London experience day 2

Hello, So you want to know about the rest of my weekend? Here we go! Okay, so I left off on the Friday right? So Saturday morning I woke up to some kind of alarm. There were only a couple other girls that woke up and we were all wondering if it was a fire alarm, but didnt want to rush out side because it was cold. Since I was next to the windo I got to look outside and check to see if people were running outside. No one was so I asked one of the girls who was dressed to go downstairs and ask. I turned off afew minutes later when I was dressed and getting my stuff ready for the day. I mean it was a little ahead of schedule, but I figured we should get a head start anyway. Turns out it was a false alarm, so no biggie. When she was ready a bit later, Karicia and I made our way to St. Pauls Cathedral. We had some issues finding the enterence for some reason, but over all got in and actually paid less than I expected. It was gorgeous. Very pretty and very big. We climbed the stairs to the Whispering Gallery and walked around that for a while. It was like 260 steps or something. Then we climbed another 150 steps to get to the next gallery which was outside and overlooked London. It felt like I was on top of the empire state building again. We tried to go to the highest gallery but were told it was closed! That was a bit of a disapointment, but we still got to see the rest of the gorgeous cathedral.

Next stop was Cafe Nero for a hot chocolate and coisant. We chatted there for a bit then made our seperate ways. I was going to go to the TKTS ticket booth in Leister Square. It sells half priced tickets to West End productions. But Karicia wanted to walk and Leister square was most def a tube way away and she wasnt going to see anything that night anyway, so she decided to take a walk down the thames and see the market that was near the London Eye, while I got my tickets and met her at the London Eye later. It actually didnt take as long as I thought. I thought I was going to be in line for a while as it was mid day Saturday and I was sure it would be busy. I actually got through within 20 minutes and got one ticket to Spamalot and as I was by myself I got a really good seat in the first balcony second row! It was then a fairly short walk, at least shorter than I had anticipated, to the London Eye. I got to walk accross that bridge that is only for people and is all pretty and you can see the Eye and stuff.

I got there at least an hour before I expected to and got my tickets that I had ordered online. Karicia must have read my mind or something because she appeared very shortly after so we were able to get in line right away. The line was HUGE, like no joke, so we thought we would be waiting 45mintues to an hour. But surprisingly again, it onlytook half an hour and it wasnt at all annoying because we were constantly moving and making progress, no long waits in one position. And we had lots to chat about which only made it go by faster. The Eye takes around 20 people in a pod at once and takes around half an hour to go around. We got marvolous pictures and since it was around 3pm the sun was starting to set giving the city a nice glow. There were some rude foreign people, but that didnt phase us, we were so excited to be in the London Eye. At one point we were trying to get a picture with Big Ben behind us and this one girl pushed in and tried to stick her camera in the way. I literally pushed her (gently of course) and told her to wait. She just kind of looked at me and after the shot Karicia and I moved to a new position that we could see better and have less people around to bother us. I think if those foreign people had been smiling or happy in any way I wouldnt have been so rude, but they were incredibly unhappy, at least that is what it looked like. You think they would be excited to be in the london eye. I mean they did probably speand enough money on it.

Anywho, that being done we decided to wonder around for a bit then go for supper. We managed to make that last a good hour and a half, then wondered around until we found that internet cafe that was so cheap. When I left we parted ways. Karicia back to the hostel and me to see Spamalot. I got in fairly quickly, got a program and sat down in very lovely seat, I could see everything very well. The musical is hilarious to anyone who hasnt seen it. I definately recomend it! It had everything and more that is Monty Pythonesque. Mostly Holy Grail. It had the flying cow and killer bunnies and all your favourite characters and more. The guy who played King Arthur was East Indian I think so there were some really funny jokes about religion in there. He was amazing too and obviously and improver. My favourite part was when they are looking for Jews so they can put on a play and the servant says that he is a jew and Arthur is like, why didnt you tell me this before, then the servent says it isnt something you tell a heavily armed Christian and then Arthur looks at the audience and then does this little, nevermind, gesture, because he is obviously Muslim. At some points he made a ramadon joke and even started speaking in whatever language he is. It was all quite perfect. My favourite character/actor was Sir Robin. He was perfect and obviously laughs kinda easily, like corpses easily, but he totally incorporated that into his performance and it worked very well. The singing was actually very good, they were very talented singers. The sets were awsome, everything was very Monty Pythom, in fact most of the actors looked like they were Monty Python. Like they should have been a part of the group way back when.

Anywho, after that I checked out the gift shop a little closer just to see and dont worry everyone I didnt buy anything though it was soo painful I actually had to rip myself away from them. You have no idea, there were killer bunny slippers, a killer bunny hand puppet. Spamalot spam, cow merchendise and all these other things, that make you just go ooo. I instead tore myself away and made my way back to the hostel. Luckily there was little if any creepiness. I quite enjoyed my ride back. I got back, put my stuff away and went to bed.

Oh, I didnt mention something from that morning. We actually talked to this girl who had been sleeping in the bunk mext to us, she asked if we were from Canada and said she was from Vancouver. We chatted with her for quite a few minutes and found out she was on an exchange with a program called swap. She had just graduated and what happens is the program helps you get a flat or apartment in ..somewhere you want to go and then helps you get a job and integrate yourself into the culture. She said its been awsome and that she was moving into her flat that day. She said she had gotten lucky and gotten a journalism job at amagazine. Not really the magazine she would want, but its still a really good job and a good start. I noted the name of the website of the swap thing and then thats when we made our way to Saint Pauls, but not before wishing her luck on her life.

I will try to do Sunday tonight or tomorow. But for now its time for lunch!

London experience day ONE

Okay so I was still at the tower of London right? Its hard to remember sometimes. So the tower was very interesting, very big. It took us quite a few hours to get through the whole thing. The tour only lasted an hour and didnt take us into the towers, so the next few hours were us exploring the castle and all the cool towers special rooms and neat stuff there. We also sawteh crown jewels. The first thing you see when you go through the building is a video of Queen Elizabeth getting crowned, then you see a video about the jewels, what each one is and what they represent. Then it was time for the actual jewels. OMG they were soo sparkley! Honestly, you know how you see diomond comercials or see the jewels on tv and they look unreal they are so sparkley. Thats not digitally enhanced (that much), it was dazzling. Very pretty and kinda freaky seeing them that close. We also saw the graffitti by Lady Jane Grey in whatever tower she was locked in, which was also pretty cool.

We concluded our tower experience in the cafe, had a small lunch there and chatted for almost an hour and a half. We then made our way to the gift shop, looked around for a while and then made our way to the tube. Our next mission, so to speak, was to have a meal at the hard rock cafe. I guess it is the origional hard rock cafe too! When we got there I was sure we were going to have to wait half an hour, so I was all concerned about making it to our show. The people in front of were told it was going to be a 20 minute wait, which we were perfectly fine with, but right as we were given our buzzer to call us over they took it right back and took us to our seats. To be honest I think it was because we were really nice when we came in and werent bitchy about having to wait, so they were really nice. The waitress was also really nice. We told her we were going to see Hairspray and she started chatting about musicals and shows we`ve been to. We had really good service and the food was obviously amazing. I had a margharita, which was obviously amazing and left me feeling only a little fluffy. We also had dessert, which actually just about killed me. It was hard to walk after. But of course once we had paid and were on our way down the street towards the tube the sugar rush kicked in and I decided it would be a good idea to run down the street as we were in a hurry anyway and I had a poo load of energy. Well that didnt feel particularly good after we slowed down to a trot. Now I know why they say you shouldnt excersize right after you`ve eaten. Best part was when we got off the tube later at our stop and saw there were lifts instead of escelators and crowds of people waiting for one. We decided it would be a better idea to climb the spiral staircase. Yeah, let me tell you how fun that was. Not really. It was an adventure and a half.

Anywho, thanks to my amazing direction skills and map skills we made it perfectly on time at the theatre to pick up our tickets. I also got a brochure/book thing to look through. Our tickets were for back/centre orchestra, so we could see really well. Oh and I dont know if I mentioned this but we were seeing Hairspray mostly for the reason that Michael Ball was in it. I have already seen it on Broadway, and normally I like to try to see new things I have not seen before, but like I said this one had MICHAEL BALL! If you dont know he is famous British singer/West End actor who I adore. Seriously, he is amazing and I have always wanted to see him perform/sing. He was playing Edna for anyone that knows the musical, which makes it all the more hilarious. Anywho the Tracy was amazing and the Link was super hot and the dancing was superb and in general the show was fantabulous! Michael was amazing, he just had that role down and was soo funny! The best part came when him and the Ian Talbot (playing Wilber the husband) did their duet. They were dancing and when their characters kissed I guess something happened or the audience`s reaction amused them because they both startedto giggle. They paused then continued the song, but when wilbur had his arms around edna from behind I think one of them improvised or said something they dont usually that was really funny, something about being jewish and penis`. But Wilbur totaly broke down laughing, he had to hide his face behind Michael, because he couldnt stop. Then Michael said something else I cant remember at the moment that got them both laughing. They kept banteringand laughing until finally Michael was like "I think a little pee came out!" You can imagine the entire audience were in hystarics with laughter. It was beautiful. They eventually completed the song and got the biggest applause of the night. The entire cast seemed really comfortable on stage, they hada great relationship with the audience and all around, it was just a magical preformance.

