HOME!!

Hey everyone! I've been home for a week now! After a great weekend in Michigan, I had to go back to work on Wednesday.

Sigh . . . I miss London.

I need some flat 22 love, minus the dirtiness.

At least I get to watch TV now! The season finale of Lost? That was some crazy strong crack. A flashforward? GENIUS!!

Yes, this is my life.

Today, I present bored girl:



Bored girl misses the craziness of London and would like to sleep again some time soon. Oh Friday night, you, me, and my soft fluffy pillow, can't get better than that (well it can, but I'm trying to be realistic here).

I do have to say though when I first laid down on my bed Wednesday night after four months sleeping in my Landward bed, I was greeted with the indeniably, wonderful feeling of an actual soft, padded mattress instead of the fake plaid board that masqueraded as one in London. I didn't even know what I'd been missing . . . oh glorious.

On a side note, today in HR, we got an interesting magazine in the mail. It had a scantily clad young man with rippling abs on the front cover and it's title was "Instinct." Now I'm bet you're asking yourself, "Well, Gina, what could possibly be wrong with that?"

Hmm, well, for starters, it's called INSTINCT as in primal, as in lustful, as in I really really really like Barbara Streisand and dressing in drag.

That's right is was a gay magazine.

Why a gay men's magazine is being sent to the CATHOLIC (and it has to be in all capital letters) University of Notre Dame is anyone's guess. Anyway, I was bored and skimmed a few pages. I have to say, some of the ads were hilarious in a disturbing "is that what I think it is?" way.

Oh dear God, this is what boredom has done to me.

Yes, it's 5:30! I'm outta here!

One More Day . . .

Wow, I can't believe it. Tomorrow is my last day in London. I leave for the airport bright and early at 5:30 Wednesday morning. I've had 3 finals so far and one more tomorrow and than that's it. I pack, clean the flat, and London's over.

I never thought I'd say this but I'm incredibly sad to be leaving (Don't even start Mother). I love London and can't wait to come back some day. This has been the best semester ever!

See you all very very soon!

P.S. Please excuse any strangeness in this post. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. Oh look at the pretty butterfly. Here pretty butterfly . . .

I Have My Life Back

Hello everyone. I am making a triumphant return after two weeks of utter hell. Over the past two weeks, I have had 5 papers due, one for every single one of my classes. Because I'm bored and have no better way to spend my time, I've determined that I've written about 14,000 words, which is equivalent to over 40 pages. Now folks that's a whole lotta writin'.

So I've been a little busy, hence why I've been absent from blogdom (and yes, I just made that up).

Currently, I have 12 days left in London before I come home, which actually makes me very sad. I've really grown to like it here and I'll miss it a lot. I'll miss my flatmates too, who, besides their lack of cleanliness, are really awesome. I'll miss the Landward, not because of it's nice or anything (not so much) but because of the whole atmosphere and you know, the boys living right across the hall. Sigh, there's a lot of stuff I'll miss; I won't bore you with all of that right now.

But one thing I will NEVER, EVER miss is the freakin' POUND (or peso as Gramma would put it). When the exchange rate is over 2, it really, really kills my quickly diminishing bank account. Let's call my bank account Sally. Sally has had a rough 4 months. She's been kicked around, stepped on, run over by a double decker bus a few times (because they really don't slow down for pedestrians) and reduced to a much smaller version of herself called WeeSally. Now, WeeSally is in danger of becoming ExtinctSally and is very happy to be going back to the dollar. WeeSally plans to work real hard this summer and hopefully become just plain old Sally again (or at least TeenSally). And if that doesn't work she can also peddle her wares on the street corner. . . er . . . I mean selling lemonade on the street corner. Yep, totally, lemonade, yum, deliciousness.

I realize I've been very bad at reporting my trip to Rome to you all so I'm going to try and remember what we did for the rest of the trip.

Last time I left you, Krista, Molly, and I were eating gelato, our horrible day turned around by awesome Italian pizza and the aforementioned yummy gelato which we would eat at least twice a day.

