Easter Just West of London

I’m rubbish at blogging. I know I say that every time, and every time I vow that I’m going to do better, but to no avail. Ah, such is life, right? Well, I think its safe to say that not a lot has happened. We are currently enjoying Easter Break which is awesome, especially as we get FOUR full weeks of school off, so I’m again at Lucy’s house trespassing on her parent’s (and her) abundant hospitality. (Sorry, I’ve been reading too much Charlotte Bronte, and my syntax and diction is taking a beating…). Anyway, the last week of school proved rather uneventful, yet again. I didn’t do much work, as I was in anticipation of Easter Break, but I got my essay finished, attended all my classes (aren’t you proud of me?), and had fun hanging out. We had a fun night at the flat near the end of the week with most all of us, Fred made an *amazing* curry, and I think its safe to say that I’ve been officially converted to curry now. I know that’s terrible, and its taken me nearly 7 months, but hey, I like it now, don’t I? I want to learn how to make a Korma too, but I don’t know that I’m that talented yet.

Well, school wrapped up and within a matter of days the flat was almost completely deserted. It’s really strange to be living in a flat where that’s almost empty, in a country that you’re still not 100% familiar with. I spent most of my time in my room on my computer, watching movies, and reading. It was actually sorta nice, but solitude is only so great after the first day or two. I did, however, make excellent progress on reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte, and I’m sure Erin is proud of me for that one…. I promised her that I’d read it about a year ago, and now I *finally* have fulfilled that promise. Good book too…. Sad though.

Anyway, I hopped on the train on Thursday night to head over to Lucy’s house. 4 hours later I had arrived with little trouble, thank God. I’m getting used to the tube system in London now, a little more at least. Hopefully I’ll be able to navigate me and my parents through London when they come. Anyway, Friday morning we went to a Good Friday service at Lucy’s church which was nice. On Saturday, Lucy bravely cut my hair, and now my shaggy mane doesn’t look quite so bad any more. Her cousins thought I was brave to let her do it, although I wasn’t too worried. She’s cut my hair before. My mom wanted to see a picture, but its really not that exciting. Haha, I’m sure you’ll see pictures in my next post because we’ll take an incredible amount of pictures in Spain and Italy I’m sure. But that’s a different topic.

Ok, so Easter was really fun. I woke up and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Talk about weird. Church was nice though, and after church we went to this really nice restaurant called Biggles with Lucy’s dad’s side of the family. It was super good too, and her family is a lot of fun to hang out with. They all came back that night to Lucy’s house and we hung out there chatting and drinking tea. (It really is incredible just how much tea I drink when I’m at Lucy’s house. Its great!) That night though, we went to the Anglican church for their Gospel Choir service. That was fun… especially seeing as it was a bunch of English people singing like a Gospel Choir! They actually sounded pretty good too. Anyway, so far it has been a really nice weekend. I really like hanging out with Lucy’s family, and it really is a blessing that they are so amazingly welcoming to me.

But alas, the time will be cut short. Lucy and I are headed off to Barcelona, Spain tomorrow! I literally can’t wait. We booked our hostels last night, so we’re all set for where we’re staying, and we’ve got to be at the airport at about 7am tomorrow morning, so I think we’re leaving here at 5 am! There really is no better way to start out a trip than waking up and leaving before the sun rises, right? Anyway, we’re spending 3 nights in Barcelona, and then flying to Rome on Saturday where we’ll stay for 4 more nights. We watched the movie Gladiator the other night and it was really strange to think that I’m actually going to be able to SEE the Colosseum, even if it isn’t in great shape anymore.

Still, I can’t believe that I’ll be spending my 21^st birthday in Barcelona. I don’t think its really hit me yet. Unfortunately, reality is going to hit as soon as we get back. I’ve still got that drama project to get finished before we go back to school. Woohoo. Then its all work work work for the next month until school’s out. I almost can’t believe that my time here really is winding up. Only 3 months til I head home, and only 2 ½ months until my parents and brother come out here! I can’t wait to see them!

Oh, and on a completely unrelated and uninteresting note, I almost hit the roof with excitement yesterday. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Ok, one of my favorite bands is The Counting Crows (who aren’t exactly that popular out here), but I listen to their music a lot while I’m cooking in the kitchen so the whole flat has now heard their music in abundance. Well, I’ve only seen them in concert once and ever since then I’ve always wanted to see them again, so when I heard that they were doing a European tour, I was thrilled, right? Well it turns out they’re playing in London about 3 days AFTER I fly home. How awful is that? So I complained to Lucy, naturally. Well I found out that they are touring this summer in the States, after I get back, and they’re actually playing in ABQ with Maroon5 and Augustana. And I know most of you don’t care, but I was absolutely thrilled. I came running down the stairs to tell Lucy, and she didn’t seem to excited, but her dad laughed at me. Haha, I would have laughed at me. Oh, and they’re new CD got released today so I’m listening to that now. Awesome.

Alright, well that’s pretty much it that’s been going on. I’ll be blogging as soon as I get back to tell you all about the trip, but I won’t have a computer out there, so don’t expect anything for at least another week.

Miss you all!