After the show, I took Karicia to behind the theatre to go to the back stage door. If you dont know, what usually happens is you go to the back stage door (with usually a huge crowd of people) and wait for the actors to come out and get their autographs. This time there were only around 10 people waiting which kinda surprised me. A few more eventually accumulated, but no huge crowds, which suited me fine obviously. First we got Link`s autograph, and let me tell you life has treated him well, he was very pretty. Very very pretty. We waited a while, me inwardly giggling in anticipation and willing and able to kick the old ladies in front of me out of the way if necesary. No need, for who should appear out of the doorway? Michael himself. The old ladies chat with him because I guess they know someone who knows him and then its my turn. I got an autgraph and a picture with him! He was so nice to everyone and willing to stay and take pictures and sign autographs. When I asked for an autograph he called me lovey or lovely or something to that effect, to be honest I dont really remember. I was actually very calm, no swooning so dont worry. But afterward, on the walk back, I swooned massively. I practically floated. How cool to meet Michael Ball! While in England! Mmm, it still makes me happy to think about. Oh ya, and before I left I got Tracy`s autograph and picture too. She was soo cute and sweet!

We got all the way back with little hastle. One sketchy guy on the subway, but other than that a pretty fluffy ride back. When we did get back, unfortunately I broke my portrait lens. I was sitting on my bottom bunk and I pulled it out of my purse too quickly and it pushed in, then back out. The actual camera is fine, but I did spend the next 20 minutes out in the hallway trying to get it back together. I basically pouted all the way into bed, then I remembered that I had met Michael Ball and I had very sweet dreams for a majority of the night. For the rest of the saga you will have to toon in again this week. Hee, Michael Ball...

Start of London Weekend

So right now I am sitting in a random internet cafe in London trying to kill an hour before seeing a show (you will find out which one later). So I though I would fill everyone in on what has happened thus far. Though I am not sure how far I will make it into my story as I only have 35 minutes left and these prove to take a while to write. So here I go.

So on Thursday Karicia and I left for Eastbourne around 6:15pm. We took a mini-bus (which is free!) and got a ride straight to the train station. Now I must inform you that I organised this trip completely on my own I ordered tickets for nearly everything online through my visa card and organised the timeing. I actually had to make out a schedule with all the times and codes for when we were going where. So pretty much everything was and still is relying on me and my codes and cards and stuff. So I was a little nervous. First leap came when we got to the automatic ticket machine in the station and it said I had the wrong code. That nearly gave me a heart attack, but luckily I had just typed in the wrong code. So we got our tickets and went to wait for out train. Luckily I was being massively paranoid and noticed after half an hour (we were really early) that we were in the wrong terminal (even thought there are only three). So we basically made it with ten minutes to spare onto our train. We had no transfers so the two of us just chatted and slept the whole way. If you havent picked it up already we were going to London. We landed in Victoria Station around 9 and then attempted to make our way to hostel which is a 20 min. tube ride away from the centre of the city. We had a couple set backs as my oyster card (look it up) didnt have enough money on it to let me on the tube and the machines didnt work for me so I had to wait in line behind these massively slow people (one lady arguing with the guy behind the counter) in order to put enough money on to get me through the weekend. I eventually made it out and we were on our way up to Hendon Central. I just want to say I have become a pro at getting around London and especially using the tube now. I hope I havent jixed myself for tomorow or tonight, but I guess you`ll find out later!

Anywho we were trying desperately to get to the hostel before 10pm because that is the latest you can check in without having to hand over a photo id for the night. Our hostel is literally a few seconds from the tube station so we rushed over and got into the building at exactly 9:55pm. Too bad for us they had just closed the till so I had to hand over my drivers lisence and we would have to do the checking in the next morning. We got our bedding stuff and headed up to our dorm style all female room. It was a 12 girl room. When we got in we found 4 three person bunk beds with a bunch of dutch girls already in there and a few extra`s. We basically undressed and went right to bed. I found it kinda funny though that all the girls were sitting there on their laptops doing whatever. They brought their laptops! And left them there during the day! I dunno, sounds kinda sketch. Anywho, it was an okay sleep, but it got kinda hot, and i was on the very bottom bunk!

So the next day I woke up around 8am and started getting ready. I dont know why, but I like to get up early, especially when I am in a hostel. I let Karicia sleep and I went downstairs to check us in. I figured it would be a good idea to get a locker, cause I am paranoid. And I now have "valuable" stuff to keep in there! You will have to find that out later, as I do not have time to include it in this particular blog. I chatted with the guy in the front desk and then Karicia and I got ready and made our way to our first stop. This was the Tower of London. I got kinda paranoid because when I read the print out more carefully it said I needed my confirmation e-mail. Big lie, it turned out I just needed the code they had given me. It was quick and easy especially so early in the morning. So here is my London advice: get London Tower tickets online. It will save you a couple pounds and you get your tickets faster. We then made our way down to the tower entrance. We got one of the first tours which last about an hour. The guide was hilarious! He kept telling us to laugh and saying how depressing we looked. Very good, I thin you would have enjoyed him dad. He basicallytook us around and gave us basic information on the fortress. He wasnt just a tour guide, he was a Yeoman or something. He is one of the guys who looks after the tower. To be one of these guys you hve to have served in the British military for at least 20 years and have certain decorations.

I have run out of time on the computer, so I will have to continue my description of my adventures tomorow when I am back at Bader or on Monday when I have some free time. In the mean time, enjoy this little tid bit!

Sheepy Weepies!

So last I left off was Vimy Ridge right? I honestly do not remember the next few days after that. I think I was doing homework and projects...ya I was definately doing projects and homework. I had an annotated works cited for history, a film essay and loads of German studying to do. But guess what!? I just finished my last essay for the term! YAY! Except now I have exams, but I dont mind, the crazy stuff is over, now all I have to do is study.

So last week was my stress week. I was supposed to go clubbing in Eastbourne on the Thursday with a bunch of people, but about an hour before we were going to leave my group for film decided we had better get working on it. Which was understandable as there were literally no other days when we were all available to do it. So I stayed behind to work on that instead. It actually turned out pretty well because I stopped by Jacinta`s room and we ended up watching two episodes of Doctor Who season four and laughing our heads off. I turned in and the next day was Friday. Mmm, friday...Oh ya, I went to ASDA on Thursday and got some fruit and study snacks and essential supplies and my pictures developed for the photography competition. I have some really good shots so keep your fingers crossed! Saturday night I worked on my Film essay. Amanda and I were both the only ones in the computer lab most of the time and kept distracting each other by chatting, it was actually quite fun because I kept making random noices when I was either happy or frustrated and she would just laugh at me then we would just start talking about God knows what.

You know what is really funny? I was trying to figure out what I did on Friday, because I know I wasnt here and I just could not figure it out. It just dawned on me...I went to London on a feild study. But not just any feild study, the film feild study. Now on this expedition was both the drama class and the film class (same prof). The bus left around 3:30ish in the afternoon. I for some reason got a seat near the back (all the front were filled) so I was honestly expecting a not so friendly ride to London. When you are on the back it feels a lot more intense, like being on the back of a rollercoaster, especially since the roads are so winedy (I have no idea how to spell tha word! I can honsetly say I have never had to spell that word). Anywho I ended up sitting beside Max and we chatted about movies and stuff and what the play was about until they turned on the movie Moulin Rouge! I have not seen that movie in so long and it was so funny to watch it again. I also found out from Max that we werent seeing a movie but rather a play, with only two actors and aparently it had aspects of a movie or something. Okay... sounds interesting. When we got to the location in London it was already dark out and we had about an hour before we had to be there, so most of us headed to the pub accross the street and ordered a drink (a magners of course for me!). A few of us just sat together and chatted about drinking and about drama and film class and computers and other random chitchat that occurs at pubs. After a while we look around and notice the other group of sudents has left so is it time to make our way back to the theatre.

Now why I dont know, but for some reason I managed to get a buz off that one Magners so I was feeling pretty good. We had to wait for a little bit before we could go in but once we did, it looked like a larger version of the registry theatre in waterloo. Where the seats are raised, but not the stage. It reminded me of all those old dance performances that we used to do at random theatres God knows where. Ah good times. Anywho, we sat down and waited for the show to start. Let me set the scene; lights go up (simple lighting, nohing fancy), there is an empty stage with literally nothing on it. Then someone pops their head out from behind a curtain and looks around. He then proceeds to walk slowly and cautiously to the centre of the stage looking around awkwardly. Oh and by the way he is dressed in black pants, black long sleeved shirt and a black mask/hood thing that covered his whole head...and he had a skeleton paited on the whole costume. He then proceeds to start talking about how that eveing was different than most nights. How there were things missing. Dont even ask what he was talking about the rest ofthe time because I have no idea, non of it really seemed to have any importance. I must give him some props, he had complete control of the audience and it was almost like he was trying to prove it to someone. He would have us laughing and then would completely bring the mood down to this complete awkward boredum. It was almost like an experiment. He must have known what he was doing because he was doing exactly what you arent supposed to do in acting. He would say something and then just pause and stare at the audience, he talked really slowly and I dunno, its hard to explain but it really pissed me off. It was so wrong. I understand its supposed to be artsy but I was annoyed that it felt like he was using us but not in a positive way. He would pat his belly and wonder aroundstage the whole time.

