No-vember

It is November 1, sad day. This weekend I visited Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge. We left Friday morning to Oxford and spent 4 hours there. I didn't puke at all :) I walked around with Kellsey, Bria, and Chris. We went to the Oxford bookstore and got sweatshirts, bummed around a market, then got back on the coach. There was a fantastic candy store where I bought a cable. Its like a chewy thing like 3 feet long and tastes delicious. We arrived in Bath later that night and I realized that I know someone who has lived there and didn't ask what places to see and things to do. I felt like such a dummy. The next day we all went to Glastonbury Abbey and some cathedral hahaha. I forgot my camera which actually turned out to be nice because I didn't worry about taking pictures and just enjoyed being with my friends and being a goober. Then Kellsey, Bria, and I walked around Bath and just admired how awesome it was. We all went out that night because it was before halloween and us 3 didn't have a costume. So Kellsey and I traded our clothes with Chris and Caylin. It was soooo funny. We all left for the bar and I didn't have a valid id because it didn't have a birthday on it. So Chris went with me back to the hostel, got my id, the bus we waited 20 minutes for passed us so we walked about a half hour to the bar. The had quit serving food and by this time both of us had only eaten lunch but we just rolled with it and got a drink. No big deal. Our group was there and we just danced until we couldn't dance any more :) We went to Stonehenge the next day and it completely blew my mind. Its one of those things you really have to sea for yourself. But now its November and I don't have much time left here. I'm hoping to go to Wales and Italy then I'm on my way home to the sick couch, my frog shirt, and my mama scratching my back :)

Now..

I am having such a great time here. Recently has been especially great but at the same time I miss being home. I miss my mom and Derek and the kids alot. I can't wait to be on the sick couch, with Ford in front of the fire. Derek listening to Bing Crosby too loud in the kitchen making mom a white russian. Max sitting on the couch showing Sam a youtube video. Mom reading a book with her water on the table, and Katie squatting under the mantel trying to warm up. I miss that sooo much but then I have to snap out of it and realize that I'm going to stonehenge on Halloween. I have a quiz and test next week and events to plan. It will be weird once I get home though. Driving on the other side of the road, seatbelts on the other side, eating at normal times, snacking, brushing my teeth in the bathroom instead of next to Kellsey's desk, having a room by myself, texting, calling people on the phone, its going to be weird.

Manchester United

Kells and I travelled to Manchester to see United play and we got our tickets super cheap and we are the only ones this semester to go to a gam or will go to a game. We took a train to manchester, it took about 3 hours which wasn't that bad. Fortunatly I don't puke on trains :) It got super hot though with all of the people on the train for the game. Some people stood the entire time. We took the trolly from the trainstation to the game and walked down the road. It reminded me of on Harry Potter when they went to the professional Quidditch game. Lots of people, and scarves, and beer, and hockers and all sorts of things. We got a hot dog and a beer and we sat about 5 rows from the top. Whats fantastic about the field, Old Trafford, is that there isn't a bad seat, we could see the entire field. First half ManU scored 2 times, second half Albion scored 2 times. They were crap goals too, just crap. We bought some scarves and made our way back home. We weren't able to sit for awhile on the train but we were eventually. There were these two old men who sat with us and one of them has traveled the whole world. China, Ecuador, Phillipines, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Panama, LA, NYC, Chicago, it was fantastic. I was so jealous. I wish I could have had dinner with him to hear about everything. We made it home and it was just a great day.

The Lord of the Flies - Amended

While showering, where I have all of my great ideas, I realized I had written about this semester seeming like The Lord of the Flies, and it truly is. Today was a pretty normal day in all honesty, I went to classes had a stupid meeting, and I got a package today which was great. Then after the meeting there was a basketball game. There was facepainting before and this guy, I'll call him Jack, wanted to be painted. Kellsey and I went to paint him and well he was pretty trashed. In the process Jack knocked Kellsey's glasses off of her face and proceeded to step on them on accident. My heart was crushed. He didn't know what happened, we explained, Kellsey didn't cry which was great but she is devastated. I feel awful for her. Then he was kicked out of the basketball game. So when I was in the shower I realized that Jack broke Piggy's specs.. just like in the book; if Kellsey is Piggy, that makes me Ralph. I guess its up to me to keep things together. I know the ending won't be quite the same which is good, but I'm pretty sure Simon is supposed to die next :( Not to mention we are all stranded on an island after our plane/boat "crashed." We started out all together then divided. Party vs non-party. It's a shame this semester isn't like Harry Potter.