So after eating our gelato, we preceded to go all over the known planet!

First we walked to the Castel Sant Angelo, which is like a round castle. We didn't go inside (it cost money)so we just walked around it. In the front of this castle, there were so many street venders trying to sell fake Prada, Coach, and Louis Vutton purses and sunglasses and a whole bunch of "Roma" apparrel. At that point, I think I bought an Italia sweatshirt. Well here's a pic of the Castel



We walked down the street a little and came to this:



which I believe was the Court of Justice or something to that effect.

Then we crossed the Sant Angelo bridge which was decorated with amazing statues. I have to say that Rome has so many bridges and they are all so cool. Insanely decorative and beautiful to look at.



We crossed the bridge, and then walked around to a lot of the sights. Rome is full of Piazzas and we went to a few of the major ones:

Piazza Navona




Piazza di Spagna (aka the Spanish Steps)



That first day we also went to the Pantheon, which was really cool to see.



We saw this Monument to Vittorio Emmaunuele II, and I have no idea who he is, but it was big and neat to look at. Yep that's all I got for that one:



Also we saw the ruins of a Roman ampitheatre:




That's basically all I can remember for that particularly day. Sorry there are no funny stories to go along with the pictures, but I really can't remember any more if anything funny even happened.

To wet your appetites for the next time, that update will include pictures of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Vatican Museum, and me (wahoo!).

See you all soon!

Sanity, My Dear Friend, How I've Missed You

Hello all, I'm back and fully medicated so you can put the straitjacket away. Really, it's not necessary.

Wow, so I really don't know what that last post was. That's what stress does to me. Temporary insanity, most likely. Oh, how joyous.

Anyway, currently I am trying to plan out the rest of my life, which basically means I'm trying to decide what classes to take next semester. It is definitely not as fun as it sounds and it doesn't even sound that fun. Grr argh.

And naturally, a few of the ones I wanted to take are already full (or will be by the time I register). Sigh, such are the days of my life.

In good news, I actually got a single for next year so I'm really excited about that. After living with 6 other girls this semester, it'll be nice to have a little privacy and you know, cleanliness.

Just in case anyone is interested, in one month I will be back in the states, which is crazy to think about. And that also means that I've been away for over 3 months! That's like a quarter of a year! Golly gee, Mickey, what do you know? I can divide! At 20 years old, I have finally conquered fourth grade math. Now if only I could learn how to tie my bloody shoes . . .

Since my last reference to the posterior parts of certain people that shall remain nameless did not go over well with said persons, I will refrain from mentioning them again. Not that you wouldn't notice them just by looking at them. Kind of hard to miss really. I mean, do you stare into the blinding sun and not notice that this gigantic orb is right in front of your face? Do you look at a raisin and not notice the wrinkling skin? . . . What? Did I do it again? *snicker*

Well, I'm going to go be productive now. Wish me luck on my class registration. And if you want to say a rosary or two I'd certainly appreciate it. I need all the help (and no not mentally) that I can get!

Hugs and kisses (yes, I'm five).

And because I promised in my last post, here's Salvador Allende, President of Chile from November 1970 to September 11, 1973 when he mysteriously turned up dead after Pinochet's US-supported coup. Hmm, nice.



Here endeth the history lesson for the day.

4 Days Removed from the Visit of the 3 Magi who Brought Myrrh, Frankincense, and Gold or M&Ms, Chex Mix, and Granola Bars

After four days of recuperation, free from the constant whining and having to drag Mom's big butt every and Gramma's saggy one, I'm finally able to get back to the things that really matter, like posting my exploits on this lovely blog here. Visiting with the family? Pfft, why see them when I can just make fun of them here?

Did you see what I did there? That's called sarcasm! Go me!

All kidding aside, I had a great time with the fam! Larry and I bonded while walking down Oxford Street and Gramma and Mom bonded over their sore feet and their mutual feeling of being totally and completely overwhelmed. We saw all the sights: the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben,Parliament, Madame Tussaud's (the wax museum), Covent Garden (an outdoor market), and loads of other stuff. I have a bunch of pictures but I haven't uploaded them to my comp yet so there'll be in a later post.