Oh and I almost forgot the girl that came on a few minutes in. She came on and was like..I would like to do my death scene now. So she proceeded to do her death scene...throughout the rest of the play. She would sometimes be really lowd and melodramatic and other times more quiet or almost silent. But she seemed like she was begging the audience for attention. It reminded me of a few things. Once and a while the skeleton wouldsay, now I really like what your doing here Claire, or I really liked that or something. To me it reminded me of all those strange modern dances we used to see for dance. It had the weird breathing and moaning and some really floppy and falling movements. A lot of people were laughing, butI found it hard to because most of the time when we see dances like this they arent supposed to be funny. In the end I was just really unentertained. Though I did laugh at the people I was sitting with. At one point the guy was saying that nobody ever laughed at the part where Claire just laid dead on the floor. Of course right as he says that Max and Devon give out this huge laugh and continue giggling which only makes the rest of us in that area start giggling for another ten minutes when everyone was supposed to be silent and mellow. What surprised me is the actor`s reaction. He did nothing. Now this is normal for a play I know, but I expected him to have some form of reaction, I mean he was alone on stage. This is what got me about this play, they had no reaction to the audience, there was no connection between them and the audience. It was like he had his script and that is what he was sticking to. I must hang out with improvers too much. I later found out that this peice was one in a series that that particular company does and others have been better, but they kinda have a following, like fans who are really into it and keep track and stuff. If you are interested the play was called spectacular by the group Forced Entertainment. On the way back on the bus we watched wedding singer and slept and that was basically my Friday.

Okay so interesting day was Sunday. I went to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Katie and I sat together on the bus and since we both get motion sickness it was a perfect combination. We chatted once and a while but mostly listened to our music and slept. The first stop was Stonehenge. It was really cool because we got a lot closer to it than I thought we would. We kept being told we would be sooo far away from it, but both Katie and I were pleasantly surprised by how close we got. We got some beautiful shots, said hello to the sheepies surounding the area (they were soo cute!) and then made our way to the gift shop. OMG! THere were these stuffed animal sheep that were sooo cute! Hopefully I will have the pictures up on my facebook eventually because they were ultra expensive so i took pictures of them instead. Hee.

Then the coach took the group to Salisbury for shopping and touring and stuff. Katie and I walked to the Cathedral there and saw a Magna Carta that is there and took pictures, though we later found out we werent supposed to. We ran into Jacinta and Amanda so the four of us proceeded to wonder around Salisbury looking in the shops. There was this one that had tea and coffee and chocolate things and it took all of my effort not to buy this tea that came with a tea strainer thing and it was beautiful, but I am being a good girl with my money. We also went into this toy store which at the back had these inapropriate toys like insult buttons and penis noodles and insult booklets and other sexual/insulting things. When we got on the bus they turned on Mean Girls which I havent seen in so long! After that we still had a while so they turned on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. That one brought back good memories.

We made it back for dinner and the rest of the night was speant doing god knows what. This past week I have been trying to figure out housing for next year and planning my London trip for this weekend and writing my major Enlgish essay, so lets just say its been a full week. And I still dont know what I am going to do next year about housing, but I`ve got some ideas so we`ll see where it takes me. I am actually thinking living in res looks really good right now, meet some new people and still live on campus. Anywho I`ll keep you updated. I leave today for three nights in London to hopefully get all that extra touring stuff done that I have been meaning to do. I`ll let you know how it goes! OMG you realise its only three weeks until I go home?!

Forgotten Article

So make sure before you read this one, that you read the post below. Yes I know it is long, but I still recomend you to check it out. What I forgot was the beginings of my lists of "rules" or at least lessons I have learned while here in Enlgand. The first is, as you have read before, listen to your body, aka dont climb a Scottish mountain after eating a shitload of fudge. The second is DO NOT use duct tape to attach anything to the walls or ceilings in a room or apartment you have rented or in any way do not own. It ends badly. The story that goes along with this is that when I got back from my mid term trip Angie and I were very excited because we received in the mail halloween decorations from my dear parents. I had clear tape and Angie had duct tape. We proceeded to excitingly put up decorations not only on our door but in our room. This included those wire things duct taped to our ceiling (entirely my doing I must admit). So this past week when I went to take them down what should happen, but a tiny bit of paint may have been ripped from the ceiling. I proceeded to use water to remove the rest and luckily no further damage was done. Unfortunately there is still a couple inches with a lack of paint that we are hoping the cleaning staff do not notice. This concludes my list thus far, but I will keep you updated with any further proceedings that make the list.

Two weeks Examined

So last I left off I was just back from Mid term trip right? God I need to fill in two weeks! I can sum up the next few days after I got back farily quickly. I did school work and chatted with people and hung out and all that teenagery stuff that kids do. My film seminar on the Monday went ok. I stood at the from of the class for two hours with two other girls and talked about the silent films, Dr. Caligari and Une Chien Andelou. The later of which I recomend at your own risk. No, I actually do recomend it, just beware... and dont let the first few minutes deter you. It is only a 17 minute long film so I am sure you can all handle it. Its on youtube.

The next big thing was the Thursday. You know why? Because it was HALLOWEEN!!! Yes! Most people were leaving that day or the day before for portugal or Dublin or Amsterdam or they were going clubing so there was only less then 50 of us left to dress up and head down to the pub. Most people speant a good hour or two getting their costumes ready. I went to Kari`s room with her and Katie and Karicia to change. I had decided to be a playboy bunny. You may have seen pictures on facebook. I had a nice blouse on with my corset overtop and a jean skirt with black tights and kneehigh black shiny boots. I even made the ears out of white paper, cardboard, pencil crayons and what else? I am so Canadian, I used duck tape to paste it all together. Katie was a hypie, Karicia was a business woman and Kari was Audrey Hepburn. Katie did the most amazing updo on her. It looked like the real thing and she just looked at a picture. I even gave her my sun glasses which just completed the look, along with a shiny white coat. Cameron and Kurtis came down for a good ol` predrinking game. We played Roxanne. For anyone that doesnt know I shall explain the game. There are two teams. The song Roxanne is played and everytime Roxanne is sung team A drinks. Everytime redlight is sung team B drinks. Well Karicia and I were team Roxanne and Kari and Kurtis were team redlight. OMG Karicia and i were capuncted, snockered, jazzled. And this was only halfway through the song. Dont worry I relaxed it down, I faked it the second half, not that they could tell or cared, the game was only meant to warm us up anyway and keep us warm for our walk down to the castle. Afer that we were in fuzzy land so we went to see Angie, Sophia, Mel and Alison in the room next door. Their costumes were awsome too. They were Beauty Queens from various competitions. Angie was Miss Ontario, Mel was miss BC, and Alison was miss conneticut or something and Sophia was a cheerleader. I love how everyone got so creative since we dont really have much to go by in the way of costumes, but pretty much everyone dressed up as something or other.

Anywho we danced with them for a bit then made our way down to the pub where games and such were to ensue. I chatted with a bunch of people. Anyone who has seen me drink before will understand. I generally dont stand or chat with the same people for more than 5 minutes, I get distracted easily and find myself in need of talking to everyone/move around. At one point we played agame where we had to mummy wrap our slc or dorm person. There is one for each corridore and I am not sure if I`ve told you this before, but ours (D2 and 3) is Sarah. Our corridore lost but it was still fun dressing her up. There was a costume contest but I do not remember who won as it was a while ago. After a couple hours we made our way back up to Bader. Kari, Katie, Cameron, Kurtis and I decided to watch a scary/halloweeny movie. It was called Vamyre. I can honestly say i have no idea what was going on during the movie. I kept getting really bouncy and antsey and completely confused at what was going on in the movie. I sweare even when I did watch the movie I couldnt follow the plot because I was so distracted by the stupid little things that were going on, who the actors were (there were lot of famous actors) and what was going on in the scene and stuff. I think you would understand if you sa the movie, it had quite the mis en scene. I left a couple times to say hi to Angie and them but ultimately speant most of my time asking what was going on in the movie or chatting with them as we were watching. I cant remember any libyisms as it was a while ago though I am sure that Kari and Katie could remember a couple for you. Maybe?

So that night was fun. Then the next day I woke up at 8 for a 9am drive to Brighton. It was shopping day for Libby! Unfortunately it was raining intensely and incredibly windy and chilly, but dont worry I speant as much time as I could inside...the shops. First thing I did was look for a coat. I found an amazing one in H&M but decided to keep looking just incase. I came across this one store with all these amazing dresses and decided sinceI was by meyself and had about 6 or 7 hours to shop I would let myself try on some dresses. It was fabulous because most of them fit beautifully, which made me feel really good about myself. There was one in particular that was so cute and complimented me well enough that I got it for myself. There was onother that had long sleeves that was the most amazing colour and compliment, but the one I ultimately went with was more practical as it had short sleeves and a better shape. So after that I went back to H&M and decided to go with the coat that you will probably see in my facebook photos. Its blue and puffy. There was another that was probably warmer but I dont think complimented me as much and wasnt really my style. The one I got has this weird puff thing in the back that is strangely very ealy 20th century, but I love it.

