Thanksgiving in England....

…was by far one of the coolest experiences of my life! Its been a pretty good week, all things considered, and to top it all of, we got the pig-out feast that is affectionately termed “Thanksgiving” in the middle of it all. As an American, and one who comes from a rather large family at that, I look forward to Thanksgiving and all the food that it entails every year. It’s a sort of warm up for Christmas, and all the Christmas decorations don’t go up until after all the Thanksgiving ones come down, right? Well every year on Thanksgiving the whole of Britain does nothing! So me and Heather and Leigh have all been in anticipation of Thanksgiving, so much so that we decided that we’d do it ourselves and have all the Brits join in with us!

So Tuesday rolls along and we had to buy all the stuff, and we’d ended up inviting a total of about 18 people, so we (or rather mostly just Heather!) were going to be cooking up a TON of food, and attempt to shove all these people in our tiny little kitchen which comfortably fits only 8! Anyway, we bought everything on Tuesday, including the hard to find turkey, and we shove it all in the kitchen. Wednesday was spent going to class and not doing much else. Although, I am pleased to report that the scene that we performed in my acting class was hailed by our teachers as one of the best this year, so that was exciting.

So Thursday rolls around, and I had class all day, but Heather, with the help of Anna, spent the entire day cooking. Now we weren’t just going to eat turkey and pretend it was Thanksgiving…. No, no, we went all out. Mashed potatoes, vegetables, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, turkey, cranberry sauce, bread rolls… in short: The WORKS! And in mass amounts too! We even had these weird Korean pancake things that some of Heather’s Korean friends (who joined us in the feast) made for everyone. And the best part of the evening: the 16 pound turkey cooked in the microwave!

So I get home from class around 4:30pm. I had to stop at the UFO (Union Food Outlet) to get a couple bottles of wine b/c we were celebrating Anna’s and Emma’s birthdays as well as Thanksgiving, so when I got back it was my tremendous job to clean the kitchen and make it ready for everyone coming over at 7pm. My mother would have been proud with the state of that kitchen when I was done with it. It was spotless, and Lucy helped me do the dishes and everything too. On top of it all, we had to bring the kitchen table from Flat 5 (where Heather lives, across the hall) into our kitchen so that everyone would have a place to sit! Weaving that table through all 8 doors (yes, 8 freaking doors) was quite the adventure, but we did succeed! Now our kitchen looked even smaller.

So by about 6, Lucy and I decided we wanted to do laundry before everyone got there while we finished all the last minute things like cooking the vegetables, making gravy, and making sure everything was hot, while Heather continued to mind the turkey and tell us what we could do to help. By about 7:15, we still didn’t have much of a crowd and we were beginning to wonder if everyone was going to show up! But alas, just about everyone showed up and when all was said and done we had 15 people. This ended up being a good thing, as that was exactly how many people we could squeeze into the two tables.

And everyone seemed to love it. We just put all the food in the middle and after everyone got over the awkward part of looking at it and not really knowing what to do, before you knew it everyone had a full plate and was eating away merrily.

Spending Thanksgiving in England with 1 other American, a Mexican, 4 Koreans, 1 Australian, and 7 Brits was so incredibly different from any Thanksgiving back home, but I know I’ll never forget the sheer absurdity (and amazingness, if that’s even a word…) of it all. It really was just like any Thanksgiving back home. Heather, with everyone’s little contributions, really had outdone herself. And my friend Niccy even made pumpkin pie for everyone!

And again, when all was said and done, I started cleaning again (this is where you can really tell that I am my mother’s daughter), and it was great because most of the people were really willing to help. So the kitchen, after everything, was put back together, all the dishes were washed, the food was put away, and everything was quite tidy in about half an hour!

Anna promptly set herself to attacking the remains of the turkey and extracting quite a bit of meat, and then even making turkey stock out of the carcass. Lucy said that when she was done, there really was nothing but the bones left… Anna said she’s going to make some sort of chocolate turkey thing, it sounded weird to me.