Currently, I am trying to be productive, but obviously I'm failing miserably as evidenced by the fact that I'm writing this entry instead of doing work. Smell that? That's the sweet smell of procrastination, an odor I give off frequently and in abundance.

I'm also trying to figure out my schedule for next year which is about as exciting as it sounds and equally as frustrating.

I also realize that I still have to fill all you lovely people in about my Roman holiday, which was like 6 weeks ago. Yep, I'm totally on top of things. That too is on my list.

Sigh, on a rather disgusting note, there's been quite a significant amount of mucus building up inside my nostrils and at the back of my throat, which is rather annoying. I bet you all wanted to know that too. See? I'm just full of fascinating tidbits.

And if I'm writing about my nasal problems, it is a definite sign of me avoiding all productive means of utilizing my time.

To Uncle Wee Wee, the happy girl will not return today. Instead I present "The Sad Girl":



"The Sad Girl" is representative of, you guessed it, my sadness. Because now I have nothing to count down to and the only thing I have to look forward to is tons of papers to write and finals. And when that time comes around I will introduce you to the best stess-relieving remedy I know, which is singing Schoolhouse Rock songs at the top of my lungs. Seriously, you should try it sometime.

Today, you will also be introduced to "The Frustrated Girl" (which actually generated a lot of inappropriate results in my Google image search, who woulda thunk it?)



"The Frustrated Girl" is symbolic of, you guessed it, my frustration. My frustration at the aforementioned workload. And that shall be the end of my whining for the time being.

Promise:



Scout's honor:



I can tell no lie:



(That's a young George Washington and the cherry tree, just for clarification)

"I'm not a crook":



Yeah, I have no idea what that just was. I apologize. I'm going a little crazy. That's probably because I'm in London, right Mom and Gramma?

Until the next time, which I swear will be more coherent and contain less pictures of former U.S. Presidents, maybe I'll throw in a few Chilean ones, just for the heck of it.

Am I really posting this?

Why, yes, Gina, you really are. Just push that button right there . . .

It's positively CRACKTASTIC!!!

One More Day . . .

One more day left and then I don't have to listen to Gramma and Mom moan and complain about walking (god, forbid), crowds, and how London is just "insane."

Dad, Grumpa, take them back. It's your turn to watch them.

Counting down the minutes . . .

3 Days!!

3 DAYS PEOPLE 3 DAYS!!! I CAN'T CONTROL THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE. MUST SCCREEEAAMMMM!!!! *Passes out from excitement*

*Shakes head, regains consciousness, remembers to breath*

I am sooo excited for my fam! Can you tell?

3 Days!

That's all I can communicate at the moment.

Continuing the Countdown

So I just got back from an interesting "class" where I learned some valuable information and that's all you're getting from me. Let's just say it was in celebration of two of my flatmates 21st birthdays and leave it at that.

Anyway, I'm back with the countdown: 11 DAYS!! Wahoo!



(Yet another result of the "Happy Girl" image search)

And Uncle Wee Wee, are you really coming? Or just threatening Gramma about coming?

'Til the next time!!

Countdown

Just a quick post to say two things:

T-minus 12 DAYS!!

My excitement knows no bounds!



I'm this much excited! And more! (And no, I haven't shrunk. The wonders of Google Image Search, that was a result for "Happy Girl").

Also a special shout out to Krista: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 21? God, you're so old *snicker*

My Spanish/Italian Adventures Part 2 with Limited Pictures

Hola, gente. It's Gina and I'm back, kinda. So I am currently at my school building right now with an hour to kill before I have to go watch two stupid movies for one excrutiatingly boring class and one I actually like. But I'm going to be here until 9 o'clock so that kind of stinks. Anyway, I figured I'd give you all a brief update on the other half of my trip with a few pictures I'm going to steal off Krista's facebook.

