Girona

Packing for an 8-day trip around Europe proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected, especially with Ryanair's strict size/weight limits for carry-ons. This was the first trip I had ever been on where overpacking simply wasn't an option, unless I wanted to pay £60 at the airport to check a bag. Needless to say I managed to fit everything into a suitcase that was half the size (and a third of the weight) of my original carry on. I was so proud of myself. The flights are incredibly cheap, but it's a very no-frills airline company -- your purse and camera and everything else has to fit in a small carry-on, and there aren't any reserved seats so you have to queue at the gate to get a good seat. As soon as we flew over the channel I knew I was going to like Spain -- I saw real, snow-capped mountains for the first time in months! Katie met me at the Barcelona-Girona airport, which was just fabulous seeing her wonderful self! However, getting some euros out of the ATM machine was not-so-fabulous; none of my cards would work for whatever reason. After a 9-minute, £15 phone call with my bank, I learned that Spain was off-limits because of a high traffic of fraud in the country, and I would have to wait until I got to France and Italy before I could have any money. Luckily I was able to keep a running tab with Katie while in Spain. Brilliant.

Aside from completely stressing out about that wee little euro problem, Girona was absolutely beautiful. It felt like a quaint little Spanish town. We took a bus from the airport to the Girona city center and dropped the luggage off at the hostel before exploring the city. There was a giant wall with great views that wrapped around the city according to the hostel receptionist, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! Spanish architecture is radically different from everything I had seen in England. Every balcony and terrace had a clothes line with laundry blowing in the breeze. Gorgeous wisteria and other vines grew up and down and around the buildings. The tall, skinny trees looked like they belonged in a Dr. Suess book, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The Girona Cathedral ended our wall walk, and we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner of margherita pizza (not alcoholic, just cheesy) before being chased inside by the looming storm front. A few Wii games and 20 minutes of free Internet later, we met our Australian roommate and headed to bed. 

London, part 2

Waking up at the crack of dawn on Sunday wasn't all that difficult for me, because I was really excited for the first boot sale of the season in Bromley. The boot sale, as it was explained to me, is kind of like a flea market, except vendors sell stuff out of their car's trunks (or "boots," as the name explains). Kez, Ryan, Chris, and I headed out shortly after 7:00 am, only to find out that the boot sale wasn't until Monday. I was thankful for the extra couple hours of sleep. After attending church with Ryan and Kez, we all came back to the house to decorate Easter eggs. One of the traditions Kez's family does is the egg race; you decorate hard-boiled eggs & roll them down a hill, and whoever's cracks last wins. We all hopped in the family car and drove to Dulwich park, where we rented banana bikes (or "recumbent" bikes for you proper folks) and rode them around for an hour. Dulwich didn't have any big hills for us to roll the eggs down, so we went to Greenwich park instead. The park was situated on top of a hill that had a beautiful view of the city of London. Bethany and I tied the egg race after about 5 attempts at rolling my egg down the hill and no signs of cracking. The prime meridian runs right through the middle of the Royal Observatory beside the park; I stood in the eastern and western hemispheres at the same time! The rest of the evening was pretty relaxing, filled with pizza, photo editing, and TV.

Waking up early for the boot sale Monday proved futile once again, as the entire field had been waterlogged and the sale was cancelled upon arrival. I took the train into London, determined to do some more sightseeing and exploring. My journey was a lot easier because all of the places I wanted to visit were right on the River Thames (so no getting lost this time!). I passed by the OXO Tower and went in one small art gallery there, disappointed by the fact that all the other galleries/shops were closed on holiday. Luckily the Tate Modern was still open, but unluckily everyone and their mom was queuing for tickets to the Damien Hirst exhibition that had just opened. Although I waited in line for over an hour, I was thankful that my ticket was free (thanks Rosie!). I had a few hours to kill before my time slot for the exhibit. Walking to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge was surprisingly pleasant despite the annoying mist/rain that hung around all day. As much as I wanted to go inside the Tower of London (as well as St. Paul's and Westminster and the London Eye), I couldn't bring myself to spend nearly £20 (or about $30) for entrance to each. I grabbed lunch at a KFC beside the Tower of London that looked a lot like a dungeon inside, got another random tourist to take my picture in front of Tower Bridge, and caught the tail end of a tour at Shakespeare's Globe Theater before making my way back to the Tate Modern. One of the main exhibitions was on Surrealism, which was really cool because I got to see a lot of the artists that I wrote about in a big art history research paper last year. The Damien Hirst exhibition was superb, and I definitely would have paid the full ticket price if I had to. Once I got back to Bromley, I played a game of Harry Potter Cluedo with Kez's folks (and somehow won!) and packed my things to head back to Sunderland in the morning.