Anyway, that was Thanksgiving, and it was quite fun. I’ve got some pictures of the even up, so you should check ‘em out here:

http://unm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20292&l=d67da&id=545464971

So that was probably the biggest thing out of the week. The weekend wasn’t all that exciting. Friday was rather boring, but Saturday Lucy and I braved all the Christmas shoppers in town. It was pretty darn cold walking around but she wanted to get her ear pierced and I needed to buy a new belt. Overall, it was quite successful. This morning we again braved the busses and continued our church search (hey, that kinda rhymes..) but again with little luck.

OH! I almost forgot! On Wednesday, all of us girls got into two quite large discussions. Well, the first was just interesting to me because I’m a geek, but we spent about an hour talking about how exactly you define “art”, and some of the theory behind art and artistry and so forth. It was fun because I was sort of the authority (maybe that’s too strong of a word…) on the subject b/c I was talking to a biochemist (Lucy) and a politician (Anna), but as such the discussion progressed I think we all learned from each other. But the really interesting stuff came that night when all of us girls, minus Leigh, sat around in the kitchen discussion religion and what all of us believed! That was one of the most insightful conversations I’ve ever had. It forced me (again, like the last time I had this kind of conversation) to actually look at why I believe what I believe and if its worth believing, and on top of that, it made me realize that other people have beliefs that are a far cry from your own, even if they aren’t much different from you.

Anyway, I could never do justice to those conversations in this blog, but they were interesting and insightful nonetheless. Well I need to read yet another play before tonight so I’m going to sign off. Only 3 more weeks of school.....

Hope all of your Thanksgivings were amazing and that you ate way too much turkey… I know I did! Oh… and I’ve started listening to Christmas music now…. Oh no….

I Should Invest in Earplugs.

Why? You may ask…. Well, its easy. I get woken up at least once (some times two or three times) per week by drunken idiots outside my door and/or window at about 2 am, and I’m straight up sick of it. So I figure, if I can’t hear the drunk people, then they won’t wake me up and I don’t have to yell at them and tell them to be quiet, right? Problem solved. Moving on.

Let me apologize for the extreme length of the last blog. I don’t know if the trip to Germany was exciting enough to warrant a blog the size of Texas but sometimes I get carried away! I DID have a great time in Germany and its really kind of neat to know that I can hop on a plane and the flight (not including all the other dumb public transportation that I have to rely on to get *to* the plane) is only about 2 hours long and bam! there I am in another country… in Europe! Sorry, my English friends out here think I’m crazy because they asked me what I was doing for Reading Week b/c most of them went home to see their families, and I went to Germany! ….b/c for some reason that made sense….

Anyway! So the week after Germany wasn’t really all that exciting. I spent the time recuperating, sleeping, unpacking, and forgetting to go to class! So I got back on Tuesday, extremely worn out from the overly long day of travel, and for some reason I stayed up late that night, knowing that I was supposed to be at class at 9am the next morning! So I set my alarm, and the next morning I wake up and look at the clock at 9:45am! And I think… “Well, crap!” BUT, I was not going to let that stop me, so I rolled out of bed, thanked God for the extra bit of sleep and jumped in the shower. Now the class I have on Wednesdays (my acting class) is a bit of an odd one. On Wednesdays class is 3 hours long, from 9am – 12pm. So we spend the first half of class workshopping one scene, then we get a break, and we spend the second half of class workshopping the other scene. So I got to class, during the break, walked in for the second half, and got to sign in and get credit for going to class! It was great! And in the time I had to kill, I wrote a letter, got some coffee, checked my mail, took a shower, and got cash (not in that order though…).

