Christmas in England!

Hi Kids! So we’ve made it past Christmas and it on to New Years. This is officially the first Christmas that I’ve ever spent away from home, and I must say that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I missed my family dearly. Haha, that sounded funny, but I really did. Anyway, I should probably start at the beginning. I believe last time I left you on the train riding to Colchester from Norwich. Well I got to Colchester just fine but then I had to jump on a coach to London, but there was some mishap on the motorway (I think) because we got delayed by about 45 minutes. So I get into London and I had to hop on the underground and take it to far west London where Lucy was going to pick me up. The trip went fine it just took forever. The weird thing was that it was super foggy *all* day long. And this wasn’t just any fog; it seemed to get progressively worse all day and it never let up. Lucy and her dad said that they don’t normally have fog like that. I know I would have been slightly hesitant to drive in it, it was that thick.

Anyway, I made it to Lucy’s house, met her parents and her younger sister Rachel, we were able to chill for a little while, get me settled into my own room (ha, I’ve got my own room! How cool is that?), and then we sat down to eat dinner before we headed off to Lucy’s aunt & uncle’s house (on her dad’s side). We went over there on Christmas Eve Eve and hung out for a while with her aunt and uncle and two cousins. I thought it was funny that that was the extent of her dad’s side of the family, minus her grandparents, but they were certainly lively enough for a much bigger family! That was fun hanging out with them for the night. Her family was extremely welcoming, so I didn’t feel too out of place.

We made it back to the house a bit on the late side, and then we headed off to bed, and after waking up a bit late on Christmas Eve, Lucy and I went to eat lunch w/ Lucy’s boyfriend Tim, and do some last minute shopping for Tim. We went to this pub in a small town next to Lucy’s little town and I got to eat traditional pub food: Cottage Pie. It was quite tasty too. After the pub, we came back home, relaxed a bit more (this is becoming a bit of a habit…), and we ate dinner and got all packed to head off to Lucy’s aunt and uncle’s house (on her mom’s side this time) where we were to spend the next two days. After getting the car all loaded up with presents and bags, and even firewood, we were off by about 9:30 pm, and made it to their house by about half 10.

Again, this side of the family was extremely welcoming also, and again they’ve got two cousins on this side as well, and then their grandma was there also. All of them were quite sweet; her grandma even gave me a hug when I got there, her two cousins (both boys, both a bit younger) were fun and nice, and her aunt and uncle the same. Oh, and their dog, Bertie, a gorgeous golden retriever. So that night, seeing as we had already eaten, we spent in front of the TV watching “The Snowman” which Lucy had gotten for Christmas. I’d never seen it, but it’s a short animated film about a snowman who comes to life and then melts, and its quite sad, and apparently Lucy used to watch it as a little girl and bawl her eyes out every time and then watch it again. So the entire family was quite excited to watch it again with her and see her cry. And she did. It was cute.

Well eventually we made it to bed, and woke up on Christmas morning, took a shower, ate some breakfast, went to church (because you go to church on Christmas Day, not Christmas Eve, here), and then came back home and ate lunch/dinner. By this time the only presents that had been opened were stockings, of which I got one as well! Now see, I say that we at dinner/lunch, but what I really mean is that we nearly died under the weight of this feast (yes, feast) which we were served! It was a 3 course meal, consisting of wine and a smoked salmon starter (Rachel & I got fruit), followed by a massive plate of ham, turkey, sausage & chestnut stuffing (I think), sprouts with bacon bits, carrots, green beans, roast potatoes, and parmesan crusted parsnips, all of which was absolutely amazing! After that, we had Christmas pudding and mince pies. Mmm, those were also amazing.

The food was amazing, and there was quite a lot of it. It was interesting having dinner like that where it was served to you, and having wine was also quite a bit different, and I’m quite excited that Emma had made me learn how to use my utensils correctly (fork in left hand, upside down, w/ knife in right hand) so that I didn’t feel quite so conspicuously American as I otherwise would have. Well, after dinner we proceeded to the living room where the opening of presents began, at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Much to my surprise I got some presents too! All in all it was quite fun, and we finished the day off by eating again (a meal just as good, and every bit as large as lunch!), and watching Ratatouille (which half of us fell asleep in). And thus ended my Christmas away from home. Fortunately, I got to talk to my parents and brothers and sisters-in-law on the webcam, so it wasn’t a Christmas devoid of my family (thank God!).