My trip to London was perfect in every way, shape, and form. I saw more art and more street performers than my brain could handle, rode the tube, visited all the typical touristy sites, and stumbled upon a lot of cute little surprises in the process (like a mini-pirate ship hanging out in an alley, a prison-turned-museum, chocolate muffins at West Kennet Long Barrow, a completely graffiti-ed skate park, a massive inflatable purple cow at Magner's Pasture, etc). Being in London reminded me of why I wanted to open up an art gallery there someday. Part of me does wish everything with Kingston University would have worked out because I would have lived just a few minutes outside of the London; Sunderland isn't exactly a thriving hub for the arts (or a thriving hub for anything for that matter). Nevertheless, there is a reason for everything and I'm incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to study abroad in England. This weekend, I'll be leaving for an 8-day Eurotrip with Katie and I am beyond stoked for it! Packing won't be any fun, but I did manage to borrow a luggage scale to make sure my carry-on fits Ryanair's restrictions. Tomorrow will consist of doing laundry, printing off boarding passes, packing up, and any other last-minute things I can think of before we leave Saturday. This might be the last post for a while (unless I can find extended internet access while we're travelling, which is unlikely... but still keep a keen eye out for any updates that might follow). Hasta la vista, amigos -- next stop: Spain!

London, part 1

I hopped on a bus early Thursday morning, due to arrive at the Victoria Coach Station in London at 2:00 pm. My dad's friend Rosie met me at the station and she took me on a crash course of the art scene in the city. Most of our afternoon together was spent gallery-hopping on Cork Street, which literally was made up of gallery-after-gallery-after-gallery. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both old masters and contemporary artists all in one central location. Some of the contemporary galleries we visited really made me question what art was, but not in a good/philosophical way (Case and point: one of the "pieces" by an artist literally consisted of a Styrofoam that had been slightly torn / mashed. It was called "Ripped Cup" -- how appropriate -- and was selling for £1000. It's artists like that who, in my opinion, give art a bad name. Art is about expression and feeling and reacting to the environment around you, not just stacking some cups on top of each other or breaking a ceramic pot and calling it "art." It's no wonder why people don't care about the art world; I know I certainly could care less about that sort of stuff. Ugh. End rant. I'm getting off my soapbox now). After 4 hours of walking around (and lugging my suitcase with me) on top of a 6 hour bus ride, I was completely exhausted. Rosie gave me an old Oyster travel card which I topped up at the station and used to catch the train to Bromley, which is where Kez and her family live (and also where I would be staying the next 5 nights). I played a game called Go For Broke with Kez, Ryan, and Kez's brother Chris, and hopped in bed a little after midnight.

On Friday, I went with Kez and Ryan to Stonehenge. The countryside was absolutely beautiful, but being Easter weekend there was a TON of traffic. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant called Harvester (an endless salad bar, free refills, and a delicious chicken & chips dish -- soooo good) in Amesbury, then headed into Stonehenge. I did a presentation on the mysteries surrounding Stonehenge back in 9th or 10th grade, but the only thing I remember was the fact that, after loads of research, I still have no idea how those bluestones got there. Stonehenge was just as impressive and mysterious and cool as I remember it, but there's really only so many pictures you can take of some giant rocks in a circle.After Stonehenge we drove to a smaller, less popular henge a few miles away (henge meaning "a roughly circular or oval-shaped flat area enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork") called Woodhenge. Woodhenge had a similar setup to Stonehenge, and was set up around 2000 BC during the Bronze age for ceremonial use. We then drove a little ways away to a West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill, which are a Neolithic burial tomb and the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe, respectively. There was a group of hippies walking up to West Kennet Long Barrow just as we were leaving, armed with bongos and bandanas and blankets and the whole nine yards. We think they were going to do some sort of sunset ceremonial dance thing up at the burial site, but we didn't stick around for it. We then drove to see the largest stone circle in Europe: Avebury. The henge surrounded the entire city of Avebury, so we walked around and took in a gorgeous sunset before heading back home to Bromley.


