Wait one second... I'm in England

So today I had one of those moments that I have a lot here... the 'wait one second, I'm in England' moments. Even though I've been here for 3 months, I still don't believe it sometimes. I was in 18th Century class today and my teacher was talking about something. Um I will admit I was reading the last 5 pages of the Memoirs of Emma Courtney in the beginning of his lecture because I was distracted last night by my brother and a fire alarm and I never finished the novel. So I'm just finding out how this wonderful, so exciting book ends when my teacher mentions 1794 maybe, and how the English government was not doing well and some of that had to do with the fiasco of the American Revolution. I looked up when he said that, because I've never heard it referred to a fiasco... but then I realized, "Oh wait, there is a reason my teacher is speaking with an English accent, I'm not in Maine." It was a fiasco to them because they got kicked by a bunch of farmers! I had to smile at that thought.

Maybe the day I leave it will hit me that I'm in England, but sometimes I don't still don't believe it. I always thought that once I got here, I would believe it, but I don't. It does make for interesting mornings, I walk across the street to the Kingston Bridge and there is the Thames, and I can fall in love all over again with the Thames and England. I'm not saying this happens everyday, but it does happen.

So overall 18th Century was very interesting, during break I was talking with three Americans who are all leaving soon. That makes me sad, because I like these girls, they are fun to be in class with, and they can't wait to leave. They are ready to leave. WHAT! One of them has a countdown going! I couldn't believe them. Yeah are there things I miss from the US... but I am so not ready to go home, and I'm so glad I'm not. Yeah I'll be here by myself for a lot of the break, but you know I'm good with that. I got papers to do, Kingston to walk, and traveling with Monica. And of course my mother and siblings are coming... sweet.

Oh one thing from yesterday, during Renaissance Drama I was sitting with Megan and Margaret, and we were viewing this map of the world around the time the Tempest was written. The US has some stuff along the coasts, but nothing in the middle. My teacher asked what was missing, and Megan said, "The middle of Canada and the US, there is nothing there." I whispered, "Still isn't." Megan laughed, Margaret didn't, but then she's from the UK. Megan is from New Jersey, so we East Coast kids got a kick out of my comment, but then it is true.

So I just wanted to write about what happened during class today, it was interesting. Only two weeks of class left... SO WEIRD! Where did this semester go to??? Oh boy.

The day of Doom

Hello.
So yesterday was the day of doom. The day my script was read to the class. I got to go first... didn't that just make me feel so special. So my teacher asked if I would like to read the stage directions, and I jumped at that. First of all I hate having people read my stuff, but worse is hearing someone read it. So I jumped at being able to read the majority of it, and I played the main character. Um so no one got to butcher my Avs names! THANK YOU! I wouldn't have been able to handle someone mispronouncing Hejduk or Svatos, well okay, the big one, Patrick Roy. I get a little annoyed when his name is pronounced wrong, but that's probably because Jay does it just to bug me. My script though is mostly about my love of the Avalanche and my main character gets to play with them. She is having a little trouble playing hockey, you know missing pucks, pucks not hitting the net, and she has a dream where she gets to play with the Avs and she gets a little advice and she's good.

First of all THEY LOVED IT! I was so happy, I was sweating when I was reading it. I thought I was playing hockey right there. They loved how I described everything, I put a lot of detail into it, and one girl said that she knows nothing about hockey, but she could follow the action.

The only thing they couldn't get was they thought it was too easy. One dream and my character is good? Well they don't understand hockey players. All we need is a quote from Miracle or Herb Brooks, a pat on the back and a cool nickname and we are good to go. I have a quote from Miracle and a pat on the back... forgot the nickname thing... um maybe someone should call the main character an Animal! But Monica read it and she understood it, so I'm not changing it. It makes sense. They did give suggestions on how they thought it could be improved a little bit, but most of them just got me angry. It's my script, my vision and no I don't need Peter Forsberg coming to my main character as a ghost and saying, "You stink." My teacher suggested that. I was like WHAT? Peter would never do that! But I did change the beginning, I'll put in a quote or two to explain how a hockey player's mind works and then that's one paper down 4 more to go.

You have no idea how excited I was though, they really liked it. I got applause first and then comments! That's good... really good. My teacher was surprised I had the whole thing, but please I would never have been able to read it without it being completed... hahaha yeah right. I would have had to toss it in the trash after reading it.

So that was yesterday- today was good. I had class, and my Renaissance Drama teacher is talking about Lost next week. We are reading The Tempest and Lost has a lot to do with the Tempest. It's a 'deserted' island where you have a chance to be something else, and stuff. I wanted to raise my hand and quote Sayid, "Everyone on this island has a chance at a new life... maybe it's time for you to start yours" AHH! Love Sayid, he says that to Shannon when she is either grieving over Boone or confused about her so called love for him. I love how my teacher is a Lost fan, though I'm sure he's ahead of me now when it comes to Lost cause it started on Sky last week, and I'm still trying to get through Season 2 with Amaya and Kathleen! Oh well.

Alright, well I'm off. Bed sometime in the near future... maybe, hopefully.

A Day With Jenn and Arthur

So today was fun, Jenn and Arthur came and spent the day with me. Jenn actually woke me up this morning around 10:45am saying they were on the highway and they would be here in like an hour/ hour and a half. Or that's what I think she said, I was more than half asleep, but I got up, showered and got dressed.

I don't even know the last time I saw Jenn, probably not that long ago, but it was so awesome to see her again. We came up to the suite for a few minutes, I introduced them to Kathleen and Amaya, and then we left. We just spent the day in Kingston, walking around. We went to a pub, Druid's Head. The pub was alright, I got a Caesar Salad with chicken but I don't know where the salad dressing was. Um oh well, the chips were good, and it was awesome to be with them. I think we talked about everything, and the news I heard about transportation in Germany is not good. Monica and I are planning on going soon, and I asked about how is the best way to get around, and they said a car. Not good. Oh well, I'll do more research. Flying was suggested.

Jenn was entertained by the mall, well the Bentall Centre. It's like four stories, and has everything. That's where the Disney Store is. We didn't go into any stores, that would have been really dangerous, but Jenn just gaped at all the shoes, the dresses and the pocketbooks. It was funny.

We went to the Chocolate Cafe, which I've been meaning to go to since Amaya first showed it to me, but I never have, and they have this drink called, "Cold Chocolate" I thought it was like my Frozen Hot Chocolates, it's not, but it's still good. If it was more like my Frozen Hot Chocolates, I would go poor so quickly. So we had that, and we talked more. It was so fun. Haha, and I'm betting they will read this, because they said they would, so if you want the true story on how I thought the day went e-mail me. I'm just kidding.. haha. I had a complete blast, and I think they did too. Jenn loved all the shops. It was crowded, and we complained about how the British do not have methods to their walking. It's slow and they cannot pick a side.

I cannot wait to visit them and go to the American grocery store. They have Mac and Cheese, Chips Ahoy and a whole isle of cereal! SO EXCITING! And of course I came back here, and figured how to get to them, and YES, there is a train from Kings Cross to Ely (that's where they are moving to)!! So exciting, and it's like 13 pounds one way... must find out about roundtrip. It takes like an hour though, well once I get to Kings Cross. I always love an excuse to go to Kings Cross though.