So Wednesday being a success, I moved on to Thursday, which I was relatively grumpy for. Not because it was Thursday, but Thursdays I’m on campus from 9am to 4pm. It’s a long day. And from noon to 2, which is usually my break, I now had rehearsal for this scene I’m doing for my acting class this week. So I went to class, pretended to pay attention, and got back to the flat and attempted to cook dinner before going to the Delirious (yes… the band Delirious, they’re still around! And still British….) concert w/ Lucy and her boyfriend Tim. So, we’re standing in line w/ my friend Micha, and one of her friends who I’d never met, and we start talking and all of the sudden her friend looks at me and says, “You’re foreign, aren’t you?” And I started laughing! No one had ever called me “foreign” before. I felt like an illegal alien or something! So I tell her that yes, I am in fact “foreign”, and she looks at me and says, “Well, what language do you speak?” By this time, we’re *all* laughing. Me, Micha, Micha’s dad, Lucy, and I think we even got a chuckle out of Tim, and Micha looks at her friend and says, “She speaks English!” The fact that I was American and spoke English (albeit American English) quite fluently, rather than being from some obscure foreign country didn't quite sink in apparently. Anyway, the concert was pretty cool, but I ended up coming back a bit early to try and clear my head and cool off from a grumpy day. I hate grumpy days.

Anyway, Friday was exciting. And yes… “exciting” really is the word I want. Friday is my sleep in day, remember? So I slept in! I go into the kitchen to cook breakfast/lunch and Dan is in there cooking bacon on our grill. Well he accidentally let the grease in the pan get too hot and it bursts into flames! Real, honest, big, hot flames! So Dan jumps back and just stares at this pan which he has relocated, and Emma starts screaming “WET TOWEL! WET TOWEL!!!” So, naturally, I book it for the dirty towels while Dan and Emma launch themselves toward the clean ones (which, in their defense, were much closer to the sink). So they throw the towels into the sink, wrench the water on, and fling this soaking wet towel onto the flaming grill! Meanwhile I’ve got one of the dirty towels and I’m trying like mad to get all the smoke away from the fire alarm (because you KNOW how much I hate the fire alarm!), and Anna is just stood there in complete shock watching the entire thing with her jaw glued to the floor. So the fire went out and Dan took the entire thing and put it out the window, which is now wide open to try to get the smoke out of the kitchen! All in all, it was quite the tremendous little event! No one got hurt, the fire alarm did NOT go off (thank God), and now we know that the grease can and will catch on fire if it gets too hot. Duly noted.

Anyway, Saturday saw me sat in my kitchen deep in rehearsal (translated: some rehearsal, mostly complaining about the director) for our scene for my acting class w/ all my scene partners, drinking coffee (mm… coffee). That night the girls and I met up with some of Emma’s friends in town and went out to eat at this Chinese place called, I freaking kid you not, Wagamama! Think Pei Wei. It was pretty good. But its so weird, you don’t tip your servers here near as much as in America b/c the servers are paid at the VERY LEAST minimum wage. So they don’t rely on tips, so they’re happy, yes, HAPPY, when they get 10%! I almost died when our check, for 10 of us, was over £100, and we tipped £9. But such is life in Britain.

So Sunday & Monday were pretty boring. Lucy and I fought the busses to try to go to church in the evening again. Although this time we tried the Baptist Church, and we didn’t really know where it was, but by some miracle of God we found the place, and on time too. The service was alright. They were having a youth-led service, so it was a bit out of the ordinary, as I understand it, so I think we might go back to see a proper service. I think we might go back next week. Monday, I went to class and had rehearsal again… Nothing new. Oh, but I got to ride in my friend Jess’s car on the wrong side of the car… That was cool. Oh, and my wonderful night of NOT SLEEPING that I had last night. But that’s a different story. Lets just put it this way…. The hours between 1am and 7am are reserved for sleeping, therefore people should be relatively quite, right? Apparently not. Anyway, I think I’m drinking too much coffee too…. That could have been it.

So this morning I woke up early and heard the wonderful Tuesday test fire alarm. And then Heather, Leigh, and I went to Morrison’s to do some Thanksgiving shopping. We’re having a feast for Thanksgiving in which we are going to go all out with our limited resources and Heather is planning on cooking for about 15 people. Now, we don’t have an oven so we’re going to attempt to cook our 16 pound turkey (which Heather had a bit of a hard time finding) in our MICROWAVE! Yes… you read that right: we are going to cook our turkey in our microwave. Shocking, I know. But we don’t have an oven! And apparently our microwaves double as convection ovens… So needless to say, if the turkey goes up in flames like the bacon grease did, then at least we’ll have one GREAT story. And the Brits will not be disappointed by their first Thanksgiving.

