Six more work days... two more weeks... one more weekend.

I'm sorry I haven't written in ages, I'm just feeling really strange about coming home and have been neglecting my blog. Like the title says, I only have six more days of work which is absolutely mad. This weekend is the last weekend I have to spend time in Lancaster and the following Saturday I'll be headed to the Manchester airport for a long night of sleeping on my suitcases with Annika keeping watch (she won't sleep in the airport because she thinks "someone will rob us"). I feel especially homesick when I'm skyping with someone (Kel and Kam mostly) and then I feel like I want to stay in England when I'm hanging out with my friends here. I guess it's good though... I have two things that are so good, I can't decide where I want to be. That's a pretty good situation when you think about it.

A few weekend ago, Cathrine and I went to Leeds which is in Yorkshire and about a 2-hour train trip. We went there to go to a dubstep show at Leeds Uni. It was really fun but it got over at 4 AM and, since me and Cathrine are crazy, we stayed until the end, got on a train at about 6 AM and came back to Lancaster. I think we went to bed at about 11 AM or so. We slept all day, as you can imagine. However, it was so great, we're doing it again this Thursday! Charlotte is going home on Wednesday to go see Glee in concert so I have Wednesday to Saturday without work.... so plenty of time to recover from our second trip to Leeds.

The weekend immediately before my 21st birthday was Parklife Festival, which is in Manchester. Originally it was just me going and meeting Sarah Kinney there, but Cathrine, who had an exam on Saturday, decided to come after her exam and go to the second day of Parklife (Sunday). It was really cool, a lot of really good artists there, BUT on Sunday it was raining like crazy and the park we were in turned into a mud pit. Saturday it was full of grass, but by Sunday night you couldn't see green anywhere. The highlight of the trip for me was seeing Skrillex, who is an American dubstep producer, in a tent. It was insane.

We stayed at a hostel outside of Manchester in a place called Kiersley. The hostel was called "the Grapes" and was just a couple rooms above a pub. The weird thing is that on Saturday night after the festival and after the after party... at about 4 AM... we were waiting at a bus stop to get back to Kiersley and these two drunk guys who were quite a bit older than us started trying to chat us up. They asked where we were going and I said "Kiersley" and they just about died out of astonishment because that's where they were going too. We told them we were staying at "the Grapes" and they seriously did not believe us at first because, as one of them said, "My mate owns that pub!" Long story short, they ended up paying for a taxi for us all to share and they went home and paid the taxi driver to take up to the pub. Ha! Pretty great.

Anyways, that's really all that's new. If anything exciting happens in Leeds this week, I'll be sure to post it. Sorry no picture, I didn't take my camera to the festival because I worry that it will get ruined...

Hello everyone.

I realize that I haven't written for a while so here is a short update (so dad doesn't get mad at me for neglecting my blog)!

Thanks to mom and kel, we finally got my flight home booked. I'll be getting home on July 3 at 6:50 p.m. US-time.... which will be about 4:50 a.m. in my brain. That's alright though. Mom, Kel, Kam and possibly Chelsi will all be there when I arrive and it's going to be an epic reunion. I hope that Kameryn recognizes me though. Kel said she can pick "auntie" out in pictures and stuff, but like I told her, she probably thinks I'm just some imagined person that lives inside technology.

I'm going to Leeds this weekend with Cathrine and Peter! It's going to be great fun and I've been excited about it for quite a while. We actually aren't going to go site seeing or anything; there are a couple dubstep (music) artists that are going to be there that I want to see. I feel like I need to see as much dubstep as I can while I'm here because it's hardly anywhere in the US. It originated in England though. In fact, one of my favorite dubstep artists, Rusko, is from Leeds! So anyways, I'm excited about that.

Then, two weekends after Leeds, I'm going to Parklife Festival in Manchester! I'm so excited! I booked my ticket in April and I've been looking forward to it so much since then. I haven't been eating a lot though because I'm trying to save money for Parklife. I do already have my ticket and my train ticket though so I'm pretty set.... besides my hostel and food. Parklife is the weekend before my 21st birthday too, which is on a Monday! That reminds me... if anyone wants to give me a birthday present, money would be helpful for Parklife. Haha... just sayin'.

Anyways, that's pretty much it. Nothing too new around here except a lot of anticipation! Talk to you all soon!

Cathrine told me to do it....

Cathrine asked me if I'd ever tried to swallow a spoonful of Cinnamon, and I answered "no, I have not." So then, she decided that it was about time for me to try it. Here are the results.

Also, here is a hilarious picture of Cathrine.

Representing Norway.

Cathrine brought her pants back to Lancaster that she wore during Russ. If you don't know about Russ, it's amazing and you should google "Russ Norway" and read about it or look at pictures because I don't feel like explaining the whole thing. I'm so jealous I didn't get to do it though.

Anyways, I put them on and she took a few pictures and here they are...

I wasn't actually drinking that Captain Morgans when we took these, but I thought it'd be the most accurate way for me to act like I was Norwegian :)

I'm going to miss Cathrine so much when I'm gone, I can't even tell you. We just spent the last half hour giggling in the kitchen saying "Would you be my friend if I laughed like this?" "Would you be my friend if I walked like this?" It was like being 10-years-old all over again.

