, it was 1607!); we got to see the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potters from and the graveyard and private school which inspired many aspects of her books; ending with an awesome view of Edinbugh Castle and an epic story from Alan about the Stone of Destiny. Although it was cold, it was 100% worth it!

Sarah, Kyle and I headed back to the hostel for a quick nap and got ready to go out for the night on my first "pub crawl." I know it sounds incredibly sketchy, but it was actual a formal event that you had to sign up for and even have a classy neon orange wristband for. We ate dinner at the first pub we went to, then checked out four pubs (for 40 minutes each) after that. They were all very different from one another and gave a good taste of Edinburgh's nightlife. The tour was done by the same company Alan worked for, and on our tour with Alan we met a couple from Canada who were a couple years older than us and studying abroad in England also. We spent the evening with them and it was so much fun getting to know them--they were very nice people! Canada, eh! A crazy part of the evening was when I was buying my wristband and had my ID out, a girl next to me said, "You're from Kentucky? Me too!" She and another girl from Kentucky were studying abroad in Scotland. They were from Florence, KY and went to UK--we had five or six mutual friends! What are the odds that I meet someone who knows someone I do in the middle of Scotland? Insane! The tour ended at a club called the Hive, which was ironic because I was beginning to get hives (as I have been doing this entire month, unfortunately), so Sarah and I went back to Princes Street, changed clothes, and went to Burger King for some fries and free Wifi.

The next day was probably my favorite of all days yet. We had been highly recommended to climb something called Arthur's Seat, which is a mountainish type of hill that rises 820 feet above the city. It took about 45 minutes to climb (Alex did it in heeled boots--impressive!) and the climb itself was gorgeous. Every step took me higher and higher above the city and I was able to see more and more. We finally reached the top, where we hung out for a good half hour or more. I hesitate to even try and describe it, because words will absolutely not do it justice, nor do the pictures. I could see for miles and miles in every direction; the city was completely in view, with the castle about a mile away, and the ocean expanding all around the island. The cold wind was blowing so hard but it was one of the most refreshing things I've ever felt. It was just something I could have looked at for ages and still not been able to soak it in. After taking many pictures, we headed back down the hill (which was almost as difficult as walking up). Many people had their dogs with them so the walk back toward the city turned into a discussion of how we all missed our animals back home and I joined right in--I sure miss Baxter and Diamond!

Next on the list for the day was a closer inspection of Edinburgh Castle. We didn't pay to go inside (it was pretty costly) but we checked out the outer area and took pictures. We returned to the graveyard for the third time for one specific purpose: to find a particular person's grave. We searched for about 20 minutes (while getting told to "get a life" by a clearly high-achieving 13-year-old girl) and finally I epically found the grave marker we were looking for and jumped up and down for a solid ten seconds. It read: "Sacred. To the memory of Thomas Riddell Esq. of Befsborough." Tom Riddell is the name of the villain in Harry Potter--for all HP fans, this was an epic moment! We unashamedly all picked up sticks and used them as wands and took magical pictures around the grave. It was seriously awesome and I loved it!

We then headed to the National Museum of Scotland, where we had heard the first cloned sheep, Dolly, was located. It was neat to read all about the experiment and see her in person! We returned to the Elephant Cafe (JK Rowling's hotspot) and bought a cup of coffee hoping to be inspired to write a fantastic book. I sat at the table where Rowling sat, signed my name on a napkin (she began writing HP on napkins because she was so poor!) and stashed the napkin in a hiding spot in the cafe. I hope I left my mark! Finally we headed back to the city and did some last-minute shopping where I bought a couple new dresses and an Edinburgh sweatshirt. We grabbed our luggage from the hostel and waited in the train station with other Harlaxtonees. We arrived back at Harlaxton (I was so happy to see home!) around 11. I showered and Clay and I traded stories on the weekend (he and Chelsea went on the school trip) and I welcomed my warm bed as I froze nearly all night every night in the hostel!