Anyway, the next day was Boxing Day and we went to the seaside at Shoreham on the south coast of England, where we took a walk and enjoyed the sunshine. After making it back, we ate again (becoming a bit of a trend, eh?), and watched Ocean’s 13 (and I think I might have been the only one laughing…. Hehe, freaking Americans!) But overall, it was really quite fun, and we drove home late that night. Funny thing was, when we got back to the house there had been a power outage, so the house was completely dark, but the power came back on quite quickly.

We spent the next day hanging out and watching TV, including watching the old version of the Italian Job (w/ Michael Caine). That night we went to one of the biggest Marks & Spencer’s in the country (think Macy’s, except bigger and nicer) and tried to hit the sales, but there weren’t as many as we thought there were going to be. Today I think we’re going to hit Windsor and see the castle (where the Queen lives), and then we might hit the pub tonight. It’s really been quite fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas if I had to be away from home. I’m incredibly grateful to all of Lucy’s family, and they’ve been beyond welcoming!

School starts in about two weeks, and I’m not really sure what I’ll do for the rest of the time off, but I’m just glad that school isn’t starting school. One of my teachers actually just emailed me my syllabus for one of my classes next semester, Theatre and Social Change, oh goodie. She’s an American teacher too, she was a co teacher in my acting class last semester… what I don’t understand is how I came out to England, and am now getting taught by an American!?

Anyway, this is me signing off. We’re watching Who’s Line is it Anyway (the British version… and I’m laughing my head off). Have a happy and safe New Years, everyone! Miss you all!

Two Americans, One HUGE British City: LONDON

Hey again. So, I’m sitting on the train from Norwich to Colchester, where I will then take a bus to London. In London, I have to catch the Tube to Uxbridge (in far west London) where Lucy will be picking me up so that we can go to her house, where I will then get to spend Christmas. It’s the weirdest thing. The flat has been empty for over a week now. Thank God Linette came to visit, otherwise I think I might have died of boredom and homesickness! But the strangest part about it is that it only 2 days til Christmas and it doesn’t even sort of feel like it to me. I think the only things that remind me that its Christmas is the tiny fake Christmas tree that’s been sitting in our kitchen for the past 3 weeks, and the fact that I’m steadily running out of money! But, I’m really excited that I get to spend Christmas in a real house with a real family instead of staying at the flat all by myself. So thank God for that (and Lucy’s family!)

Anyway, this week, despite the fact that there’s hardly anyone on campus, has been fun because Linette was here! It was nice to see someone from home, and I didn’t feel quite so foreign having another American here. It was good to see Linette, especially, because I hadn’t seen her in forever. She was able to come out because she was on her way to Kenya (where her husband is from) to spend Christmas there, so she stayed in England with me for a week-long layover on the way.

So the first couple days that she was here we went and explored Norwich. It was cool because we were able to see the Cathedral and the Castle, two places I hadn’t visited yet. The Cathedral was really pretty, and the castle was just cool. However, it’s been absolutely freezing here. The temperature is steadily dropping, and it’s not even that bad in Norwich. It’s considerably worse in London, where we spent the next couple days.

Norwich really isn’t that big, and if you don’t want to shop for days, on end and spend massive amounts of money, and go to nightclubs then there isn’t really a ton to do. So we decided we’d spend 2 days in London. We got the train mid-morning on Thursday, and made it into London at about 12:30pm, arriving at Liverpool St. Station (the street, not the city where the Beatles are from… that’s further north). So we get there, and we don’t really have any idea what we’re doing. Armed with only a map, we got in the queue to buy tickets for the Underground (which neither of us had ever ridden before). Fortunately, the guy at the ticket counter was quite helpful and we got two all day tickets for that day and the next.