So that was my day. It was so much fun, I loved showing them around Kingston, and I said that we should go to London because I am getting very good at the city.

London... oh boy

Hello again.
So I decided yesterday that I wanted to go into London... I haven't been in awhile, and Amaya and Kathleen were quick to jump on my little trip. Sweet! I love going places with them. So we thought, okay where to go?
We've been a lot of places, but then not. London is big, and there is still so much I have to see, but I have many more months to do it! So we decided to go to the Imperial War Museum, where they have a Holocaust Exhibit. Kathleen takes a class on the Holocaust, and of course it's history so I'm in, and Amaya thought it would be interesting. So of course we got to London and it's down pouring! Waterloo needs to replace the roof where the trains are because oh we got wet walking from the trains to where the shops are. Not cool. But we went to the exit, and it is raining soo hard, and I turned around and said, "Waterloo is a beautiful place, let's stay." While we waited for the rain to stop, Amaya bought an umbrella, and then we figured, okay if it's still down pouring, maybe there is an Underground station near, or we can forget it for today. But we got to the exit and the rain had stopped. So we followed the signs to the Imperial War Museum.

It wasn't a long walk at all, and it's cool. There are two cannons in the front of the building, and it reminds me a little of the British Museum. The outside looks the same. So we go in, it's free... sweet. The Holocaust Exhibit... um well depressing is the first word that comes to mind, but of course we knew that. It's interesting, it starts with the rise of the Nazi party, and Hitler, there is a copy of his book, and videos. Omg, one heart wrenching part of the exhibit is all the little stories of people who died... omg. Of course I read every one, and it's so sad. I'm actually amazed that they knew what happened to these people. So the first rooms were before the war, and Jewish people all happy, portraits of some of them, videos of them at parties, and then Hitler comes to power. It explains all of that, the effects of WWI... everything. There is a video of Hitler making a speech, and all I can think as I'm watching him is, "Carter really does pull off a good Hitler." Of course I'm obsessed with Hogan's Heroes.
There was also SS uniforms and SA uniforms, and all this info about the big three, and then it got into the ghettos, and the real Holocaust stuff. I got separated from Amaya and Kathleen five seconds into it, I stopped and read everything. I watched every video... so it took me awhile to go through.

We were there an hour, and just a tough hour, we knew this though. But we wanted to go through it, and Kathleen did say she liked the one in DC better, though this one has more survivors telling their stories, and accounts of people who died. There was some stuff about Anne Frank, the guy who wrote Night (love that book), and Schindler. One of the toughest parts of the whole thing was the end, when there was a video from a survivor, and he was talking about how the Americans saved them, brought them to a hospital, gave them food, and their bodies couldn't handle the food and they died. WHAT! This survivor said, "I couldn't even look at the food, and it saved my life." That stinks! You survive a concentration camp, and die when you get saved? That's just brutal.

So after that, we left, the museum is free, so we will be back. There is an exhibit about the Blitz, WWI and II, and other stuff. Omg, it was so sad. We walk in, and there is a dog strapped to a parachute... poor little puppy! Okay so it was a statue or whatever, but STILL! They used puppies?

So um then we decided to go to Kensington Gardens. My pictures of the Peter Pan statue are horrible, and we thought we would see the Palace there. First we got a bite to eat, and it was gross. I got pasta and meatballs, and Amaya tried some, and the look on her face. Priceless. The sauce was like tomato juice, but it was food, I was hungry, and I ate it. Amaya got a mixed grill thing, there was chicken, peas, mushrooms, and fries. Well she ate the fries. Kathleen had lasagna, and she said it was okay. It was a weird place we went to... never again. So onto Kensington. We got off at High Street in Kensington, we should have gotten off at Lancaster Gate, or Marble Arch, but Amaya suggested High Street, and I figured, well London is good with signs. Um no, we got so lost. My trips to Oxford saved us though, I know Kensington because we go through it on the way to Oxford. I did find Holland Park Road or whatever, and that's the road we go on to and from Oxford, and Lancaster Gate and Nottingham Gate are both on that road... of course the walk is long. By the time we got to Nottingham, it was dark, and we said okay forget this. We got on the Underground and went to Kings Cross. Kathleen and Amaya wanted to see Platform 9 3/4, so I went with them. They had no shame having their pictures taken, I was a little more reserved, which is weird cause I'm the biggest HP fan out of the three of us. But it was cool, love Kings Cross.

We actually went home after that because we were cold. We had plans to see the Tower Bridge at night, but really it's not going anywhere. So til next time for that.

We had some very interesting conversations on the train... Kathleen grew up on SING ALONGS! ME TOO! So we sang a few songs... it was just awesome. Amaya and Kathleen also did a circuit training yesterday and they were hurting today. The quote of the day: I thought I was just sweating, that my heart beat was just up, but today I realize that I was working my muscles too.
OH KATHLEEN! What am I going to do with you? Amaya and I just stared at her before breaking out laughing, and she kept trying to explain herself, and finally I asked if she needed a new shovel.

And the two of them also have a fear of being killed on the Underground because of a movie they saw in Prague? Oh boy, I guess the train suddenly stops and someone comes on board... so of course the train stopped um 5 times. I was laughing so hard.

So that's it for London. It was a fun day, love getting lost. I told Amaya and Kathleen that I always find my way, so not to worry. And I did. And it was still light, it got dark as soon as I knew where we were... so it's all good.

And I will sign off now, it's like 1:30, and I should go to bed before I think, 'hey I can stay up to 3am to listen to the Avalanche'.

Thanksgiving in England

Hello all.
So I had a big experience on Thursday... my first Thanksgiving away from home. Boy it didn't feel like Thanksgiving. There was no waking up and smelling turkey already cooking, or waiting up because I can hear Mom in the kitchen... miss all of that. No parade, no, "Don't eat too much and ruin your dinner" or "Courtney you are only suppose to take a small bit of cranberry sauce, not half the can." No, I just had some rain, a nice walk, and a Thanksgiving dinner that included me eating about 8 brownies.

The Study Abroad Office provided a Turkey dinner for us, or actually cold turkey and ham, cold mashed potatoes and two bottles of wine per table. We provided the rest. At my table was the girls, Jenna, Veronica, Harry, Nick, Alex, and a girl I do not know, but she is friends with Jenna. Veronica of course was most welcomed at the table because she started cooking two days ago, and brought lovely stuff to eat. I brought rolls... I don't cook. Cassie made brownies, and Amaya put them next to me when we started eating desert, so I sat there and ate brownies. Omg, they were good. Jen came over and was talking to and us and she jokingly tried to take the brownies from us, but ummmmmm no one takes the brownies. It was like a reflex, I wasn't even looking, but I reached out and grabbed the brownies. HAHAHA! Oh boy. She was a little freaked out, but I've done worse when there is ice cream involved.