So besides rehearsal and shopping today, it hasn’t really been that exciting of a Tuesday. Except that it rained again today. Heather made the observation that it seems to rain every Tuesday. I was inclined to agree. I think we should write a song. Oh, but I did get into a discussion with Anna (our resident British political head) about Bill Clinton and the American presidency and yadda yadda yadda. Its amazing how patriotic you become when you’re far away from home….

Well our scene is supposed to be performed tomorrow morning in class and that’s in approximately 7 hours, but I have to be there in 6 which means I’ve got to be up in 5! So I think I might sign off and hope that tonight I get a much better sleep than I did last night.

Wow… this one was long too. BUT, now I’m all caught up, so no more of this back story stuff that takes forever. Hope you all are well and I hope that Thanksgiving in the States is an amazing experience! I hear Uncle Mark is cooking up a quite a storm at my parents house… I wish I could be there! Oh well, I get microwaved turkey!

GERMANY!

Once again, I do apologize for the delay in writing this blog! It’s been what, five days? Well, regardless, I believe I left the last blog with the promise that I would write about my trip to Germany next. So, here I am, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, sat at my computer, ready to tell you the story. Here’s hoping you enjoy it!

Right, so Wednesday night (Nov 7) found me up late finishing the two essays that were to be handed in the next morning. I finally went to sleep at about 3 am, knowing full well that I was supposed to be up about 4 hours later to take a shower, wash & dry my bath towel, turn in my essays, catch the bus, and make it to the train station in order to catch my train at 1045am. That night I had an extremely restless night, and was actually glad to wake up at about 715 am just so that I could get out of my bed! Everything went well, I finished packing, left on time, walked into campus with Emma, turned in the essays, and hopped on the bus. I ended up getting to the train station about an hour early, which was alright, because I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going as this was the first time I had ridden the train all by my lonely self.

Fortunately, the train ride was rather painless and quite a bit easier than I thought it would be and I arrived at Stansted Airport (which is in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours away from Norwich) about 2 hours before my flight. This was good because Ryanair, the budget airline I was flying with, had suggested that I arrive early in order to check in and go through passport control and all that fun stuff, b/c this is technically an “international” flight. So I get there, and I have my one carryon item that I am allowed, and I checked the suitcase before I left to make sure it was the right size, but I didn’t bother checking the weight. Well, it turns out the carryon item can only be 10 kg, and mine was 11.7 kg. So the lady looks at me and says, “Well, you’re going to have to take some stuff out”. I just looked at here. Where in the WORLD was I supposed to move the stuff to? They only allow you ONE carryon item, and that was the only bag I’d brought. So I had to check it. Now my frustration with Ryanair was growing. Being a budget airline, to keep the cost of the flight down, you have to pay for EVERYTHING else. So I paid £10 to check my ONE bag that was just BARELY too heavy.

So I get my bag checked, go through security, and think, “Well, I’ve got two hours to kill. Now what am I gonna do?” So I wandered the airport, and read the plays I had brought with me. Chekhov really isn’t the most interesting thing to read in the airport, but beggars can’t be choosers. Two hours later, I’m standing in line waiting to get on to my plane which is across the runway. They finally let us board, but we’ve got to walk across the runway in freezing cold weather to get on the plane. The flight was pretty good, only about 1 hr 45 min, and they, again in the name of budget flights, charged me for my water! Now I’m getting fed up. Well, I arrive in Frankfurt-Hahn airport which is ALSO in the middle of nowhere (because Ryanair cant fly into big airports… oh no, that’d be too hard!) and so I have to take a bus from there to Heidelberg which was my ultimate destination. Fortunately, they had a bus that went straight to Heidelberg. The problem was that it only leaves once every 3 hours. So the closest departure time was 5 minutes after my plane touched down, but now that I had checked my bag and had absolutely NO idea where this bus stop was, I inevitably missed the bus and had to wait an extra 3 hours for the next one. At about 8:45pm, I get on the bus, after waiting at the bus stop and chatting with this German guy for a few minutes. (I spent 2 of my hours waiting in the airport reading Catcher in the Rye because it was warmer.) I read and slept on the bus for 2 hours, and finally made it into Heidelberg at 11pm where Jimmy was waiting for me at the bus stop. All in all, I was traveling, from the time I caught the bus at UEA to the time I got off the bus in Heidelberg, for 12 FULL hours. It was a long day.

