First weekend in December

So wow, what a week. I cant say i`ve done much, but I cant say ive done nothing. I will start with the day after the older lady`s visit. This happened to be a Friday. On this Friday was also our closing ceremonies. Now you may remember our opening ceremonies? Basically the same thing only people get really dressed up and... you know what I am just going to walk you through it. So it started fairly early, well kinday, if you consider 3pm early. Everyone got as dressed up as they could without being ultra formal. Al the girls in their pretty dresses and the boys in their suits. I travelled between my room and Kari`s. You may have seen pictures on my facebook? Well I had a halterish dress on, black on the top and then a silky skirt part. Everyone looked really nice. We walked down in the pouring rain. A bunch of girls wore their wellies down and then changed into nicer shoes when they got down to the castle. Me not so much. I wore my black flats so I had to take the long and unmuddy way down so I got a little more wet, but at least I was a little more comfortable...kinda.

Anywho, we got down there and then we were ushered into this one narrow hallway leading to this one room. It took a good half hour to get all 180 kids plus all of the faculty into picture positions. You see they were taking a group photo. A bunch of us were placed sitting on the sides so you cantreally make everyone out. They did the whole, ok a serious one, and now a fun one! Mmhmm. Whatever. Afterward we were told that the photographer was taking photos in the Elizabethean room, of individuals and groups. Everyone mingled for a while and got their own group photos with their own camera`s. I didnt trust the photographer...you see he was sporting a Nikon...never trust a Nikon owner. Hee, just joking ...kindof. Anywho lets move on, next was supper. This was divided into two parts. We were asked a week before this to sign up for a particular table in the cafeteria at either 5 or 6:15. I signed up for 6:15 with Angie, Mel, Alison etc. Kari and Katie and that group signed up for 5 so I headed back up to Bader with Angie. We had an hour to kill so it was predrinking time and time for me to start polishing off the Expidition rum I havent used in a while. There was a no pants party upstairs in C3 hallway so everyone headed up there. Basically that means the girls were fine because we were in dresses but the boys were mostly in boxers, not all obviously but, well its C3. Eventually I was in fuzzy land so we all headed down to dinner! We werent allowed to bring our own drinks as there was wine provided. They also decorated up the caf a little so it was all fancy. Then we lined up as usual to grab our grub. Kinda messed with the fancy but you take what you can. There was indian food, but I focusing most of my attention on the wine anyway so it was all good. Not bad wine either, it was from Herstmonceux so it was interesting. Once this was completed, and after listening in on a little Bader gossip, we made our way to the ballroom. This is where we were to listen to speeches and some music by the students and other fun stuff. WE got some average seats and the festivities began. I dont remember with what but after a few speeches and announcements Angie and I were ready to pee. We agreed to book it to the washrooms when the student activities coordinater went to do her speech and then listen in on the other side of the door until she was done so as not to distrupt anyone.

The music was good. First was THE Choir. They were really good and really profesh. Not a lot of students but they had some faculty and they were all very talented. We also listened to a couple of people play the piano (one being Karicia). They were all fantabulous and we cheered all of them on heartily. Also that sang was the regular choir, for the people who cant read music. It was also actually quite good. The best part of the night was Rachel (student activities coordinator) and the female english prof (who is very sweetly dating the male english prof) stood up to sing. I am very sorry I dont remember what it is called but some of you may recognize it from the description. Basically they sang this opratic sang but in meows. It was fabulous. They started doing actions and had little personalities and character, but not too silly at all. I hope I can find it on tape because it was amazing. And it is normally done in meows, but they made it so much funnier than it initially is.

After that was a slide show in the caf of everyone and then the cherry on top was the dance. You know like a formal. And everyone knows how much I looovvee dances. Luckily I had been paying very good attention to my liquer that night and I had brought a 5 pounder. Hee, you see this dance also had a bar. I actually found people who like to danceat dances too! We literally danced the whole night. It was amazing! I actually had so much fun because we danced our asses off, no matter the song. I let Katie try some of my whiskey and I dont think she liked it very much. Most people dont have double whiskey, but I like to be unusual. We then walked back to Bader and I watched something in my room before falling asleep.