Overall the food was good, desert was really good. Though we had wine with our dinner, and it does not go good with chocolate, or any food in my opinion. I had water while I was eating my dinner, and nursed a glass of wine the whole time. Jenna and I though had a good talk about Lost and Germany. With Lost, she hasn't watched Season 3 either, not sure why, but she hasn't, so I told her that when we watch Season 3 she has to come over. She was pretty excited, because watching Lost is so much fun with someone else, or a group. We were talking about the end of Season 3, without saying any names and stuff, and it drove Amaya and Kathleen crazy. It was fun.

Dinner was so short... we ate dinner in like a half an hour. No one talked, we just devoured everything in sight! It was so funny, looking back on it. Desert took a little longer, because we had 11 deserts. I had a nice piece of chocolate cake and the brownies. Yummy. Of course the chocolate cake had whipped cream on it that Amaya stole from the Staff Table. Well that's what I'm guessing, because Jen chased her. After dinner though, we came back here, and I called my parents, and Nashua. I talked to Karen for awhile, and called the Beach where Aunt Liz was going, but I didn't get a hold of her. Sad. By now it was like 1am, and I fell asleep. 1am! WOW! So early.

It was a good day though, so didn't feel like Thanksgiving, but it was, and we had a good dinner.

Friday was the day of nothing. I took a nap. I don't sleep in the middle of the day, but I closed my curtains, put on Hogans and I was asleep in like 5 seconds. So it wasn't a long nap, just a half an hour, but still. I got up, felt so tired still, got a cup of tea and watched a Lifetime movie with Kathleen and then Amaya joined us. It was so sad, we all just stared at the TV, Kathleen was crying so hard, and I admit I had a few tears in my eyes. But it was so, I forget the name of the movie, but of course someone died, and it was sad, and a horse drowned. It did wake me up though.

So that was my nothing day, I did some homework. I told myself I had to get to page 400 of Adam Bede, and I think it's a brutal book. Not a lot happens, and on page 399, it gets interesting. Of course it does! I've been actually reading it since it got interesting, like I want to read it. I was reading it at dinner last night, and breakfast this morning, completely into it. My teacher did tell us the end was the best, and if we got to it, we would enjoy it.

So that's it for this post, next post... London.

Class

Hey.
So as I finish another week of classes, I'd thought I'd write. First of all Happy Thanksgiving to all, I"m just a few hours early of saying that. I think the British need to consider having Thanksgiving, I mean what a cool holiday, you stuff your face with Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes... oh so good. They could always be thankful that the Pilgrims left... they were causing problems. They had to go. Of course if they did think about having the holiday they would have to get some cranberry sauce, which they lack in this country. So sad, since I get told every Thanksgiving that I should put a little cranberry sauce on my plate, and not half the can. Oh well. I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, the Study Abroad Office is giving us dinner... yummy. I love Turkey.

I had a good week of class, though I almost fell asleep on Tuesday. I know, I know, but hey I didn't set off the fire alarm at 5am! I was sound asleep. That thing goes off like once every two weeks if we are lucky! Of course I got to bed late on Tuesday because somebody was being mean and telling me that they were going to put my Winnie the Poohs in Space bags. That upset me, Pooh and Bowl Jr, and it took awhile to calm all three of us down. And I was listening to the Avalanche, I was falling asleep to them, until mean person IMed me.

Next week in Scriptwriting I have to present my script. Oh boy. I don't have to read it though, someone else does, and I have to take questions, and comments, and be in the room. I'm already freaking out. I hate it. Though I might be amused when they read it because it features a few hockey names. I've written this script a few times, first it was about the suite.. we have these conversations in the kitchen and they were so weird, and so funny. For example, Kathleen told us once that she was born in milk and slid into a bowl of ranch. We nearly died laughing when Baz said like 2 weeks later that he was born in mayo. They just really love those food items. I did write the script, and the girls loved it, but it's so inside jokeish. A lot of Dane Cook because we quote him all the time, and just so many inside jokes. And I'm not sure there was a plot. Um. So I came out with this script, a hockey player who's coach thinks her game is off has some unexpected help... if only this had happened to me when Amanda Adams decided I was not focused. The character's unexpected help is Peter Forsberg and the Avalanche, and it all takes place in a dream. Pat's in it, Milan, Joe, Alex, Ville, Chris, Dan, Ray, John Michael Liles, Svatos... the gang. Current and former Avalanche all unite. No David Aebischer, or anyone on my 'I do not like you' list. So I will be amused for like 5 seconds until I get annoyed when some lucky person butchers Pat's name, and Svatos's name.

So yes Monday might be the day of my death because I do not handle people reading my work well. Or at all.

I had a nice surprise on Tuesday, well not sure why I said surprise because I was expecting it, but I got another letter from Auntie Helen. I'll send my letter to her tomorrow, and then give it about a week a day or two, and I'll receive one back from her. Her letters are always so interesting, and I so love getting them. My flat mates love them too, they read her letters as soon as I've read through them. I was going to wait on my latest letter to her to tell her about a crew race I went to, but I'm not going. Monica joined the crew team at Oxford and I was going to see her. The first race was today, but I had class... I should have skipped. Her boat hit the bank and they are out. I wanted to see Monica race! I'm so disappointed. But I'm sure there will be races in the spring and we will go, so I can say I've been to an Oxford crew race. She's not continuing with it. So sad.

But now that she is free from that, hopefully we will be able to go into London soon, and really soon she is done with school so yeah! Fun times, here we come. But for now, I think that's it, been kind of a boring week with Amaya and Kathleen in Prague, maybe I'll go to London on Friday. I haven't seen it since they turned on the lights.

Bye!

Troubles with Class

Hello, or all right as Baz says. Haha, I love Baz and Martin, they entertain us with all their British saying, and they are awesome when we complain. We blame them for all of England's faults- today was the Popcorn chicken I cooked was not crispy, and I said that the British have no respect for crispy popcorn chicken. By now they just laugh and take it... we are training them well.

So I had a good week of classes, um we talked about the papers due in January. I decided that for my Renaissance class I'll write my paper on Dr. Faustus, The Tempest and Macbeth, and those plays all have the common theme of magic. So I'll be reading Macbeth soon on my own, go me. The Tempest I'll be reading for the third straight semester... so exciting. In 19th century, I don't know what my topic will be yet, but I might write it on Mary Barton and some novel, and who knows for 18th century, anything but Joseph Andrews. I'll probably write it on Moll Flanders, the only novel I have enjoyed reading in that class.

18th century was interesting this week... only 4 people including myself showed up to seminar! How many kids are in my seminar group, oh yeah 16. So we didn't talk about Joseph Andrews but just about life, school and plays in the Renaissance period. I was a little excited that we didn't talk about Joseph Andrews because I could not read it. I got 140 pages into it, but also redid my MySpace page, took a few surveys for it, found out that I look like Colin from Who's Line Is It Anyway, facebooked a few people, cleaned my room, made my bed, and watched two episodes of Lost. I wasn't avoiding the novel... not at all. So in seminar we instead talked about different stuff, it was me, the teacher and 3 British girls. One of them made a comment about how much she pays to go to school and no one shows up, and I started laughing. My teacher asked why I was laughing, and I said, "You pay 3000 pounds to go to school, that's 6000 dollars, or what my tuition was for high school! I pay 23,000 a year, and I go to a state school! My friend pays more than 40,000 for her school!" But my teacher was like, "Is that American dollars?" And I said yes, and he said, "Oh that's not that bad." Uh, talk to me 20 years from now when I'm still paying it off! Monica says what Oxford students pay for their whole time at Oxford is still less than what she pays a year.