Here is a picture of me laying out in the sun a few weeks ago too but... as you can see... I'm still wearing a coat. Wishful thinking.

Mud.

Cathrine, Heidi (one of Cathrine's Norwegian friends) and I went out in the rain last night. It was a thunder and lightning storm and we decided that we were bored and wanted to go puddle jumping. We ended up on the soccer field spinning around and rolling down hills until we were soaking wet and then coming back to our flat, showering (separately haha) and watching Across the Universe into the wee hours of the morning. Here are a few (not very flattering) pictures of the night!

The story of Scotland (Pt. 2)

 When we went to Edinburgh on Sunday, we met up with a girl that Laura had mutual friends with who is Scottish. Her name is Tracey and she brought her friend Sam with her too. They took us to all the best places in Edinburgh which was nice because we didn't have to worry about getting lost. We walked down Princes Street, which is really cool to me because Trainspotting is one of my favorite movies and the opening scene is a chase down where we were walking! There were statues all over the place and you could see the castle up on the hill.

Scott Monument - Princes St.

Then Tracey and Sam took us to the "Royal Mile" which is just a long road with a bunch of touristy things to see. We went to the Elephant House which is where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. I thought that was really cool since I'm such a huge HP nerd. On a side note, on our way to our new hotel in Edinburgh there was a huge school off the right and our cab driver said that's what JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of! So cool.

From there I think we went and got some coffee and then headed up to the castle. We didn't actually go in the castle but we just walked around the (free) outside part.

Life-sized castle guard.

The castle from the side view.

Castle gate.

After that we went and got drinks and food which turned out to be really fun. Sam and Tracey were both hilarious and they loved our accents. Actually, all the Scottish people I met were nice and funny and super helpful. As one of our taxi drivers said "Scottish people are the nicest in the world." It's funny too because Sam and Tracey were both hungover pretty badly and then went right to drinking when they felt better. So Scottish.... haha.

Laura and Tracey

Sam, Me and Tracey

When it got dark, we went into the vaults under the city. Apparently there is an old city built under Edinburgh because they decided to just build on top of it after the bubonic plague. Pretty crazy. It cost like £8 and they took us underground on a tour and told us all these ghost stories. I didn't think it was very scary but it was worth it to go. Tracey was scared and claustrophobic so she didn't actually even finish the tour but she met us at the top when we were done. Our tour guide was hilarious. He was wearing a big black cape and talking all quiet and creepy. Edinburgh has a pretty crazy history too when it comes to torture and stuff. We learned a lot about that too. Apparently they had a big problem with "body snatchers" back in the day where people would rob a grave and then sell the body to universities for medical experiments!

Finally we went to a Frankenstein-themed pub. They had this big Frankenstein that came down from the ceiling at midnight and it was pretty cool. It sat up and looked around at people and everything. There was karaoke too but none of us sang. It was hilarious because there were some girls who got up to sing and they said "We're from Canada," and Tracey yelled out "Well we have AMERICANS!" She was great fun, it's a shame she lives in Edinburgh... so far away from the US. The next day we didn't do much, I mostly just packed up and ate before heading home on the train. The other two girls stayed an extra night because Laura was heading to Dublin on Tuesday, but I was running out on money! All-in-all Edinburgh was AMAZING and highly recommended to anyone who gets a chance to go :)

Frankenstein.

The story of Scotland.

Well I suppose it's time for me to write out the story of our trip to Scotland.

Laura got here on Tuesday and, since I was prepared, I had a nice blow-up mattress for her waiting. We chatted a bit and got food after I met her at the train station, and when we got back here we went to bed at around 10 PM which was pretty early for me, but I honestly can't believe Laura was able to stay awake that long. The next morning all we really did was walk about Lancaster's campus and lay out by the little pond and watch the swans and ducks all day. It was such a nice day out, probably like 80 degrees.

On Thursday, we decided to go to Manchester for the day. I haven't spent much time there and I'm glad we went because it was SO nice out again. We hopped on the train in the morning some time, it only takes about an hour and a half to get there, and arrived maybe around noon? I can't really remember to be honest. When we got there we went shopping at Primark (which is an amazing, and amazingly cheap British shop) and Laura was excited by all the British fashion haha. Eventually Laura started getting terrible blisters because the shoes she was wearing were relatively new, so we went on a quest to find her some new ones, and eventually we did (which she told me later she loved, so that's good).

We then went to a pub for dinner and a cider. Laura has never had a cider... and probably you guys haven't either unless you've been here. It's like hard apple cider but way better and way harder. Ha. I got pear cider actually and Laura got mixed fruit. I always like cider, and Laura said she liked hers too but it was a little too sweet (she had some later in Scotland that she liked better). While we were sitting there eating a football (soccer) team came in, probably 7 or 8 big guys, and sat by us. They were talking in some foreign language that we were having a hard time placing and eventually we decided it was some weird form of German. I think we decided that they were Austrian.

