Wow.

Well, it's officially been 2 weeks since I got back to the US. And those weeks went quickly - I'm all moved back into school now.
Whenever people ask how my travelling was, I pretty much always respond 'Amazing, I want to go back already.' And I do. I really hope it will work out at some point.
There's not really much more to say, but I didn't want to leave this blog without some sort of final post. If anyone is still reading this and wants more, I'm going to be doing a school blog. It won't be daily (I can pretty much guarantee that...) but anyway, if you want to, it's http://boilerup2014.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
-Carly Stenger

Celtic Touring

Yay for internet access! :D
We're in Galway right now, day one of our 3 day Ireland tour. I don't want to write out all that has happened since I last posted, so I'll share some highlights.
Scotland:
We flew into Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon and walked pretty much the entire length of Heathrow airport. My mom said she didn't know we were walking to Scotland...
When we were driving in from the airport, I was the only one with a decent map - from my guidebooks - so I was the navigator to our lunch. The book also recommended a burger place, so that's where we went. It was a cute little place and when we walked in, the CD that was plaing was Bob Marley - we liked it :D And the burgers were really good, even if I had to eat most of my veggie burger with a fork once it disintegrated.
Edinburgh Castle was quite the impressive sight - up on top of a cliff-hill.
The next day, we drove to Inverness - a city in the Highlands. My mom and I read a series of books set in the Highlands, so we were excited :D
We only stayed in Inverness for a night - the next day we went back to Edinburgh to fly to Dublin. We planned to have some time to walk around Edinburgh for our flight and wanted to see the Elephant House - where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.
What we didn't plan for was the insane amout of people that had arrived in the day we were gone. It took us a while to finally find the cafe, and we couldn't stop so my dad dropped us off to take pictures while he circled the block.
An hour and a half later, my mom and I were on the phone with the police to see if there had been an accident when my Uncle Mike came to tell us that my dad had made it back. Half the streets were blocked off, so he had been diverted left and right until he was on the opposite side of town and completely lost.
With that lovely delay, we didn't make it to the airport in time to check in to our flight, so we missed it. At least we didn't have to be anywhere that night. Besides, we're on vacation :D
We got booked on the next flight to Dublin - which was at 7.50 - and went to wait in the pub that we could get to before going through security. Our original flight was at 3.20, so we had a bit of time to stall and decided to eat some dinner.
Ireland:
Our next planned trip was to Waterford, Ireland the next day (yesterday). My Aunt Kelly works for Waterford, so it was fun to see the factory in Waterford. We got to see the Cinderella carriage that took 4 months to make - and it was only €25000 since we weren't EU citizens (v. the €30000 it would be if we were), so my mom and I thought we should go for it ;] My dad didn't agree for some reason...
We also went to the Guinness Storehouse once we were back in Dublin. That was pretty cool to see - and my dad enjoyed it. We all got to taste a little bit about halfway through, and then all the over 18s got a pint with our ticket. My mom doesn't like beer (that might be a bit of an understatement...) and I had a headache so I didn't want to drink very much of mine, so my dad got 2.5 :]
Then it was time for our tour to start - we got up pretty early today so we could get to the pick up place. I took a two hour nap and woke up in time to hear our guide singing a bunch of songs - evidently Galway girls will break a man's heart, Brown-haired girls are awesome (obviously :D) and Patty had a tough time hauling bricks so he wrote to his boss to explain why he wasn't at work.
Holy sheep. They're everywhere!
We got to walk on an Irish bog - there are a lot of bogs here, and they use the turf to fuel fires. That was pretty cool - really spongy too.
And now we're chilling in our hostel in Galway and enjoying the internet :] While walking around, some stores had different opening hours on different days, and the only reason I know what day it is is because my watch tells me. My mom and I both love being on vacation :D
Tomorrow we go to Kilarnney, then back to Dublin the next day, and then it's home again home again. If I have internet again, I'll update again :]
Till then,
-Carlito

My bag is obese!

Bloody hell, today was our last day in London.
So, a few days ago, I woke up and looked at my watch and read 8.52 - I didn't have to be anywhere, but Nicole did. However, when I warned her, it turned out to actually be 8.25. Then, this morning, I woke up and looked at my watch again. I thought '8.81, that's an odd time' before I realised that it actually said 8.01. I need to stop reading my watch right after waking up - evidently I'm slightly dyslexic at that time of the morning.
Nicole and I met my family to see the Changing of the Guard this morning at Buckinghal Palace. That was really cool to see, even if we couldn't hear the mini concert-type thing in the middle. Lots of pomp and circumstance.
After the ceremony, Nicole and I stalled in a Pret before it was time to go to the tea. I had a chocolate croissant and apple juice - I'm really going to miss those...
Then it was tea time! :] The place we went to, Fortnum and Mason, was apparently one of the best places to go have tea. It was really nice too. The china was light blie and there was this lemon cornbread thing that was served - it was really good. And I think I like tea now, and the tea there was yummy too.
I was a rather bittersweet feeling there. I can't believe that we're done, and it's weird to think that most people are going to be leaving tomorrow. Like I said, rather bittersweet.
Nicole and I walked out of the store with Jasmine, and she asked that we text her later so we didn't have to say good bye there. Nicole gave her a hug, and I said That's why we don't say good bye, we say See you later. I'm going to miss those two.
Nicole wamted to keep hanging with me and my family, so I invited her to join us on the river tour. At first she was saying how she didn't want to intrude on family time, and I said she wouldn't be. She insisted that I call my mom to verify, and when I did my mom said that she thought it was a great idea.
The river tour was interedsting, even though I've seen most of it already, much of it up close. Nicole likes my family, and they seem to like her too. It made me happy :D
After the tour, the group split up. My dad and Uncle Mike went to the Tate Modern while Mom, Ricky, Nicole and I went to King's Cross and Platform 9 3/4. We took our pictures and got some food, then the groups rearranged - Mom and Ricky joined Dad and Uncle Mike at St Paul's while Nicole and I went back to our room to start packing.
After a little while, we went to the Apollo Victoria Theatre - where Wicked is running - to see Mark Evans one more time at the stage door. However, it was a shorter trip than we had anticipated, so we were rather early. To stall, we went to the pub next door and I had one last Pimm's while we people watched. There were two guys that we thought were cute, but then they walked out to smoke and immediatly lost all of their appeal.
After we were done with our drinks, we still had time to kill so we sat on a bench in the train station (it's right across from the theatre). I read Gregory Maguire's section about writing Wicked in Nicole's programme, and there was one quote that I really liked: 'The consolation of the imaginary is not imaginary consolation.' Story of my life.
When the show was over and the crowd gathering at the stage door, we joined them. I think Nicole was going to have a heart attack when he signed her iPod - she's been super careful with it ever since :] A very good way for her to end her stay in London :D
Then we returned to the room to finish packing. I swear all this stuff fit when I packed in June, there's no way it multiplied and expanded this much... O.o Nicole brought 2 bags, and when she said that one was probably going to be over 50 pounds, she said 'My bag is obese!' It made me laugh :D
As we packed, we were listening to the Wicked soundtrack and singing along while eating our midnight snack pizza. An amazing last night together. I'm really going to miss that girl.
Tomorrow I need to get up early so I can check out of my room and join my family for breakfast - all the food I have left is a half a bag of pasta and some milk - my dad said I should eat them together, I said maybe not :] Then we fly to Edinburgh - I'm so excited! I have no idea when I'm going to be able to update my blog and/or pictures from now on - I don't know when we're going to be staying somewhere with internet access, so
Till then,
-Carly B

Let's go steal the Crown Jewels!

I met up with my mom at South Ken today to wander around the area and she got to see my room, in all its glory. I got my stuff ready to ship - holy huge shipping charge. I hope Nicole Cihock and Kyle Connelly better appreciate that they aren't going to get their presents in a month and a half...
I also took my mom by the Hummingbird Bakery and Ben's Cookies - so yummy :D I love hanging with my mom! :]
Then it was time for me to take my final. And I'm actually feeling pretty good about it.  I guess we'll see.
Talk about perfect timing. When I finished my final, I called my mom to see if they were still in the British Museum so I could meet them there. They weren't in the museum, they were walking back towards the Centre. How fortuitous :]
Then it was off to the Tower. That was really cool.
Quick break for story time. The Purdue Study Abroad office had an orientation thing online - and one of the questions asked what the better souvenier would be: a journal, an arrest record or the Crown Jewels. I wanted the Crown Jewels :D
So, then I got to see them, and they were stunning. My mom and I were walking through and looking at the various crowns (I enjoyed the people movers - moving sidewalks :D ) and we wondered where the Imperial Crown of India was, so we asked an employee. It was right around the corner (of course O.o ) and he also told us some stuff about it. When King George V was crowned in 1911, he wasn't just a King, he was an Emperor. India wanted him to come be crowned in India too. However, none of the Royal Regala is allowed to leave the UK, so wealthy Indians donated gems and they made the Imperial Crown of India for the King. It was only ever worn that once. And it's got something like 6000+ diamonds. Craziness.
There was a game in the gift shop - Steal the Crown Jewels! I wanted it :D
Next up came dinner. I ordered peppermint tea and surprised my mom - I didn't really like tea before but the pepermint tea was really good. I also tried her wine and my dad's beer - she took pictures and said I was growing up :]
Wow, the views from the Eye were beautiful. We were even up there when the lights came on The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It was awesome! I even almost forgot how high up I was...
Nicole and I are back to watching Kim Possible - we've run out of tv shows on DVD. I really hope we stay in touch after this summer.
Tomorrow Nicole and I are meeting my family to see the Changing of the Guard and it's now 1.42 in the morning - I really need to start getting to sleep earlier again. School should be a fun adjustment...
Till then,
-Carly