My teacher asked why kids weren't coming to class, and someone was like, "Well everyone has jobs." Not a good enough reason. Is this a new thing or something? I know kids who play college and have jobs, and they still go to class. My teacher said that sometimes kids don't go to class because they don't get the novel and that's fine. WHAT? If I don't get something, the place I want to be is class, even seminar so I can ask questions.

I guess though in the past few years the British educational system has been declining, the tuition is not enough to cover the needs of the teachers and schools, and at Kingston the energy bill was like 1 million pounds last year. WHAT? I believe that though, every building in Kingston is way overheated, I die every time I go to class. Not that it's very cold here yet, my window is still opened all the time and I haven't bothered to turn my heater on yet. I'm saving Kingston money... at least someone is. This is also the first school I've been to since grade school that isn't writing intensive. I'm turning in one or two papers a class each semester, by now in the US I would have turned in at least 5. But no, all I've turned in is little exercises in Scriptwriting class. I spoke up about this, that it's insane that English majors do not write papers, and my teacher said, "Well I can't grade 70 papers a week."

Yeah but you can assign a few a semester. It's just so weird that I'm so use to writing papers and now I'm not. I'm learning a lot, so much about the history in around the time that these novels were written and when they take place, and it's fun to sit around and discuss the novels, but what about a paper? It seems weird that I want to do a paper, but I just haven't in a while, and I like having grades.. I don't have grades! It's just weird.

We also discussed 18th century novels and their obsession with the ancient world. I said that I would be on the same page as everyone else if I hadn't taken my ancient classes the previous year. But I know the references because I'm obsessed with that time period and we read all the important works. But no one knows them, well other than Odysesseus and Troy. But when someone makes a reference to Orestes, or Socrates they don't fully get them. They know Socrates but not enough to get the reference. The same with the Bible, I know the references after 14 years of Catholic school, and all the jokes about me being way too close with the Bible in high school, but all this stuff goes over their heads. I'm kinda glad we have Core now, I get a fuller, more complete education. I'll probably complain about it when I get home, but I see the point of it now.

Anyway, what else is going on... um I joined the gym. Yeah I know I said I wasn't going to work out until the spring, but Amaya and Kathleen joined, and they were telling me about it, and yeah the next day I joined. I just love the gym. I'm also just taking it slow, doing some chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps, abs and biking. That's it, no benching, squatting, or anything. The weight is low, well one because I can't do much, two because I have a lot of time. I'm not overdoing it, unlike in previous years... hahah oh boy. I really want to get back to the level I was at summer before sophomore year, maxing out at 130lbs, and ready to go. But I will not rush it and hurt myself. The bike I go all out on, I do about 30 minutes, hills at level 4. It's a good workout, with the bike I can't do anything but go all out, because I listen to Gladiator and Gladiator makes me feel so good, I can see Maximus fighting, and I'm just inspired. I feel good though going to the gym, I usually get up and go, or like today get up, eat, watch Hogans and then go to the gym. It all depends what time I get up. I sometimes go with Amaya, Kathleen and Cassie and that is fun.

A few hours ago Kathleen and I went to the town centre because the Christmas lights were being turned on. That part was not exciting, but they had all these activities which were awesome. They had people walking around dressed in funny costumes, Frosty was holding a chair that had a guy in it who looked like he was 200 years old! Two male angels were floating around, they were really floating too! We went to the shops right by the market and go candy and stuff, and just walked around. It was fun, and we met Amaya by Sainsbury's and of course went in and I didn't go in for anything but I came out with the most stuff! Saturday morning is going to be awesome though, I got pancake mix, eggs and syrup, and we are so having pancakes and eggs! Yummy!

Alright well I'm tired of writing. Cheers!

Hello Printer, nice to see you again

Hello all.

So I should be reading George Eliot, but 60 pages in and I want to hurt myself. Argh, I was reading some good stuff for awhile, but now... arrrggghhhhhh! This is actually the first novel I don't like for 19th Century Novel, but wow my teacher for 18th Century- great guy, but he cannot pick a good novel to save his life! First Alexander Pope, now Henry Fielding... shoot me. Please. Now. What is it with 18th century authors and the ancient world? In basically every novel I have read for that class, the authors have been obsessed with the classical world, and I love that time period, but ENOUGH ALREADY!

Okay that's my ranting for this post. Um, so what has been going on. Um.

I joined the gym here at Kingston, we all joined actually. I'm going to be good, I'll go basically everyday, and I'll make sure the girls get a day off too, they are obsessed with losing weight, and if they could I'm sure they would go 7 days straight. I'm there just to stay active, and because I heard them talking about it, and I had this desire to go and workout too. I enjoy it what can I say. So now I think this will be a good excuse to get my butt out of bed at a decent hour, and off to the gym.

I had another good week of classes, my 19th century seminar was hard core. First my teacher was swearing because she does not like the end of Mary Barton and how all a sudden it gets really religious, and we just had a hardcore argument. Argument might not be the right word, because we were all agreeing with each other. No one liked the ending of that novel.

I had had my first paper due... oh it's November and I finally had a paper due, soo sad! I wrote them awhile ago, it was tw0 750 word essays... so nothing. Of course I rewrote the Mary Barton one the day before it was due. I didn't answer the question the first time around. But good news, I got my printer FINALLY! I was starting to think it got lost in the mail or something, but it came just in time for me to print out my papers... right? Hahah, of course not. My printer and computer would not talk to each other, and they are from the same company. My computer was like, "Yep I got something new attached to me, but I don't care what it is" I stayed up until like 2am trying to get them to work with each other and no deal. So I figured, ok, I'll just go to bed. I did, woke up the next morning and did my morning routine. My printer and computer would still not talk to each other, and my papers were due by noon. It's like 11am now. So I figured, I'll just print them off at school and deal with my printer later. But right before I left, both of them started making noise, and they agreed to talk. But my printer still would not work because I was missing my color ink? WHAT? Last time I checked I had color ink, but it was being picky. So this delayed me a little bit, but I still went to school to print them out.

I didn't send the final copies to myself though. By the time I got to school, and got a computer it was 11:40! I nearly died. So I wrote my teacher an e-mail and ran home, but I was at the door of the building, when I walked right by my teacher. 16,000 kids in the school and I walk by my teacher... the chances of that are soo slim! So I stopped her, and she took one look at me and said, "Don't have a heart attack." I told her that was not possible. She was like, "You didn't do the essays?" But I explained my headache, and she said, "Okay by tomorrow." But I don't do that, and I told her by 2pm. That thank you, I appreciate the by tomorrow, but I don't pass in papers that late, and I am usually so prompt I make myself sick.

So I went to PC World, got ink, went home, printed them and was back at school by like 1pm. It took me another hour to figure out how to submit work... you put it in a box. My essays... in a box? Huh! What is wrong with giving it to a teacher! I closed my eyes when putting them in a box, I couldn't look.

So that's my sob story of Thursday. Ugh! Stupid printer. I'm glad of it now that it is working, but I almost killed it.