So we find our platform and get on the tube and head off to Madame Tussaud’s, London’s wax museum, taking a slight detour to stop at King’s Cross Station and see Platform 9 3/4, the entrance to Hogwarts! Hehe, that was fun, but we only stayed long enough to take a picture, then we continued on to Madame Tussaud’s. We spent an hour or two in there taking pictures of us next to loads of wax figures of famous people. Lenny thought I was crazy because I knew who the majority of these people were supposed to be, and I thought she was crazy because she only recognized some of them! Apparently I read too much celebrity crap, oh well. So seeing these wax figures was way cool, and taking pictures with them was just plain funny, and it’s really quite bizarre how real some of them look! It looks like I’m kissing the *actual* Orlando Bloom! Haha…. Yay!

So Madame Tussaud’s done, we headed off to Piccadilly Circus, which is really just a big roundabout, but there’s loads of theatres around there, and we were hoping to see a show. So we found half price tickets for pretty good seats to go see We Will Rock You, a musical based on Queen songs. Sounds slightly cheesy, right? And it was! But it was actually really cleverly done, despite its incredibly goofy storyline. (Think the Matrix meets Equilibrium, but with music…. Yeah, try to figure that one out!)

Well the show didn’t start for another couple hours, so we went to kill time and check in at our hostel which was further south, across the Thames River. For those of you who don’t know, a hostel is quite possibly the cheapest way to spend the night in Europe. Basically, you rent a bed, not a room. So you pay for a bed in a room that has anywhere from 4 to 16 beds, so you’re sleeping in a room with other people who you’ve never met. BUT, the upside is that its maybe 1/3 the price of even a cheap hotel for the night, and seeing as how we were only staying one night, it was the easiest way to do it.

So we checked into the hostel, and left our bags there and headed off to the show, but we were early so we just walked around and got some food while we were waiting. The show was really really fun, and both Lenny and I enjoyed it a ton. And now I’m a newfound Queen fan. How sad is that?

Well, after a pretty bad night’s sleep at the hostel, we were up and about the next morning by about 8am, and we headed off to see the rest of London, starting with the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral, and the London Eye. We rode the London Eye, and it was really cool to see the whole of London from about 130 ft in the air! We then went to this Star Wars Exhibit where they had a bunch of the original props, costumes, concept drawings, and models from the 6 Star Wars movies. Seeing Darth Vader’s actual costume was pretty darn cool.

The rest of the day we spent walking up the Thames River, and the sun actually decided to shine that day so it was gorgeous, albeit HORRIBLY cold. Further east along the Thames is Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and The London Tower Bridge (the one that opens up to let ships through). So we saw all of those. I won’t bore you with mundane details, but I have pictures of all of it. We took a tour of the Globe, and got to actually see and walk around the theatre. Unfortunately, the original Globe was burned down in the early 1600’s (I think), so this is an exact replica that’s only been around for the past 10 years. But the tour was really interesting. On the other hand, we didn’t actually get to go inside St. Paul’s, but we did get to go up to the top of Tower Bridge, and see it open up too. I’ve got pictures of all of that! In fact, here's all the pictures: PICTURES.

So overall the trip was really fun, and we only had a couple complaints. One, it was way too darn cold, and Lenny and I learned that the insides of your bones can freeze. Two, Linette did something to her foot the day before, so doing all that walking probably wasn’t the best for her, but she made it through. And three, apparently we allowed way too much time, and not enough money for our trip! We ended up sitting at the Burger King at the Liverpool St. Station for about 2 hours waiting for our train because we just needed to sit somewhere that wasn’t cold! But like I said, we were both quite glad that we went, and we had a really good time.

Well yesterday we just did laundry and got some much needed sleep. Lenny had to catch her bus to take her to Heathrow really late last night so that she’d make it to the airport in the morning. And now here I am, after another good night’s sleep, sitting on the train on my way to London again. Oh well, now I’ve got the Underground figured out a bit more, so it shouldn’t be too big of a deal getting across London.

Alright, well I think that’s all for now. Hope you all have a tremendous Christmas, and a Happy New Year, and all that other fun holiday stuff. Eat some red chile for me… I’m not exactly sure what to expect from a proper British Christmas, but I have a funny feeling there will be no chile involved!

Anyway, as they say out here: Happy Christmas!