Jet Lag + Lack of Food = 2 Tired Teenagers

So I got up at six this morning to head over to the airport. I decided a while ago to surprise my family at the airport, so I tried (and failed) to straighten my hair and I left at seven. Wow, the tube is quiet at that time of the morning - it was kinda nice. When I got to the airport, I really hoped that they were actually in Terminal 3 and that they hadn't already gotten on the train to London.
Thankfully, it was all good. Mom called me from the customs line, and when she asked me where I was, I said I was in Pret - it was the easiest explanation for all the background noise. I was expecting her to ask why the hell I was in Pret at 8 in the morning when I didn't have to be anywhere until 10, but I guess she was too tired to think that through :]
So, then I saw them walking out of the terminal and I thought they saw me, but evidently not. Apparently, my mom had just been saying how she wished I could've been there, seeing all the other families reuniting, and then I was there. She was really surprised, mission accomplished :D As we made our way to their hotel, I think they were glad I was there - I kinda remembered what to do. I'm so happy to see them again!
We took a taxi tour all over London - and I mean all over. I'd seen most of the things before, but my mom was taking all sorts of pictures :] I think Ricky enjoyed it too, if he was actually awake for any of it. Apparently he didn't sleep on the plane, so he made up for that during the tour ;]
So, I had a chocolate croissant and apple juice for breakfast at 10a and then didn't eat again until we all had dinner at 4.45p, so towards the end of the tour (it was 5 hours long) I felt like I was going to pass out too.
There was a Garfunkel's next to the hotel, so we went over there. I discovered that the pizza I had at the resturaunt on Oxford Street wasn't the margherita pizza - so I have no idea what it actually was - but the margherita pizza was really yummy as well. I'm very curious what I had before...
We went back to the hotel to decide on what to do next. As my mom and I talked, Ricky was in Uncle Mike's room and my dad was falling asleep in the chair. We decided to go walking around Harrod's so that they'd keep moving and fight the jet lag.
Holy hell, that place is huge. Mom and I got some Christmas presents for people (expensive Christmas presents... O.o) and when we checked out the guy offered to direct us to our next department. That made me laugh :]
Then we hunted for some sort of snack, but all the places we found were sit-down resturaunts, so we decided to forgo that idea. We all had agreed that we would meet up at 8 by the table of large stuffed bears, so my mom and I made our way back down there.
At 8.15, we were wondering where the others were, and whether or not they would be mortally offended if we just left without them - we were both rather tired. Thankfully, they arrived quickly after that.
We split up after Harrod's to meet again tomorrow, so I returned to my room. Nicole and I watched the last 3 episodes of Bones season 5, and now we're sad that season 6 is so recent - we can't watch it. I'm thinking I might take all my seasons to school in August - I feel like a marathon may be in order... :D
I have a final tomorrow, blagh. At least I get to show my mom around my home for the past 6 weeks and she can discover the glory that is Ben's Cookies :]
Till then,
-Squirt

The Reindeer in Spain was hit mainly by the plane.

No class toady :D That was nice. I still had my alarm going off, so I was up at my normal time. After Nicole left, I had a bowl of cereal and watched Whose Line is it Anyway videos on youtube. Colin Mochrie is so bloody funny - he made up a news story:
   Breaking News: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, dead at 53.
   Over Barcelona today, the famed Reindeer was hit by a flock of seagulls and a 747.
   Eyewitnesses report that the Reindeer in Spain was hit mainly by the plane.
:D Good way to spend a morning :]
I had to go to the Centre to turn in my Living and Dying research paper today. It would be nice if I could teleport, then I wouldn't have had to actually haul myself over there. Oh well. Now I've only got my final left. Wow.
I decided to take the bus home. I'd forgotten how long that trip takes - goodness the traffic makes the buses go slow. However, I was entertained for pretty much the entire trip. On the buses here, the top level has seats that are right at the front. There was a family - 2 parents and 2 kids - that sat in those front seats and the kids were adorable. They were both pretending to drive the bus and arguing as to who was actually driving, and the dad was telling the son to watch out for things and helping steer. It was adorable :D
When I was back, Nicole was still in class so I just listened to music and relaxed more, writing a bit.
Now that she is back, we've been watching more Bones episodes. I'm going to miss these evening TV show marathons :D
I get to see my family again tomorrow morning! A bunch of people here have been saying that they've enjoyed it here, but they can't wait to get home again. I want to stay here, I can't wait to see mi familia again (in case you couldn't tell... ;] )
Another short entry, but another great day. Tomorrow should be interesting again :]
Till then,
-Carly B

An evening of watching dead people and the various things that happen to them

Today was my last Living and Dying class (and my last day of class for the summer (where the ruddy hell did the last six weeks go? O.o ). In class, we presented our case studies and that was it. It was a good class, short too.
I needed to finish my paper, so I went back to my room after class. And I did it! In shorter time than I expected it to take too. I'm so proud of myself :D
As Nicole worked on her paper for her Shakespeare class, I needed to get another adaptor so I can carge my camera. It was a beautiful day, so it was fun to walk around King's Road. I also got the forms to get oyster cards for my mom, dad, Ricky and Uncle Mike. I had to sign the forms for them - that was entertaining. Dad's wasn't too bad, but my mom's was laughably terrible. I have never been able to imitate her signature, but this was worse than normal. I used my left hand for Ricky's, but I have no idea what Uncle Mike's signature looked like so I just did whatever.
When Nicole finished her paper, we went to Primark (finally :] ). It's a store here that we've been wanting to go to for a while - cute clothes at cheap prices. I found a cute shirt :] It was pretty crowded there, it felt like an H&M.
After Primark, we went to grab some provisions and I think we should be good until the end, or maybe I'll just need some milk for my cereal. (Again - where did all the time go??)
When getting the oyster cards, I didn't even need my oddly signed forms O.o And buying 4 oyster cards and topping up another one required 5 different transactions. That was kinda annoying, but I guess it worked.
Once back in our room, Nicole and I have been watching Bones episodes all afternoon and evening. We both love Bones and Booth together, as well as Angela and Hodgens. We've been enjoying it :D
Well, this is a rather short entry. It was an excellent day, though :D
No class tomorrow - I need to turn in my paper and then I might go over to the Natural History Museum.
Till then,
-Carlito

Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.

I definitely didn't want to leave today - I loved it out there, so peaceful and beautiful.
Today, after Brittney and I got packed up, we went to Cotehele - a large estate. It was established in 1353 by the Edgcumbes and the house and barn were built in 1485. The chapel housed a clock that was also installed at the same time - it's the oldest clock that's still working and in its original place, it hasn't been moved.
There was a small chapel built in the woods close to the river - and there was a story behind it. Sir Richard Edgcumbe declared that he was against the King (I can't remember what King or what years) and was being chased. He hid himself in the woods and threw his cap with a rock into the river. The men chasing him heard the sound and saw his cap, so they assumed he had drowned and left. When Sir Richard came back to the estate, he built a small chapel in the spot where he had hidden.
We walked all over the estate; through gardens, up hills, up triangular towers (there was a random triangular tower out in the middle of a cow grazing field), and through apple orchards alongside a cat :] Everything was so beautiful! I had some more fun taking pictures of flowers :D
We ate our packed lunch on the quay (pronounced key), looking out over the river and trying to figure out which way it was flowing - it was a tidal river, so at one point it looked like it was flowing in both directions at once.
After lunch, we walked up to the fllour mill on the estate. We couldn't go inside, but it was nice to walk along the stream and see the mill - it was a larger complex than Brittney and I had expected. My legs are going to be sore tomorrow - we walked up a lot of hills these past two days :]
After Cotehele, we went to a few different places to walk and stall before the coach was scheduled to leave, an area along the river, the Royal William shipyard and a Tesco (grocery store) so Brittney and I could get food for the coach ride back.
Then, when we went to get on the coach, it turned out that the people in London had only given us the ticket numbers for the trip down there, and not back. We started to panic slightly, but luckily there was a number the driver could call so it got sorted. And then we were on our way.
Oddly enough, I wasn't tired enough to sleep this trip, so I listened to Pride and Prejudice (hence the title of this post :D ) and watched the cars go by. I should've counted how many Jaguars I saw - there were so many! And they are so pretty :D
When I got back to my room, I got on skype and talked with my mom and dad... and Ricky! Now I'm up to seeing him 2 of 6 skype dates, I'm so happy ;D
Two more days! I can't wait!
And now it's obnoxiously late, and I have class tomorrow.
Till then,
-Carly

So many sheep

This morning I had toast and cereal for breakfast. Talk about a traditional British breakfast :D I also have been having tea a lot, I think I like it. Once Brittney got up, we got showered and it was time to head out for our bike ride.
It was a beautiful day. We biked along a trail to a town caled Padstow - it was pretty much right on the ocean. The views were spectacular! For lunch, we had some Cornish pasties - evidently now it can only be called a Cornish pasty if it was made in Cornwall, so Devon just across the river is slightly ticked. I had a broccoli, cheddar and sweetcorn one - it was so good. After lunch, we had some clotted cream icecream - apparently that's also a rather Cornish thing to eat.
Then we got to walk down to the beach. Oh my goodness, it was so beautiful! The water was crystal clear and the beaches were rocky - like the good kind, not the annoying kind. We walked along there for a bit and for one section the sand was so soft that it was rather like waking through that really soft kind of snow. It was a workout.
I love beaches and water, so I walked in the water pretty much the entire time - I've now been in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean :D Brittney and I were wearing jeans, so we rolled them up and got a picture of our trendsetting look ;] It was pretty hot (literally...).
During the drive back, we drove along a moor and almost hit like three sheep - they were just hanging on the side of the road with the cows and crossing whenever they so desired. They were all over. Also during this time, Brittney commented on how my shoulders had gotten pink. I said that was normal, and it wasn't actually too bad.
Yeah, I definitely spoke too soon. I'm as red as a boiling lobster right now (ok, maybe not quite that bad... :] ). Oh well, it was so worth it.
Before getting going on dinner, we were just relaxing in the conservatory for a bit and talking. It was nice. Then while dinner was cooking, Mr and Mrs Harper took us out to a local pub. This pub has been there for centuries, and it was a pretty spiffy pub - very cabin feeling. I like it, I wish they had more places like that in America.
Dinner tonight was a vegetable cheesecake (like a quiche), potatoes and salad. It was delicious - I want to get the recipe for the cheesecake so I can try making it for myself.
It's so nice being in a house again, rather than a dorm, and it's so beautiful and relaxing out here - I don't want to go back to London yet! :]
But, I guess I have to. I think we're going to go for a picnic tomorrow and wander around the grounds of an old mill (we'd have to pay money to go inside and there's plenty to do outside).
Till then,
-Carlito

