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!