Fancy!

Hello!

It's been so beautiful out in Lancaster the past few days! Actually it's foggy today, but over the weekend it was sunny and warm. Cathrine and I even took a blanket out on the grass on Friday and laid out in the sunshine. There were people out playing football, and music, and everyone was just enjoying having such a nice spring day.

This past Friday night I went out with Leah and some of her flatmates to a restaurant called The Plough. It was quite a walk from County (where I live) and probably took about 45 minutes to get there. Once we did, though, it was really nice. I got a delicious chicken burger and most of the others got regular burgers. We had a lot of good conversation and I'm glad that I went. When I got back it was about 10 30 PM and Cathrine had been waiting for me to go out. We ended up just going to the Australian's flat aand hanging out in their kitchen. Stephan was in there for a while but he eventually left and we met three of their flatmates that are never around and they were absolutely hilarious. They were all English, and me and Cathrine seriously had sore abs when we left because we didn't stop laughing the whole time. We went back to our flat at probably about 1 or 2 AM.

On Saturday, Cathrine and I decided to stay in and have a fancy night with wine, cheese, crackers, etc. It ended up being Cathrine, Franchi, Annie, Emma (English friend), her friend Vicki, Henrich (because he walked past and Cathrine ran out and got him), Emily (from New Zealand) and me. Cathrine and I had gone into town that day and got all sorts of cheese and crackers and then set them all out on a nice platter and everything.

The night ended up being really fun. I had two glasses of wine and then started drinking coffee (since I don't even really like wine), and at about midnight we all went into Cathrine's room and watched a movie. Emma ended up drinking WAY too much without any of us realizing and went outside and threw up. I think it's because she is just so tiny. By the end of the movie it was only Annie, Cathrine and me left, so we all just chatted and ended up staying up until 5 AM! Which was actually only 4 because it was daylight savings that night.

Here are a few pictures from the night!

I didn't dress up very fancy... ha.

Franchi was trying to take "artistic" pictures

Emma, Franchi, Vicki

Another attempt at art....

Nothing exciting.

Hello! I have nothing too exciting to write about but I haven't written since the 12th so I think it's about time for an update. I didn't do much this weekend. There was a Campus Festival yesterday (Saturday) so Cathrine, Franchi and I went to that. Both of them performed on stage at one point (Cathrine in dance and Franchi in Glee), and we got food and coffee. At 10 30 there was a fireworks display. I'm not really sure what the festival is for specifically, I think it's just an annual thing that they have here at Lancaster.

Cathrine talked to her dad the other day and he said they're planning on renting a house in Greece this year for a month or so and they invited me to go! She said that the plan is to drive from Norway to Greece (through Sweden, Denmark, Germary, Serbia, Italy), but nothing is official yet. I hope it works out though, that would be amazing! It would be when my placement here in Lancaster is over too so I could just fly directly from Greece back to the US. Gosh, Cathrine is great.

I've been getting a little antsy lately and feeling a little intellectually deprived. I know it sounds weird but I miss school a little bit -- I like learning. SO, I bought a new book about political philosophy and I've been reading that pretty avidly. It's really good actually, but then again, I like that kind of stuff. At this point my plan after EWU is to go to law school (I know, I change my plans a lot) so I've been reading all about different schools and even taking LSAT practice tests. If I plan on going to law school, I'd be taking the LSATs in June 2012! That really isn't that far away.

I've been feeling a bit homesick lately. I can't believe I've been here six months! I get a couple week break in April, so that will be nice. Laura will be over here during that time too so I'm planning on traveling a bit with her. I haven't even been to Scotland yet! I'm way overdue. My time here has been flying... coming home is going to be pretty bittersweet because I'm going to miss all my friends a lot. I didn't expect to make such close friends while I was here but I would probably be way more homesick if I didn't. Mostly I miss Kameryn because every time I talk to her she seems so much older! I still have my shrine of pictures up for her though on my bulletin board.

Anyways, here is a current picture of me for those of you who I never Skype with, and a picture that I forgot to post from a few weekends ago! My hair is getting so long... it's great. Auf Wiedersehen!

Sarah (from Maine), Stephan, me, Cathrine, Ole (from Norway)

Weekend!

We had tons of people over at our flat last night (Friday). It was great fun, except that Cathrine went out to town (I didn't go) and had £20 of mine and my drivers license and lost BOTH of them! She had them because we put all of our stuff together in one purse before people came over so that we didn't have to hurry and get our stuff together when the taxis came. I had a big long talk with a German guy who is also a volunteer here named Jazon and he said I changed his view on Americans -- he thought we were all really stupid. He said he was impressed that I knew about politics. That was quite nice to hear!

Anyways, I'm not going out tonight -- Cathrine and I have a movie date -- and I didn't get enough sleep last night because I had to get Charlotte up this morning because Pili is going to Bath and Stonehenge this weekend. Here is one picture from the night... it's the only one that has made it to Facebook so far. Bri (American) Alissa and Bec (Australian) and me!

Amsterdam!

Hello all, it's been awhile but I'm finally getting around to writing about my trip to Amsterdam the other week. ALSO, I'll tell you about our exploits yesterday and post some pics from then.

Honestly, Sarah and I didn't do that much while I was in Amsterdam. We walked around the city and got lost a couple times (Sarah had only been there a couple weeks so she was still figuring it out). It was way way way colder there than it is in England so I definitely wasn't expecting that -- I also hadn't packed for it.

The buildings were amazing but my favorite things to look at were the canals that were all over the city. Each "block" was centered around a different canal with a crazy Dutch name. I don't know how Sarah can possibly live in a city where everything is written in a language she doesn't speak. She also said that Dutch people dislike Americans and people that speak English in general. I think it's kind of like the whole thing in the US where people get mad at Mexicans for not speaking English.

We did walk down the Red Light district but I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. The women just stood there in their windows, with the red lights on, in lingerie. You wouldn't believe how beautiful some of the women were though. They looked like models. In the side streets there were less attractive (and probably less expensive) ones.

The whole city felt really safe even though weed, shrooms and prostitution are all legal. I never felt like I was in a sketchy area. We looked for a couple museums (torture museum, Anne Frank's house) but ended up getting lost and finally I was just like, let's go back to your flat, because it was SO COLD.

By the end of the trip though I was ready to head back to the warmer, English-speaking England. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and I was glad to see Sarah, but I was pretty out of my element there.

Yesterday, the day before Lent starts, is called Pancake Day in England. It's supposedly when you're supposed to eat up all your fatty foods before Lent. So me, Cathrine, Franchi, Annie, Henrik, Pili and Annika (very random combination of people) made pancakes! It was great fun. We put M&Ms in one batch and it turned the batter green. Also, it was very hard to find maple syrup, so we had to get a very tiny, very expensive bottle of it. Here are some pictures!

 

 

 

Maple syrup! And Annika would only eat the green pancakes...

 

Ice cream --- not butter

 

 

She flipped it! Haha.

Pics of Amsterdam!

I got my internet back WOO. Don't have time to write about Amsterdam right now but I did take a few pictures. I couldn't take very many because a lot of places (like the Red Light district) say "NO PHOTOS." It kind of sucks but I guess it's understandable for the prostitutes haha.

There was graffiti everywhere!

NO internet!

It's very annoying. I'll post pictures and stories from Amsterdam as soon as I get it back (God knows when that will be) but for now here are some pictures from the weekend.

(I'm on Charlotte's computer)

Frida from Norway



Len (Canada), Me, Ole (Norway)





Bec from Australia



I dunno who that guy is.

I dunno who that guy is either....