The trip to Edinburgh was so amazing. It was great to have almost three full days to do all the awesome things we got to do. How lucky am I to be having this experience? I still can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm already a fourth of the way through my time here! I miss so many things about home (mostly food, people too, but mostly food--haha) but I know I won't be ready to leave when the time comes. This is seriously just my perfect world. I love it so much.

Monday began the week of epic academicness as I had two tests on Tuesday (psychology and theatre); I had to read an entire play (Henry IV--thank you Sparknotes) Tuesday night but I also got to play soccer which was so amazing--I forget how much I love it until I play!; I went to London on Wednesday night with my theatre class to see the Pitmen Painters--a very enjoyable play and I got to spend time with Cassie, who is really cool and chill and we had some great talks in the ONE coffee shop that was open in London; Thursday night I had to read another play for my theatre class and I finally added pictures to Facebook--be sure to check them out! This weekend I'm staying at Harlaxton which I am thoroughly looking forward to. I had a meeting with my term paper advisor this morning, so I'm going to get started on research for that, catch up on other homework, and study for the British Studies quiz we have on Monday, followed by the British Studies test on Wednesday. Lucky for me, almost all the material we've covered since the last quiz surrounds Henry VIII--perfect! I'm sure we'll check out the nightlife in Grantham tomorrow night and as for tonight, a game of Catch Phrase is planned and I can't wait! On Sunday Clay and I are planning on spending the afternoon with our "family" which should be awesome. Next weekend we have a five day weekend (we have class today, Friday, to make up for it) and we'll be heading to Ireland. Another amazing trip is just around the corner. I hope all is well at home! Much love from England.

Lincoln and Manchester

Greetings from the Harlaxton library! I've been spending much of my time in a little cubical in here lately thanks to British Studies. I thought it was time for a break and time to give you all an update!

Thursday night Harlaxton held the Meet-A-Family Reception, where Clay and I met our "family" for this semester. Our "dad" (David Duerden) was on business but our "mum" (Ruth Duerden) came along with her two daughters (Rosaline and Francis). The couple owns a management business and even a little house in France, where they vacation often. It was so neat getting to talk with them! We talked about the differences between American and British culture. It's so odd that although we speak the same language, we still have no idea what the others are talking about a lot of the time. Everything from food to school grades to slang terms are totally different. We gave them a Kentucky Derby cup to commemorate KY and we made a little cook book with all of our favorite American meals. Maybe a hint of what to cook in the future. The food here is truly quite bad, so maybe we'll get lucky!

Friday morning we left for our school field trip to Lincoln. It was possibly one of the worst days on the planet to be receiving an outdoor tour; it was freezing with a cold, misty rain blowing about. We got to explore about the town for a bit and went into several shops and walked down "Steephill" which WKU's hill really cannot rival--Steephill was practically vertical!

We took a tour of Lincoln castle and luckily we had an awesome tour guide who was just very passionate about what he was doing. He said he didn't get paid for what he did, so he had volunteered to teach us about all kinds of history on such a nasty day. Some of the castle that is still standing was built by William the Conquerer, who was the leader of the Norman invasion in 1066. Almost 1,000 years of history in front of our eyes! We learned about the protection the castle used to offer troops and about the prison located inside the castle. Many hangings also took place there and we learned some of the specific stories which were really frightening to think about.

There were four original copies of the Magna Carta (signed by King John in 1215) and one of those resides in Lincoln. Unfortunately, it was being restored from making a trip to America so we got to see a copy of it. It was still very neat to see the actual handwriting though. Apparently we weren't allowed to take pictures, which we didn't find out until a British security bloke told us to sod off (English slang) so I got a few pictures of it. We also got to see where the prisoners used to go to church. They had to stand in cubicles with bags over their heads to ensure they could see no one but the priest. Scary stuff!