So many cows

Getting up at 6.30 definitely has its advantages - the construction hadn't started yet so it was blessedly quiet.
Brittney and I met up at 8 to head over to the coach station. When we booked the tickets, it said that we had to pick them up at the station, but we had no idea where. This is why I like getting places early.
Whd we were off! Unfortunately, the coach was really bloody cold, so that was annoying. And I wish I had more food in my kitchen - the only portable stuff I had was nutella and a bagel, so that's whati had for lunch (the other stuff is cereal, pasta, food like that).
On the drive, I saw so many pretty cars :] From what I saw when we drove through Bristol, I want to go back (I say that for a lot of the places I visit...). But yeah, that's petty much what I did for 6 hours - stare out the window and listen to Pride and Prejudice. I lobe that book :D
I didn't take as many pictures of the countryside today because I realised that I don't have any way to charge my camera. Ibreally hope it doesn't die on me.
After Exeter, we drove through some pretty sweet rain, but when we got to Plymouth it was a beautiful day. Brittney and I met Mrs Harper and walked around the city for a bit. It's a huge dock and port town, sonit was hit pretty bad during the Blitz. We saw the launching site for the Mayflower - that was pretty cool :D
Then we went to the Harpers' home. There's Mrs Harper, Mr Harper, and their two childen, Sophie and Philip. Sophie is vacationing this weekend, but Philip was around tonight. The house is adorable and it's got a wonderful view. When we walked in, there was bread baking and the house smelled amazing. We got some tea and chocolate banana bread (which was so good!) and sat out in the backyard to talk for a bit. The last students the Harpers hosted were Chinese, so they were interested to know about America. We talked about differences and our backgrounds and things like that. It's so beautiful, I love the rolling hills and I've got the bedroom that faces out that way :D Its so quiet too, so peaceful. Rather unlike London :]
After tea, we had some time before dinner would be ready, so Brittney and I worked on some homework for a little while. The homemade lasagna we had was so yummy, and the bread had finished so we got some of that too :] Very good dinner.
After dinner, we went up to Kit Hill. It's the tallest hill in the area, and the views were stunning - I loved it. We were walking along and suddenly there were some cows just chilling off to the side. It was pretty funny :]
Oh my gosh, Philip and Mr Harper have motorbikes! They were talking about it and Philip offered to showme and Brittney. Mr Harper said that we wouldn't be interested in that, but I raised my hand and said 'I would.' They're so cool! Philip's is red and Mr Harper's is black. I got to sit on his dad's - it was lighter - and Philip gave me a basic overview of how it worked. He turned it on, and when I twisted the throttle it sent adrenaline through my spine. I want a motorbike.
The village we're in is so cute, and small. I love it :D
Tomorrow we're going to take a bike ride around the area, I'm excited.
Till then,
-Carly B
ps - I'm typng this on my iPod, so sorry if some of it doesn't actually make sense. I can't proofread what I've typed...

You can't spell inspiration without procrastination.

Today was the last theatre class (we don't have class on Tuesday). My teacher said that I look like a Charlie's Angel today. I'm wearing my green one-shoulder shirt, belt, jeans, and my hair is in a ponytail. I said 'Thanks?' It wasn't the look I was going for, but they're all pretty, so I guess I'll take it as a compliment :]
In class, we talked about how there's a huge debate about who wrote Shakespeare's plays. The Oxfordians firmly believe that a man named Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford was the real author, not the man who lived in Stratford. I still say they're great, no matter who wrote them. After all, 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' :D
There are so many nice cars on Manresa Road. I've walked past a custom Range Rover, a Maseratti, two Bentleys (one convertable and one hard top), a jag, beamers and mini coopers all over and I saw a Rolls-Royce up close and in person. It was so pretty :D
Once back in my room, I worked on my paper and got my first draft finished. We've got till Tuesday, so I'll probably work on it on Monday after class.
Then it was time to see Richard III, which is basically about how Richard is really crazy and wants to be king, killing a ton of people on his way. Kevin Spacey was good as Richard. Gemma Jones - who played Madam Pomfrey - was also in it :D
I was sitting with two IES guys - Nathan and Michael - and our seats were pretty much terrible. Nathan and I were debating what we could trade people for their seats - we decided on David, another IES guy.
   'David, you're going with them so we can have their seats.'
   'It's not slavery, it's called indentured sercant today.'
We thought it was a good idea :D
Nicole and I are watching Kim Possible on youtube, I miss this show. Ron Stoppable is hilarious.
   'You can't spell inspiration without procrastination.'
   'Yes you can.'
   'Not the ation part!'
We were both laughing :D
Tomorrow I go to Cornwall with Brittney! I'm excited. Unfortunately, we're meeting to head out at 8 tomorrow, so I'm getting up at 6, and it's now 1.40... Well, they have wifi so I'll update from my ipod again the next few nights.
Till then,
-Carly

How to Legitimate Children in Georgia

Today's been a good day. Well, excepting the letters I have in my words with friends game with Kristin. Yesterday they were i, o, o, u, i, i, i and now they're i, o, o, i, i, i, o. Bloody hell. Kristin - sorry if I play some really short words for the next few turns...
Other than that madness, Living and Dying was pretty good (the IES Centre has wifi, so I usually play before or after class there). I got my quiz back - I got a 19.5/20! Huzzah! We talked about the Foundling Museum, and when I shared that my favourite part had been the Handel floor, Dr Atkinson told me that there's a Handel museum in Mayfair. I may need to check that out... :D
Then we talked about women in the late 1700s and how they could be treated rather poorly. Then we watched Persuasion :D I liked the version we saw too - Captain Wentworth (the hero) was cuter in this version than in the one I have ;] However, I like the way Wentworth gives Anne (the heroine) his note much better in the book and my version: Anne and Captain Harville (mutual friend) are talking about the constancy of men's v. women's hearts while another woman was in the room and Wentworth was writing something. Then Harville and Wentworth leave, but Wentworth forgot his gloves so he comes back in. With his back to the other woman, so she couldn't see, he moves a letter so Anne could see it and then he left. (This would prob make much more sense if I could explain it better...)
Like I said before, I'm a sucker for romance, so I love that part :D
But yes, it was a really nice class - especially for me ;]
One girl and I were talking before class - we both agreed that we miss certain food places in America: Panera and any sort of Mexican food were the two main ones, I know what I want to eat when we get home :]
As I made my way back to the res hall, the tube was crazy crowded. It thinned out through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square (huge tourist areas), but then these guys got on. There was room in the aisle down the car, but they just stood in the doorway, even as people were shoving past them to get to the empty space. They were talking rather loudly in their own language, and then one of them stood about four inches in front of me. He was swaying back and forth, holding onto the bar at the top, and he almost stepped on my toes a few times. I really really wanted to just give him a shove, but I managed to hold myself back. They finally sat down once some seats opened up (so chivalrous, offering the women the seats first... or not so much O.o ) and South Ken was just a few stops later.
The Lamborghini dealer got some new cars - one of them is golden. It's so sad walking past that every day.
In this vein, I decided that today was as good a day as any to stop by the Hummingbird Bakery that we walk past every day as well. The red velvet cupcake was delicious :D
Nicole and I went to see Harry Potter this afternoon. We got the Harrry Potter 3D glasses and were both really excited about them, though, as Nicole so eloquently put it, 'We look like blind mice.' I agreed, but we still like them :D
She liked it, so that was good. I definitely cried again. Rupert Grint is really hot.
I'm not going to say any more here, I don't want my mom to read the spoiler section again and know more stuff that she shouldn't until she sees it for herself ;P No reading my book or asking Ricky either ;]
There were some cool previews that weren't shown with the other one - Sherlock Holmes 2, Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Dark Knight Rises was at both, and I still think that the promo picture of Bane is creepy as all get out.
Then I got back and worked on my research paper. I was looking up what the law defined legitimacy to be, and I came across an eHow article: 'How to Legitimate Children in Georgia.' I gave a startled laugh when I saw that, but I didn't actually read it. Just seeing the title made me laugh :]
I got a good chunk written today, and tomorrow between class and Richard III I hope I can at least finish a first draft.
Till then,
-Carly B
ps - I put a picture of my new haircut up on facebook, so if you haven't seen it and still want to, it's there.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

-Yogi Berra

Today we started theatre class early and ended a late so we could talk about the play and have a revision session (revise = review). Our teacher gave us breakfast - I had forgotten so that was exciting :D It was a good class too. We had some good discussions about the Cherry Orchard, and I'm feeling a little better about my final now after the revising.
When I got on the tube at Holborn, it was a beautiful day. When I got off at South Ken, it was raining. And then, as I walked back to the res hall, it stared raining even harder. My shir got soaked on one side (bloody umbrella...) and a foot or so at the bottoms of the legs of my jeans were too. I changed my shirt to go get my hair cut, but I decided to just deal with the jeans. I could change once I was back in my room.
It was a cool hair salon. There were bright-coloured lights and all of the stations were decorated differently - mine was bubbles and the one next to me was jeweled UK colours with the flag at the top. When I sat down, the girl asked me if I wanted anything to drink so I got some water and read an article about Emma Watson in a magazine. I really like her - not just because she's Hermione either ;D She's very beautiful.
My haircut was free too :D It was free because I was basically there to help Jasmine practice. An instructor/more experienced person wandered between stations and helped lead the trainees. That was nice, because sometimes words weren't working so well for me, so she was able to help interpret what I wanted for Jasmine. I really like my hair :D I like it short, but I don't get my hair cut very often so it gets long again in between. My ponytail feels so funny right now ;] I'll get a picture tomorrow - I'm in my pyjamas already :]
The appointment was at 3, and I was done at 4.30. I figured Nicole would be wondering where I was (she's out of class at 4), but when I got back she wasn't here so I wound up wondering where she was :] Apparently she and another girl from her class took the bus home. She stopped dead in her tracks and her mouth dropped open when she saw my hair - it was rather comical :] She like it though, she wanted me to skype people so they could see. I figured y'all could wait till I got a picture up on facebook tomorrow ;]
Well, instead of working on my research paper this evening, I watched youtube videos. Heh, oops. Oh well, I have some questions I need to ask Dr Atkinson anyway, so I'll work on it tomorrow.
Nicole and I are going to see Harry Potter tomorrow after my class - I'm excited :D She is too - she hasn't seen it yet because her mom was here when it came out, so she couldn't go to the midnight showing.
And now my journal is completely filled. It was perfect too - I wrote my laste sentence on the last line :] I couldn't do that again if I tried. So, I get to start a new one tomorrow!
Till then,
-Carlito