Next very boringly for everyone else I got organisational stuff for my room. I dont know why but I love organisational stuff. It makes me happy to buy stuff to organise my room, it makes me happy to organise my room. Though I have a feeling in order to keep my room clean I am going to have to get rid of a bunch of random crap that has appeared. Oh well, mostly I find I dont have anywhere to put my dirty laundry. I try to keep it all in this one bag, but there is so much after a while and there is stuff I want to where again because it isnt dirty yeet nd then I dont have to do laundry for a bit longer and so that stuff i try to keep on top of my dresser, it all often all ultimately ends up next to it. Oh well. The next thing I want everyone to do when they go to England (those of us with boobs sizes D and up) is go to the store Bravisimo. I told them they should go to Canada. I went in and got a free bra fitting and it was one of the best I have ever had. I got a fairly young girl who was probably in her early 20s and right away she looked at the bra I had on and went out to find some others I might be interested in. She was so cute wwe talked about traveling since she is interested in traveling and wants to go to Canada and Australia. Basically we just got along very well and chatted like we were old friends, it was cool. She asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and I said I wanted something kinda fancy, sinceI had never really had a fancy bra and maybe a plain one and a sports bra. When she came back she asked if I wanted her to leave while I changed and I said I didnt care so she stayed in and helped me put on the bras and adjust and showed me how to adjust them properly for myself. There is actually a certain way to adjust your breasts in the bra that will make it more comfy and fit better. If anyone is curious just ask and I will explain further, but as it is I will continue with my story. So she also explained to me that when you buy a bra you want the wire in the middle to touch the space inbetween the breasts. I already knew this but I have never been able to find bras that actually do this for me. She finally explained why! Apparently my breasts are very close together, which is what most girls want because that means better and more cleavage, but it makes for harder time with bras. It is so nice to at least understand why I have such trouble! Any who in the end I found four bras that I really wanted and I decided I knew I should only get one...until I looked at the price. Now I must explain that often time one bra can cost between $100 and $120 for me. In this case they were between £25 and £30 pounds. So once I calculated it I decided it would cost just as much for 3 as it did for 1 or 1 and a half bras. So I chose between two of the fancy ones, getting ablack one with pink lining and a bow! I also got a plain one that is designed a little differently, the wire only come up part way between the breasts, so it fits differently and I finally got a sprots bra that holds em down! It is so exciting! I told the people that worked there that I loved the store and they needed to go to Canada. You can order stuff online for fairly cheap so I am very excited for my future comforts sake! They also sell clothes and bathing suits! So who knows next summer I might actually have a bathing suit that fits and that I dont fall out of! I am also thinking that might be a good future summe rjob for me is in a store like that in KW.

Wow, back to my shopping experience, I basically wondered around for a bit, bought another fashion magazine, the newest vogue, and settled into a lunch/supper at a pub overlooking the water. After a fine meal I wandered around in the rain until my minibus ride came. I wsa early, but so was the French prof, who had come, and her companion. I chatted with her about tv shows until we were on our way to Sussex Library to pick up those kids. I chatted with Elizabeth L about books until we got back. When I finally made it back to my room I just relaxed, watched some movies and read. Later on that evening however Karicia came by to say hello and we ended up chatting...until 4am. I dont know how we did it but literarly we looked at the clock were like, should we even bother going to bed? NO, why would we? Breakfast is in 4 hours. It bacame our goal to stay up for 8 and walk down to the castlefor the biggest most bestest breakfast of our lives. So we turned on a movie and "watched" it, while actually dozing during it, not sleeping, just dozing. I remember actually that we were still talking to eachother and apparently understanding one another but neither of us can remember what we had been saying or if we were really even coherent in anything that we were saying. We eventually made it down for breakfast at 8 and paced ourselves over the course of an hour. Yes we made our breakfast last an hour, it was amazing. A few people came in and when we saw them Karicia would give an incoherant hello and wave, I would instead give a booming hello with a lot of flailing of the arms. Needless to say we both had a ginormous nap, not before writing that legendaryily horrible blog of mine from a couple days ago. Grammarily, the content I here kept up to pace.

Anywho, that took a couple days of recovery but the rest of the week was much the same with the teenagerly hanging out, doing schoolwork and just plain being a Libby. Last Friday morning at 5 Angie left for Paris with the French class, I was kinda asleep, though I do remember waking up in time to see her walk out the door, have her say something to me and me mumble and grumble a reply. I think I thought I was still asleep. Which only added to later confusion as when I did fall back to sleep I dreamed that she came back in and said that she missed the coach and couldnt go. It is needless to say when I woke up I was a mass of confusion as her laptop was gone and her backpack, but the dream was so real I had to ask around to make sure she had actually left. This past Saturday I went to the Sussex Library...for 6 hours. I got so much school work done it almost frightens me, I swear I have nightmares about it. Then there was yesterday, Sunday.

So yesterday was my feild study to Vimy Ridge. It was only about 40 kids I think? Mabe a little more or less. Anywho, Jacinta and I were the ones venturing on this trip together. I woke up at 4 to take my shower afer around 3 hours of actualy sleep, I dont know why but I was finding it very hard to sleep that night. Jacinta and I walked down to breakfast around 5 and found that the catering staff had made us packed lunches and breakfasts the night before> I grabbed a couple apples and nibbled on a coisant. We were told that there was basically no realy food to buy while we were there so to stock up now. The summery of this trip is that out of the 17 hours we were gone, 3 of them were at the actual Vimy Ridge, 14 in getting there and back. This isnt necessarily a complaint, but you can understand that it was "brutal" as many of my fellow comrads put it. So what happened was we got on the coach at 5:30 and got to Dover around 7:15. Ahead of schedule allowing us to go into the little traveling station and grab a bathroom break and cash and look around the WH Smith and stuff. around 8 we got back on the coach which subsuquently drove onto the ferry. From there we wondered around the ferry and I decided I felt like poo from lack of sleep and from the rocky boat so I slept most of the way to Calais. From ther eit was another couple hour coach ride to Vimy Ridge. It was weird being on the wrong side of the road with the driver being on the right side.

Once at the ridge we were told we had about 40 minutes to wander around the trenches. Around the trenches were craters and electrical fences warning us not to cross them. We were told many times not to cross the short electrical fences as there were still possible explosives. What ammused Jacinta and I was the fact that not too far off from our view was a feild of sheep. The fence was not quite tall enough I would say (as I saw it from my view) to prevent the sheep from hopping over and wandering around the craters. To be honest the sheep really were quite close to the fence. Of course you can imagine what started to go through my mind as I am sure you all know me well enough by now to imagine it for yourselves, but to my great surprise it was jacinta who pointed it out first. "Oh My God, what if the sheep hopped the fence and wandered accross a mine, it would be little sheep parts everywhere." Now these are not her exact words, but it is the basic idea of how our dramatic sheep mutilation converstaion/ laughing fit started. Now I am not a lover of mutilation and I must say that I have found a deep love and obsession with sheep since I have gotten to Enlgand, but once that first image crossed my mind I could not stop laughing. Mostly at the horridity I guess, I really need to stop questioning humour. It was funny, no reason why, it just was. Basically both Jacinta and I had this forever image of a sheep bouncing along, oo whats this over here? The sheep would ask. Oo look a crater, then Bah boom. Little lamby parts to season the french landscape. Oh God I am horrible, it sounds so bad in writing! I shall now redeam myself with a small aside; once upon a time I was walking to the village listening to music and enjoying my walk thuroughly when I happen to look down and see something furry...something furry and dead. A poor little fox had been run over and was about 3 inches from me. I cried quite dramatically until I reached the village and bought myself an icecream bar to sooth my poor aching thoughts over the poor little foxy. TheEnd. So now you do know, I am a lover of animals and find it quite difficult to eat anything sheep related now as it tends to bah everytime I bite down, but in the case of landmined sheep I surrendered to the darker side of my humour. There is no turning back Anakin.

So now you have an idea of how Jacinta and I were feeling as we were walking through the dramatic historical site. I know it was entirely inapropriate to be making jokes and gigling ferociously, but that really only made more funny to us. At one point we pointed out the sheep to Hailey (I dont know if I have mentioned her but she is on my floor and hangs out Angie, Sophie and them). Hailey reacted with, "I dont know if thats a good idea to put them there. Unless they use them to set off the mines." This only started Jacinta and I on another fit of laughter and sheep related humour. So the sheep were there for our protection, now we get it!

After that whole debacle we were on the coach again for the monument for a rememberence day ceremony, all Canada related and stuff. We got there and there were camera crew there for cbc I beleive and we were told we were to participate in the ceremony. We got to go in a certain place and were each given a white carnation. During the ceremonie there were lots of speeches which I couldnt hear very well because it was so windy. Then they presented the wreaths much like everyother ceremony that you see in Canada. Two girls from the ISC got to present a wreath though I do not remember what it was for. Then all the kids from the ISC lined up and walked to the unknown soldies monument/statue thing and placed the carnation in front of it. I was at the end and admitedly smiled the whole walk up. I dont now why I tend to smile when I am in these situations, I should be all mellow and thoughtful, but for some reason it is natural for me to smile. I dont think that a bad thing anymore though, its just me. Any who after that the choir (they had a french childrens choir there) lead us in singing the British anthem or Queens pledge or song or whatever, sorry I cant remember the name of it at the moment, then the french anthem and then the Canadian anthem half in french half in english. We were then allowed around 15 to take pictures around the monument.