So, gentle readers, the last time I left you we were right about to embark on the most exciting and wonderful part of my journey: Marseilles. I was in Marseilles from 10:00 at night until 6:00 in the morning and that was enough for me. The French generally don't like Americans because of Iraq and the fact that we've had to save their butts multiple times in the world wars and what not. Plus, they're French and eat cheese and stuff. Yeah, I have no idea where I'm going with this.

At 10ish on Wednesday night, we arrived in Marseilles. The plan was to get a hotel for the night. Well, we came, we saw and we failed spectacularly. All the hotels near the airport were booked! Which meant that we had to stay there overnight, which made all of us sad and cranky and did not bode well for the day of Roman sightseeing we had previously planned. First things first, we got sandwiches at this place in the airport and I think they were making fun of me, but I don't know because I don't speak French. My knowledge of French comes from the TV so I know merci, bonjour and that's pretty much it. I'm pretty sure I told them gracias too. I kept getting languages mixed up in my head. So after eating we decided to find a nice place in the airport to crash. We head up these stairs where there's a big screen TV and some chairs so we decide to hang out there. A little while later, this woman with her two kids come, bringing with them an entire picnic, I kid you not. There were sleeping bags and a loaf of bread and all the essentials for a night spent in an airport. Krista, being the sociable person that she is, strikes up a conversation with the woman. It turns out that she's from Sweden, I think, the mother of 6 and that she and her children frequently sleep in airports. This night was their second night in this particular airport and she tells us how she takes one or two of her kids at a time to different places around Europe to see if it's worth taking the whole family there. It was actually pretty interesting and a little Bohemian and crazy.

Besides this nice family, these really annoying French guys come, turn on the TV and invade our space. At one point in the soccer game they were watching, one of the players got kicked right in the balls and it looked painful so I turned to Molly and said so, when the guy sitting next to me turned and looked at me and imitated my "Oh God," exclamation. I kind of just stared at him because I didn't know how to react. Considering this was essentially my only impression of French people, I basically never want to go back.

We ended up moving away from the rude French men and claimed our own little corner. I stretched out on some chairs and proceeded to fall asleep for a little while:



I slept a little and then woke up and one time I walk up my arm was like completely numb and my fingers wouldn't move at all. It was the weirdest feeling. No sensation whatsoever. No pins and needles, just numbness. But then I banged it against my leg a few times and all was well. Finally at like 4:00 in the morning we head over to our terminal and after waiting there for forever we finally got on our plane and left Marseilles! Wahoo!

When we got into the airport at Rome, none of us were really sure how to get to our hotel, which was supposed to be in a good location. Well, that was a blatant LIE! WE decided to take a city bus and then a metro and apparently pray to God that we somehow make it there alive without getting pickpocketed by gyspies holding babies to their breasts with fake arms, you know normal concerns. Well we get on this metro and have to go like 20 stops until we get the one we think we want. Surprise, surprise that was wrong too. Mind you, there are some many people on this subway we can hardly move and we have suitcases. So we're in the middle of Rome, no idea where we are or how to get to our hotel and Krista and Molly are bickering at each other and I'm barely holding it together and we're all hunger and tired and carrying out suitcases and dear God, somebody help us.

After walking around for another half hour or so, trying to find a bus that will take us to our hotel and communicating with a man that speaks like zero English, we decide that we'd just take a cab the rest of the way, because that'll be easier right? Oh, our naive ideas about Roman taxis. Apparently, you just can't wave one down because we tried really hard. After the third taxi went by us shaking his head, we found this Best Western and went inside and asked them to call us a taxi and they did, God bless them. I don't even know what we looked like then. We were all peed off at each other and miserable and they had mercy on our poor depraved souls. After waiting for like 15 minutes, the cab comes and we get in and we notice that the meter is already up to 12 euros because they start the meter when they come and get you. But at this point, we really didn't care so the man got us to our hotel which was 5 miles outside of the city itself and we go to check in.