A Series of Unfortunate Travelling Events

We met at the Guildhall library for Living and Dying today. It was an interedting trip. I got to Holborn just fine, only to discover that the Central line trains running in the direction I wanted to go were being held indefinitely - evidently there was something going on with a train up ahead. So, I go back off the platform and say 'Hey, if I take the Central line the other direction to another stop, I can get on the District or Circle line and that will take me to another stop close to the library.' (Thankfully I had the map of the area around the library with me - otherwise I have absolutely no idea what I would've done.) So I do that, but that train wound up getting held for a few minutes too. And one of the men near me was wearing way too much cologne - it was making me rather nauseous. Once I get to the stop where I need to switch, I got on the District train that isn't actually going where I need it to (the District line goes so many different places and branches off all over the place, it's rather confusing). I got off at the next stop to get on the Circle train - that would definitely go where I need to go. Those don't come very often though, so that's unfortunate - I waited another five minutes or so on that platform. Once I did get on the Circle train, I got to my stop just fine. Then, I got turned around when exiting the station, so I took a nice little walk by the Old Bailey and St Paul's when it should've just been a straight shot up one street - not anywhere near the Old Bailey.
It feels like one of those stories where the truth is even better than anything I could make up. The only way to make it any better would be if I had fallen off the train or something and caused all those delays O.o
Once I got to the Guildhall, Dr Atkinson was really understanding and she found me a book on social history that gave me some good info for my paper.
When I got back to my room (sans crazy tube rides, though the announcements said that the Central line was still delayed) I made myself focus on my theatre paper. I was seriously counting down the words, but I got it done! Now I guess we'll just see whether it's actually any good or not...
After I finished that, I celebrated by taking an adventure down King's Road. I don't usually go past the Big Easy (the opposite direction from the Waitrose and Waterstone's and Sloane Square) so it was fun to see what all was down there.
Unfortunately, the Chelsea Teapot was closed - I think it's a cupcake place and I wanted to try one. I guess I'll jsut have to try again another day.
I'm quickly running out of pages in the journal Nicole gave me (I like to tell stories :D ) so I stopped by a stationery store to get a new one. It's so pretty - I love the look and feel of a new notebook. They only get better as you write in them too :D
It started lightly raining when I walked out of the store, so I decided that I was done adventuring for the day and went back to my room. Evidently I wasn't entirely done, though, beacuse Nicole needed to go grocery shopping so we went back out again later. Hopefully we've got enough stuff to last us through the last few weeks now.
Mrs Harper (she says for me to call her Lesley, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to...) sent me and Brittney another email today. Apparently it's supposed to rain all weekend, so that's unfortunate. I still can't wait to go - I'm sure it's going to be a ton of fun :]
Ideally, tomorrow's going to be rather laid back because I'm going to work on my research paper most of the day. Ideally.
Till then,
-Carly

If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well enough to travel.

- Sir Vivian Fuchs. That quote was on one of the pages I wrote on today in my journal. I enjoyed it, I was laughing pretty good :D

You can definitely tell when it's 10.15 on a Sunday morning here - the church bells start ringing and go on for 15 minutes.
It was raining again today, so no adventures on King's Road for me. I think God is trying to tell me something... It was raining pretty good at times too - it's been a while since I've just sat and listened to the rain. It's relaxing :]
I wrote some more in my paper, but I am one of the world's worst procrastinators so I haven't finished it. Looks like I know what I'll be doing tomorrow O.o
But then I got to skype with my mom and dad. I know I say this every time, but I like talking to them and I can't wait till they join me out here :D Ricky wasn't there again, but he's at Sandblast - a church retreat - so I guess that's an acceptable excuse ;D
They told me that they went on a road trip to Indianapolis to get a car forme to use at school. It seemed a long way to go for a car, but apparently it's a dealer that my mom has worked with so they trust them. That seems like a good reason, especially since I'm going to be using the car a lot, so I'd like to have it work :]
The kitchen is almost gone - it's going to be weird when I go back, the family room will be different as well. Should be interesting to see :]
Normally when we talk on skype, we have to choose whether we want the audio or video aspect of the call. Well, today we actually had a call where both of them (mostly) worked the entire time! It was rather exciting.
Nicole and her mom came by this afternoon to drop off some of Nicole's things and pack up souveneirs for her mom to take home. I, on the other hand, may or may not wind up needing to ship a box home...
It was nice to meet her mom, though, she was cool.
Then it was time for the women's world cup final. The common rooms in this building alternate between study rooms and more lounge-type rooms. The one on my floor is a study room, so I went up a floor to find a tv to watch the match. I met some people who aren't in IES - they just got here and tomorrow they start a month-long programme on Shakespeare. I was able to help them with some things in the ares - like Cafe Nero is cheaper than Pret and the District and Circle lines aren't going to be operating on a section of track from next week till sometime in August. I felt proud of myself, and glad I could help a little :D
Oh my gosh, that match was so intense! I was watching with an Indian guy and an American girl, and we all got so drawn into it. It was crazy! Unfortunately the USA lost - in penalty kicks too. Blast.
Well, I had hoped to get to sleep earlier tonight, so much for that. Back to class tomorrow - the last full week. Where did all the time go??
Till then,
-Carly

A Day in the Life of a Hermit

Yesterday, when I didn't do anything, it was a beautiful day. Today, when I wanted to get out and walk around, it was grey and raining all day. Go figure.
I had an interesting dream last night - it was like a movie, only I saw it through the eyes of one character unless it cut to another. It was a daughter and her mom, but not actually me and my mom. It was really vivid though, I wrote it down this morning. I like to write down the ones I remember in the morning - it's fun to go back through and read them. They tend to be strange...
Goodness, I really don't like writing papers. With writing, once I get going I can write for days - just look at my stories, or even my journal that's running out of pages - but I almost always have the hardest times getting going with papers. I got a pretty decent start on my Living and Dying research paper - too bad that's not the one that's due on Tuesday... O.o
So, what did I do all day, you ask?
Well, I took a nap - my sleep schedule is so bloody messed up.
I made a new background for my computer - I finally have enough pictures of me with other people in London to be able to make a decent collage - one with more than only 2 or 3 pictures :D
I managed to find a time when it wasn't raining to get out to Waitrose - I needed more cereal for tomorrow's breakfast. I didn't really want to risk it and walk to the store I wanted to go look at, so I'll se what it's like tomorrow and try again then.
When getting ready to go to Waitrose, I discovered that my green button up shirt has some sort of grease spot on it, which is unfortunate - how do you get those out?
The majority of my day was reading Shakespeare on my bed because my back and stomach were hurting. I blame my sleep schedule - when I don't get enough sleep at my normal time, something starts hurting. It's usually my legs when I'm running, but I need new shoes to start running again.
Once Sirius (my laptop - you know you wish your computer had an awesome name like that :D ) had enough battery life, I brought him over to work on the papers.
And, yes, I do call my laptop by his name ;D
I'm actually kinda tired - even though I didn't do anything all day. Sometimes I don't get how my body works O.o Hopefully tomorrow I can get out and go walk around, as well as get a paper finished. Preferably the one due on Tuesday, but I'm not too picky at the moment :]
Till then,
-Carlito

Another bloody alcohol awareness thing? O.o

Well, instead of 1p I woke up at 10a - I pretty much always wake up sometime between 8 and 10 when I don't have any alarm. I decided that I wanted more than 4 hours of sleep, so I went back to sleep till 11.30. That time I was more awake, so I figured I might as well get up. I still stayed in my pjs all day (no reason not to) :D Nicole's mom came in yesterday and they both left for Paris today, so I've got the room to myself till Nicole returns sometime on Monday (she doesn't have class on Mondays or Wednesdays).
Today I got an email from Purdue saying I needed to do this Alcohol Edu thing. It's mostly for incoming freshman, but because I'm a club sport officer I needed to as well. It's really annoying, going through alcohol awareness theings all the bloody time. There's health classes and things all through middle school and high school and we had a thing through IES at the beginning of the program. Yes, yes, I get the point.
I know it's a good thing for a lot of people, but it annoys me because I tend to pride myself on my common sense - and that's what the IES and Purdue things were full of.
I got my theatre paper started, and I have no idea how I'm going to stretch that out into 1300 words. I guess we'll see. And I found some sources formy Living and Dying research paper. I think I may go wander around Kings Road tomorrow - just to get out of my room - and then really focus on my papers.
My back has been hurting lately - I blame these desk chairs. When I'm sitting in it, I have to sit up and stretch every 5 minutes, and my back pops almost every time I do. Quite annoying.
I think I'm going to migrate to my bed and read some Shakespeare. Another really short entry, but yesterday's (this morning's?) should make up for it. Tomorrow maybe I'll actually get outside... Sunshine and fresh air? Who needs that?
Till then,
-Carly B