So, naturally, as soon as I met up with Jimmy, we went to a pub! Why not, right? I was in Germany, and Jimmy said I *needed* to get my first German beer. So we went to an Irish pub! I laughed. It was fun though, and we stayed there for a while and then went back to his dorm where we attempted to watch a movie but ended up falling asleep instead.

The next morning, I woke up rather refreshed, at about noon. Wondering what we were going to do with our day, Jimmy and I caught the bus into the center of Heidelberg and walked around for a bit. Finally we decided to go on the Bergbahn, a little train that takes you up the mountain where you could, while you were colder than you’d ever been before, see the entire city!

It was gorgeous! On the way down, we stopped at the Heidelberg castle and walked around that. It was also pretty cool. Makes me wish we had castles in America! After that, Jimmy and I went shopping. Haha, yes, Jimmy and I went shopping! He bought a beanie and I bought one of those great European pea coats that I’d seen everyone wearing. Its great, and I love it! That night, Jimmy insisted that I try real German Schnitzel so we went to the Schnitzel House with some other Americans that he knew. We then met up with some of his other friends at this other pub, watched a movie, and called it a night.

Saturday we had fun sleeping in again, and didn’t really do much, but on Sunday I got to go to church in Germany! Jimmy goes to a Calvary Chapel out here which has its service mostly in English, and then translated to Germany which was really interesting to hear. It was again really neat to see other Christians worshiping in a different part of the world in a completely different language.

That night, we went to this tiny little bar called the Cave that has an underground part to it where they have live jazz music every Sunday night. So all these people crowd into this tiny little room and watch really really good jazz music! It was one of the coolest little pub/bar/clubs that I have been to since I got to Europe. Now I just have to find something like that in Norwich! (But I have since had no luck…) Oh, and the best part about going to the jazz club is that Jimmy and I rode bikes there! I don’t think that I had ridden a bike in probably 5 or 6 years, and I was a big shaky, especially because I was using his roommates bike, which was a bit big for me. But I felt like a kid again. :)

So on Monday, Jimmy had class, which ended up getting cancelled, so we decided to make the best of the afternoon and catch the train to somewhere close. We ended up going to Worms, which was about an hour away. Now, you may ask, “Why Worms?” Well, it was in Worms that Martin Luther was tried for heresy in the early 1500’s. Unfortunately the church that he was tried in has long since been demolished but there’s a memorial/statue thing in a park there where the church originally stood.

The statue was cool to see, but it was under construction. :( Other than that, we were able to go into a big dome church, which was really pretty, but Worms really didn’t have much more to offer besides that. So we headed back to Heidelberg, and on the way back, we stopped in Manheim, in hopes that we could salvage a big of our lost day, but to no avail. Manheim at 6pm was just as boring. So we made it back to Heidelberg, and watched yet another movie!

And with Tuesday my trip was concluded. And I got to do the exact same day of travel as I had done on Thursday except backwards this time. The three hour bus, the checking of the bag, the middle of nowhere airports, and the train rides. BUT, my train had gotten cancelled, so I had to take a few different trains, ultimately arriving in Norwich much later than I had intended. I caught the bus back home, stopping to get a bit of food so I could make dinner, and finally made it home about 5pm.