Now, we had booked this hotel online through lastminute.com. This is NOT an endorsement. Avoid lastminute.com like it is the freaking bubonic plague. Stupid liars. The woman at the desk tells us that we only booked a room for 2 people when we our confirmation says 3 and then tells us that we have to pay an extra 15 euros a night. I've absolutely had it at this point so I'm a little abrupt and annoyed and I say to her, "Okay, explain to me why we have to pay for an extra bed when our confirmation says 3 people not 2." She says that the hotel only has a reservation for 2 not 3 and then a manager is involved and it all gets complicated and we end up having to pay the money. Then we find out that the continental breakfast were supposed to have is a LIE and the free internet were supposed to get is a LIE too. So thanks a lot lastminute.com you piece of LYING crap . . .

Now that I've taken a valium and calmed down a little, I'll try and tell you about the rest of that first day.

One thing lastminute.com didn't lie about was the free shuttle to the city. Unfortunately by the time we got to our hotel, after like 3 hours of trying to get there, all the shuttles for the day had left so we decide to try and take a bus. We figure that you just pay when you get on. Um, yeah, not so much. So we get on the bus ILLEGALLY and I'm praying to God that we don't get stopped. Meanwhile, we're on a bus full of priests and they keep talking to this one girl sitting in front of us next to Molly. As we get into the city, I ask Molly if she knows where to get off and she looks at me like, "Yeah, right" and I just think, "Well, isn't this just splendid." Then the girl in front of us turns and asks us if we want to go to the Vatican to which we said "Yes, yes, help us, HELP us!" And help us she did. Not only did she tell us when to get off, but when we asked her for a good place to eat she took us to this cute little Italian restaurant across from her apartment which she said had the best pizza in Italy. And it was delicious and cheap and the people in restaurant were so friendly and you felt like you were welcomed into this big Italian family with pizza and niceness and it totally turned our whole day around!

Before, I was grumpy and miserable, but after I looked like this!!!



Okay, well I've got to go now. Hopefully I'll be back soon with our sightseeing and more pictures.

Shout out to my little cousin Courtney whose mean old father Uncle Wee Wee broke her ankle in TWO places! Poor thing. Get well soon, sweetie! Do you like chocolate? I can send you a care package full of Cadbury chocolate. the best stuff ever! And make sure you milk this for all it's worth. In the future, if your dad gets mad at you, just looked down atyour ankle and make a pained expression and you'll get anything you want.

Also, a little roommate rant here. Someone keeps eating my food. It is annoying and frustrating and when I find out who it is I can be held responsible for my actions. Case in point, last night I packed a plastic baggie with cookies and pretzels and put it in my cabinet. When I went to eat it at lunch, my two strawberry jam cream cookies were GONE! EATEN by a thief in the night. Okay, who does that? Grrrr, and it's not the first time.

Alright, rant over for now. Bye!

Countdown until Mom, Gramma, and Larry come: t-minus 13 days

My Spanish/Italian Adventure with Pictures! Part 1

Hey all. I'm back with a fairly detailed account of what I did on my trip. First up, Madrid:

Saturday night/god-awful early Sunday morning: First Krista and I picked Krista's friend up from the coach station, which took about an hour because we couldn't find her, then we went back to the Landward. I slept for about an hour and a half/2 hours before leaving at 2:45 AM to catch our bus to the London Luton airport. We got there at like 4:00 and waited around for our plan which left at 6:50. We got to Madrid at like 9ish and I had to wait in the long passport control line TWICE because the stupid people on Easyjet didn't give anyone a arrival form. Finally 45 minutes later, I'm done in the line and Krista's friend Andrea picked us up and we went back to her house right outside Madrid. We were all bone tired, but didn't want to waste a day sleeping so Andrea took us into the city and we got lunch at this restaurant called Diablitos, walked around a lot, and went to this really cool park.







After getting a minimal amount of sleep the night before and walking around all day, we were beat so after dinner, which was an awesome rice tortilla that Andrea's grandma made, we went to bed early.