We were back on the coach quite quickly and off to Calais for the ferry. Oh I didnt mention before, on the way from the ferry to Vimy we watched Black Ader, and I was so proud because at least one of the episodes I had already seen. Made me feel all knowledgable (she says as she spells the word wrong, or maybe not, to be honest I dont know). Then on the way from Vimy we watched Joyeux Noel. I recomend it, for a worldwar one movie it is really nice. It isnt too sad, its all awww, and makes you feel semi good inside. I will probably end up showing the main scene to people because thats all you really need to see to make you feel good. I recomend it as a christmas renter. Anywho, once we got to the ferry, it was about a half hour dely to get on the ferry because it was all backed up. I went slightly insane for the half hour as I got really antsy and just wanted to get on the boat. This gave Jacinta and I a good laugh...until we got on the ferry. Then we werent so much in the laughing mood. You see I got nice and sea sick, just nausious but still not cool, mostly this is because the weather was really bad, but not bad enough to be fun. I mostly slept and avoided buying food because it was only 3 hours until we could get supper. I had only really had a couple apples that day and was really banking on supper. So the hour and a half go by and the captain comes over the anouncements, the docks are deleyed and there are 4 ships ahead of us waiting to dock and load off their people, so we are the fifth in line. Pause for a few seconds, so there is going to be a deley of... an hour and a half. A small part of me dies on the inside, dramatic you may say, but I would like to see you when you have barely eaten or slept the whole day and then get stuck on a ferry cought on the very windy english channel for an extra two hours than was expected. Worst part both Jacinta and I agreed was that there was no one to blame. We couldnt be pissed at or complain about anyone because it was no ones fault and in situations like these all you want to do is be pissed at something lagitimate. It is so unsatisfying and redundant to be angry with the weather. We tried sleeping but ultimately ended up having a nice converstation about school and life and our futures and stuff while reasting on eachother for support, oh and we talked about silly old cartoons becausethey were playing Tom and Jerry. The worst part of the voyage was when the ferry wasfinally docking it was so intense that it looked like the titanic, with the whole shuddering and intensity of it all. We finally were told to goto our cars/coaches and when I got on the coach I realised I needed to pee really badly, so evn though we had been warned against it I used the coach bathroom. Well was that an adventure and a half itself. I think i will leave it at that as I dont know where even to begin with that. Once I made it top side and sat down we were almost ready to depart the fucking ferry. Liz the slc summed up the whole ferry very well. "I thought I was going to die on that ferry." Everyone nodded and hhmmed like they were at a southern baptist revival. I half expected someone to shout, hallelujiah, I half wanted to myself.

The rest of the ride we slept. Jacinta had let me sleep on her on the ferry so I let her sleep on me for the ride back. We were supposed to arrivve home at 8:30 to a hot meal. We got back at 12:30. The catering staff was awsome and there was still a meal for us when we got back. Unfortunately I never saw this meal as I decided it was too close to breakfast for me to enjoy supper anymore and that it was time for bed. Jacinta and I got in and then as quickly as I could, switched into pjs and passed out in my loving bed. This concludes my story and I cant wait to share next weeks. I am hopefully back on track, so they wont be quite as long as this one. Then again I find I am saying tha alot so I will make no more promises.

Mid Term Trip day 6 and 7

So I read my last blog again because to be honest I could only remember the first paragraph. I was honest to god falling asleep when I wrote it. I can also say I am quite proud of myself, I mean not half bad for someone who literally had her eyes closed for half of it. I think I will tribute it too all those long nights in highschool and all those 80% essays written in much the same state of mind. It gave me good practise I guess. So I shall finally complete my mid term trip tales and then write about the weeks following as it has now almost been two weeks since. God I am lagging eh? So on to Day 6!

As you may or may not remember I was in Cardiff when I left off in the comfy hostel. I probably should have taken a shower the next morning but it was to much of a hastle, so I put myself together as best I could, packed my things and headed down to check out with Kari and Jacinta. The other four were sleeping in and so we had told them the night before we would meet up with them later. We grabbed breakfast (FREE!) before figuring out where we wanted to go and how to get there. There were a few seconds when we had already left when it was a bit iffy since I apparently dropped the map I had grabbed in the hostel. Luckily Kari has an amazing sense of direction or an awsome memory since we just kinda trouped after her for a while before we came upon Cardiff Castle. We were there pretty early so there were barelly many people there yet. Jacinta and I were able to put our luggage down in a holding area while we looked around. It is huge!

First we went on a tour of the house part of it. The guide was very good, kinda stuffy, but he knew his stuff and was quite good at explaining it to us. This part of the castle was newer and used when this certain family owned the castle and used it as there house a few months out of the year to live in (18th and 19th century). It was owned by one of the wealthiest families in Britian. They apparently had many other "houses" around Britain. There was real gold leaf on the ceiling and elaborate paintings and carving and marble and such everywhere. There were some of the wood in the ball room apparently came from Halifax, which of course excited us. Another Canadian connection was in a room were a couple beavers were carved into the fireplace. The guide said that whether they were Canadian or American beavers was to our own opinions and we all scoffed, because everyone knows beavers are all Canadian. Also as we were going into a certain room the guide said (after pointing out all this elaborate marble work and wood carving and gold leaf), "could you imagine living in a real Castle, having it as your home". I said quite seriously, "I can`t even imagine living in a castle." To which Kari replied "Libby, we DO live in a castle." Well then. Of course we had a good laugh over that one, Oh Libby.

After the tour we decided to go on the audio tour around the walls and to the centre dungeon thing. First we were shown this hilariously epic 15 minute movie about the castle then we were given our guides and taken along the wall of the castle as well as to the middle dungeon thing with a real mote around it. There are pics on Facebook that I will eventually label. There were a lot of staris to the top, but we made it. I got some amazing pictures of Kari and Jacinta, they took some good ones of me in return and then we departed to the gift shop (not forgetting our bags I promise). Next we hopped onto the open top bus tour of cardiff. I recomend this as it was only £6 for students and it takes you all over Cardiff with a guide telling you about the site and stuff. There are at least ten stops too where you can hop off and hop back on again. The ticket lasts you two days and it is basically a great deal. We sat up there until it took us to Cardiff Bay and the site of Torchwood! The guide told us it had been all torn up the week before as they were shooting an episode of Torchwood where the office thing gets blown up! So cool, it obviously was fine when we saw it as our pictures prove. We all took pictures of eachother and generally freaked out as we love Torchwood. We walked to the water and got pictures next to the entrence of the doctor who thing. Kari got some baeutiful pictures of me, which was really exciting. She told me at one point to take off all my bags as I looked like a pack horse (all in fun) and I must admit I did. I had one backpack on, a strapped bag at my front and a purse at my side. I am glad she told me to drop em cause the pictures would not have had the same quality if you know what I mean.

Next we were going to go to the Doctor Who exhibit but it was closed for renovation so instead we hopped on the bus and made our way back to the castle to explore the shops around there. We came upon this one used book store at one point and you can imagine how long we spent there. It was amazing, had some really good stuff for really good prices. But no worries I decided to save my money for another day. Or food purhaps. It was at this point we met up with the other four and I departed from Kari and Jacinta. They were going home (to Bader) and I was going to stay with the other four for another night. Kari and Jacinta were awsome and took my backpack so that I only had to carry one (technically two) bags. So the four of us wandered around window shopping until I mentioned I hadnt eaten since breakfast some 9 hours before (I had forgotten) and we all decided we were hungry and started a hunt for a good and cheap fooding nest. We came upon a tavern pub thing and it was another one of those places you have to go to the counter to get your food. We went up two and three at a time. When Varsha, Shandice and I went up we were befriended by a couple guys in their late twenties. They described us in (in their drunken manner) as the one who talks a lot (Shandice), the one who knows everything (Varsha) and the one who doesnt say anything at all(me). Give me a break I was hungry and willing to bite into the next thing I saw...oh you dirty dirty minds! I didnt mean it like that! So I got a Magners this time (another type of cyder, but one you cant get in Canada). So after we ditched them we sat back down and I sipped my Magners. So I am not a light weight, but having no food can effect you, if you know what I mean. So I felt the Magners and my arms started to do the flaily thing a little, but not too bad. This group is hilarious, especially when not drinking. I basically was constantly laughing the whole night and next day.