Next we headed to Lincoln Cathedral, which was absolutely massive and gorgeous. The walls and decorations were all very ornate and the ceilings were incredibly high with so much intricacy it blew my mind. It's hard to imagine how all of these things were built without even half the technology we have today. We headed to the Magna Carta Pub after taking a tour of the Cathedral and warmed up there. Then we listened to Harlaxton's choir sing in the church and hopped back on the bus to Harlaxton.

Once we returned, we had about 15 minutes to grab our luggage and a quick dinner. We (Chelsea, Clay, Sarah, Molly, Alex, Kyle, Susan, Jarrod, and Jeremy) took cabs to the Grantham Train Station and boarded our train to Doncaster, which connected to a train going to Manchester. It was a neat experience riding on the train. Traveling really takes so much careful planning and I feel like I'm learning how to do it.

Once we arrived in Manchester we checked in at Hatter's Hostel and met our Australian roommate (Steve/Eddie--he told us two names) and settled in. Most of the crew went out together but Sarah, Clay and I walked around the city and checked out a few of the pubs before calling it a night.

The next morning we got up and got tram tickets to get to Manchester Stadium. Once we were arrived we had a bit of a walk, and then we found ourselves among people selling Manchester United gear everywhere, crazy fans screaming and getting ready for the game, all on a very chilly day. Walking into the stadium was an awesome moment...the field is SO huge and SO green and SO perfect. I stopped in my tracks and stared at it. It made me miss soccer so much! But it also got me hyped for the game.

Manchester City (who I fully supported in my Man U scarf and tee) played Hull City. The atmosphere was so intense! The separation between the Man U and Hull City fans was lined with security guards who have probably taken several punches to the face in the past. Wayne Rooney played an incredible game. He had four goals! The playing was seemingly flawless because these people are professional at what they do. It was far different from American sports. Most of the people at the game probably have season tickets and go to every game because they love their team so much. There's so much history that goes with it! We learned a few Man U chants and tried not to tell too many people we were American--an American (Glazer) bought the team recently and has apparently been putting it in debt. Most of the chants were, "We want Glazer out, we want Glazer out!" sprinkled with positive cheers for the team like, "Glory, glory Man United, the Reds go marching on, on, on!" Manchester won 4-0 and I couldn't have been more pleased with the fun I had watching the game.

We went back to the hostel and rested up, then got ready for the night and went to a club downtown. It was a considerable amount of fun although I spent much of my time making sure everyone was being smart. Which they were! So we headed back to the hostel late in the evening and woke up to be gone by 11 the next morning. Half of the group stayed and shopped while Chelsea, Jeremy, Clay, Jarrod and I caught an early train back to catch up on some homework and be ready for bed by a decent time. On the train ride home we got to see a lot of English countryside, which is what you might imagine with you think of England. It was very beautiful!

Today we had our first British Studies quiz, and if I'm not mistaken, I earned all 10 points! They don't count for much, but hopefully if I can do well on all of them then it will help me on anything I miss on the test. I've heard so many awful things about British Studies that I was glad to get the first quiz over with. Our lecture today was over Henry VIII and his children who became King and Queens after him, so I hardly had to take a note. It was probably one of the most awesome hours of my life. Tonight is our first basketball game (I'm a Harlaxton Lion!) so I'm really looking forward to that. Tomorrow night I'm heading to Edinburgh, Scotland with Sarah, Molly, Alex, Kyle and Eric. Can't wait to update you guys on that! Cheers.

London

I was right when I said I would have so much to update you all on when I got back from London!

Thursday night several of us walked about a mile (we have to save money any way possible!) to a pub in Harlaxton Village called "The Gregory." It was a cute little place and we all ordered drinks and hung out. We met a British man at the bar named Jim, who was quite fun and really receptive when we started asking him all kinds of questions about British culture, language, traveling tips and his life. We learned the term "cracking" which means something is really awesome. It was so neat to hear about life from someone who was born here.

Friday morning we left for London on three coaches at 9 o'clock. It was about a three hour ride and once we arrived, we stayed on the bus and took a tour of the city for about two hours. We got to see so many things and learn about them from the tour guide! It was such a hard concept to grasp that we were actually there; it was difficult to believe. We stopped on the Thames River and got to see the Tower Bridge (not the London Bridge, which is rather ordinary) which was really neat.