Monday: Our goal for the day was to shop, like you're surprised. But Krista's friend Michelle wasn't feeling well so we had to stop and get medicine for her at this train station place with stores. So we decide we're going to get breakfast and Andrea, who is from Spain, has been speaking in Spanish for us, giving everyone our orders. But I want a Diet Coke to go with my delicious chocolate croissant and I took 5 and a half years of Spanish so you'd think I'd be able to say that much. Well, not so much. I got flustered and all I could say was "Tengo" and point at the Diet Coke. What I wanted to say was "Can I have a Diet Coke?" and all I said was "I have." I have. So what did the woman do? She laughed and gave me my diet coke. So the whole trip "Tengo" caused everyone to bust out laughing.

After that we walked around Madrid some more, went to this area called "Sol" where we say this statue, which I think is the cutest thing:



It's a bear and a strawberry tree and it's some kind of symbol of Madrid. After Sol we ate and then went to the Palace Real, a palace that the king and queen of Madrid used to live in. It was really cool:







Then we went shopping. All I bought was a hat, but it's really cute. I wore it all the next day, which brings me to:

Tuesday: We got up early to meet Andrea in the city, then we went to El Museo de Prado, which was really awesome. We had to wait in line for about an hour and a half, but it was soo worth it. We couldn't take pictures there, but I did by a book that had a lot of the paintings and things that were there. We saw some really cool paintings by painters like Goya, Velazquez, and a bunch of other people. This was by far my favorite part of Madrid. Naturally, I saw about 4 people who are also in the ND London Program there as well, go figure.

After the Prado, we got lunch at a place called the Pink Sushiman. It was kind of expensive, but a lot of fun!



Next we went to a Shissha bar, which is basically like flavored tobacco of some sort. I'm not exactly sure, but you don't inhale it like a cigarette or anything. You just kind of blow it back out. But this is what the thing that you inhaled it from looked like and me doing it:





Then we did a little souvenir shopping and went back to Andrea's house to get ready for the night's festivities. We went to this bar I guess that had Flamenco dancing and Spanish singing. I wore my one Eurofabolous outfit. Basically my skinny jeans and I had to borrow STILLETOS from Andrea. Okay, I cannot wear Stilletos. I was lucky I didn't break an ankle. The dancing was awesome. There was one guy dancer who had a great butt! What, you need evidence?




It was a lot of fun and the next day we left so we really didn't do anything.

So that's the end basically of Madrid. But I can't go right to Rome, because we had to spend the night in a airport in Marseilles, France, which was not the picnic it sounds like. I'll save that for next time though.

Bye all!

Oh, The Landward, How I've Missed You!

Hello everyone! Wow, it feels good to be back in The Landward (that's the name of my flat in London). The trip was AWESOME! I took over 900 pictures. I don't have time to post a detailed account of what happened, but it was such a great experience. A view highlights: El Museo de Prado in Madrid and the Vatican Museum in Rome, where we got to see the Sistine Chapel twice! Absolutely gorgeous. Despite a few flared tempers every once in a while (myself included), the trip was all around a success. But now I am very tired and feel like I need another vacation, go figure. I will be back later this week with a detailed account of my adventures and most importantly, PICTURES!!

Bye all!

I'm BAAACCKK!!!

Hey everyone! Here's the aforementioned Friday/Saturday blog update with York goodness and random bus stories.

Last weekend, the whole entire London program, which is about 130 kids, had to go to York from Friday until Sunday. This was a mandatory trip, which made me not want to go because I hate going to things that I have to go to. Makes sense right?

Plus, they chose the weekend right before break, which means that everyone has papers due and tests in their classes. But, because we were in York, we couldn't work on them at all during the weekend.

The other reason I didn't want to go on this trip was because it would take . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . FIVE hours by bus to get there and that was in GOOD weather conditions with NO TRAFFIC. Well, let me tell you, we did not have good weather and we did not have no traffic (try to decipher that double negative).