The others had gone to the hotel already and left their stuff there as they were not allowed to check in. We got on a bus to go to our hotel which was a good 30 minute bus ride if not longer from Cardiff Central. The girls started chatting with some youngens on the bus. One guy was drunk and basically insulting Americans the whole time and the girls around him were trying to be nice and make up for him veing kinda rude. He kept appologizing after he would say something insulting which only made it weirder. Shandice is from the states kind of, she moved to Canada when she was a little older, so I think thats what got him started. He eventually got off and we all had a big laugh about it. The lodge itself was pretty good, clean and with a tv in the room. The rooms were small and squishy, but to be honest I liked it that way. I shared a room with Shandice, Varsha and Steph were together and Sarah was really excited to have her own room. The others decided to go out to some clubs and dance and stuff, but I was questioning whether I felt like it. What deadened the bolt for me was when a Chef Ramsey program came on and I was glued to the screen, it was amazing, I couldnt leave now. Plus the taxi and bus fair there and back plus the drinks wasnt worth it, especially when I had chef Ramsey. I also wasnt feeling great so I figured it was a win win. That night was basically speant with me taking a shower, watching chef Ramsay and then reading some of my magazines and watching some angsty movie about a girl with massive issues, then going to sleep.

The next day started with everyone getting their stuff together (them leaving their stuff again, to be picked up at the end of the day) and then us all making our way into town. I was treated to all the fun drunken stories of the night, including them accidentally walking into a gay bar/club. Apparently they were like "this is awsome, look at all the guys." Then they all one at a time realised there was something off. I think they left fairly quickly if you know what I mean. So we got to town and since it was a little afternoon we decided to grab lunch. We went to pizza express and had some amazing pizza as well as indulged in amazing dessert. OMG, it was soo good! mmmmmm. Sorry we havent had much in terms od food this week, I think tis leftover week or something, I miss real food! Anywho we then went on the open bus tour again (which I got free since I stil had the ticket from the day before). We went down to the bay, got more pictures and wandered around. Steph and checked out the Doctor Who exhibit as it happened to be open that day (boo). It wsa cool, not as elaborate as the London one, but still cool. We next went and met up withthe other three at the bus station. Thats when Shandice`s ticket got blown away in the wind and her and Sarah chased it accross the street and into the fountain. Varsha, Steph and I watched as the two of them attempted using a stick to prod it out, then failing having to take off their shoes and socks and roll up their pants to go in after it. Oh the life of a student. This was of course accompanied by Varsha laughing so hard she knocked her head on the metal pole next to us, giving off a reverbrating ring. We got on the bus and made our way up to the main shopping area to shop and window shop and such.

We shopped for an hour or two, concluding in one store of which i bought a lovely pair of leg warmers. It was one of those indy, punkish shops, which made me laugh because they were selling various forms of drugs (legal) in the front case. Dont ask why it made me laugh, it just did. I then got a strange urge for MacDonalds, something I havent eaten literally for years, so we went there for our supper. By this time it was 6ish 6:30ish and fully dark out. I decided while they went to get their stuff I would walk to the train station alone since it was silly to chip in for a taxi when I didnt need one. I think it was the only time I have been nervous walking around in a strange city alone at night. Not because it was dangerous at all, I mean I stayed on the main roads for gods sake, but for some reason I got nervous. But I obviously made it to the station and obviously the others met up with me. I grabbed another magazine that had free dark chocolate in it, which made me really happy. We had to wait for a little bit for the train so we scoped out some pretty boys. The first train to london was fine. Then we took a subway to a different station, which was also fine. We had to wait a while in the London Station, so Sarah and I plaed agame where we watched the big board that said what platform had what train coming to it and cheered everytime they announced on it the platform the next train had t obe at. They usually announced it a couple minutes before the train was to leave, so thats what made it so exciting. We eventually made it to the right platform and then we were told to make sure we were on cars 1 to 4 as 5 to 8 were going somewhere else at one point when the cars split. Not this again. So this one nice guy tells us that the back 4 are the ones we want to be on. (it was right it was coaches 1 to 4). We sat down for a bit and after some time it is announced that coaches 5 to 8 were going to polegate(our stop). This nice lady behind us told us that we had time to switch if we wanted to wait (she was from Toronto). So we waited then made our way to the back. I had to stand as there werent enough seats not next to creepy people. After a few more stops we are told that the next stop is when the trains are seperating and to make sure you are on cars 1 to 4 if you are going to polegate. So we fairly grouchily force ourselves awake and rush to car 4 right bofore the switch. We luckily all got seats and quickly fell asleep. I woke up some time later and decided it wouldbe a good idea to listen to what stop was next. Except I had already missed that and what I heard next was the train stop and the announcer say "Polgate Station." You should have seen everyone jump. One second they are fast asleep, the next they are popping up, swooping their stuff into their arms and high tailing it off the train. We all got off in one peice and luckily we only had to wait around 10 minutes for our taxi before loading our stuff and making it back to Bader Hall.

We made it back around 1:30am and me expecting Angie to be asleep tries unsuccessfully to sneak into the room only to find Angie still awake and chatting with Kevin. So I now have renewed energy and decide to show her all the stuff I bought and chat with her and Kevin for another hour before I fall fast asleep in my own bad at last. THE END. Not quite actually, let me tell you has it been an action packed week and a half. So just watch out for the next installment of my life. A preview eh? Well lets just say we have to cover Libby and Angie`s decorating debacle, my film seminar, HALLOWEEN NIGHT, as well as my shopping experience in Brighton. Till next time!

Midterm Trip Day 4 and 5

Wow, I did not realise it was going to take this long to get all my stories out. I can honestly say Ino longer guarentee anything in terms of length o lets just see how we do today, I would eventually like to get to halloween night which was already a few nights ago. So we left off on day three which makes this story begin on day four, October 22. I woke up to a lovely alarm at a fairly good time the day only finding myself waking up a little too soon. I then noticed someone get out of the double bed beside me. I then noticed there was someone still already in the double bed beside me. I took my cell phone and noticed that Emma was still on the couch to my other side. Thuroughly confused it took a few minutes to comprehend that there were 4 people in the room with us. I decided to go with my instincts and flop back to my squishy pillow and assume Elizabeth would explain in half an hour when it was the better time to get up.

Needless to say about half an hour later Elizabeth explained it was just a friend and I do admit I am not actually sure to this day why it was she actually slept over. Never matter that morning I felt very proud as I had already packed my things the night before so all I needed to do was board the bus. I got the same seats as last time, but this time Karicia sat beside me. We chatted fairly shortly before falling asleep or relaxing back into our music. We stopped at one of those bus stoppy things and I got fruit. As I got coisant for myself too the visa machine was so slow the two ladies had a "race" with their respective machines as both me and the other girl accross from me were paying with visa. Needless to say I won by at least a minute. Then it was back on the bus. After a few hours we made it to Hadrian`s wall. We walked up the fairly immense hill, not half a gah as the Edinburgh one, but almost twice as bah! Yes, there were sheep. There were lots of sheep. I got fairly close enought to get some good shots. Katie and I climbed around for a bunch getting really good shots, some just of the landscape and some of eachother. I confess my mother has turned me unintentionally into a candid/portrait prefering photographer. I find it harder now to take pictures with just landscapes. I need people in it.

Anywho the ruins were very interesting and had a lot of history stuff that was...cool, sorry now I am preteeny mostly because Karicia and I decided not to sleep last night...long story that will have to be explained later. Back to the wall; Katie, Karicia, Kurtis and I walked along the wall in a different direction than most people were going and made it to a beautiful spot where I got lucky enough to get some fabulous photos. It was soo green! Even though it is very fall and you can tell by the fallen or orangey brown leaves, the grass itself remains green! I think Hadrin`s wall is better described in pictures than in words so if you are interested there are photos up on facebook. We later got back on the bus and were set to make our way to town, in other words Liverpool. Our bus watched footloose on the way there which really only made Karicia and me want to dance soo badly. We were pretty much the only ones on the bus though bopping along to the music...how can that movie not make you wanna dance!?

Our final stop was the hostel. It was actually a very nice hostel with of course what else but beatles pictures and paintings everywhere. This city seriously loves the beatles, and I mean seriously. I was supposed to be with these four girls who are actually on my floor, but it turns out one of them was in Russia and the other was in Canada. Did you know it is the second most difficult for Canadians to get passports to Russia, more than anyother country? The girl who went to Canada was supposed to go to Russia, but to get a passport was going to take twice as long as her American buddies she was to go with! Very strange. So basically it was just me and Amy, who hangs out Kari and that kinda crowd. So we put down our stuff and since there was only about an hour left of sun a whole wack loadof us decided to walk down to the harbour and walk along it until we found some fish n chips. It was a nice refreshing walk and at first I found myself quite hyper and bouncing off the walls, but as the night wore on I felt a lot more mellow and chilled. It was a pretty good night I would say for walking around. Our group got split up at one point because a bunch of us wanted to eat fish, aka Katie, Kari, Kurtis, Cameron and me. Whats with all the ks eh? So we walk along and find this place on the harbour but it was kinda expensive, so we decided to keep walking this lead us on our own personal tour/hunt. It was a good hour or so walk. WE kept seeing restaraunts but they were either too expensive or not the right flavour. We somehow managed to walk down china town, I doubt many people can say they have been to the Liverpool China town at night before. No fish or decent student prices there so we keep walking. At one point we saw this graffetti painting of the beatles and all the girls call a certain beatle. Katie calls John, Kari calls George and I love Paul. Paul Paul Paul Paul Paul. Poor Ringo, Cameron says he thinks Ringo is pretty cool, so he`s not too lonely.