 

We got back to Lancaster early enough for Laura to Skype nick and get their plans for Dublin all sorted before we went to bed. Friday morning, we headed off to Scotland.

On the train to Scotland, I seriously felt like I was back home. I saw big stretches of forest and places where the timber had been logged. The biggest difference was that it was a lot more hilly than home, and there were sheep instead of cows. Laura also noted that some fields were completely yellow (which I think Scotland is famous for) and she said that she can imagine Grandpa saying, "That's tansy! It's gonna kill those sheep." I laughed pretty hard at that. It was weird having Laura here... not in a bad way... but just because my life over here is so disconnected from my life back home. Having Laura here was like bridging the two which was just... a weird thing. Haha.

We got to Edinburgh eventually and then took a bus to Dunfermline which was where our hotel was. The reason our hotel was a hotel and not a hostel and why it was in Dunfermline and not Edinburgh is that we waited for the last minute to find a hostel to book and EVERYTHING was booked up because it was Easter and a three-day weekend. We thought our hotel would be close enough to go to Edinburgh the next day but after the bus ride that took about an hour and a half, I suggested that we just check out the town we were in and Laura agreed. 

Eventually we got there via taxi from the bus station and lo and behold they didn't have our reservation. SO, the guy working there made some calls and got us a cheap room at the Travelodge a couple miles away. He told us he'd call a taxi, but I wasn't about to pay for a taxi for a two-mile walk so we made sure we knew where we were going and set off. It didn't take too long to get there but for a minute I thought maybe we were lost because we were in the middle of nothing. Eventually we saw an old Scottish man walking his dog and when he shouted "He won't bite! He won't bite! I know that's the famous last words before you get your leg bitten off but he really doesn't," we took the opportunity to ask him for directions. He was missing quite a few teeth but he was really nice. Here is a picture of where we were walking...

The other thing about Scotland was as soon as we pulled into the Edinburgh train station we noticed the whole sky was just fog, which was bad for me, since I packed summery clothes because it had been so nice in England! 

When we got to our Travelodge, we had a couple miscommunications with the front desk guy who had an Indian-Scottish accent, and then we threw down our stuff in our room and laid flat out on the bed. We sat there for a while before we decided we wanted drinks so we walked to ASDA (Britain's Wal-Mart) and I bought something called Blavod, which is black vodka (actually it's dark blue), and Laura got four little bottles of wine. We had a couple drinks in our room when we were waiting for Amy, another volunteer from Spokane whose placement is near London. Finally she got there and we all went out to a bar called the Seven Kings which is apparently super huge in Dunfermline, and met a couple hilarious Scottish people. I swear, every Scottish person I met was so friendly and helpful. That's probably why I loved Scotland so much.

The next day we spent in Dunfermline. It's where I got everyone's postcards and I got myself a Scottish necklace with my birthstone on it which I LOVE. By the way, it's pronounced "Doon-ferm-lin," 'cuz when we first got there we were saying "Dun-firm-line," and the Scots thought we were just silly. Anyway, that day we went and got coffee in the morning (no hangover, we didn't drink THAT much) and walked all through the city center. There was a bunch of booths set up and a lot of people out in the street walking around. 

Eventually we spotted the Dunfermline Abbey (which is behind me and Laura in that bottom pic) and went to check that out. We walked through the graveyard and into the church and into the abbey. It was really creepy. A lot of the gravestones were from the 1700's which is insane to think about because the United States didn't exist for most of that time. I really liked it though. It showed where the monks lived and ate in the Abbey and had reeeally old stained-glass windows in the church. 

After that we went into this park near the Abbey and walked around taking pictures until it started pouring down rain on us, and we ducked inside of a green house full of tropical plants until the worst of the storm was over. From there we walked back into the city and had tea and a BUNCH of sweets in this cute little pink building before getting a tour of it, because it is apparently a hugely important historical building. I think she said it was built sometime in the 1500s. It was the house of some famous clergyman or something (see how well I paid attention) and each room had stuff about Scottish history in it. It was actually really cool. The whole town was amazing to me because I honestly didn't have really high expectations for it because I'd never heard of it.

We went back to the hotel after that and I took a shower before we went out for dinner at a place called the Harvester. We talked to our waiter there for a while too and he was really nice. Oh! By the way, we had two questions that we kept asking Scottish people. 1) Do you like haggis (look it up if you don't know what it is)? 2) What do you think of Glasgow? The reason we asked about Glasgow is because it has a reputation of being really rough. We asked a guy at the Seven Kings these questions and he went on and on about how much he loves haggis and said when he left Scotland it's the only thing he missed. Then, when we asked about Glasgow, he lifted his shirt and said "I went to Glasgow and all I got was this lousy stab wound!" Which was obviously a joke, but still got the point across. All the men we asked said Glasgow is "dodgy" and the ONE Scottish girl we asked said it's "lovely." Then, her friend Sam pointed out, yeah it's because all the men are the ones who get in fights there, not the women. Which is probably true.

The next day we went to Edinburgh but honestly I'm tired of typing, so I'll finish it another day!