It All Ends

OH MY GOODNESS! But more on that later.
I definitely woke up late today - oops. Thankfully Nicole and I both take fast showers so we still made it to class in plenty of time.
Today we talked about realism v naturalism in theatre class. Realism is when a play is realistic, Naturalism is when there is an attention paid to the details that makes it more poetic, almost a super-realism. We had a shorter class because we took the backstage tour later on. I got started on my paper - I'll work on it later today after I get some sleep.
The backstage tour was really neat. There are 3 auditoriums that make up the whole building of the National Theatre, so it's huge! There's 50-odd dressing rooms, plus these massive backstage areas and set building and props departments. Out front there's a book store and restaurants - it's like a mini city.
Then it was time to watch the Cherry Orchard. The play is set in Russia, so I was expecting them to have Russian accents, but I was glad they didn't - I tend to have a tough time interpreting what they're saying. The show was good - it was another uplifting but sad one. One of the main characters, Varya, looked really familiar to me, and it eventually clicked - she played Charlotte Lucas in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice! I was excited by that :D
Then Jory, Lanita and I were off to Leicester Aquare - super happy and turning giddy. I met up with Jasmine and KB (who I'd booked tickets with) and we talked as we waited to go inside. We're all huge Harry Potter nerds, so it was fun and we all were so bloody excited.
Then we got to go inside. We had assigned seats, and ours were in the fourth row - it was amazing to watch from there. We wanted the 3D glasses to be the Harry Potter glasses, but they weren't :[ We took a ton of pictures with IES people - Jasmine and I had wands so we were rather popular. The seats were animal print and really comfy - KB wanted to take hers home with her :]
There's a new Three Musketeers coming out that looks like it'll be really cool. Just a side note.
I won't go into the movie here so I don't give anything away - I'll just say that I loved it :D
And so, after the longest sustained adrenaline rush of my life, Harry Potter is done. Jasmine and I raised our wands and yelled 'Mischief Managed!' at the end, and then I started crying. I grew up with Harry Potter, and I can't help but feel like part of my childhood has died. I know there's my fanfiction and JKR's new Pottermore thing, but it's really weird to think that there's not going to be any more books or movies. It makes me sad.
When we got back to the res hall, Jasmine and I wanted to hang for a little while so I went to her room and we talked. I like Jasmine, we agreed that we need to hang out sometime.
And yeah, it;s 5.30a and the sun has risen - it's shining in my face. I'm going to sleep, maybe just till 1 this afternoon. Well, the people in central time still haven't seen the movie - ha! :D
Till then,
-Carly B

HARRY POTTER SPOILER ALERT!!
I know I said I wouldn't say anything, but I can't just finish this entry without talking about the movie, so if you don't want to know anything yet STOP READING NOW! Start reading again at tomorrow's (tonight's) post :D




OH MY GOODNESS! It was amazing! I want to see it again!
They changed a bunch of things, but I felt like they fit the movie well. For instance, Harry and Voldemort have this long, prolonged chase after Harry reveals that he's still alive - that doesn't happen in the book.
However, they did still have Mrs Weasley's 'Not my daughter, you bitch!' line. That was really well done - everyone cheered in the theatre :D They almost made it seem like Neville wouldn't kill Nagini - Ron and Hermione were trying, but then Neville comes swinging Gryffindor's Sword and it was so cool :D
Alan Rickman is a god. I really like him - and one of my favourite lines was amazing.
    'After all this time?'
    'Always.'
I love that line, and if they had cut it I might have had to kill someone.
Helena Bonham Carter was good too - she's one of my favourite actresses. It was fun to see her as Hermione impersonating Bellatrix - it was so different from how she normally is :]
God, I knew I was going to cry. When they showed the Weasleys crying over Fred's body, the tears started pooling. Then they cut to a shot of Remus and Tonks lying next to each other - their hands were reaching towards each other - and a few tears escaped. Then, as Harry was walking to his death, he was talking with his parents, Sirius and Remus. Lily's line 'You've been so brave' always tears at my heart, but then she said it and they just kept cutting to her face - the tears were flowing.
So, basically, the whole movie just teared out my heart, ripped it apart and started tap dancing on the pieces. I wouldn't have it any other way though :']
Oh, it was so cool to see the midnight release. Everyone was obviously fans, so the whole theatre was cheering for Neville killing Nagini, and when Ron and Hermione finally kiss. It was an amazing experience - and one I hope to remember forever.

Day at the Museum(s)

I actually wanted my blanket last night and didn't wake up dripping! It was exciting.
I didn't realise how light my hair had gotten (from being bleached when I dyed it red) - I was confused for a moment this morning, it looked like I was going blonde :] I liked the red streaks, maybe I'll do it again sometime.
Harry Potter comes out tomorrow night! And I'm going to see the midnight release, in London! Goodness, I'm so bloody excited! And I'm definitely wearing my Hufflepuff shirt tomorrow :D
The quiz in Living and Dying today wasn't too bad. I know I got one wrong - the Great Fire didn't start on 3 September, it started on 2 September at 3 in the morning (I knew there was a 3 in there somewhere...).
Then we went to the Foundling Museum. It was pretty cool to see. When mothers brought their babies in, they left tokens so they could reclaim their child if they could take care of it. Some of the tokens were on display, and some of them were rather interesting. I saw a fish, a ring and a miniature arm. We could also do the lottery thing that the mothers had to do to see if their baby would be admitted - I got the white ball, my baby was in! :D
Then I saw that Handel had been a Governor for the hospital - I went upstairs and saw the floor dedicated to him. It was really cool to see the original score for Messiah - I've played it often enough to be able to start singing the second violin part on cue and I was able to figure out where in the song the score was opened to :] Then I had the song stuck in my head until after lunch when I put my headphones in.
After I ate my lunch, I went to the British Museum. When looking online to make sure it would be open, I saw suggested plans for if you had one or three hours. I debated printing one off at the Centre, but decided to just wing it. I saw this cool room about the Enlightenment with things like astrolabes and a model of the Solar System, as well as an early mortgage written on a large brick. Next I came across a room of Native American things, based on the region of the tribe. That was really cool to see - I like learning about them. And then there was an Easter Island statue.
I wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, so I decided to get a map after all. I didn't really want to wander around all afternoon and not see it after all. When I looked, I saw that I was on the wrong side of the museum after all. Heh.
Then I made it to the room where the stone was, I didn't have to look long - there was a large group of people gathered around it. It was neat to see the Stone, but the people were kinda annoying so I moved on rather quickly.
When I did look around the room the stone was in, I got excited - it was full of ancient Egyptian sculptures and architecture and things. Ancient Egypt was always interesting to learn about for me, so I was probably smiling like a fool as I walked around. And I really don't care all that much :D
I was proud of myself - I remembered something before I read about it! I saw a large statue of a Pharoh and I remembered that his crown meant that he was leader of either Upper or Lower Egypt, I just couldn't rememebr which was which until I read the plaquard - the double crown was for Lower Egypt (which is actually to the North - it has to do with the fact that the Nile runs northwards) and the smooth singular crown was for Upper Egypt.
I looked at my map to see where I wanted to go next and saw Greece and Rome and said 'Ooh, I want to go there!'
I also really like learning about ancient Greece and Rome. Let's just say that I love history and leave it at that. So, basically, this is my perfect museum :D
The downstairs Greece rooms had sections of the Parthenon - those were really neat to look at. Then I went upstairs and found more Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome rooms! I really liked how many figurines there were of the Greek and Roman gods - I find ancient mythology absolutely fascinating. There were also a ton of heads of Roman emperors - Julius Caesar was missing half of his face and the bust of Agustus looked really creepy.
Next on my list was to go through all of the Europe rooms. First up was Medeival Europe, where my camera died. I decided to charge it up and return, rather than look at everything and not remember what I wanted pictures of later. So, I made my way back to my room and to upload my 120 pictures from the day :D Like I said, it's my perfect museum ;] I'm on part four of my Summer 2011 picture albums on facebook, I wonder how many I'll have total. I've still got 2 weeks of IES, a trip to Cornwall and my family joining me before I even get out of England. And then we're going to Scotland and Ireland. Good thing my memory card can hold 2500 pictures at a time :D
My next post will be after I've seen Harry Potter! Eep, I'm psyched!
Till then,
-Carly the Hufflepuff
(who is a particularly good FINDer)
(That's from A Very Potter Musical, don't worry if you don't get it.)
(Though, remember, killing people doesn't make them like you - it just makes them dead :D )

Love is like a Stormtrooper: it usually misses.

Well, the Betty Blue Eyes presentation wasn't too bad, it felt like I held my own. Now I just need to figure out what I can write a 1300 word paper on. The thing that interested me most was the amount of instruments in the pit and all the interesting ones - there was a violin, cello, clarinet, those normal ones and then there was a mandolin, euphonium (a mini-tuba sort of thing), 3 kinds of horn and an accordian. Not your typical instruments for a pit. Maybe I can do something with that, or maybe something about how the pit was on the stage instead of up front.
When I got back to the room, I decided to let myself have 2 hours to relax and do whatever until I needed to get working on things.
Since I don't get twitter sent to my phone while I'm here, I checked it today to see if there were any interesting ones. I saw one from the Death Star PR department - 'Love is like a Stormtrooper: it usually misses.' I was laughing pretty good at that one :D
Then my time was up and I started getting my thoughts together for my Living and Dying research paper. I have my plan outlined and some cases picked out to reference - I just need to do a bit more research and I can start writing. It's a good thing I don't have anything going on this weekend - I want to write my theatre paper and get most of my research paper written because the next weekend I'll be in Cornwall and then I'm done. The nice thing about having a research paper is that I won't have a final :D I will have one for the theatre class though.
Tonight the student assistants organised a trip to another bar, but I didn't go. I'm hoping to save some money and I have class tomorrow. Instead, I found The Road to El Dorado! I love that movie - it's a rather underrated movie in my opinion. I didn't realise this before, but Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer all worked on the music/soundtrack. It's like the Lion King crew just transferred straight over! Maybe that's why I like the songs so much... :D
Well, like I said, I have class tomorrow and I've got a quiz in that class, so I want to try and get more sleep than normal (we'll see how well that works...).
Till then,
-Carly
PS - thank God for auto draft saves. I went to publish this post and something went wrong, and when I went back it was gone. I was not going to be happy.
But it's all good now! :D

There's a pig in the house...