It strikes me at one point as we are walking we could be our own superhero team. Either that or kind of pop band from the 90s. This leads me to ask "what would your superpower be if you had one?" Some answers include flying, strength, telekinesis and so on. I have been around improvers too muh because when asked the question i was thinking weid stuff like, nonsequitor-woman, and piglickin boy and taffy the laughy and weird stuff like that, or at least you get what I mean. Take a habit, make it a super power...where do think I got this from? I could be super-cleave. Could mean multiple things. Anywho, the rest of the walk was cool I mostly observed stuff around me and made up weird superhrow stories in my head. We eventually decide we should ust go back to the first place we had intended to go at the beginning. It was one of those pubs bars where you have to order at the bar and they bring your food to you. We all had fish n chips and omg was I full after. It wasnt just fish n chips it was that and then some. I also finished my strongbow which only really added to the fact that I definately ate too much. I am really glad it was a good walk to the Cavern Pub. It is accross from the Cavern club and has live music playing and such. We ran into some other isc kids, including Angie and Alison. I shared a Magners with Katie and enjoyed the live music with the rest of them for pretty much the rest of the night. The guy who was playing was really good and really entertaining. This one drunk guy kept going up to him and I guess requesting songs and the singer would just smile and nod until eventually he just ignored the bloke. There was this one cougar too who was apparently eyeing Cameron. I wasnt feeling great to be honest because I dont think my body had quite forgiven and forgotten the whole fudge debacle yet and I was pooped out in general. The live music ended at midnight and we all headed back. Everyone got a pose with teh impounded cars that had words printed on them that they had been seized because they didnt have insurance. We made it back and I honestly settled in for a nice relaxing night of sleep.

Yay I think I will attempt day five! The next day we had to get up fairly early, everyone was puting their luggage on the coaches so they could walk around free all day. Even though I wasnt going on the coaches with them I was aloud to out mystuff there and then get it right before they left. The Cardiff group (Kari, Jacinta, Varsha, Sarah K - new sarah, Steph and Shandice) decided to meet where and when the rest were leaving on the buses then we could all regroup as we were all going seperate ways. I went with Angie, Hailey, Michelle and two others (brain farting on the names). First we stopped at McDonalds then we proceeded to the Beatles Story. It is has this audio tour and takes you through the story of the Beatles mostly focusing on the beginnings and rise. At the end it had little mini rooms each with info about a member after the Beatles officially broke up, what they were up to and what they had done. Then at the very end there was a tribute for John Lennon which was a white room with a white piano in the middle and his blue rounded sunglasses resting on the top of the piano. Strangely it took me longer to choose what I going to get from the gift shop. I wanted one of the bags as I had a shit load of extra stuff in seperate bags (plus the backpack and purse later) and all I wanted was to simplfy things and what better way to do that then to organise with a souvinere! It has turned out to be one of my best purchases. You can see it in a picture on facebook, in my midterm trips photo album. I also got a poster (I now have passion for posters too) and short book about the beatles and teh beatles story exhibit.

Angie and the guy decided to go to McDonalds again and the four rest of us decided to head to the Cavern Club and meet them there later. We got a little lost, but not too badly. It just took a little extra time a little extra easking around. We eventually made it, it was right accross from the Cavern Pub, as I said before. It looked almost exactly how it does in the pictures. Its not the same one, but a reconstruction, but it was still cool. I gots some pics which I think are on facebook. After that we went into this kinda of cafe ish thing which turned out to be the exact origional spot of where the cavern club was before, there were pictures and intersting things everywhere. Angie and whatshisface caught up with us here and we spent a bit of time debating whether we were going to pay a poo load to taxi it up to penny lane and strawberry feilds, because we didnt have time to walk. I decided to check out this one souvinere store while we waited and this is the miracle of fate. I decided to buy this one souvinere and as I was paying Angie came up to me and said they were taking atazi and would I like to come. The guy behind the counter heard our converstaition and suggested this one tours service that takes you around for 3 hours almost and shows you everything as well as giving you all this neat information at the same time. The guy at the store let us use his phone and it turns out is was £60 for everyone. This is pretty good considering when we got in and told him we only had an hour and a half and could we just see the main stuff, he was amazing. He chose the exact stuff that we wanted to see without is having to tell him so. He would also tell us all this stuff and take our pictures as a group and it was the best tour I have ever been on. We saw John, Paul and Ringo`s houses as well as drove down penny lane and getting a picture with the sign. We saw strawberry feilds, the fence and everything. WE saw Eleanor Rigby`s grave and the first place John Lennon and Paul McCartney met. There were a couple others but I cant quite remember their significance right now, plus the previous mentioned were the more fascinating of the group.

We made it back to the bus by four, the cabbie got us to where we needed to be just on time. I got my bags and since Karia nd Jacinta werent there yet I decided to put all my stuff into the one Beatles bag. Varsha, Sarah, Steph and Shandice watched as I somehow packed multiple bags of stuff and books and cloths into the one magic Beatle bag. I actually fit everything without having to pull it together or rip it or stretch it in anyway. I was amazing. Karia and Jacinta did come shortly after and I joined them in their hike to the train station. The other four were cabbing it as they had more luggage. We made it up in record time and had plenty of time to settle and wait for our train to come. We ad one exchange in Crewe. It was on this first train that I realised the strawberry milkshake i had stored in my purse for later had somehow opened spilling the entire contents into my gold fendi purse. Luckily only stuff at the bottom was soaked, so since we didnt have time to clean up after the mess I laid all my extra paper onto the top of all the wet stuff and made sure it would cover it and not leak into the stuff on top. A brilliant design, but honestly today is the first day I am feeling the courage to clean out the poor thing.

The second train ride was just as relaxing I would say until we got about a half hour away from the train station in Cardiff when I realised I had printed off the address and booking info on the hostel, but I hadnt printed an actual map of Cardiff and since it was 10 or 11 at night the store that sells the maps at the station wouldnt be open. I was still laughing at myself as we loaded ourselves off the train. I mean who honestly goes somewhere without a map, in the middle of the night with no clue where they are. Luckily there was a general map hanging up in the station and two cabbies outside waiting for patrons. It was pouring and their was no way we were exploring lost in Cardiff in the rain in the middle of the dark with heavey bags and such to carry. We got the hostel, which was quite nice I would have to say. Jacinta, Kari and I were in a three bed room and the other four were in a five bedroom. When we unpacked and put on our pjs we headed down to the family loung roomie room. It had a tv two couches and a computer with free internet! I got to go online and say hi and stuff, it was nice. We started watching TV with this girl who sounded like she was Australian, but said she was moving to California. WE chatted with her for a while and then decided to order a couple pizzas. It took a good hour for us all to agree but we eventually made our way through. When the pizza guy came, Jacinta and I went to get it and got this young strange guy basicallytrying to flirt with us and either us or him failing miserably. The rest of the night was speant eating pizza and garlic bread and watching 1409, with John Cusack. It was a freaky movie, but obviously quite good if he was in it. We then later went to be and slept until the next day.

As you can probably read I am drifting rapidly and intensely. I am actually falling asleep as I type, which I dont mean to do. So I shall leave it here and continue later on or tomorow. I apologize especially for todays posts, it is probs the worst gramatically yet. Have fun, Iam off to nap!

Midterm Trip Cont`d

So I left off at my drunken debacle right? The next day was Tuesday October 21. The day was a "choose your own stuff" day. So basically you were supposed to sign up a few weeks before for something you wanted to do, which I forgot to do, so I followed along to the National Scottish Museum with Kari, Katie and Cameron. We looked at a bunch of old scottish stuff. Katie and I got shown how a train works, I also got to see a really old harpish thing that was really cool. Basically it was a bunch of really cool history stuff. So my language is a bit on the preteeny side today, I just got back from a 7 hour shopping day in Brighton, which you will have to wait to hear about for when I am done all this mid term stuff. Also I should mention the four of us stopped for a deep fried marsbar. Apparently it was very interesting, but they all had to share one as it was so intense. I didnt have any and now looking back on it I am glad I didnt. You shall understand if you cantinue.

Anywho, next was my debacle of looking for my tartan. I was told by my history teacher to look at the Mill exhibition/museum, because they made tartan. So Katie went to look at music and Kari and Cameron came along with me. It was intersting, the place had far more of a selection than most places and it also had the origional tartan being sold, but again no Erskin. One lady told me to talk to the information section person(?) and they would be able to find an example of the tartan and either order it or at least show me an example. I had an interesting converstation with the girl who was there and she was able to show me some stuff and give me contacts to order stuff online or by phone. It is surprisingly less expensive than I thought it would be, but we`ll see. We will also see if I can find the brochure. Again explainable later on in the tale (I had some issues with my purse). I got a princess Diana Tartan hat because it was pretty and because part of the money apparently goes to some cause, which you know is marketers just feeding into the shopping addiction as you can just say "but it was going to a cause mommy". Doesnt matter because it is this pretty blue colour and its one of those scottishy hats.