Friday was homework day, and oh movie night. The girls went to see Borat! but um, no I'm a movie snob, I don't see movies like that. I went to see A Good Year with Russell Crowe and Freddie Highmore. We got there though at their clock is like 10 minutes fast, and we were late and there was like 7 minutes before the movie began and I'm still in line waiting for tickets. So I saw The Prestige instead... I didn't want to miss any of the movie, or the previews, so I just changed movies. The Prestige... uhhhh it's wonderful. It's movie making at it's finest, but then it's Christopher Nolan, and written by his brother. If you're confused, Christopher Nolan directed Memento and Batman Begins, and a lot of other movies. He's a genius. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were awesome too! So in this theatre you have assigned seating, they ask you when you buy your ticket where you want to sit. I was like, ugh anywhere! But I got a front row seat, well in front of the bar, which was really tall, but it was fine, I saw the screen and put my feet up because the guys on either side of me spread their legs out, and I had no room. Whatever.

So it was another fun week in Kingston. Not a lot went on, but as always I'm having a good time. I talked to Shorty today, I love that kid so much! I'm now waiting for Elyse to get on Skype! Hopefully next week I'll go to London with Monica, they turn on the lights next week in London and I want to go!

Home to England

Hello from England. I just spent the whole plane ride writing about Barcelona and now I figure, hey I still have time, let me write about what's been going on since Barcelona.

Saturday we left Spain, but not until late so we had all of Saturday to do... NOTHING! We all slept until past noon, and by the time we all showered it was lunch time, so we went out for one last meal in Spain. That was good, we joked a lot about our time, and thanked Jessica over and over. My last meal in Spain was good- rice, steak, and chocolate cake that still not sure if I liked. It was weird, but it had a lot of chocolate. I had tea too, but they didn't give me milk so it was all right.

So after we ate, we had a slide show of all our pictures, it took more than an hour. We laughed about a lot of them, and ohh and awed over the pretty buildings. And then we packed and left. We had to take taxis to the airport, but it wasn't bad. At the airport, we had a bite to eat, sat and I read Mary Barton, and then we checked it, which we had no problems doing, and got on the plane 45 minutes later. Wow, I'm being really descriptive here, but it was a piece of cake. Our problems were going to be with when we got to England. Thankfully, we arrived 25 minutes ahead of schedule, and as soon as we landed, we were out. We ran! I felt bad being one of those people, running through the crowds, but we had places to be and people to see. Our problem was that the Underground and the trains do not run all night, and it was a possibility that we would get stuck along the way. So we got to customs, and there was no line, and we got through there quickly. Then we had to wait for our bags, but that was okay, because as we were standing there waiting to find out where our bags would come out, we looked at Customs and yes it was nearly as long as when I landed at Heathrow! We completely beat the crowd... go us!

So Cassie got her bag first, and it was her job to find out if we could make it to Hampton Wick, so she went off, and a few seconds later the rest of our bags came through. I grabbed my hockey like bag, and strapped myself in, and then we ran again. We found Cassie talking to a guy from the Stansted Express who told us that yes we can make it home, but we wouldn't get home until 2am! Awesome! That was fine with us, and then he told us, "the next train leaves in 3 minutes" Okay! We ran again! Now imagine this... I'm running down the hallway with a hockey bag strapped to me... oh boy. All those years of the gym were preparing me for this moment. I was good, I ran ahead of everyone, and we made the train with a minute to spare. So now it's 11pm, and we are on the Stansted Express. We took that to Liverpool Street, figuring that if for some reason the Underground stops, we would rather be in London than at Seven Sisters in the middle of no where! Seven Sisters is one of the stops along the way, and the one we went to going to Stansted. Liverpool Street though is near the Museum of London, so I know the area, but according to the guy we were home free.

So we get to Liverpool Street, go down to the Underground and 2 minutes later we are on the Circle Line. That took us to some stop that connects to the Bakerloo Line, which we took to Waterloo. You should have seen the guy at the station when we bought the Travelcards. It's an all day card that works on the Underground and Trains, and cheaper than buying individual passes for them. He was like, "At this hour?" No for next week! Of course, we aren't idiots, but he sold them to us almost unwillingly. We knew what we were doing however!

So we got to Waterloo, and on the train home. We even could have taken a later train, we are so good. The train ride home though was the best. We were all so happy to be back in England, where English is spoken, and home. We acted like 5 years old, we were laughing excitingly, talking loudly, we screamed American. Two people near us were texting each other back and forth about us! HAHAH! We were those people on the train, and the best part is: we knew it! We didn't care though, we were home! Amaya kept saying things about being those people, and looking at the texters... hahaha! It was awesome.

Here's the thing though, it was 1am by now, and we were sooo hyper! We were on Spain time! I talked to my parents and grandmother, and I was bouncing around the room! It was kinda freaky!

But that ends our Spain trip.. oh wait, one more thing. We got home, and decided to watch Lost. Hahaha, we left off the episode before Boone dies, and it's the one where he appears in Locke's dream bloody and says, "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" and is looking up. Amaya was freaked out by that... so of course I have not let her live that one down. They got skype, and I sent her a message last night (9/11/06) with "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" and yes I gave her nightmares. HEHEHE! I didn't think twice of it when I first saw it, but now I love it, because it freaks out Amaya!

Barcelona... the city of tents

Hola from Barcelona! Wow Barcelona... um what a great place. I'm on the bus coming home from Barcelona, so let me recap our adventure.

We got to Barcelona around 10pm, which wasn't bad, and the city was just coming alive. We had some problems finding the metro station, but thankfully Jessica can ask people in Spanish and we were good. I wrote down the directions from the bus and train stations to the hostel who hoped to stay at, and thankfully I wrote them down from both, because we didn't take the train like planned. We took the bus. It was cheaper, and wait there was room. So a 5 hour bus right it was... woohoo.

The metro ride was sooo funny. First we bought the wrong tickets, but Jessica (our savior) figured it out, the woman who helped us was talking a mile a minute in Spanish... it was so scary. We get on the metro, and the first part of the journey is fine, but we had to switch trains. We get to the platform of the second train, and it's there, and the last of the big group of people are getting on, so I figure it's going to leave really soon. I jumped in the last door, and as soon as I did, the doors closed. I looked around and found Jessica but no one else. There still on the platform giving Jessica and I the saddest looks are Amaya, Kathleen and Cassie. HAHAHA! It was so funny, Jessica and I nearly died laughing! The next stop was ours, so we got off and waited for the next train. Jessica and I talked, I said I give her credit for going to a country where English is not the main language, and she admitted that yeah it was difficult, and she has experienced the little cycle of moods that the Study Abroad Offices warn you about. Here in England, I haven't experienced any of that- it's like, first you like it, then you are homesick, and then you get use to it... whatever, I'm in heaven. I was homesick when I was in Spain... FOR ENGLAND! Well London mostly. But I give her and Mary all the credit in the world, there is a reason why I am in England... I don't do languages. So the girls were on the next train, and we had a few good laughs at their expense... and of course they took pictures of them missing the train... HAHA!