Day 30, I've been here for a month. It feels like we got here a week ago, yet at the same time it feels like it's been a year and a half. And I don't want to leave :D
Today we talked about Thomas Coram in Living Dying. He was the founder of the Foundling Hospital - which took in babies whose mothers couldn't care for them. When it first opened, there were so many mothers that wanted to bring their babies in that the hospital had to set up criteria - and even if they passed that the mother's had a 1 in 3 chance of a guaranteed spot. The children who grew up in the hospital considered it to be their family. It's sad that so many mothers couldn't care for their children, but at least they were given a pseudo-family and a better chance at survival.
After class, Jory and I watched A Private Function - the movie that Betty Blue Eyes is based off of. We both agreed that the musical was better. The movie was extremely dry and not nearly as engaging, and there wasn't as much character development. It seemed like most of the character development in the musical was through song, so the movie was missing that. There was also a really funny scene in the musical where the two main characters are telling the wife's mother that there's a pig in the house but it has to be a secret - in the musical it's a drawn out scene with a song and it's really funny but in the movie it was more serious and shorter.
However, it did have Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon), so I enjoyed that :]
When I got back to my room, I organised my notes and everything for Jory and me leading the discussion tomorrow. Goodness, I'm nervous. I guess if nothing else I'll just make everyone else look good...
Nicole had a pizza in the freezer so we made that for dinner. We both like the margherita pizza that she gets from the store, and it's cheaper than going out, so it's a win-win :D
Today was £5 pancake day at the Dutch Oven (every Monday is) so we went over there for some dessert. Those pancakes are deceptively filling. British pancakes are more like crepes - thin and large - so they don't look like you'd eat half and be ready to burst, but that's what happens. I got an apple cinnamon with ice cream one - it was so yummy! Nicole got a banana and chocolate one, and neither of us could eat the whole thing. Very good though :D
I needed to go grocery shopping, so I went to Waitrose after dessert. I got some J2O, but didn't realise until I got back that I hadn't gotten the apple mango one. Oh well, orange passion fruit was very good as well ;]
Unfortunately, something I didn't find was this tomato and feta and pasta (or couscous) and lettuce salad thing that I like. I first had it at Wimbledon and I found it in Dover as well for lunch, but I didn't see it in Waitrose. I hope the Tesco has it, or that I can find a recipe online - that would be a good thing to be able to make for myself next year.
I think I'll go to sleep now - it's 11.11 (make a wish!) and I need to be functional tomorrow.
Till then,
-Carlito

Keep Calm, It's Gonna Be Totally Awesome

I woke up at 10 again today, but Nicole slept till 12 so I guess I was positively early ;D When I asked her how late she stayed up last night, she responded 'Um, let's not talk about that...' :]
So, once we were both up and showered and ready, it was adventure time!
First up was King's Cross and Platform 9 3/4. We walked to platforms 9 and 10, but there's no barrier between them. The train tracks are in the middle of the two. We were both commenting on this and decided to ask a worker. So Nicole says 'I have the biggest tourist question ever...' and the guy responded 'No problem, you just follow that walkway to the outside of the station and it's on your left.' We thanked him and laughed all the way out there. I wondered how many times they get asked that... However I think it got mived since there's some construction going on in the station.
Then we went to the M&M's World store in Leicester Square (pronounced Lester). Goodness, that place was huge! It had 4 floors and about a thousand people wandering around inside, it was a madhouse. It was fun to look at the things they had, though, and Nicole and I both got bags of MMs. I got the UK mix, red white and blue. There was also Champions mix (FC Barcelona colours), and the colours for Manchester United and Chelsea FC. It was cool to look at them all.
After that we went to a big gift shop because Nicole wanted to get some presents for people, and I got a Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake sticker - it's on my computer now. I like it :D There are so many parodies of the Keep Calm posters, I saw a Keep Calm and Drink a Beer poster, but unfortunately they didn't make those in shirts. I wanted to get ones for my uncles ;]
Next up was Abbey Road. Nicole went there with her class, which was nice because otherwise I'd've had no idea how to get there... Even though I didn't have 3 other people to walk across the zebra with, it was still fun to go there and walk across. Nicole showed me where the studio is - it's under construction right now. She signed the wall when she went there with her class and I signed today. It was fun. I also got an Abbey Road mug from the Beatles Coffee Shop right next to the tube station - I'm excited to use it :D
When we were done there, it was about 5.30 so we came back to the res hall and had some dinner. We both had schoolwork to do, so we've been working on that since dinner. I did laundry today, so it's exciting to have a lot of clean outfits to choose from again :D
Back to class tomorrow - ugh. I want it to stay the weekend...
Till then,
-Carly B

'Will you walk a little faster?' said a whiting to a snail.

Well, since I stayed up till 2 last night, I suppose my sleeping in till 10 this morning isn't really an objective measure of how tired I was. Oh well, it was worth it - I love reading :D
My calves are sore, but I was pretty lazy today. All I did was read and watch a movie. I finished the book and decided to watch Alice in Wonderland. In Dover, I went to a Poundland to get a snack for the coach ride back and got some fun socks and a movie along with my snack.
On Netflix one day, the 1999 live action version of Alice in Wonderland came up as a suggestion and I went ahead and watched it. I really like this version too - it stays the closest to the books of the three versions I've seen. There's a song Gene Wilder sings in it that I really like too - I have it on my iPod now :] In fact, it just came on. It's called the Lobster Quadrille :]
I skyped with my mom and dad again today - and Ricky was there too! I was honoured - he hasn't been to any of the skype dates yet, and they happen every weekend ;] I've made a possible revision to my planned tattoo, still thinking about it - nothing yet, and my dad laughed while my mom just rolled her eyes. I'm grateful for the support ;D
Man, I really was rather useless today, so this entry is probably the shortest (excepting the first one, and that was before I left). Oh well, it was a good day - nice and relaxing and full of reading, which always makes a day better :]
I definitely need to do some laundry tomorrow - I didn't realise how low I was until I went to get changed today. Good thing I don't have anything planned - just school work and maybe going to get a ticket to see Wicked again :]
Till then,
-Carlito

I'm just a swim away from France!

Yeah, I definitely want to go back to Dover. I need more time (story of my vacationing life).
It looked like it was going to be a gross day when I left the B&B, so I decided that the bus would be the better option. However, when I got to the marina, I couldn't find the ticket office. I found the place where the boats sailed from, but they didn't sell the tickets there. I looked around for a bit and got really confused, then looked across the road and saw a sign saying 'Tickets Sold Here.' Score one for Dover, zero for Carly.
When I did get there, I was told that they were already out on a different tour and wouldn't get back until 2.45. Since my coach was set to depart at 3.05, I elected to just walk. The lady at the booth was really helpful - just walk to the castle, then past it and you're there.
I was walking along the beach, so I took a detour. Unfortunately, those beaches were almost entirely made up of rocks so it was rather painful to walk to the water and back up. It was worth it though - I've been in the English Channel! :D It felt amazing to just stand with my deet in the water too - even if the tide seemed to rise as I stood there...
Then I set off for the Cliffs. The castle sits on top of a hill so I walked up only to find that I was going the wrong way - I needed to walk farther along the seafront to another hill to get to the Cliffs. Dover: 2, Carly: 0.
So I set off on my corrected course and had to climb a steeper hill and more stairs. After the walk to the castle, I stopped a few times on the way to the Cliffs. When I did stop, I kept telling myself 'It's gonna be worth it, it's gonna be worth it...'
And it totally was. The views from the top were beautiful - I was so justified in wanting to go to Dover for them alone. It was also crazy windy, but that was only a slight deterrant, and then only when I was standing closer to the edge. Just being there was extremely relaxing, I wish I could've stayed longer, if only to try and use my umbrella to pull a Mary Poppins...
I decidedx to take a lemonade break in the visitors centre before returning to the coach. I also bought a postcard and the lady at the till complimented me on my shirt - I was wearing my Finding Nemo seagulls shirt, Mine Mine Mine! She said they could probably sell them there - there are so many seagulls in Dover :]
It was looking nasty on my way to the ticket office, but on my way to the Cliffs it got steadily better until it was an absolutely beautiful day as I looked out from the top. It wasn't clear enough to see France though.
I got to the coach station early so I sat in a park nearby and read. It was bright and sunny and when I looked up, I was looking right at the castle. It's such a cool looking castle - it's more of a fortress. I wish I could've gone inside.
On the way back I saw a building dated 1403 (about 350 years before America is even thinking of independence...) and we drove through Greenwich - I want to go back there sometime to see the Prime Meridian. Having stayed awake this time, I can see why it took us an hour to get out of Greater London yesterday - the traffic was pretty crazy!
Once I got back to my room, I sat down and didn't want to get back up ever again. I did quite a bit of walking today - I'm thinking I'm going to be fairly sore tomorrow. However, I'm really glad I've got good Clarks sandals - it could've been so much worse...
After unpacking I decided to be lazy and just read. It was great :D
I don't have to get up for anything tomorrow, (Huzzah!) so I'm curious to see how late I'll sleep, Just watch, I'll be up and ready to go even earlier than normal, just to be annoying...
Till then,
-Carly