After the tour we regrouped in the hotel and set out to see all we could with what daylight we had left on the cloudy London day. We started out in a big group, but Clay, Chelsea and I ended up together and it was easy to travel with just us to start out with. We took the classic London telephone booth pictures and explored the streets. We went to Picadilly Circus, which is a famous intersection in the streets of the city. It was the first place in London that used electronic advertising! Then we tried to check out Chinatown, which Chelsea and I assumed would have all sorts of fake Coach and Chanel purses, but we were disappointed to find it was simply a load of Chinese restaurants. Bummer!

We headed to Trafalager's Square, where the four famous lions and tall tower sit. Clay helped Chelsea and I climb up on them and get our pictures made, which turned out to be awesome! We continued to walk around and take in the city. We saw the Banquet House, which is the building Charles I was beheaded in front of, and we saw 10 Downing Street which is were the Prime Minister, Gordan Brown, lives. We went to where Royal Stables but unfortunately it was getting dark at this point, so the horses had gone to bed. We did get to take a few pictures with a guard and Clay even made him crack and grin when he asked what his name was so we could tag him on Facebook! We found a cute Italian restaurante on a side street and ate dinner there. It was authentic, so it tasted different but it was good! We ordered water to save money, however, but the bottle of water cost £3.40 which is just completely ridiculous. It was tasty though! We finished out the night by shopping on Oxford Street, where we took advantage of some awesome sales! We were so tired that once we got back to the hotel room we took showers and watched a couple movies on TV and just hung out. It was necessary resting for the long Saturday we had!

We (Clay, Chelsea, Sarah, Molly, Jeremy and I) began the morning by attempting to get the complimentary breakfast at our hotel, but they were so full it was impossible. We grabbed breakfast at a chain restaurant called Pret a Mangerie, and headed straight for the Underground to buy tickets for the whole day. After planning out our day, we decided riding "the Tube" would be our best option to do everything we wanted to. Unfortunately for us tourists, it was a regular old rainy day in the city so we had our umbrellas out most of the day. After the madness of purchasing our tickets, we went to get a close up of Big Ben, which in all honesty isn't quite as big as you might think. Still gorgeous though! We went to Westminster Abbey, a place where many kings have been crowned and all kinds of history has taken place. It was a beautiful, majestic building.

Next we went to Buckingham Palace (also a sight to see!) and saw the Changing of the Guard, which was a lot less extensive than I expected. It was mostly a band playing music for about an hour as the two guards outside the palace doors "changed." Several of us got on each other's shoulders to take pictures because there was such a ridiculous amount of people there. They played Somewhere Over the Rainbow which was alright with me! We then headed to the Tower of London which was probably my favorite part of the trip. I have read about this place hundreds of times and I was so excited to actually see it! It's a huge, intricate place from the outside and although you wouldn't expect it, it's very open on the inside. It makes a small kind of village once you get in. There are all sorts of towers you can go up in and see where certain people were held captive. There was a memorial for the place where Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Gray were beheaded which gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. It was such an awesome thing to be able to see. Maybe I even stood where they stood! Although the Tower was used to keep prisoners, it was also a place of ceremony and celebration where many kings held their coronations and even wedding celebrations. We got to see the Crown Jewels and there was an exhibition of Henry VIII that was open from April 2009-January 17, 2010--it ended the very NEXT day. I was so lucky to have seen it! I loved it.

We grabbed some toasted subs for a late lunch at a Cafe Nero, then hopped back on the Tube to check out the British Museum before it closed. We weren't there for too long before it did, so hopefully we'll get to return later in the semester and see more of it. After it closed we did some more shopping and went to the famous, extremely expensive department store called Harrod's. The Queen shops there! Definitely meaning that we weren't able to, but it was neat to see. We finally gave in to the golden arches and ate some recognizable food at McDonald's which was spectacular. We returned to the hotel and showered again. We accidentally had somewhat of a hotel party, which turned out to be a blast. We headed to the lobby to go out to a pub or a club, where we ran into some students from Spain. I used what little knowledge I had of Spanish and we had a rather extensive conversation with them in the hopes we could have a free place to say in Spain! It was quite an experience.