I took a train into London on Saturday morning, bought a map, and spent the entire day sightseeing and exploring. Again, being Easter weekend there were heaps of people at all the popular tourist attractions; Buckinham Palace was certainly no different. Pushing through the mass of bodies, I spotted some of the Queen's guard patrolling the front entrance to the Palace. Walking through St. James' Park, I saw a lot of pigeons and ducks snatching up any food that people threw to them. There was a bagpipe player in Trafalgar Square, but he was really awful compared to the ones in Scotland. The National Gallery of London housed an impressive collection of art by Titian, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Cézanne, Monet, Rembrandt, and tons of other artists I learned all about in art history. Covent Garden was a popular site for street performers, as well as the Jubilee Market. Rosie had told me about the 200-something giant eggs painted by different artists, which I learned were being auctioned off to raise money for charities. In the British Museum, I found the Rosetta stone, Assyrian sculptures, and friezes from the Greek Parthenon. When I found out the British Museum also owned Hokusai's Great Wave in their collections, I had a mini-heart attack and got really excited, only to find that it wasn't on display at the moment. Super sad. I took the tube with Kez and Ryan to the London Eye/Parliament/Big Ben, and then stopped at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station before heading back to Bromley for a family fondue dinner with the Prices. One horribly lost game of British Trivial Pursuit later (sorry, Chris!), it was time for bed -- we had a boot sale in Bromley to go to in the morning!

And Breathe.

My life in the past week can be summed up in one word: hectic. I had a doctor's appointment Monday morning, and have been going non-stop since then. As always, professors here really seem to enjoy stacking due dates on top of each other, and loading us up with work right before the Easter holidays. Outside of classes, Monday - Wednesday was spent in the studio and the darkroom finishing up the portraiture project in photography, and Thursday was spent writing an entire assignment for financial reporting. What surprised me most was the lack of stress I had -- usually when I let things pile up at the last minute, I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But this time was different. Even though I had a huge workload ahead of me, I wasn't really worried about it at all. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I need only pass these classes for them to transfer back home, so I won't freak out if I don't get an A+ on my assignments.

I'm telling you, I feel like these English students have it sooo easy. First off, they only have a couple of assignments per class, so they don't have to worry about weekly assessments and projects to turn in. While I'm in class, I'm taking notes and writing down as much as I can -- I glance around and notice that 90% of the other students are just sitting there, eyes slightly glazed over, and only picking up a pencil to sign their name on the register for attendance. Professors put all of their lecture slides online, with notes already included (some of them even print them off to give to every student in the class). So if you have a really awful professor (as is the case with 2/3 of my classes), you don't have to show up at all. Simply check online for the assignment due dates and powerpoint slides, and never step foot in the classroom. Pop quizzes simply don't exist. The English schooling system sets it up so that students only go to uni for three years, as opposed to our four-year colleges at home. And, to top it all off, the first year doesn't even matter; only the grades from the last two years of uni will go on their CV as I understand it. It'll definitely be interesting getting re-adjusted once I get back to App.

As for now, it is officially spring break and I am loving it! I've done absolutely nothing for the past few days and it's SO nice to just be able to breathe. We have a three-week Easter holiday, which I can already tell will definitely spoil me. I still have one more assignment to get done before Thursday, but again I'm not worried about it at all. The rest of my break will be filled with lots of traveling and taking pictures: I'm headed down to London for 5 days later this week, and then I'm meeting up with Katie to do a quick Euro-trip the second half of the break. We'll be hitting up Barcelona/Girona in Spain, Paris in France, and Pisa/Rome in Italy in an 8-day span. I'M SO EXCITED! The only thing that won't be fun is fitting 8 days worth of stuff into a carry-on that's only slightly larger than my bookbag. We'll make it work though! I am so so blessed to be here, and I am so looking forward to the rest of my travels. Thursday can't get here soon enough :)

The Scottish Highlands

Now for Sunday funday! We hopped on the bus at 8 and set off for Loch Ness. The fog hadn't really lifted since the day before, so I was really worried that the entire day would be a bust. The first two hours were as expected, and because the fog was so heavy we couldn't see Doune Castle as we passed it. I was really disappointed, because this is where most of the castle scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed. Sad day. Our first stop was at Trossachs Woolen Mill in Stirling, where we met Hamish the famous Highland cow. The next stop was at Black Mount Estate, which reminded me of an overlook at the Blue Ridge Parkway, sans the Blue Ridge Mountains and add a bagpipe player and some fog. As we drove farther north, the fog began to clear and we were granted with beautiful weather for the rest of the day. Things were looking up.