So we found our hostel, but not before having some boys full out check out my flat mates and say, "Welcome to Barcelona" and then me staring down another guy who did a foot to head check out of Kathleen! Oh wow. I was in the back, giving people the evil eye, because the Spanish do not hold back, but if you catch them doing it, they will stop. So this guy was standing on the corner of the street, and full out checked out Kathleen, and one eye looked at me, and I was glaring, I had on my, "Don't mess with me" face, and his eyes dropped to the ground. Oh yeah! Point to me! Every time we walk somewhere in Spain, I always walk in the back and protect the flat mates, of course they didn't know my reasoning until I told them that story, but as always I am the protector.

The hostel we had planned to stay at was full, but they told us to go next door at the other hostel and we got a room there. It's weird, these hostels are not clearly marked, but what matters if we found it. We got a room to ourselves because there was 5 of us, and I claimed one of the top bunks as soon as we entered. Cassie took the bed underneath mine, Jessica and Amaya took the other bunk bed, and Kathleen took the single bed. We didn't stay in the hostel long though, the night was young, and we went exploring Barcelona!

The next morning, we got up around 10:30amish, and um had to hurry to be out by 11am. We hit the market for breakfast, but right next to the market, was oh yes a DUNKIN DONUTS! OHHHHHH! I have been craving Dunkies since I got to England, and oh wow! I of course had to get a Chocolate Frosted donut... it was calling my name! It was so good too, omg. So the market, sooo much food! I got an apple to balance out my breakfast, and the others got fruit too and some bread. The fruit and vegetable section was fine, but wow, we walked through the fish section and that was no good. Squid, fish, octopus... they were staring at me! I could have had my own aquarium with the amount of fish there, I kept my eyes in front of me, and did not look any other way until we got to the meat section, and that was just as bad. I love meat... it's awesome, tastes sooo good, but I don't need to see a whole dead pig staring at me! I almost lost the other girls I was walking so fast through that section too! We got to bread section finally, and I as allowed to relax. Oh wow, it was just not good. I would never be able to work there or anything. Of course then I got in trouble with a lady when I picked up an apple and bought it. You aren't suppose to touch the fruit, but hey with apples, I pick the apple I will be buying, I don't a yucky one.

So we ate our food, well they ate, I had my apple as we were walking to find a place to sit and eat. While they ate, I went into the Kodak store because I had left my newly charged batteries at Jessica's place. Argh so annoying. In the Kodak store... I was by myself, and I bought batteries. They were behind the counter, and when it was my turn, I did the whole, "Hola" thing, and then pointed at the batteries and said, "Un batteries?" Just praying that I was close. She understood, and went over to them pointing at the AA batteries. I nodded and said, "Oui." OUI? AH! Of course I corrected myself right away with, "Si! Si!" But omg, how horrible can I get? I'm in Spain and my French comes out! I felt like an idiot. Anyway I got my batteries and left.

Barcelona is a cool place, they have the people dressed up on the streets like London does, but these people are creepy! There was a vampire, and I found a female Ent! That was cool! There were a lot of musicians on the streets, and two women were playing Schnindler's List. Great, I only had that in my head all day long, but they did it well.

It's really hard to map out where we went... because I have no idea. We started out at some fountain, and walked. We went down many little alleyways, Barcelona is made up of these little streets, they are cute. In the day time of course, at night... well no thanks. It's funny walking down the street and seeing all these stores, they are all Spanish and then a Foot Locker. Foot Locker is in English, same logo and everything. It's just so funny. We went into a few churches, which of course were beautiful. Amaya and Kathleen also got robbed in front of one church. There were flower sellers in front of this one church and they put a flower into the shirts of Amaya and Kathleen, and one tried to do that to me, but I tilted my sun glasses and raised an eyebrow and nope, she went back to Amaya and Kathleen. The thing is they give you a flower, and then you have to pay for it if you want it. Amaya and Kathleen were struggling to figure all of this out, and were getting money out of their purses, when I decided it was time to go in. I told them to give back the flowers, they don't need them, and I walked into the church. At the door of the church is a sign to avoid the flower sellers... oh wow. I guess as people admire the flower, or something they rob you.. I don't get it, but I'm sure they work as a team.

The Churches though, just unbelievable. Just as pretty as in Valencia. When we were at the second Church I believe, a priest came out and started saying something in Spanish. We sat down to listen, I have a feeling it was the Hail Mary... I heard Mary's name a lot in Spanish.

Of course we found the one thing that could make my day in any city... the original Roman wall. Oh it was beautiful. We came upon this wall, and I just looked at it and thought, "Wow old. I wonder how old?" There was a sign that said, "Roman wall." Good signs. There was a lot of this wall compared to the one in England, over the course of the day we found more parts of it, a few times. There is so much of it, just look at my pictures, I took like 11 pictures of a wall.

We also went to the Chocolate Museum and that was awesome. Um it made me soo hungry. Everything there is made out of chocolate, though some of it looks like wax. We spent some time there just thinking, "Man that looks good enough to eat!" The one thing I would never have eaten though was the Finding Nemo statue/display thing. It was all the characters from Finding Nemo, and looked so real. It was awesome! We of course bought chocolate before leaving, and it was really good. We could have bought a bar of chocolate in the way they use to make it, omg I forget what ingredients they use to put in it... I'll find out, but that was a bit too risky for me. I just got a bar of dark chocolate and one of milk chocolate, and I was a happy kid. Cassie got a cup of hot chocolate aka melted chocolate, and it was so rich. When you dip a piece of chocolate into it, it's even better. Omg, it was awesome, we all had a few sips of it.

After that we went to a park, it was huge. We went into the park, and thought wait, it's 2:30pm in Spain, we should probably have some lunch. We went to a nice little place really close to the park, and we all got their special deal of the day. I had a salad, chicken, and ice cream. It was pretty good. The chicken was interesting, it wasn't cut up or anything- it was a chicken. It looked like what we buy in Stop N Shop... a whole chicken. I tore it apart, I was hungry. We were there for awhile, well it's Spain so the service is slow.

The park, our last stop on the day. It was beautiful. One of my favorite things about it was the statue that looked very Romanish... and yeah the guy died a hundred years ago. But it was just the head, and it looked like an emperor... I was amused. We all enjoyed the big mammoth, and of course we played on him. The fountain was unbelievable, so big! I took a video of Kathleen galloping... HAHAH! Amaya kept asking where her coconuts were... hehe, yes we like Monty Python. So then we heard sheep... and Kathleen was like, "I'm coming sheep!" They wanted to play with us... but then we realized they were in the Barcelona Zoo. We didn't go in.

So that was Barcelona, I didn't say a lot about the park though we spent an hour or two there, mostly at the fountain just staring. Look at my pics for the fountain. Barcelona was beautiful, I loved it. We got a bus back, got into Valencia at like midnight, and took a taxi home. It was good though.