Okay so Saturday. I woke up at a moderate time, actually quite early considering I was up fairly late. Kari, Katie, Jacinta and I caught a bus to Eastbourne as Katie had never been to Eastbourne and they all needed to do some Christmas shopping. We explored and window shopped and chatted. We went to the sea shore and took pictures. It was a really nice morning. I honestly dont remember what i did when I got back, I may have studied, but I honestly dont remember. If i do I will post it. I think I cleaned my room and Sunday was similar.

Monday was exam day! I had history in the morning at 9am. That wasnt so bad. We were in the ballroom and I had one essay, an analysis of a primary source and two define and state significance. The primary source was a cartoon from 19th century about social class and stuff in England. I left feeling good and then went to study for art history that was at 2pm that same afternoon. Basically what that was was a bunch of slides of art works that we had to write as much as we could about. Now I could remember the stories and random stuff about them perfectly fine, but the dates and names and stuff was harder. So, omg I am so proud of myself, I printed out each picture with all its information on the same page so I could study it and stuff. I even colour coded the dates to help me remember! My hardest (or so Ithought) was the painting Supper at Emmaus. I could not remember anything about it to save my life. I dont know why but this painting did not want to stick in my memory. So I decided I needed to name on of the 4 men in the painting Emmaus and the rest would flow, or at least then I could remember the title. There was Jesus (so I am thinking it would be blasphemy to call him Emmous) and these three other guys, but non of them looked like an Emmaus. So I looked at the table with all the food on it...and decided to call the chicken Emmaus. Seriously it looked like an Emmaus, plus you know, they were having Emmaus for supper, hahahaha... Anyway it flowed after that. I remembered the date and the artist; Caravagio 1601. Not that I could remember anything else no matter how hard I studied it, so I left it alone, she wasnt testing us on all the artworks she had put on the list for us to study. I shared this story with a few people thinking it may help them as well. So at two I went in, sat down and had to pee soo badly! I had gone before, but me trying to be healthy had had a lot of water! They had a bunch of stuff I knew a lot about, but they also had a bunch that I had trouble with so I found myself pulling a lot out of my but if you get my meaning. If you dont you have a dirty mind. Anywho we ended up having to compare Titian`s Venus of Urbino and Bronzino`s Allagory of Venus and Cupid (first part of exam). Strange thing to compare at first glance, but not really so when actually analysing it. Afterwards we had all the individual slides. And of course what should pop up at the very end, Supper at Emmaus. I snorted quite ruefully and apparently (as I heard later) made Kari giggle quite heartily (as I kept gigling to myself afterward too). She apparently got quite the interested look from the art history prof of whom I wished very much to explin things to and share my story (I am sure she would have found it funny) but you see I still had to pee quite massively, so I shot out of there fairly fast and made my way to the nearest washroom. The rest of the afternoon I felt quite free as I had another 3 full days until my next exam.

Oooo one more story before I conclude this passage. On the Sunday night before our exams at around 9pm when most people were in their pjs and studying or in bed the fire alarm went off. We all peaked out our doors to see what was the matter and found that it wasnt a drill and we had to make our way outside into the freezing cold. Some had time to put on boots and coats and hat. I had time to put on shoes, but that was it. We all huddled together and pined over the fact that this should happen the night before an exam. After around 10 minutes we were let back in. We found out later that a few people were making toast in their rooms with a toaster they had bought and it set off the alarms. We were sent an e-mail the next day saying that we were not allowed any cooking appliances in our rooms. We were also told that when the fire fighters arrived they were not pleased by all the christmas paper on people`s doors as well as the amount of paper on the doors, its not fire regulation apparently. So in the e-mail we were told to take it all down. I can understand all the reasoning behind all this but it doesnt make me any less pissed off. We are kinda isolated out here and it is nice to have decoration to remind us of home you know? Dont worry, this week they put up christmas decorations around the place, at the castle and at Bader so we arent lacking in spirit. But at he time I was very frustrated. Anywho, I shant complain as I will soon be home where there is Christmas spirit everywhere you go!

I had small interests throughout he rest of the week, which you shall hear more about later. Now it is time for bed! Good night and sweet dreams!