The Lowlands make up the bottom 1/3 of Scotland, but about 90% of the population live in a little strip in the narrowest part of the Lowlands. The other 2/3 of Scotland are the Higlands, which boasts some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. While we drove through the Highlands and took in the deserted mountain scenery, our tour guide Nic played some traditional Gaelic music and told us some stories of the battles between old Scottish clans that used to live there. Scotland has a really dark history and it was really interesting to hear all about. We passed quite a few lochs (lakes) and snow-capped mountains (yay snow!) until finally arriving at Loch Ness.

For those of you who don't believe in a monster that lives in a lake in the middle of Scotland, let me give you a few reasons to open your mind: 1) The lake is big. Loch Ness is over 23 miles long, and at some points over 900 feet deep. If you were to drain Loch Ness and fill it with all the water in all the lakes in England AND Wales combined, it wouldn't even fill half of the basin. This is a huge loch we're talking about. It also has a very shallow euphotic depth, meaning that light doesn't penetrate deeper than 10 or 15 meters below the surface. 2) The fish are big. The boat we rode on had a sonar hooked up so that we could see all the fishies swimming around beneath us, as well as how deep it was. Massive eels and pike have been caught before. Sonar images show that there are some seriously huge animals swimming around down there. 3) The ocean is big. Loch Ness feeds into the North Sea, so fish are free to swim in and out of the Loch to feed/mate as they see fit. This family of creatures that Nessie belongs to could swim anywhere they wanted in the North Sea, and simply come to Loch Ness when they got hungry (yes, Nessie does have a family -- you don't think she'd still be alive and kicking after the first sighting in the 6th century, do you? It would make more sense for it to be a family of creatures that have been lasting from generation to generation). Unfortunately there were no Nessie sightings while were on our hour boat tour, but I'm still convinced that there's some sort of giant underwater creature who lives in Loch Ness :)

The ride back to Edinburgh was relaxing. The scenery was just as beautiful as the sweeping mountains of the Highlands, but it just wasn't as dramatic. We stopped at the Commando Memorial and saw the biggest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis standing at 4,400 feet tall. It was pretty, but I laughed at the fact that I go to school at 3,333 feet elevation back home -- what's another 1,000 feet, especially when I've skied on the 14,000 feet-tall Grand Tetons in Wyoming? However I do consider myself lucky, because Nic told us that you can only see the peak 50 days out of the year due to low clouds, so we picked a really good day. The Scottish Highlands are unbelievably beautiful, and I would love to live out in the middle of nowhere like that. Being surrounded by such beautiful natural scenery definitely made me miss Boone.

We drove past the Dalwhinnie whiskey distillery, as well as the engineering marvel Forth Bridge. Our last stop was in a little town called Pitlochry, where we grabbed some chips (fries) to hold us over until we arrived back in Edinburgh. It was a tiny little town that had a lot of cute shops, but unfortunately none of them were open at 7 pm on a Sunday evening. One of the stores was a year-round Christmas shop that was counting down the days until Christmas (276 as of yesterday), which reminded me so much of my mom. We got back on the road and arrived in Edinburgh right at 8:00. Our bus back home didn't leave until 10:30, so Lily, Ash, and I got dinner at a TGI Fridays we found (definitely didn't know Fridays was an international chain). I must have slept a good bit on the 3-hour bus ride back to Newcastle because I don't remember much of it. A taxi from Newcastle finally put us back in Sunderland at 1:30 am. I unpacked my suitcase and crashed on my bed, while visions of bagpipes and mountains danced in my head. I officially love Scotland.

Edinburgh

Last week was uneventful for the most part, simply filled with shooting/developing/printing some portraits for my photography project that's due later this week. I also got all caught up on America's Next Top Model: British Invasion. This cycle, half of the girls are from the states and half of them are from the UK. I thing it's super cool and super ironic that I'm over here while it's on! Other than that there really wasn't anything too exciting during the week. This past weekend is definitely worth writing down though: my trip to Scotland.