I love the smell of sea water in the afternoon :D

It's a good thing I'm so used to packing on really short notice - I definitely did it his morning. It's only overnight so it wasn't too bad, but I didn't want to go back to my room so I threw a bag together along with my normal morning routine.
Walking to the Centre, Nicole and I saw a box that said Virgin Wine - like the virgin mobile Virgin. I said 'Virgin makes wine? Man, an airline, a cell phone and wine, what more could you want?' Nicole enjoyed that :D Then, in Dover, I saw a commercial for Virgin TV - now you really don't need anything else! Though for some reason I don't think their wine would be all that good...
Today we talked about the history of the American musical in theatre class. Most of the iconic musicals - Oklahoma, The Sound Of Music, Hair - came out of the 1940's-1960's. It was interesting to talk about. Culturally, Americans are better at acting a scene and breaking into song than British are - the director and casting director agreed :]
Today was the world premiere of the final Harry Potter movie. Some IES people were going to go down to try and see some people, but some crazy people have been camping out there in the rain without tents or anything for a week. I like Harry Potter as much as any of them, but I had better things to do with my life than sit in one spot for a week.
After class, I grabbed my lunch from a grocery store that sold things to go and went off to Victoria coach station, and I'm glad I gave myself a bit of extra time because I managed to get turned around on my way. I got there in plenty of time, though, so I was able to eat my lunch without rushng through it.
I think it may or may not have taken us an hour to get to the motorway from the coach station. I slept through about 3/4 of that hour, so I'm not entirely sure, but if so I hope we at least made a few stops - the traffic must have been crazy if not.
We stopped on Bluewater - I'm not sure where that is in correlation to London - and I saw the biggest Marks and Spencer I've seen yet. I saved one of my chocolate croissants from lunch and decided that would be a good time to eat it, and I really hope I can find some in West Lafayette - I'm sure I'm going to want them still when I'm back at school :]
I took a bunch more pictures of the countryside again on the drive out here -I really love it and I really really want to live out here some day.
So, I definitely didn't realise that there were 2 stops in Dover - one at the port and one at the town centre. I wanted to get off at the town centre - the B&B is just a 7 minute walk from there. Guess which one I got off at :D Yeah, definitely the wrong one - the port is on the opposite end of town from where I am now. Oh well, I got to see the channel. I'm so happy to be in a sea town again! The salty air, the seagulls (however loud or annoying) I love it! I can't wait to go back down to the ocean again tomorrow.
Oh my goodness, this Bed and Breakfast is adorable! It's painted blue on the outside and very homey inside. And Paula, the owner, is so sweet. She said that she's been super busy all day but she let me stay because, as a young student, she felt I'd feel more at home here than some of the more money-oriented places up the street. I'm so glad I found this place online. And she served me dinner - that was a pleasent surprise, I was expecting to have to find my own. She made ke some tea when I got in and said to help myself if I wanted more and she wasn't there. I was going to walk up to the White Cliffs tomorrow, but she suggested a tour and I'm starting to agree. It's only £8 too - I just can't decide between the bus or boat tour - I guess I'll just ask when I go down there tomorrow.
Well, breakfast is at 9 tomorrowso I'm going to finish my hot chocolate and brush my teeth so I can sleep.
Till then,
-Carly B

Even more naptime - I need to start getting to sleep earlier...

Bugger, I really didn't want to get up this morning, I was so tired.
I did manage it though, and Living and Dying was interesting. We talked about Medicines and Mortalities and doctors and surgeons. It's crazy to think how people could die back then just by breaking their leg. And doctors/surgeons were generally very ignorant - they gained most of their new knowledge through dissections and even then they didn't really know very much. John Hunter was a surgeon that was really interested in getting to know everything and experimenting with the human body. He paid a lot of money to resurrection men to get cadavers.
Then we went to the Hunterian museum. We got to see the skeleton of the Irish Giant, Charles Byrne. The man was 7' 7" - his skeleton was huge. I feel bad for him, though - he wanted to be buried at sea and instead John Hunter paid a lot of money to get his body.
It was cool to go to the museum, but some of the things preserved in jars made me a little squeamish - and I'm not usually squeamish. There were things like brains and tracheas and baby dolphins. Odd.
When I got back to the room, Nicole had a film screening for class so I read. I was really uncomfortable at my desk, so I shifted to my bed. I wasn't tired, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had a playlist going, so I got to see what songs I slept through :D However, I didn't need my alarm to wake up, so I was proud of myself :]
Tonight, we went to see Betty Blue Eyes. It was nice to see a musical - I like musicals :] Sometimes it was hard for me to understand what people were saying when mutiple people were talking at once, but overall I liked the show. At first, I didn't see a pit - it wasn't in front of the stage - and I said 'Oh, goodness, are they using all recorded music?' Ella, a girl in my class, was sitting next to me and she asked what I said. I told her that I didn't see a pit and she asked me if that was a bad thing. I said that it was for me - others might not care, but the musician in me really minded. Then they announced who the conductor would be and I felt better. I didn't see them for the first few scenes, but then one scene was at a dance and they were in the back - like we were in Grease (only they weren't 20 feet in the air...). Of course, it made me miss pit again...
It's now 12.45a. I don't really want to come back to my room before I go to the coach station, but I might have to because I still haven't packed or anything... I think the Bed and Breakfast I'm hoping to stay at has wi-fi, so if I'm there and they do have it I'll update from my ipod. (I apologise in advance for any typos...)
Till then,
-Carlito

'Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.'

-Frank Lloyd Wright. That quote was on a page of my journal that I wrote on for today, I enjoyed it :D
Well, I was going to go to bed early tonight, but then I didn't get dinner till 9p so that's why I'm typing this out at 12.30 in the morning O.o Oh well, I can sleep this weekend.
Today I needed to print some things, so I stayed at the Centre for a bit after theatre class. I printed some reviews for Betty Blue Eyes, the musical we're going to see with class tomorrow night, and my coach ticket for Dover. I'm super excited for Dover! I don't even know what I'm going to do, being a poor uni student won't help matters, but I can't wait to see the White Cliffs. I leave at 2.30 on Thursday!
My plan when I got back to my room was to switch back and forth between writing a story and doing my Living and Dying reading - when I got bored with one I'd switch and then once I was bored with that one I'd switch back.
Well, I started with the Living and Dying reading, got about halfway through and switched, then didn't switch back. Juliet, my character, just took over and I couldn't write fast enough to get everything down. My characters seem to do that to me at the most inopportune times, I think they plan it.
Then it was time for my CORE group Indian dinner. On the way there, I have never seen a Piccadilly line train so bloody crowded, and I travel on one at least twice a day for classes. It was crazy, good thing I'm not claustrophobic.
When we got to the restaurant, no one knew what they wanted so it took a while to order. I asked what they would recommend for a vegetarian that doesn't like spicy and got that - I can't remember what it was called - it was sweet and cinnamon-y and yummy. I don't think they were ready for quite so many of us - there were 2 groups combined to make a total of 23 people - they were still setting things up as we ordered (plates, napkins, tables, silverware, chairs, you know, things like that). It was fun to be there though - I don't eat Indian food very much at home and it's a huge deal here. Though we didn't get our food until 9 (we got there at 7.30) and they forgot mine at first, it was really good. While waiting for mine, I wanted something to eat so I took a bite of naan (I think that's how you spell it...). I was wondering what was inside it when Elyse told me 'Oh, I think there's meat in that.' I literally froze, I've been a vegetarian long enough that my body wouldn't be able to handle it if I ate meat and I'd get sick, but I decided that one bit wasn't going to kill me. Unfortunately, the bite had turned to glue - I forced myself to swallow it rather than spit it back out. I took one of the meatless ones and ate that, explaining why I'm a vegetarian and why I can't eat meat to some of the guys sitting near me. The naan was yummy, and it was good to dip in the sauce of my food.
After they cleared the dishes, our end of the table noticed that the others were getting shot glasses handed to them. Wondering if they ordered them or something, we saw a waiter coming towards us with a trayful - they were shots of Bailey's. We all drank them like a shot - mine hit the back of my throat kinda hard but it was good. I can see why people like to put it in their coffee or hot chocolate.
Tomorrow we're finally going to see a musical for theatre class - yay! I love musicals :D
Till then,
-Ayra

Celebrating American Independence with a Mexican drink in London

As my dad likes to say, Happy Quatro de Julio! :D I didn't bring any red, white and blue, but I got a shirt this weekend that had red flowers on a blueish-blackish and white striped background, so I wore that.
We went to the Guildhall Library again today in Living and Dying. Their internet was down, but they had the book copies of everything on the Old Bailey website that I've been using, so I got to look through those. I was afraid to toush the pages, they looked so fragile. Unfortunately, I had to look through everything to find a case that I could use but it was interesting to see some of the different cases too. I'm curious what the difference is between stealing, privately stealing and feloniously stealing - there were cases of each. It was also interesting to see how many death sentences were handed out for stealing - I'm guessing those ones stole a lot, including the wife/husband, family jewels and/or the curtains (seriously, some of the cases involved people stealing curtains, of all the things to steal).
Nicole and I were still tired after last weekend, so we both had a really lazy afternoon. I curled up in my bed with Me and Mr Darcy. Nicole was on her computer for a bit before she crawled into her bed as well (our desk chairs are rather uncomfortable, we both like our beds better). I didn't fall asleep, but when I got up to get some Pringles I saw that she was passed out :]
I finished the book this afternoon. It was cute, it was cheesy, it was predictable. However, I'm a complete sucker for romance in any and all forms so I enjoyed every word of it :D
Nicole and I decided to celebrate the Fourth by going to The Big Easy, a resturaunt down the street from where we live. They had piña coladas there! Oh my goodness, it was so delicious. It's been way too long since I've had one.
The resturaunt was decorated for the 4th, and a bunch of people were wearing USA shirts. We were laughing about it and compared it to the US celebrating Cinco de Mayo - it's another reason to drink and party :D
After dinner, Nicole and I wanted to bake a cake. We got the cake mix and ingredients, and then the fun began.
First, there are no measuring cups in our kitchen. We looked up a conversion that said 1/3 cup is 16 teaspoons and 1 cup is 48, but we only had a spoon the size of a tablespoon (ish). That was fun, to measure out 21 1/3 spoonfuls of water and 5 1/3 of oil. Thankfully, the eggs were easy enough to measure, even if the shells cracked weirdly and so pieces may or may not have gotten into the batter.
Then the packaging told us the temperature in degrees F, and our oven is measured in Celcius. We had to look up that conversion too. Good thing our room is next door to the kitchen.
Once we got that all figured out, we couldn't tell how big the pan was. I kinda guessed and threw it in the oven for about a half hour. We both agreed that it was going to be an interesting cake :] It would up being pretty good too. Go team! :D
We've been talking about things we're doing this week - it's a busy one for us. She's going to the Globe tomorrow with her Shakespeare class and then to Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday. I'm going to see a show with theatre class on Wednesday and then to Dover on Thursday and Friday. We agreed to sleep in till about noon on Sunday ;D
And now it's time for Carly to sleep, she's got class tomorrow morning.
Till then,
-The Force
(I'm trying to think of new ways to sign these posts, I'm running out of nicknames...)