Dublin

I honestly don't want to talk about Dublin. Kellsey and I went together and we were on the way to the train station when Kellsey told me I needed my passport, which I didn't have. The part of Ireland we were going to required a passport, the other part does not and I got them confused. So we went back and it cost me a little extra, not a big deal. We made all of our trains, busses, and cabs to the Luton Airport and then we just had to wait until 6 am when our plane was supposed to leave. The flight wasn't awful and I didn't puke so that was good. Once we landed we had to get euros and ask for directions to get to our hostel. The lady told us that all of the busses weren't going to take us that far; so we were going to walk. She told us that it was 13kilometers to walk there. We only know miles, so we asked about how many minutes would it take us and she said, more like hours, like 3 hours. She was really snotty about it too. So then I converted it on my phone once we were out of line and 13 kilometers is 8 miles, no way would it take us 3 hours to walk that. So we were dead set on walking to our hostel, we switched shoes and put our backpacks on. We asked a construction worker outside of the airport which direction to head and he told us that we could jump on a bus for 2.20 euro and it will take us to our intersection. WTF lady. So thats what we did, but then we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a ways. We stopped to ask for directions because the street we were looking for wasn't labeled. Kellsey waited in line at a cafe and when it was her turn, she asked the lady if she could tell us which way to head. All the lady said was, NO. NEXT. What a jerk. So then we asked a man walking his bike and he told us and it was right, so we finally get to the hostel around 9 that morning and our landlord says we aren't allowed to check in until 2pm. Now the internet said, anytime checkin. So we were exhausted and pissy, and now we have to walk around for the next five hours before we can sleep. We got breakfast which was EXPENSIVE then tried to get to the Guinness Factory. The streets were pretty cool and all of the doors to apartments were cute on the way there. We walked the River Liffey for a bit and then we needed to ask directions again because our map apparently didn't have all of the streets. Kellsey asked a man to point us in the right direction and in plain english, with no accent, the man says "I don't speak English." SO that was frustrating. We finally found it, waited in line, got our ticket, then went on the tour. It turns out that we had both seen the episode of How It's Made about beer, so it was kind of a waste of time, but we got a free pint. I do not like Guinness. I'm glad I had that experience but I don't think I'll be doing any more alcohol tours. We started to walk back and were let in to our hostel. Now it gets better, we reserved a 4-man room. Well we got stuck in a 7-man room, it was us, 3 japanese people who were living there and 2 begian girls. The girls were really nice but the guys were really weird. We had been awake for 30 hours before we got to nap. We wake up and get dinner at a little pub. The food was really good and we both got a drink that cost like 7 euro... way to expensive. We were fortunate enough to be seated next to a drunk weirdo who invited us BOTH to his apartment. next door. So we left and then slept again.
Day 2: We walked to Temple Bar which is like the Broad Ripple of Dublin. There were some really neat shops and architecture and all sorts of things. The best part was the kids doing Parkour. It was sooo intense and I saw a kid roll UP stairs. So we watched these kids for a bit, got some lunch and I had my very first crepe - my new favorite food. It was a Nutella crepe and I could have eaten about 5 of them. We decided we wanted to walk by the ocean and take pictures. On the way Kellsey bought a Sprite and I bought a Bulmers (pear cider). Derek said to drink and it would be more fun, and it was. We walked and walked and found Dublin's Oktoberfest and a street fair so that was really cool. We couldn't reach the ocean though which really stunk. When we were walking back we stopped and watched some rec-soccer games and that was neat to watch them play. We had to go back to the hostel because the landlord made us change rooms so we did that and went back out. We saw a fight on the way to dinner, it looked domestic but it was pretty intense, so we walked on the other side of the street.
Day 3: We woke up really early to catch our 2:00 plane incase there were any problems, which there were. We tried to catch the bus and 2 scheduled busses passed our stop. So we hailed a taxi and got to the airport. Checked in and then went through security. Kellsey's bag was ripped apart. The lady was soo mean, all of her liquids were in the range, not to mention we didn't buy anything but food and keychains so we made it through security on the way there. That got sorted out and we ate, got on our plane and landeded in Luton. The bus that took us there was supposed to take us back, which it did after we had to get money out of the ATM, buy a ticket, and pay the bus man, because all we had were euros. So we get to the train station, find our platform and the train arrives. We made it. We caught our other train in King's Cross by about 2 minutes and that left for Grantham. We called a cab and went back to the castle in time for dinner. I didn't think I would have missed my tiny tiny room that much but I did. I'm really glad I got to see Ireland but I'm not going back.

I Wanna Get Chocolate Wasted!