I caught the metro to Newcastle, then the bus to Edinburgh after my workshop on Friday. Lily and Ash also had Friday classes, so we all rode up there together. The bus ride was long and slightly annoying, because there was a guy sitting beside me who insisted on telling me all about the different species of squirrels in Scotland, as well as the feeding habits of vultures and other useless bits of info (ex: the excrement from pigeons actually has a high enough acid concentration to burn through your clothes if you don't wash them soon). Needless to say, I was very thankful once we arrived in Edinburgh. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and grabbed dinner at an American-style pub called The Filling Station. By this time it was pretty late and we were all tired from the ride up there, so we took it easy Friday night in the hostel.

Saturday was spent exploring the city. We met up with the rest of our flatmates who were staying in a hostel down the street, and set off with absolutely no plan other than to explore. With a map in hand, we made our way up a big hill to the Edinburgh Castle, where we discovered an unattractive admission rate of £14. Although some other folks had recommended checking it out, none of our wallets felt like dishing out the quid just to go inside, so we moved on. In case you've never been to Scotland before, it really is filled with kilt wearers and bagpipe players. Everywhere. Edinburgh is a very touristy town so it would make sense that it was stereotypically Scottish, but I saw tons of other bagpipe players well outside of the city. These people take their heritage very seriously.

After checking out a few souvenir shops along the main road, we grabbed a cuppa at The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the majority of her later Harry Potter books. I had talked to my art professors at App before I left and they all said that Edinburgh had a really great art scene, so I drug a few of my friends to the National Gallery. It housed a very impressive collection of Renaissance work, but I really don't care for the Renaissance that much. Of course I respect the talent of the artists, but all the paintings just look the same to me. I was more interested in the tiny Impressionist collection, which had a few paintings by Monet and Seurat. I hated how quiet the entire place was though -- my phone went off for about half a ring, and before I knew it one of the curators was headed towards me telling me to turn it off. No one spoke above a whisper, and it just wasn't a welcoming environment at all. Exit stage right.

There had been a heavy blanket of fog over the city since the morning, and it was just getting thicker and thicker as the hours passed. Some more walking led us to St. John's Episcopal Church. There wasn't anything too fancy about this church, but the fog made the graveyard surrounding the church particularly eerie. We then checked out the National Museum of Scotland, which was exponentially better than the Gallery in my opinion. The layout of the museum was a little confusing and maze-like, but I thought that it made exploring the museum even more enjoyable. There was an entire section dedicated to the evolution of communication, from light signals to Morse code to rotary phones and every other type of phone you could imagine. Another display case had a lot of models of old Scottish ships, so I snapped some photos to send to my padre (attn padre: maybe you can find a Bryce model of one somewhere, and then make another ocean scene based off old Scotland!). There were tons and tons of other interactive exhibitions and it was just a really fun place to be in. I could have easily spent the entire day there.

For dinner we ate at Frankenstein's, which was by far the coolest pub I've visited since I've been here. At the stroke of six oclock, all the lights went down and thunder/maniacal laughter filled the pub, and a mechanized Frankenstein emerged out of the wall lying down on a table. He sat up, looked around for a bit and, laid back down, and went back to his hole in the wall as the lights went back up. A Harry Potter tour after dinner wrapped up the evening. Because I'm not a Harry Potter fanatic, I had no idea that JK Rowling had written the entire series in Edinburgh. The tour guide took us to a few places of inspiration for Rowling, including the gravesite of Thomas Riddell and William McGonagall, as well as where Rowling's handprints in the cement marked her receipt of the Edinburgh Award in 2008. We knew we'd have to wake up super early for our bus tour the next morning (plus we lost an hour of sleep due to daylight saving's time), so we tried to get in bed at a decent hour.

Steven!!

Time is passing by so quickly. Now that I've gotten in the swing of classes, the days and weeks are flying by; this past week was no different. Words cannot express how happy I was to see Steven at the airport on Saturday evening. Although there were tons of other people waiting with me at the arrivals gate, I couldn't hold back the tears of bliss that kept streaming down my face as I felt the warmth, familiarity, and comfort of his embrace. We grabbed some coffee from Starbucks at the airport, he called home to let his family know he arrived safely, and we hopped on the metro back to Sunderland. And from that point, time was put on fast-forward until he flew back home.