All in all, the trip to Germany was both fun and a success. It was really cool to see Jimmy, but surreal to know that we were bumming around Germany, without parents or any of our friends, knowing that he lived there and I was going to go back “home” to England. Being in Germany was pretty cool too and I was reminded forcibly of my dad’s family, eating bratwurst and “toasting” by smashing beer mugs together yelling, “PROST!” I also have found my new favorite food: the “donner”. Its basically a pita with lamb meat that they shave off this big spit of meat; apparently it’s a Mediterranean thing, but they are beyond amazing, and apparently I CAN get those in Norwich.

Anyway, that was my trip to Germany. Once again, here’s the link to ALL the pictures:

http://unm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19191&l=fcaf1&id=545464971

I apologize that this was so long! But hopefully it was entertaining, and now I can get a bit more caught up on these blogs! I hope life in the States is going awesome. I miss you all, and I can honestly say that while living here continues to feel more and more like home, I miss ABQ and UNM and everyone there more and more each day. Right, done being sappy, hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Past Week....

...has been a blur! Sorry, I finally got homework and so I've been trying to write these two essays and get ready for my trip to Germany to see Jimmy (which is where I am right now), so I finally got those turned in yesterday, and now here I am: writing a blog in Jimmy's dorm in Heidelberg! Anyway, lets get right down to it, shall we?

SATURDAY. Saturday night was really cool b/c they had the Bonfire Night celebrations in Earlham Park, which is right across the street from my dorm. It was a pretty quiet weekend as about half of our dorm decided to go home for the weekend, so Emma, Leigh, Lucy and I had been planning to go the bonfire for the past week together. So we are all set to go at about 7 ish, and all of the sudden we start seeing massive fireworks go off outside our windows (from the park) at about 6:30. So, in fear that we had missed the much anticipated fireworks, the four of us went running (literally, it was funny) out the door, across the parking lot, and across the street. Well as we're walking it finishes, but we were sure that 6:30 was far too early for the fireworks, so we asked one of the ladies who was directing traffic (because apparently the whole of Norwich was at Earlham Park that night) and she informed us that the fireworks we had just seen were for the kids and that the bigger show would get underway at about 8:30.

So in ecstasy and joy (or something...) we got into the park where it looked like the Midway at the NM State Fair, on a smaller, colder, and wetter scale.... on grass. So by this time we had like two hours to kill so we walked around and saw some of the lame rides and overpriced food and rip-off games, and we got to this one, I think it was called the Rotator. Anyway, its this gigantic cylinder that’s probably a good 20 or 25 ft in diameter, and you stick about 30 people in this thing w/ their backs to the wall and then it starts spinning. Well when it gets going fast enough, they drop the floor out from under you, about 2 ft below your feet. Well with the centrifugal (or is it centripetal?) force you stay stuck to the wall while its spinning, despite the fact that you are standing on air! So, i thought that sounded like the coolest thing ever and I convinced Emma to ride it with me, as well as a couple of her friends. It was pretty neat.

Anyway, we then proceeded to get some food, hamburgers doused in onions.... mmmm....., and candy floss (cotton candy). We went to look at the bonfires, but seeing as it was a city mandated thing the firemen were the ones in charge and they were relatively wimpy fires (at least according to Lucy and Emma, so have seen their fair share of Bonfire Night fires). So after complaining about that, we amused ourselves with taking pictures until the fireworks started. Finally they did and they were freaking awesome! I was trying to take pictures but it didn't work so well, but I posted some of them, you can check them out w/ my other pictures here:

BONFIRE NIGHT PICTURES

So that was Saturday: overall a success. SUNDAY, however, was a different story. We really just couldn't win on Sunday, that’s all there is to it. Lucy and I got up Sunday morning to go catch the bus so that we could go to Holy Trinity, the Anglican Church between campus and the heart of Norwich. Unfortunately the bus was about 15 minutes late which would have meant we would be that late, if not later, to the church service. Neither of us wanted to be that late so we decided to just go to the evening service instead. Well, now that we were already awake, we figured we had better start our days. We both had homework but neither of us had eaten anything, and I had been craving good ol' American pancakes for the past three days, so we walked to Tesco and bought the stuff we'd need.