Next we went to look for Katie and could not seem to find her anywhere so we decided to stop for a visit in the fudge store. Its the kind where if you go in at the right time they are making it right in front of you and its all old fashioned and cool. We werent lucky enough to see them making it but we did get to buy some and me being used to the fudge at the cottage decided I could hande getting two chunks. I could then have some on the bus the next day and share with other ppl and stuff...or maybe be a greedy piggy and make it last and be my sweet source for the rest of the month (beleive it was rich enough to last me the month).We then decided to go back to the hotel and wait for the group of people we were going to climb the mountainy thing with. Its like a mountain but not quite, but at the same time it is...if you know what I mean.

So the next paragraph is going to be a bit of an overshare, so you if you are uniterested in getting to know Libby a little better then skip the next two paragraphs. It has nothing to do with sexual stuff for you dirty minded people out there, just to let you know. So basically we sit in the hotel sitting area and decide to try our fudge. Now the fudge from Oliphant/Sauble is relatively tame, it is not too rich, it is just right. THis fudge had something else going on. It was like this intense sweetness and creamyness. I had something vanilla/caramel with chocolate swirlled into it and I had bought another tab of tophy. Well me being used to fudge at the cottage ate about half the slab we had been given, which I can honest to god say did not look like that much. And oh my god was it good. But once Igot through half I started to feel really full. Now I hadnt really eaten anything since breakfast and it was 3pm. I had figured I would save myself for a delicious dinner out, which is another guilty pleasure of mine I must say. Anywho I went back to my room to put some stuff away and drink some water and basically role around on the floor whining to Emma that I had eaten too much fudge. I kinda laughed it off and meandered back downstairs where we all headed off in the general direction of the not so mountainish mountain. As we walk I start to feel sick but again I laugh it off, because hey, I`m on vacation, I`m invinsible, itll just go away. We get to the mountain and I decide to distract myself by talking photography with Katie, which I had been meaing to anyway but hadnt gotten the opportunity. She has the same camera as me, so we were talking shop, so to speak. She has an awsome lens and it was really nice to talk photography again. As we start ascending the mountain I start lagging behind more than usual, I figure I just need fruit and Katie is nice enough to offer me her apple from her bag. I love how after eating horribly for a couple days one peice of fruit just makes you feel so refreshed and clean. Its an awsome feeling, that in this case only really lasted 3 or 4 minutes. Let me tell you the stomack ache hit fast and it hit hard. boo. I think most of you can see where this is going. We got a little further up and Katie was lagging behind with me, we both continued taking pictures, but when the slope started to get steeper I told Katie to keep going and I would catch up, I just needed to rest.

So I basically sat by this one rock in denial with my current prediciment. Should I go down and find a washroom or keep going and hope I make it to the top and back down eventually. I do not know what I was thinking but for some reason my logic dictated me to keep going. And this is why you stay away from dictators, because even though I wasnt that high up it was still fairly steep, especially considering all my body wanted was a toilet. After about 5 or 7 minutes of climbing it hit me, this isnt going to work. Its at least an hour and a half climb up and back down, if not more. I am not going to last this long. So I take a few mintues to gather myself and then start descending the mountain. I got about 5 steps and realised, this isnt going to work. So you know what I did? I took one look at the traffic below us and one look up at the top of the mountain and the ant like people climbing it. I then looked to the rather scrangly looking bushes next to me, I had no where else to go, literally. So what did I do? I plunged myself right into the thorny, yes you read that right, thorny, bushes and squated. Dont worry I made sure I was hidden from view, only once did two men walk by, but they luckily took no notice of me. Unfortunately it is not easy to squat on the side of a Scotish mountain in a mangle of thorns, so my business was, lets just say, not complete. This does not mean I felt a whole lot better, in fact all it really did was improve my capablity of walking. So I continued down the steep muddy, rocky mountain denying my body its usually natural function. I shall not detail my second stop at the bottom of the hill as it was quite unsuccessful to the fact that I the thorns were no longer in bush form but in grass form, if you get what I mean. Be happy if you dont get what I mean. So I get to the bottom and start my search for a washroom. At this point my movements can only be described as a stiff stumbling zombie out for the kill. After a few minute walk I found I had a choice, which I needed to make quickly. On one side of the street was what I beleive was a parliament building at the visitor`s entrence. On the other was what looked like a souvinere shop and cafe for a musuem. I decided it would be less conspicuous to cross the street to the museum so I go over and see there is a sign pointing to TOILETS! Now all I can do is pray they are still open. I get even better luck, there is no one in there and it isnt one of those crummy half ass bathrooms. It had some serious shit going on...I totally just reread that and did not intend for it to come out like that...but I have to leave it in...hee. It was pretty fancy and dainty and comfy. Basically what happened was this; I turned the corner after entering the initial bathroom door and at the end of, what seemed like, this long tunnel was the most beautiful private wheelchair accessible bathroom stall I have everseen. With my arms outstretched and the words "toilet" escaping my mouth I stumble to the door with rational thought no longer capable of being formed. I think everyone reading this blog has experienced at least once in their lives my following minutes, so I will leave that where it is.

I left the washroom honestly expecting trumpets and horns and a big parade of somesort accompanying me as I made my triumphant exit. I decided I loved this museum so much for being exactly where it was when I needed it most in life I would take a look in the gift shop. I honestly at this point was willing to marry this museum, so sad I dont know its name eh? I promise I will figure it out and recomend it to all of you out there and anyone in future going to Edinburgh. Anywho I decide there isnt any shop near by that sells gloves so I should just get them there. I had also decided to reclimb the mountain or at least go back and look for my friends, but it had started raining and warm hands would be a smart idea. So I pick up some pretty red gloves and what does the frugal student do? She buys a pair of £20 cashmere gloves in celebration/dreams of warmth. I promise you these gloves are my pride and joy and I have only ever almost lost them twice, but they are safe and will honestly go with me to the grave, one as a reminder to listen to my body and two to never spend £20 pounds on cashmere gloves again, unless I am stinking rich, but even then I think these gloves mean so much more, if you know what I mean. That was the best run-on sentance ever! I cannot edit that fols as it is work of freaking art! I then went into a nearby gift shop and bought a sweater as I was cold and hadnt bought anything other than food in Edinburgh yet ... and my gloves. Its the most comfy sweater I have ever worn and I have yet to fully take it off...if you know what I mean. So lesson of the story is folks, listen to your body. Now that I look back on it I realise that my body had been trying to warn me for hours and I had KNOWN what was coming for hours, I had just ignored it. I do understand my body, but the next key thing is to listen to it when it tells warns you the next four hours are party time...if you know what I mean.

So after that I decided I should go and see if they are waiting for me as this has taken at least 2 hours, but no one is there. I then decide, hey, I should climb up further to see if they are looking for me. You must realise at this point it is somewhere between 5:30 and 6pm. The sun (if we could see it) will be setting soon if it isnt already. And if you may have guessed, its not just grey cloudy, its raining, not drizzling, but raining. "Its not that far though" I say to myself. No Libby, bad bad bad idea. But of course I only realise this when I get to where I had left off before, where you may recall it was mostly grass, rock and mud...in the rain. Luckily this time I thought about it and decided it was a bad idea to continue, and it would have been better in the first place to go back to the hotel and see if they had gone back. This is after I contemplated climbing to the top alone, as I really wanted to get to the top. Later stories told me my good logic kicked in because some of the guys were actually having to hold Kari and Katie down the wind was so strong. I am thinking later at night when it is already windy closer to the ground, this could have been potentially bad. I did make lemonade though, It was very actually a very refreshing experience walking up and back down at that point. I mean I had gloves on, I hade two sweaters and a jacket on, plus my scarf, I was coolish instead of freezing, it was beautifully gloomy and the rain was honestly refreshing. I actually sang both on the way up and down, because there was no one around, it was just me, the rain and random songs I remembered the lyrics to.

I made it back up to the hotel just as it got dark and met Kari and Katie in their room, explaining with no detail why I had turned around. It was only then, when my hands were in warm air, that I looked down at them and saw all the little prick marks and started feeling their sting...not just on my hands either. I am going to leave it there, I have decided it was just another reminder NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN. We chatted and later Karicia came in. Neither of us wanted to really go out that night but we did want food, so we decided to go looking for some cheap food, maybe some fruit? We head up the Royal Mile looking for somewhere to stop, and then we see this pizza restaraunt. A nice one too. And pizza has sauce, which is made out of tomatos, which are vegetables, the next best thing to fruit. I also decide I have nothing left in my system anyway so I may as well indulge, as long as it has nothing to do with sugar and is not some cheap greasy pizza I was good. It turned out to be really nice. Karicia and I chatted and had some really nice converstations. I had the most amazing pizza of the trip thus far I think I will say. It was a personal pizza kind of place where you had to cut your own piza yourself and some people eat it with their cutlery. This ended up working better in the long run as the crust was fairly thin. We then decided to have dessert, as long as it had nothing to do with fudge. I had this moose cake thing that was really good and fancy. Karicia and I finished up and went back to the hotel. You may recall me saying Emma was my overshare buddy, this is because she was the only one at the time I told the truth/story of the mountain to, because I really needed to, it was just too funny. The rest of the night before bed included the two of us telling our overshare stories that other people might be grossed out by.

Wow I was going to do day four here too, but I guess that will have to wait until tomorow as I dont want your brains to implode with Libbyness and this blog was meant to be read as a short story genre, not a novella. Check in later then!