The London Program, in its infinite wisdom decided to continue on this journey despite the fact that it was SNOWING and SLEETING the entire drive there. So a trip that was supposed to take "approximately 5 hours" took SEVEN HOURS. We left at 1:30 and didn't get to York until 8:30, that's including the 45 minute break we had to take because of the bus driver's union or whatever. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

So the first night there, we went to this Italian place called Ask in these old Assembly Rooms. I had a pizza and it was good. Then I went to bed. Ahh, bed.

Here's a dark picture of the restaurant:



On Saturday, we were forced to go on 2 hour walking tour in . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . the RAIN!! Awww, glorious. Despite the torrential downpour (okay, that might be an exaggeration, but you'll never know), I did get some good pictures.

A little background information on York. It's a "historic town" in the English countryside that still has parts of the Roman fortifications and walls that lined the city. Also, there's something about "minsters," which are like churches or something. And there was a man named George Hudson who married the daughter of a drapist and had a street named after him. This wasn't a consequential thing. There was something in between these two events but I can't remember what it was. Yep, so that's what I learned about York!!! Go me!!!

Have no fear though! Pretty pictures!!






Saturday afternoon every went to these activities we had signed up for. I had signed up for "The Castle Museum." Okay, now let's think about this for a minute. With a name like "The Castle Museum" you would expect that there would be stuff about castles in this museum. I mean that's not unreasonable, is it? Right, well, it wasn't about castles. Basically, it was a history of York through the years with exhibits on the development of the "vacuum cleaner" and women's clothes through the centuries, among other random things. Nonetheless, some of the things were pretty cool, just not what I expected. Here's some pics:







After an examination of the pictures I took, I remembered why it was called "The Castle Museum." Apparently, there was a castle there at one point. Here's the only surviving part of it:



The best and redeeming part of this entire trip was Saturday night. First we went to this pub called the Artful Dodger, where I had some Strongbow for the first time. It's an alcoholic "cider" that's big in England, very delicious. Then, we went to this 80s Redux club that played all 80s music. We danced and sang and it was pretty darn awesome!

On Sunday, we did a little shopping and I broke down and bought my first pair of skinny jeans! And they actually don't look bad! Wahoo!! Then we got on the bus and were actually home within 5 hours, a miracle! And of course, the day we left it was sunny in York.

The rest of the week was busy and busy with some more busy thrown in. I had a quiz on Wednesday, two papers due on Thursday, two theatre reviews due on Friday, and two plays and a showing to go to on three separate weeknights. Then, to make everything better, Wednesday morning I woke up with a 101 degree fever! But I had to go to class because I had a quiz. And then I had to come home and write a paper all day. Lovely!

Anyway, after class on Wednesday I took the bus home. So I'm sitting there in a huge sweatshirt, my wet hair in a half-ponytail, absolutely exhausted with a 101 degree fever and what happens? I get hit on by some sketchy British black man. I kid you not. I mean, why do I even try to look nice? Apparently, it's only when I look like crap that I get hit on. KATIE MACKIN, my love: this reminds me of a certain trip to Circuit City in our sweatshirts and unshowered states.

So he starts the conversation by asking me if I'm from Columbia. Columbia. Okay people, you know what I look like. I'm about as pale as the undriven snow. Do I really look like I could be from Columbia? I think his confusion came from the fact that I was wearing a Columbia jacket. So I tell him I'm from the U.S. and he asks where. I tell him Indiana and he proceeds to give me the cheesiest pick up line EVER!

"I've always wanted to go to Indiana. . . . Could you be my reason?"

How did I respond to his, you ask? I laughed because how else am I supposed to respond?

Then he proceeds to tell me that I'm sweet and that I have pretty eyes, which by the way where so dilated they covered about all of my iris. The whole time I'm thinking "disengage, disengage." I wanted to get off the bus, but I was still far away from home and there was no way I could walk. So finally, after I tell him I have a boyfriend (blatant lie) whom "I miss a lot. It's hard being far away from each other," he leaves!

It wasn't as creepy as it sounds and now I have a good story! But geez.

Okay, so this is going to be my last post for over a week because I'm going to Madrid tonight and then Rome on Thursday! I won't be back in London until next Sunday!

Love you and miss you all!