So, my book count is up to 7 now... O.o

Of all the things to be sore this morning, my calves were hurting slightly. What??
Anyway, this morning we went to the Roman Baths. They were pretty and cool to see, though the water was kinda gross if you looked too closely. Nicole and I finished fairly quickly, so we went to get some food. We saw a Garfunkels (where we first tried the J2O and I had the amazing Margherita pizza) and decided to go there. Unfortunately, they weren't serving lunch yet, but the breakfasts we got were still very good :] We were going to try and go on a hop on hop off bus tour so we wouldn't have to walk up to the Royal Crescent (beautiful curved building/houses), but we didn't know how much it would be and it was crowded, so we just walked. It was a nice walk, even though it was almost entirely uphill O.o The Crescent was very beautiful - such a Jane Austen building :D
While walking back, Nicole and I found a Cancer Research UK store - all the proceeds from what they sell there go to cancer research. Unfortunately for my budget, they had a book section ;D I found 3 books for £8.50 - The Other Boleyn Girl, a vegetarian cookbook and another book. In the Jane Austen Centre, I saw this book called Me and Mr Darcy and I wanted to read it, so then I found it in the Cancer Research UK store! I was excited :] Nicole found a biography of a famous rower - so she was really excited too :D
Our roommate for the night (the room had 3 beds) was Jess, an intern. She had gotten these really cute shorts from a store called Republic yesterday, so Nicole and I wanted to go there so look around - we still had an hour and a half of free time. After 30 minutes of wandering around, we gave it up and went back to the hostel to sit and read our new books. (When I got back to my room in Chelsea - the one with internet access - I was curious so I looked up the store location. It was farther south than we ever walked. I guess at least we didn't walk right past it...)
I finished The Rivals and started Me and Mr Darcy. Oh my goodness, Emily (the main character) is so like me! In the third chapter, she's packing to go to England on a Jane Austen tour and her best friend is sitting and 'watching me trying to squeeze more books into my holdall. No matter that I'm only going for a week, I have to be prepared.' Story of my bloody life :D
Nadal and Djokovic played today - I really wanted to watch it. I saw the end of the first set but missed the rest of it because we were driving back from Bath. I heard that Nadal played rether poorly, though, so maybe it's a good thing Nicole didn't see it... :]
It's unfortunate that I get carsick when I try to read in a car, especially since I've got a 5 hour coach ride to Cornwall coming up in a few weeks... At least I was able to really fall asleep today instead of the in and out thing I was doing yesterday, that was nice.
Thankfully Nicole had bought a pizza last week and hadn't eaten it yet - we needed to go grocery shopping and didn't want to go out to get food right after getting back. After the pizza, we did go get groceries before our various skype dates. She's talking with Michael (best friend from school) andd I talked with Mom and Dad. Kristin called while I was talking with Mom and Dad so I tried to make it a group video chat. That kinda failed, so it was a group audio conversation instead. It was still really nice to talk with all of them :D
The mic on my mom and dad's laptop is rather tempermental, so sometimes it sould like they're going through a wormhole, a wormhole with good acoustics. It happened during the group conversation and suddenly I hear my Uncle Mark in the background saying that he wanted to speak whale too and my cousins joined in the whale-speak and quoting Finding Nemo. I love my family :D
Well, I have class tomorrow and I'm slightly sleep deprived, so I'm going to bed now.
God night, sleep tight, dream of bed bugs tonight! (from Lion King 1 1/2, if you haven't seen it)
Till then,
-Carly B

'He is the very pineapple of politeness!'

I'm going to write this as though I posted it yesterday because I'm using my journal as reference and I wrote in it last night, just so y'all know.
Today was an eventful day. Once we started driving to Stonehenge, I think pretty much everyone passed out. I dozed in and out - I think I woke up with every song change on my iPod. I debated turning it off at one point, but I fell back asleep before I could do anything about it.
Before we got to the motorway, we went through Richmond and passed the Three Kings Pub. The sign had a picture of King Henry VIII, King Charles I or II and Elvis Presely :D We also passed the old deer park, where kings would go hunt when there was still a castle in Richmond, and Brian (our tour guide) commented 'And there's an old deer (dear).' There was an old woman sitting in a wheelchair on the field :D
As we got closer to Stonehenge, Brian started talking about it. Historians pretty much know how it was set up, but when and why are the source of many theories. The one he told us that I liked was that it was used as a place to celebrate life and death. Katie came up with her own - she said that it was a large musical instrument and was later turned into a jello mould. Brian said she might have to do a bit of research before that one becomes widely accepted...
The Stonehenge Cafe sold rock cakes that Brian said were really good. Ivy and I split one - it was really good. We were both glad Hagrid didn't make them ;D
Then we had another drive to Salisbury. Brian told us that Old Sarum is the original location of Salisbury. In Old Sarum, the castle and cathedral were right next to each other and soldiers and clergymen didn't mix well. They had an archer shoot an arrow and that's where the new cathedral would be. Well, the arrow hit a deer and the deer made it another three miles before dying near a river, so that's where they planned the new Salisbury.
There was an Ordination going on, so we couldn't go in the chapel until 1 pm. Nicole and I had lunch at a picnic table outside the cathedral after walking through the markets - you can buy anything there! We saw books, clothes, cleaning supplies, jewelry, board games and food.
When Salisbury Cathedral was first built, it didn't have a steeple. They added one later, but it leaned 29 1/4 inches off centre because it was so heavy. Luckily, that was the extent of it. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful - an English Gothic building that only took 38 years to build.
Inside the chapel, we saw the grave of William Longspree. William was the illegitimate half-brother of Kings John and Richard Lionheart. He met the Countess of Salisbury and fell in love, so they got married and he became the Earl of Salisbury. When King John sealed the twelve copies of the Magna Carta, Longspree brought one to Salisbury. We saw it - talk about small handwriting...
Then he went off on the crusades and disappeared. Hugh de Burgh, one of King John's henchmen, wanted his son to marry the widowed Countess. She didn't want to, but he went ahead and arranged everything anyway.
One day, they were having an engagement dinner and Longspree walked in the doors in the middle of it. They changed it into a welcome home party, but Longspree died less than 24 hours later. They later discovered that it was through arsenic poisoning. Brian's moral of the story was not to trust de Burghs :]
On the way to Bath, Brian talked about how underneath the top layer of ground is a layer of chalk. People have made designs in hills by exposing that layer. And I saw so many Texacos! I haven't seen one since California and I saw a bunch off the motorways. I took a lot of pictures of the countryside - like a lot a lot. Nicole laughed at me, but I really loved the views.
Brian also talked about Bath. About ten thousand years ago, rain water seeped through the ground and was heated by the core and still bubbles up now at a constant rate. The first King of England, King Edgar, was crowned at Bath Abbey in 973 AD. Jane Tusten also lived here, though she really didn't like it. There was a Jane Austen Centre and I got an I <3 Darcy sticker :D I wish they sold Region 1 DVDs - I can watch Region 2 thing on my computer, but I like watching Austen movies on the big tv with my mom :D
Nicole really likes this store called Apricot, so we searched for one once she saw people with the bags. When we found it, we both found things to get - on sale too! I got a shirt and scarf for £7 :]
When we got back to the hostel, we still had 2 hours till we went to eat. I read The Rivals - it's by the same author as School for Scandal. There's a character named Mrs Malaprop (like malapropism...) and she had some of the funniest lines. One of them made me crack up - she was talking about someone and said 'He is the very pineapple of politeness!' I realised that she meant pinnacle, but I was still laughing - I think that was my favourite line.
When we got to the restaurant, it took bloody forever to eat - sitting down till dessert took 2 hours. The tomato basil soup appetizer was delicious though, so that made up for it.
After dinner, a bunch of us went to a pub. It was fun - I tried cider because I'd heard that Bath had some really good ciders. I definitely wasn't prepared for the carbonation - I haven't had a soda in a while so it was weird to drink. So many people got drunk. Dylan, one of the guys in IES, started the day off drunk so he was gone. Nicole, if she wasn't drunk, was definitely pretty tipsy. It's fun to be the sober one in a crowd of drunks :D
Also at the pub were two stag teams (bachelor parties). One was themed - they were all dressed up as geeks except the groom who was in a costume dress and blonde wig. They were all really nice and fun to talk to. I didn't see the other group as much - but I did see them take salt tequila lime shots (snort the salt, take the tequila shot then squirt a lime in your eye - I don't know if they have an official name or not) and there were some IES people talking with them all. It was really cool how everyone merged.
We got in at 12.30 ish and breakfast was at 8, so wrote in my journal and just crashed.
Well, I did promise a longer post this weekend ;] I'll write up today's entry later on, it's only 8.00 pm right now.
Till then,
-Carly

Happy Birthday, Grandmother! :D

Today's my Grandmother's birthday!
This is my 21st post and I had one before I left, so I've been here for 20 days. It feels like it's been longer.
For the past couple of posts, I've been saying that I didn't really do anything that day. Well, today I really didn't do anything.
I got to sleep in - yay! :] After that, I listened to music, wrote, read, played sudoku or any combination thereof. Usualy it was music with one of the other three :]
I got a pretty good start on my research paper outline. We need to have a finalised version of the outline and title by next Wednesday, so going to the library again on Monday should help. In addition to the school work, I also wrote more on various stories that are swimming around in my head. It can get kinda confusing when a Harry Potter character and a cop are trying to get my attention at the same time ;D
Around midafternoon, I decided to walk over to the bookstore (I didn't take any money - I was thinking ahead ;] ). I found about 10 books that I want to read - I really need to start saving up for a Kindle. Then I can get five books and not have to lug them home, like I'll have to with the three that I've gotten here already :]
I read School for Scandal today. I like the play, even though the production we saw was odd. I'm debating whether I want to read another of Sheridan's plays this weekend or King Richard III. Another Sheridan play is winning out - it's a much smaller book than the Shakespeare one to take on the trip.
Speaking of the trip, we're leaving at 7.30 tomorrow morning, and I still need to pack. That means that Monday is the 4th of July. It's kinda wierd, being in England and not having the fortnight of hype and sales on food for a picnic. There's a restaurant down the street that does BBQ - Nicole and I were thinking about going there for dinner.
Nadal is going to be playing Djokovic in the Wimbledon Final on Sunday. That's going to be a good match - a couple of the people going on the weekend trip have said that we're going to need to find a sports bar in Bath to watch it. I read an article saying that when Djokovic won he clinched a spot in the final match and the No. 1 seed for next year. Nicole and I are wondering how that works, but neither of us really know how seeding works so I guess we'll just leave it to the experts :]
Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night, if not I'll have two to put up on Sunday.
Till then,
-Carlito