This was adventure two this weekend replacing Spain activities. Adventure one was Nottingham and really all we did was eat a sandwich and walk around, but it was still neat to see a new place. Now chocolate world is a different story. Kellsey and I wake up at 8:25, get ready go to breakfast with the intent of taking the 9:10 shuttle to town. Well there wasn't a 9:10 shuttle. Not a big deal we called a cab and it happened to be our favorite cabby, tat man (we don't know his real name). He also drove us to the train station yesterday morning. So we go to pay him at the train station and all we had was a 20. He didn't have enought change so he let us ride for free. I was super impressed by that. We get our tickets and it says we have a train from Grantham to Bournville.... no switches listed. Turns out we had to change trains in Nottingham. So we ran around the platform and got on our train. Turns out this train was going to Birmingham and not Bournville. This isn't a huge inconvenience because the towns are close. However with the horrible rain we had all day we decided not to risk getting lost in the rain. So there goes another 10 unexpected pounds. We arrive at Cadbury's Chocolate World and it was AMAZING. Easily one of the coolest things I have done. We shopped in the largest Cadbury store in the world and went on a factory tour. Today they were making Dairy Milk bars- classic. There were also interactive things and videos. One of the videos was certainly interactive.. we went through the process a cocoa bean goes through before it becomes chocolate. There were hidden air vents that blew on you and the WHOLE bench shook like the beans do to get the coating off. It was hilarious. There were all sorts of games and it was awesome just crazy. We got to pipe our name in chocolate at one station and then there was a ride. It was hoaky for sure but it was so much fun it didn't matter. It reminded me of Roger Rabbit when they go into toontown. There were dancing cocoa beans and flowers and a fake village. It was sweet. Then of course I had to go buy some chocolate, but luckily we were given free chocolate along the way (which I parceled) and I only bought myself two things. Mom, Derek, and the kids did get some stuff though :) So we decide its time to go home. We were going to walk to the correct station this time. It was a 20 minute walk in the rain to a station with 2 platforms and no attendants. We just go on the first train which arrived about 2 minutes after we got there and hoped it took us where we needed to go. No one even checked our tickets. So we arrive in Birminham. We again have to switch trains. The inside of Birmingham looks like an airport, its gigantic. So we have to exit the platform because the tv's with the departures weren't outside. So we leave, find our train (to Nottingham not Grantham) and it is going to leave in 5 minutes. So we HAUL ASS to the platform and get on. We kind of dosed off and we finally arrived in Nottingham. Now I thought we were in Grantham, so I was confused to begin with. We look for the departure board and we need to be at platform 2 in like 3 minutes. So we ran to what we thought was platform 2. Well we didn't know that Nottingham's trainstation had 2 sides which mirrored each other. We were in the exact opposite spot we needed to be in. Again, we had to run like there was a rabid dog chasing us down the platform, up the skybridge, and down the other platform to the very end, and we made the train :) Well we had to walk through 2 carriages to find a seat next to each other and when we did we managed to sit behind the worst passengers alive. A family of 5 took up 2 table seats. So that already makes them jerks. Then the dad was singing the whole time to his crank radio, like a tornado radio, the mom was smacking her lips on some godforsaken sandwich, and the little hellians were playing Jenga and screaming. We also managed to get on the long ride and not the direct ride. Whatever we were almost home. For a second we thought we weren't going to need to call a cab because we were going to make the last trolley pick up. Nope. We get to Grantham, call a cab and get back home. We somehow made it in time before dinner closed and before we both peed our pants. The only time we were able to go was at Cadbury because we had been cutting the trains so close. Wet tired, hungry, and cold Grace and Kellsey are not a good combination. So glad to be in my pajamas.

:(

My flight to Spain was cancelled. Along with my dreams of seeing the Plaza Mayor, the Prado Museum and testing my Spanish speaking abilities. I was denied visiting my 'mecca' because, from what the email said, the Spanish government has refused to comply with the minimum wage requirements. I had to choice to switch my departure time to the next day (which did not give me a flight home) or to cancel the ticket for a refund. So I opted for the refund. The preparation for September 29 - October 2 has been immense. I have taken care of every step of the way, flights, hostel, activites, planning/packing only to have it taken away from me :( This was the trip I was the most excited for, even more than Italy. I never thought I would have the opportunity to go back to Spain but I did/do. I wanted to eat bocadillos and croquetas and paella and new things, and have sangria and get drunk and make out with a random Spanish guy and possibly live there forever. What stinks more is that it ruined a really fabulous day. Kellsey and I explored a REAL secret passage way. Spiral staircase equipped with multiple spiders and there webs. I even caught a frog today. Not to mention I have yet to find out if the train tickets we bought at 1 today are refundable. I might have spent 53 pounds for a train to the airport for nothing. Oh and I have a GIANT exam tomorrow. Not a problem.