Junior In A Foreign Freshman Dorm

Junior In A Foreign Freshman Dorm
by J. Michnovicz

I'm an international student, thank God England let me in
And I'm a little freaked 'cause its a place I've never been
But now I put my rubbish not in a trash can but a bin
And calling trousers "pants" seems to be a cardinal sin
And I'm sitting in my room, and its tiny, so tiny
And my shower pod thing looks like it might have once been shiny, but not any more

Chorus.
Now I'm a junior in a foreign freshman dorm
But college for me was already the norm
And to come out here I had to fill out a billion forms
Now I'm a foreign student in a freshman dorm

Now I've been here for three months and one half
And so far it has been a pretty good laugh
But I can't seem to sleep a whole night intact
Swish swish, bang bang, those kitchen doors are crap
And laundry out here is costing me a fortune
But that soup I made last week yielded me five portions

Chorus.
’Cause I'm a junior in a foreign freshman dorm
And college for me was already the norm
And going through customs I had to fill out another form
Now I'm a foreign student in a freshman dorm

Its Christmas time in our British college kitchen
And it’s in here that we eat way too much chicken
We're drinking coffee 'cause it's class that we are ditchin’
And when we need more soap, we all have to pitch in
And I'm just worried that we're all gonna get salmonella
Cause none of the dishes seem to be washed right by the fellas in here

Chorus.
But I'm a junior in a foreign freshman dorm
And college for me was already the norm
And now that I’m here, I’m still filling out forms
’Cause I'm a foreign student in a freshman dorm

Bridge.
And if I could mention just one more thing
It’s that out here I'm old enough to drink

Chorus.
Now I'm a junior in a foreign freshman dorm
But college for me was already the norm
And to go back home I’ll have to fill out another form
Now I'm a foreign student in my British freshman dorm

I'm Back, and I'm ALIVE!

Good news people: I have successfully finished, that’s right FINISHED my first semester of British college! And I straight up couldn't be more excited! I got through all my papers and even my monologue... which I forgot only one (ok... maybe two) lines of, and as far as I know I didn't actually fail anything. Pretty cool, huh? So after staying up ‘til 3 am the night before all my papers were due, I plouwed through the day before... stayed up way too late again just because I could and then slept in ‘til noon yesterday and today. So far, so good.

Anyway, I suppose I should again apologize for the fact that I haven't written in almost two weeks. Quite frankly, nothing overly exciting happened so you didn't miss much, but I was also trying to write 3 papers and get that monologue done & memorized. Anyway, I get them all written, and I’m not really sure how good they are but the point is that I made it through the semester and now I am enjoying the sweet month-long absence from school which is so affectionately termed by the educational community “Christmas Break!” Oh, but just one random thing: I went to both of my classes the last day of school, which I probably didn’t need to do but I did anyway, and in my second and last class my teacher had made mulled wine for the 10 of us in the class! It was so strange to be drinking warm wine with fruit in it not only for the first time ever, but IN CLASS! Ah, the differences between UNM and UEA never cease to astound me….

So after I got out of class on Thursday night, I was going to walk back to my dorm but I just didn’t want to for some reason. Maybe it was because the sun hadn’t quite set yet, and all I could see when I walked out of the drama studio was this absolutely gorgeous fog that was down by the lake. Now, being from New Mexico, we don’t get a whole lot of fog! So naturally, I took the freezing cold walk down to the lake just to stand in the fog. It wasn’t quite as thick as I had hoped it would be when I got into it, but it was still really strange being in the middle of this sort of cold haze, and knowing that everything around you was either extremely clouded or extreme fuzzy. My visibility went from being miles and miles to being a mere couple hundred feet. Seeing the fog over and across the incredibly still lake was pretty awesome too.

Anyway like I said, not a ton has happened. We’ve had a couple interesting things happen here and there. For one, my cooking (I know I say this a lot, but its true!) really has been getting not only better but slightly more adventurous. For instance, I have now made Chicken Fried Rice successfully *three* times now… but I can’t seem to judge how much to make, and every time I make enough to feed a small army. But even Emma said it was getting better! I also ventured into the realm of making Green Chile Stew which was more like very flour-y Green Chile hybrid Soup, or something like that. I suppose when you’re not following a recipe and you’re not a real cook anything can happen, right? Oh, and it does… it does. I’ve also enjoyed my macaroni and cheese (aw, its like home!) and my chile on various other things. My flatmates think I’m crazy, but I’ve finally backed off my chile obsession for just a bit since I actually have some now.