We got back to the flat and I started cooking, but I had a bit of trouble seeing as they don't measure anything in cups, just litres and mililitres! So I ended up guessing... essentially, and the pancakes turned out alright. Definitely going to try them again. Emma and Lucy seemed to find them fascinating, b/c they were quite a bit thicker than English pancakes, and they're sweeter too.

So after homework, Lucy and I went to go catch the bus (early this time... arg) to go to church. We got there fine and went to church, and it was actually really really cool. The church building was really gorgeous, and the service was good, and we actually ended up talking to the pastor after, and he was really nice. Now we've got 2 more churches to try in town and then hopefully we'll be able to pick one and stay there. Ok, so after the service we had to catch the bus again, but since we had talked to the pastor we had about a half hour wait (the busses only come once ever 30 minutes on Sundays). So to kill that half hour we went into this little convenience store and got a couple things. Well as we're paying, we see the bus, EARLY THIS TIME, go past the store. It was upsetting. So instead of waiting ANOTHER half hour, we walked home. Yes... yes we did. 45 minutes in 10 degree C weather. Oh boy, that was fun. So I got home all hot and bothered that we'd missed the bus but apparently I got over it because I woke up the next morning and it was MONDAY!

So this week was what they call "Reading Week" where basically we don't have classes, but rather we have a full week off of classes to catch up on reading and write essays, so I had two essays due Thursday of Reading Week that I HAD to turn in before I flew off to Germany. Right, anyway, Monday and Tuesday were spent pretending to write my essays as well as actually writing them. I went to the library on Monday and was extremely productive, which was cool. Tuesday saw the completion of *most* of the essays at about 230am. Wednesday rolled around and I finished the essays and got them ready to turn in Thursday morning.

We also went into town and did some laundry on Wednesday, but the most exciting part is that Lucy cut my hair! Now I know that isn't really exciting news in and of itself, but there's a story behind it. Ok, back home Shannon cuts my hair, and I love it b/c she always does such a darn good job and then I don't have to pay the Supercuts people (or worse, a salon!!!) to cut my hair. So, seeing as Shannon isn't out here in England and my hair is still growing (darnit) I had to do something about it... and paying 10 quid for a haircut wasn't an option. Anyway, Lucy agreed to cut my hair, even though she'd never done it before, but she's an OCD perfectionist so I figured I was in good hands.... and 2 hours (yes... 2 hours) later my hair was cut! It was actually kinda fun and she did a great job!

So that brings us to THURSDAY on which my grand adventure to Germany started. Unfortunately that story is for the next blog b/c its 1 am and not only do I have class in the morning, but I have only been back in Norwich for about 6 hours. But don't worry, I'll be blogging again soon. I'm so sorry it took me so long to get these up! But to whet your appetite I DID post pictures of the trip, so here's the link!

LINK TO MY PICTURES of GERMANY

Enjoy, and be sure to check back in a day or two to get the Germany story. We both had a good time, and it was really cool to see Jimmy... especially in Germany!

Until next time.... Cheers!

How Exciting Is Life?

Right, so a couple of rather entertaining things have gone down since my last blog. Wednesday Night I was introduced to English Pancakes. They're considerable flatter than American pancakes... in fact, they're more like crepes. And you squeeze lemon on them and the sprinkle sugar and roll 'em up and then eat them! It was kinda entertaining. Apparently we were eating dessert pancakes, but you can also make ones that would haver mince and carrots and other stuff in them for dinner. I'm a bit confused, but I'm sure it'd be good. Lucy made them for everyone and we all had a lot of fun seeing how many we could eat. Heather and I were thoroughly entertained, and they Brits thought we were crazy. Its so weird, all the little things that amuse us. For instance, they syrup we were putting on the pancakes came in a tin instead of a squeeze bottle, so Heather and I were not only fascinated, but we were playing with it! Emma told me I was acting like I was five.... which I was!