The next morning we went to Hampton Court Palace, one of (my boy) Henry VIII's favorite palaces in the 1500s. It was AMAZING. The actual building and architecture was beautiful and just knowing all the things that happened there was something that's hard to define. We got to see his kitchens, his actual apartments with all the tapestries he loved, and all kinds of paintings of him and his family and those he worked with. My favorite part was the gardens, no question. We walked outside and the sight was breathtaking: enormous trees, shaped to please the eye, a little pond containing a fountain shooting water all around, a swan swimming in the pond, perfectly green grass, and to top it off the sun was shining for once creating a seriously beautiful picture. It was breathtaking. We walked around and took pictures, although I hate to report that the swan was so used to people he barked (if that's what swans do) at me when I tried to take a picture with him! I got to take a picture with an actor who was dressed up like Henry and I was so freaking excited about it. Super dorky, I know, but I loved it! We went through the Hampton Court maze (very Triwizard Tournament-esque), then continued exploring the gardens which were simply beautiful. There were so many twists and turns inside and out that it would take days to see the whole place! We got lunch from a cafe (which had a real orange juice squeezer--very neat) and got back on the bus for the journey home. And by home, I mean Harlaxton...which this place has become for me.

Last night was an interesting evening at Harlaxton; we had our first basketball practice, which was potentially one of the worst displays of basketball I have ever seen, and then Paige helped me cut Clay's hair via Skype, which actually turned out quite well! I'm having so much fun here and I feel lucky to have met the people I have. The semester is only going to get better and I can't wait. Hope you all have a cracking good week! Love from England.

Classes Begin

My schedule looks like this:

Monday

8:30-9:30- British Studies Lecture

11:00-12:00- British Studies Seminar

3:10-4:00- Intro to Psychology

4:10-5:00- Intro to Theatre

Tuesday I only have my afternoon classes.

Wednesday I have only my morning classes.

And Thursday I only have my afternoon classes.

No classes on Friday!

It's a pretty awesome schedule for those of us attempting to travel around Europe. Classes began on Monday; British Studies is a 6 hour course, so it has two parts. For the lecture, the entire school goes into the Long Hall and listens to lecture from one of a few professors for 50 minutes. Our seminar classes have about 20 people in them, and we discuss what the lecture went over more in depth. It seems like it's going to be extremely challenging. The lectures are long and somewhat difficult to understand at times because I'm not used to the accent. Every class session, our class is divided into four groups and we each have a question to answer about what we'll be discussing in class the next time. Essentially, we will be teaching our seminar classes, complete with handouts for the class, as students. So we have to do a lot of reading and organizing before class. It makes it easier to understand when you've already read about it when it's discussed in class. And on the bright side, these are the things that I love learning about it! I just think it's going to be tough--but it will be worth it for sure.

Last night we had a briefing over our London weekend trip, which we leave for on Friday morning. I am SO excited for my first trip! It seems like it will make Harlaxton official. Monday night I played basketball with several friends (new friends too!) and we all went to the Bistro, which is similar to a pub in the basement of Harlaxton, looking sweaty and nasty--the looks we got were hilarious! It was so much fun though, getting to know other people and listening to their stories. It's looking like it's going to be an absolutely awesome semester--how could it not be?!

I've been trying to work out my sleep schedule but I took a two hour nap today, ensuring I will stay up late tonight. I don't have class until 3:10, so I can sleep in, but I have to go to the manor and get some money exchanged for the trip. My group is also meeting tomorrow to work on our mini-presentation for Monday before the weekend. I'm sure I will have much more to update after London. Have a great weekend!