We also made it in to town a couple times to a few things. First, we went to go see the Royal Shakespeare Company put on The Comedy of Errors, and it was absolutely fantastic! That play seems to get better every single time I read it or watch it. I even convinced Lucy, Leigh and Heather to go with me, promising them that they really would like it. They all seemed to enjoy it though, and Lucy was laughing so hard during the performance that it was almost funnier to watch her than it was to watch the show! Oh, and one weird thing about British theater: apparently, in all shows, at intermission they have these people that have these little carts in the aisle and they sell ice cream! It’s the strangest thing, and apparently its at nearly *all* shows!

Apart from the show, we also went to this place called The Waffle House. BUT, this is not the same kind of waffle houses that we have in America. Sure, they’ve got the standard waffles, but this place also has savory waffles! They have waffles for dinner, but they’re not sweet! It’s a bit hard to describe. The waffle I got had hummus, avocado, salad, and sweet chile glaze/sauce on it. Then Lucy got one with ham, cheese sauce, and mushrooms! It was so strange but the waffles were absolutely awesome! I will definitely be going back there!

Beyond going to the theater and eating though, we’ve had fun going into town and going Christmas shopping. Now, when I say Christmas shopping, I mean buying stuff, not necessarily for other people. Emma and I went into town a couple weeks ago to buy presents for other people, and somehow I ended up with some clothes, a pair of shoes, and some random other stuff! I don’t know how that happened?! But, it was a successful trip because Emma and I had to get some presents for our flatmates. We decided that instead of all of us buying presents for every person, or just the few that we wanted too, that we’d do a Secret Santa thing and pick names out of a hat, so that everybody only had to buy one present instead of 8. Fortunately it turned out really really good. We had a lot of fun wrapping the presents and having a mini Christmas with our flat. We’ve had Emma’s miniscule little Christmas tree set up on our kitchen table for a couple weeks now, so it felt every so slightly festive. Everyone seemed to enjoy their gifts, and it was just all around fun. We even took it a step further and bought our cleaner a little gift! We bought her a bottle of mulled wine and some shortbread. She had gotten us a card, so we thought we’d return the favor, and give her a little something because she’s the reason all of our stuff stays clean!

The weird part is that now that we’re on Christmas break, the flat is completely empty. School ended and it seems that almost the whole of UEA went home… wherever that is. So here I am, in the flat all by myself tonight. Fortunately, I only have to be here alone for one night. Linette is due to get here sometime tomorrow night, so that’ll be nice. And she’s staying for a week. Hopefully we’ll get to bum around Norwich and maybe even go to London and do all the wonderful touristy stuff. Then after Linette leaves, the same day (next Sunday) I’m going over to Lucy’s house to spend Christmas with her family. So that will be fun. I would hate to spend Christmas in the flat alone. Even Heather is gone. She’s flying all over Europe with some of her friends from back home. She just texted me to tell me that Madrid, Spain is gorgeous. I’m a little jealous!

On a different note, my friend Leigh (who lived in the room next to mine, from Maryland) moved out of her room yesterday. Emma and I went with her to the train station last night. It was sad… She was only here for one semester and all of us were sad to see her go. Leigh and I got along really really well and she was a whole lot of fun. Leigh, if you’re reading this, I miss you already! But watching her pack all her stuff, and get her room completely emptied out was a bit on the sobering side. I know that I’m going to be doing that in about 7 months and I can’t even imagine it. Fitting all this stuff that I brought, and all the extra stuff that I’ve acquired (and am going to acquire…) in suitcases to take them on a plane, once again uproot my life and move back “home” is just a really weird thought. Its strange because it actually feels like Norwich is home to me now. Not completely, obviously, but I referred to it as “home” the other day, almost subconsciously.

