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.