Good times in Valencia

Hello again! I love 5 hour bus rides so I can catch up with my journal! So to Wednesday... it was All Saints Day aka All Stores Closed Day. So most of the restaurants weren't open either, and it was the day we thought about going to Madrid but traveling is expensive in Spain so we are just going to Barcelona. Wednesday however was beach day!
Woohoo!
We went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Yep that's right, on November 1st, I was swimming. Granted we weren't in long because girls go to the ocean to tan and I didn't want to swim alone, that's really boring. So we swam for like 20 minutes, this being Kathleen, Jessica, Cassie and myself. Kathleen and Jessica slowly walked in, and I ran up from behind them, and jumped right into the water. It wasn't really that cold, well it was, but considering the last place I went swimming was Hampton Beach, it was pretty good. Really sandy, and we went out a ways before it even considered getting deep. I tried not to think how important all of this was for someone who loves the ancient world, but this sea was sooo important for the Romans and Greeks! Ohhh, it was awesome.

The only problem with the day was there was a breeze that was okay expect if you are on the beach, and then it was cold. It was like 75ish, but that breeze killed us! We didn't get going on the day until late, like 2ish, so we couldn't stay on the beach long anyway, but it was a nice time.

But we are on the beach, and this guy is selling coke (the drink) and he had the weirdest but most addicting song ever. Of course this is all he does during the day so I'm sure he makes it a little more creative to keep himself amused. It was all in Spanish and then it would end with, "very cooooooool". It was amusing the first 2 times, but then the girls next to us started singing it and it was not even remotely funny by then.

I tried a Spanish omelet Wednesday night. Jessica cooked them, it was really good. It was eggs, potatoes, peppers (didn't eat the peppers), tomatoes and cheese. It was a good first course, but I was still really hungry afterwards.

So after that we went to the rope course thing in the park, apparently we walked right by the day we walked in the park, so Jessica took us there. It was interesting, I of course climbed all over it, and went to the top. But the others said it hurt their feet too much so we just sat there and talked while I climbed. Haha. I didn't hang upside down like Kathleen though, that never occurred to me, I just climbed. Yeah it hurt my feet, I followed everyone's example and took off my sneakers but I should have just kept them on. Oh well.

We walked to the musical fountain next, and listened to that for awhile. Classical music plays, and the fountain does it's thing along with the music. I have a video or two of it, I'll probably put it on Webshots. It was fun and just cool to see. There wasn't any people when we went this time, unlike when we went in the day time and kids were doing laps around the whole thing.

Jessica's thought was to show us the port, because it's pretty lively down there at night, but yeah we forgot it was a holiday so it was completely empty. It's nice, but much more fun on nonholiday days. It was like Christmas, everything was closed! We couldn't even go to the grocery stores.

So when we got to Jessica's, it was like 11pm, and we all sat down tired from our walk. Jessica had gone up to the roof, another gathering was going on up there, and so only my flat mates were in the room, and we all just looked at each other, and I just said, "I'm hungry." On the way home we saw a pizza place open, so we all went. I couldn't deal with it anymore, I was so hungry. It was owned by Muslims, that's why it was opened. It was good though, and they had a TV, and it was in English with Spanish subtitles! That was fun, we got a table close to the TV to watch it. It was like Bend It Like Beckham, but no Joe. It was weird, and a musical... the music part killed it. It was great until that part. The pizza was great, I devoured mine.

And that was Wednesday. Next up Barcelona!

Happy Halloween! I'm sitting at the top of a Tower right now looking at the whole of Valencia. I love these towers, though they take a lot out of you. 203 steps this time, so not bad, but could be less. Today has been a fun day, we are on our own again. We left Jessica at the hospital today, apparently, she, Kathleen and Amaya helped some girl who was puking on the side of the street last night. She was German who speaks Spanish and English, and Jessica called an ambulance for her, and they stayed with her until they came. So later when we see Jessica we can find out how she is doing. Last night I passed out around midnight, I was just so tired from all the walking we did. After I finished writing yesterday, we walked for an hour just getting home. By then it was past 10pm, and I was beat! I walked back to Nils' place with everyone, and they went out but I fell on the couch and was asleep. I slept until 11am. People here in Spain don't sleep. Nils said that if you get 5 hours of sleep, that is a good nights sleep. That's crazy, I would not survive here!

So we went back to the city centre today, and we searched for the Roman ruins. I guess the girls took my comments about the mall the wrong way, because I'm the only one who enjoys the Romans and it was the first thing on our to do list. Jessica showed me a map and told me where I could find the ruins that might be Roman. So that's where we went, and on the way we had a few adventures. The first one being a protest! It was police escorted, but wow they walked slow. We stopped and watched them approach, and tried to figure out what it was about. Some guy near the front though was yelling in Spanish, and he looked over at us, so we ran, just incase it was about us or something.

We then came upon this bakery, and with just one look into the window of the place, we were inside. I got a piece of chocolate cake, even though I just had Burger King. We had to go American since Jessica couldn't order for us, and Amaya knows enough Spanish to do Burger King. Um this piece of chocolate cake though... oh wow. I basically swallowed it whole, it was so good. The girls were amazed, but I told them soon they will realize that it is all normal for me. I have to go now, time to get off the tower, and when I get back, I'll tell you all about the ruins.

Okay so I'm back after a really long break. So sorry. I haven't had five minutes to write. So the ruins, well one look at them and I just smiled, and that told the girls that they were indeed Roman. The way they are positioned looks like a Roman forum. It also looks like there were more, but there is a building now where I'm sure there were more columns. Oh well. Look at my pictures for the Roman ruins, I took enough. There are no signs here or anything, but they scream Roman. There are still some full columns, but a lot of pieces. Roman or not it was cool to see. There was also some Catholic stuff, um right next to the columns is this huge arch that has Mary and baby Jesus near the top of it. But then, this isn't as cool as the Roman columns, because nothing is, but it's a close second, there are these stone tablets depicting different scenes from the Bible. There are three of them, and one is Jesus being taken off the cross, another is Pentacost, and I have no idea what the third one is. I know the second one because the person talking has a tongue of flames over his head, and that's Pentacost. Wow, that's 14 years of Catholic school at work right there. I took pictures of them of course, so if you want to see them head over to my Photo Album.

Okay so after the ruins, we went in search of the market and some churches. Boy did we find some churches. St. Johns I believe is the name of it, and wow so beautiful. I would put the church around 500 hundred years old... the ceiling looked Renaissanceish but there was no date. The church looked horrible from the outside, and we went in, and our mouths dropped. There are two alters, lots of statues of different saints, the stations of the cross, all the normal stuff just ten times cooler than in any church I've ever been in. Everything was so decorated beautifully, the alter was amazing. Flowers everywhere, one because the next day was a holiday. I couldn't get over the ceiling either, it had different scenes from the Bible, and I wish I had taken out my notebook then and just wrote down what I saw, because I can't remember what scenes were drawn.

We also found the market, but it was closed. We missed it by like 10 minutes... argh not cool. So then we went in search of the Holy Grail... hahah! The Valencia Cathedral is said to have once been the home of the Holy Grail... and the whole way we quoted Monty Python. "What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?" HAHA, yep, we all love Monty Python way too much. Before the Cathedral though, we stopped and got ice cream. Yeah Spain is going to make me fat, but then I do so much walking, it all evens out.