All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t come for just one semester. Yes, I miss home, but 4 months would be far too short. I still have so much I want to do! I think Emma and I might go up to Liverpool and see the Beatles’ Museum sometime next semester. And I want to maybe visit Amsterdam, Spain, and France over the Easter Holidays. All the Brits think its crazy that we Americans just hop over to Europe like its nothing. I explained it to Sadiq like this, “You guys actually live in Europe so you have all the time in the world to do this stuff. We, on the other hand, are only here for a year. We’re going to make the most of it!” That seemed to make sense to him!

Ah, now for some good ol’ dumb news. I have written another stupid song. Yes, The Superpoke Song wasn’t enough (even though we’ve passed 18,000 views on YouTube now… haha!), so I wrote a song all about being a junior college student living in a foreign freshman dorm. Sounds dumb, I know, but its actually kinda funny. I’ll try to get it up on youtube soon, but I haven’t figure out how to yet. The file’s a bit big….

Now the bad news: its getting really really cold. I thought it was cold when I got here, but I was sadly mistaken. I was walking to class the other day though, and there was a ton of frost all over the ground and the trees and stuff. The air was super duper cold and it was all foggy as I was walking to class. I can’t wait til it actually snows! Today, I think it was only about 2 degrees C while I was walking around Holt. Oh, yeah, today (since my entire flat is gone) I went to this little town about an hour away called Holt with my friend Jess (from one of my classes) and her friend. It was a little on the boring side, but it was fun to drive in an actual car (yay, not a bus!) and to get hang out with other people instead of sitting in my flat all alone. Actually, for being alone, its been a relatively productive day. This morning I helped Emma load her car up so that she could drive home. Lucy left yesterday, and Anna the day before, but that’s beside the point! But after I went to Holt, I came home and cleaned our kitchen, and did some laundry and got my room all cleaned so that when Linette gets here my room won’t look like a tornado hit it!

Anyway, I should probably get going. Again, I apologize for there being such a long wait in between blogs. Hopefully you’ll hear from me sooner next time. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy December!

Pictures

Hey, so my facebook account was finally nice to me this morning. Last night I tried to upload these pictures THREE times and it stalled on me every time. Consequently, facebook and I got in a fight last night when it stalled just as I was about to win my poker tournament. BAH! Anyway, here's the link to the pictures. Hope you enjoy them!

LONDON PICTURES

"LONDON, BABY!"

Well, hello again! Apparently I only write blogs on Sundays now… I’m not entirely sure how that happened. Sorry about that! I’ll try to get more regular with these…. I wish I could have some fantastical story to tell you, in which wild and unimaginable things happened that prevented me from writing on my blog! But, alas, I’m still just a poor college student living in England, and that really is all.

Anyway, it’s been a pretty good week, all things considered. Nothing overly exciting, just, y’know, going to class (or not), shopping, studying, doing homework, watching movies… that sort of thing. Oh, but life is good: I got a package in the mail from one of my friends who is stationed w/ the US Air Force in Leeds and it contained my much anticipated green chile (thank GOD!) and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, which thanks to him, I didn’t have to order off ebay! (Thanks again, Baine!) Anyway, the day I got it, I was all excited, and the postman could tell, I think, because I’ve gone into the post room almost every other day for the past two weeks telling them that I’m expecting a package, and I keep getting other stuff (or nothing at all) and now the postmen know my name. They don’t even ask me for my campus card anymore! Its kinda funny… Anyway, the day I got the package I left the post room with a gigantic smile on my face, and I made mac & cheese WITH green chile almost as soon as I walked in the door, and it was like heaven in a bowl! *sigh* I was happy.

So that was Monday, and then on Tuesday Lucy and I went shopping and I bought a new belt. At least I think that was Tuesday. I don’t really remember. Did I already tell you about my new belt? I can’t remember. Anyway, my new belt is cool. Its black studs on a black belt, and its groovy. I had to get a new belt because my other black belt is slowly making its way back to the leather gods… or wherever belts go when they die. I liked that belt, but now I like my new one! We did some more shopping on Friday too, and I was able to get some sweaters (or jumpers, as their called here) along with a new pair of trousers. They have this store called TK Maxx, and it is *exactly* the same as TJ Maxx back home, except that this one has Diesel Jeans! I almost bought some, but they were still kind of expensive.