Anyway, so I had to perform my scene w/ my scene partner in my acting class on Thursday. That’s always slightly terrifying. We had to pick a scene from Shakespeare, and then we were to perform it in front of the class and then we’d be graded on it. So after about a week’s worth of rehearsal we do our scene: Act II, Scene 2 of Macbeth. We made this sweet cardboard dagger covered in tin foil, and overall the scene seemed to go well. Then our teachers started talking… we got this “general observation” after all the scenes had gone that tragedy and death is more than just yelling and if we were yelling it was turning them off. So apparently I’m screwed. Oh well, we don’t get our mark til next week (or maybe the week after), so I may be fretting about nothing, but I’m a bit frustrated with this class. Oh well, I’ve already complained enough.

Thursday night, Leigh and I went to the drama studio and saw a series of short plays written by drama students. The shorts were entertaining, but on the way back we found a shopping cart stuck in one of the bushes, so I got all excited and got the shopping cart and wheeled it back to our dorm. For those of you who are wondering, no I was NOT drunk that night, nor had I had ANY alcohol! Anyway, we had fun standing in the parking lot throwing candy up at our flatmates on the 3rd floor. I think we made this guy on the 2nd floor kinda grumpy b/c I kept hitting his window instead of the ones on the 3rd floor. Hehe....

Ok, so moving on. Friday was the laziest day I think I’ve had since I got here. I was planning on writing my essay, or at least starting the research for it, but that definitely didn’t happen. Haha, so I watched The Office instead and made breakfast. Ok, so a few nights ago, my friend Lucy (not my flatmate, different Lucy) had suggested this “Mexican” restaurant in Norwich, and being New Mexican I thought it could be fun to try it out, right? I asked a couple of my flatmates if they’d be interested in trying it out and they seemed to like that idea. It ended up being me, Emma, Lucy, and Leigh. Almost everyone else had gone home for the weekend. So I check it out on the internet b/c we needed to find out where this place is, and immediately all these little red flags start going up b/c, first, its called Mambo Jambo, and second, it describes itself as “Creole, Cajun, Mexican and many more delicious flavours and sensations”. So yeah, I was a bit nervous but we decided to go for it anyway.

So we get there, and its upstairs. It’s the weirdest thing b/c all the buildings here are two stories high, so the door is on the ground and then you have to go up a flight of stairs to get to the restaurant. Its kinda cool. Ok, so we get up there and its not quite your typical Mexican restaurant. Its got burgers on the menu, and seafood enchiladas. Freak out, right? So we order, and I order “Beef Chili Enchiladas” and I have NO idea what I’m going to get, but I was being brave. My food comes and my “enchilada” is more like a burrito, w/ Texas Chili (beans, ground beef, tomato sauce and a bit of spice), smothered in tomato “enchilada sauce” and sour cream. Haha, I laughed. It was good, but it was NOT enchiladas. But hey, what should I have expected? Anyway, we went to Tesco after and got some ice cream so that we could go back to the flat and watch Friends.

On a side note, I decided that since I had been so tremendously lazy on Friday that before we went out I really should do *something* with my hair. So I’m all set to blow dry and straighten it, so I plug my hair dryer in w/ my great American to British plug adapter, and my hair dryer plug literally blows up! Ok, maybe “blows up” is too strong of a phrase, but there was definitely a spark and a noise and then it stopped working, and now the switch on the plug is black. Haha, I guess I should say goodbye to that dryer. I ended up borrowing Emma’s dryer and her straightener. I think I may have to buy British ones.

Well that’s mostly it. Since I didn’t write my essay yesterday, I gotta get a move on it today. Tonight is Bonfire Night too, so I gotta get my stuff done before that. Oh, Bonfire Night! It’s this celebration of the day that they caught Guy Fawkes, the dude who was planning on blowing up the House of Parliament. I guess in history when they caught Guy Fawkes they burned him at the stake, so to celebrate the fact that the House of Parliament *didn’t* get blown up, they burn dummies of Guy Fawkes and set off tons of fireworks. Anyway, there’s a bit thing down at the park across the street tonight, so I think we’re going to go down there. I should be putting more pictures up after tonight of fireworks and stuff.

TTFN!