Okay so hello again. Sorry long break, it's Thursday evening now, and we are waiting for the bus to take us to Barcelona. Sorry, I got interrupted before I could tell you about the Cathedral. So back to that. The Cathedral is so beautiful. At first we didn't go in far, we were trying to see if there was a guided tour in English, but there wasn't, so we climbed the tower instead. This is my third tower that I've climbed, and it was just 203 steps. Cassie fell behind, and Amaya took the lead when I stopped for a second because my thigh was killing me, but I was on her heels for the rest of the climb up. Such torture to climb up, we paid to torture ourselves. The view though is worth it. Valencia is beautiful from the top of the Tower. It has such a good mix of old towers with new skyscrapers. Not that any of the buildings are really high, but there is a mix. I hope there is a tower in Rome I can climb, but if there is I won't ever come down. The view though is so breathtaking and wonderful, and I could stare out at Valencia all day. Going down the tower was better, but my legs really didn't feel up to bending like that, and it was a slow walk down.

So then we walked through the Cathedral more, and saw the chapel where the Holy Grail once was apparently. It was locked, which was sad, and we continued on. All along the side of the Cathedral there are statues to different saints, and a pew in front of them, and a lot of people were taking the chance to pray to the saint of their choice. The other thing I noticed was the old Confession boxes, and it's basically out in the open. Someone was confessing while we walked by them, and I would never do that. I liked the rooms with doors at St. Bs, where no one can see you. So the Cathedral was really interested, there was signs for every saint, but we couldn't read any of it. The most interesting thing was a hand of a saint in a box. I guess the saint was murdered in 304 A.D, so the Romans could have killed this person or anyone really, and I guess they cut off the hand, and here it is. Too bad most of that is a guess, and I only know the date. Will have to google that sometime. Beautiful place though.

So then we went in search of this cool fountain that we had seen from the tower. We didn't have to search far because it is right behind the Cathedral. It's a huge thing, and we sat on the steps in front of it and just people watched. The pigeon man came, and that was interesting. We could see his mouth moving as he fed the pigeons, and his mouth would move, and then a pigeon would come to his arm, as if he had names for them, and was calling them one by one. I'm sure this is his daily routine, and that he does have names for all of them. One by one they ate out of his hand, and if they got too greedy he would hit them a paper. They didn't care as long as they could keep eating. He also seemed to have a favorite pigeon, this one bird stayed on his arm for the majority of the time and he never once tried to get him off his arm. The pigeons surrounded him, like 30 pigeons, and he calmly stood in the middle of them and they ate what he threw, and sat on both his arms. Other than the Pigeon man, there was a cute old couple sitting on the edge of the fountain not talking just sitting there holding hands. A few boys were playing with a ball, some couples walked around the fountain or sat on the steps. It was so peaceful and then all a sudden a dog barked right behind me. I swore it was Coco! I turned around, and there was Coco! It looked just like him, sounded just like him... it was so weird! Couldn't it have been a cute puppy like Samwise, but no Coco.

We probably sat there for about a half an hour, but then we left, Amaya was still looking for black shoes, so we looked into all shoe stores as we walked home to Jessica's. Of course she didn't find black shoes, and it was a fun walk back to Jessica's!

So Halloween isn't a big thing here, and we all wanted to dress up. Kathleen, Amaya and Jessica were the kittens who lost their mittens, and I was oh wait for it.. a college hockey player. I realized I had packed my USM sweatpants, and my Husky shirt, so I rolled up my sweatpants, put on the shirt, and I had on my USM hockey shorts, and my sneakers. I put my bandanna on (yeah I know I packed random stuff) and was all set. I'm so creative, but hey it was Halloween and I wanted to dress up! We had a nice little gathering on the roof, and it was a fun time. I crashed at like 2:30am... oh Spain.

So it's lunch time in Spain, yeah it's 2pm. Things work a little differently in Spain, for example lunch is at 2-4pm, dinner is around 9ish, and the party doesn't begin until like midnight. Lunch is slow, and an hour and a half lunch is normal.

Valencia is different, I actually am already feeling homesick for London. There's just something about London that makes my heart beat a little faster, and I haven't felt that way about Valencia yet. But then I've only been here for a few hours, so I will be fine, and I know I will enjoy visiting another country.

Kathleen and Amaya picked us up, and then we went to meet Jessica back at her flat. We stopped at the grocery store so they could pick up some food, and wow they have Chips Ahoy! I've been craving Chips Ahoy since I got here. I should pick up some stuff at the grocery store near Nils just so I'm not always eating out. So anyway, we met Jessica by her place, and opps she left her keys inside her room. She called her friend Valentino (Oh he's so Italian, it's awesome), and we dropped the groceries off at his flat, and then we walked to the city centre of Valencia. It's high 70's here, well at least I think so, it says it's like 26 Celsius but all I know is IT"S HOT compared to England.

Hey, had to stop, my lunch came. It wasn't bad, I ate some rice and chicken. The food here isn't spicy or hot, it's meat and potatoes and rice. The problem is figuring out the Spanish so you know what you are ordering, and that is where Jessica comes in. We had a good time just sitting, eating and just talking. We ate for more than an hour, and then headed off. Jessica was with us for a little bit, but then she headed off to get her keys and go to class. Thankfully she was able to get them! So then my flat mates and I started walking around Valencia, and oh wow, so many beautiful buildings that I don't know what they are, and the fountains. WOW. Jessica told us that, Spain is full of beautiful fountains, and I love fountains. There is just something about them. We walked to the train station, which is a beautiful building, and only later did I find out that it is the train station. But the building next to the train station... well that made my day. It's the bull fighting arena, but it's modeled after a Roman arena. Anyone who has seen Gladiator can tell you that. I thought at first it was an arena but it's too new looking, well it's in too good of shape. So maybe they rebuilt it on the sight of the original one, because there was one built by the Romans, every town had one, and Valencia was important in Augustus's time so there was def one. Right inside though was shops, and I bought myself a bracelet... it's black and has a bird on it, though I prefer to think of it as a Nighthawk. It was only 4 euros, and it's cool looking.

So from there we walked, and walked, and came to a really nice park. This park is in the middle of the big road, it separates the two sides, and we saw a lot of nice fountains, the musical one, which we will be going back to, and see it at night when there is music going, and a playground. One thing before the playground though, we saw a father and his son throwing around an American football, and it was bad. The father was throwing it with two hands over his head, and the kid couldn't do a spiral to save his life. I wanted to interrupt, and be like, "Just watch" and do it myself, but I resisted. Kathleen and Amaya agreed that they could throw a better spiral than the kid, and he wasn't like a 10 year old kid, but maybe 15 years old. Anyway, the playground is Gullivan from Gullivan's Travels, and you can climb all over him. We are like the little people. So yes we are 12, and we climbed all over Gullivan, and slid down him, I had way too much. I love slides, so I ran up them and slid down!

But now I am in a mall. A mall, yep you read it right. I came to Spain to go to a mall. I mentioned this fact to the girls, and Cassie said, "Well if you had a better idea..." I'm not complaining or anything, just stating a fact. Amaya is of course shopping, and I'm at this little cafe in the middle of the mall. I got Ben and Jerry's... and now just resting my legs.

Now that I've spent a whole day here I'm warming up to it more, but I'll take London any day, even if it is soooo expensive. The euro is much nicer than the pound.

Til next time!