Anyway, class has been good this week, except that my homework load is getting a bit heavier as school draws to a close. We only have two more weeks to go and I’ve got a handful of papers to do and a monologue I need to select, memorize, and perform… all in the last week of school. So I’m not swamped, but I do have homework. It’s a bit odd. I started working on one of the essays last night, and I should have it written by tomorrow night. But I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow because I am officially *completely* out of food. So much so that my dinner tonight was eggs and toast b/c that’s all I had left! It was good though… Cholula sauce makes everything better. Also, Anna's birthday was on Thursday so her mom had a bunch of finger foods and snacky things delivered to the flat so we had a bit of a celebration that night. That was fun.

BUT, the real kicker of the week is that Heather and I, and my friend Emma (not my roommate, but one of my fellow international and theater students from Canada) went to LONDON today! Yes, I have finally gone to London. Some of the international students went today. The university provided a bus for us to take this morning and then bring us back tonight. London is about 2 ½ hrs away from Norwich by coach. So I slept on the way over there (at 8am this morning… so…. early….), and on the way back.

It was a really fun trip, b/c they just dropped us off and then we could do whatever we liked as long as we were back by 6pm to catch the bus back home. So, not really having any idea where we were going or what we were going to do we took an open top bus tour, but sat under the small canopy because (welcome to London) it was raining! Bah, so the first day in London and we get true English awful weather. Oh well, I guess it kind of makes the experience, right? Well, the open top bus tour was pretty enjoyable. It gave us a feel for the city (at least the extremely limited part of the city that we saw), and helped us to know what was within walking distance. We by no means saw the whole of London (which, by the way, is home to an estimated 8 million people), but we were able to see some of the big things like the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and stuff like that. We mostly just got to look at all that stuff from the outside instead of actually going in to any of it, and we figured that that was ok, seeing as it was our first time in London and all of us were planning on going back eventually.

We took a ton of pictures though, and walked around so much that my feet were hurting by the end of it. But I got to see the River Thames (which I’ve always wanted to see, ever since Mr. Kinzer made us know where it was on the map of England back in 7^th Grade), and standing in front of Buckingham Palace was surreal. That sounds lame, I know, but I’ve dreamed of going to London for the past 7 years, and now I’m finally here. I will gladly go back! We went to the trashy little tourist shops, which are ALL OVER, and we took pictures like mad tourists, and even got to check out some tiny little places. We went to an Italian sandwich place which charged us an arm and a leg, but at least we were out of the rain to eat lunch, and we went to the most expensive chocolate shop I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like walking in to the Tiffany’s of chocolate! And we even went into the shop of the Hard Rock Café London. And on top of it all, we walked past loads and loads of theatres and to not be able to go in one and see a show was absolute torture, especially since tonight was the last night to see Patrick Stewart play Macbeth!!! BUT, I think Emma and I (Canadian Emma, not roommate Emma) might go back and try to see a show. That would be awesome! Anyway, we didn’t get to ride the Tube at all, though, because we wanted to actually see the city, and going underground didn’t seem to be the right thing to do. I know the tube is half the London experience, but I’m sure I’ll ride it next time I’m over there. It’s only 2 hours and a 6 quid train ride away.

Well that was my day. It was quite fun, and now I’m pooped. I have class tomorrow morning at 10am, and I should probably read the play that the lecture is over. Bah. Well I hope you all are doing well and that Christmas decorations are in full force over there, because they certainly are over here. We’ve been listening to Christmas music over here (and by “we” I mean me and Emma), and Emma’s got her room all Christmas-ed out. She’s taken to calling it “Santa’s Grotto”. I laughed. Well, I think I’ll be off. I might play some poker (which I’ve gotten addicted to on facebook) to relax myself before bed. Don’t worry, its not for real money, mom & dad, so I’m not wasting my college education! Love you all and miss you tons!

PS. I should have pictures up by tomorrow. My internet is running amazingly slow tonight... I'll post again tomorrow with the link! -jm