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

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!