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!