On Sunday, we explored the city and did a LOT of walking. Throughout the entire week, the weather was near-perfect; it was by far the best weather we've had since I got here. Sunderland must have known Steven was coming, because it was in the mid 50s and 60s all week (thanks, God!). We went to the beach and Steven saw the North Sea for the first time. Swimming east for 400 miles would have put us in Denmark, or swimming northeast we'd land in Norway. We stayed in Sunderland, haha. There were a lot of people out on the beach enjoying the nice weather, and there was a cute little arcade where we found a couple 2-pence pieces in the payout slots of some machines. The jetty to was also open to the public so we were able to walk to the Roker Lighthouse and see it up close. By this time we had worked up a powerful appetite and we grabbed some lunch (or "dinner," as they call it) at Gregg's, which is a sandwich shop that practically has a store on every street corner. After approximately 6 miles of walking around town, I had a blister on my foot and Steven's back was hurting, so we went home and relaxed for a bit. For dinner (or "tea"), we grabbed some Chinese take away from Tak Yee down the street. Steven had transferred a lot of movies and shows to his laptop before he left, so we watched the second Jurassic Park movie before hitting the hay.

On Monday, we slept late and took it easy while our bodies healed up (it sounds like we're really lazy, but all that walking really takes it out of you!). I had bought a "mum's day" card for my madre (they celebrate Mother's Day on March 18) and Steven had just bought a birthday card for his mom, so we picked up some stamps from the office in town. The Museum and Winter Gardens were right down the street. The winter gardens are basically a giant greenhouse/rainforest thing in the middle of the city, and the museum highlighted a lot of local Sunderland history. We had a proper English tea at a pub called Yates, which consisted of fish and chips for Steven, and scampi and chips for myself.

Much to my surprise, Steven accompanied me to my classes on Tuesday (and by accompany, I mean hang out in the library for three hours while I sat through a couple lectures). Because we started portraiture in my photo class, I set up some flash units in the studio had Steven model for me (and by model, I mean sit there for two hours while I scratched my head and pushed some buttons on the flash units... he is SUCH a patient and loving boyfriend, I couldn't ask for more!). By the end of the photo shoot, I was frustrated and starting to get really hungry, so we had some burgers at the Cooper Rose, which is a pub in town. After watching some Mythbusters we went to sleep.

We woke up at a decent hour on Wednesday, so I cooked breakfast and we headed to Newcastle for the day. Because I had been to Newcastle once before, I had a pretty good idea of where to go and what to do in the city. We walked around the huuuuge shopping center Eldon Square at first, then we checked out St. Nicholas Cathedral. I had never been inside the Cathedral before, and this was the first one I had been in that allowed photography, so I was a happy camper. I then took Steven to the Castle Keep, where we were blessed with a great view and more great weather at the very top. We then walked across one of the many bridges that crosses the River Tyne to Gateshead, walked right back, and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Pizza Hut. Our legs were getting tired again by this point; it felt great to rest them on the metro ride back home. We had a date night at the Italian restaurant Roma (dressing up and eating by candlelight and all that cute stuff!), then came home and watched Jumper before calling it a night.

I developed the film from Tuesday first thing on Thursday, and it came out a lot better than I expected! Steven came with me to Ashburne again, so after class we caught the bus and hung out at St. Peters for a few hours until my next class. I cooked spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, but I was really looking forward to that night: we had a triple-date planned to go bowling with a couple girls and their boyfriends from my photo class. With an average score of 80 or 90 per game, I don't consider myself a good bowler by any means. But somehow Steven and I managed to beat all of them (they joked that we weren't allowed to go bowling with them ever again, and the next time they invited us anywhere it would be to play an English game like cricket, haha). After the evening's festivities, we came back home, and Steven packed up his bags to catch a flight back home the next morning.

Friday came all too soon. I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to go to the airport, I didn't want to see him go. But of course it had to happen, because Steven's spring break was drawing to a close and he had to go back to school. While I thought I had set my alarm early enough to give us plenty of time to get to the airport, we ended up being pretty rushed to check in, drop off his luggage, get his boarding passes, and get through security in time to board the plane. We said our goodbyes and I watched as he got lost in the crowd at security. I think the goodbyes were a little bit easier this time, but that could have been because it was so rushed. It didn't really hit me until the metro ride home that I wouldn't see him again for months. But if time keeps picking up speed and passing by like it has been, summer will be here soon enough and I'll be home.

- I realize why bikers wear leather: it's sooo windproof! It's been incredibly windy lately, but my leather jacket has held its own and kept me warm.
- Bacon here looks and tastes more like country ham, and the closet bacon-equivalent I've found are called rashers.

- Because English people spell some words differently, I have to change the language in Microsoft Word to British English when I write papers so that words like "labour" and "organisation" don't pop up with red squiggles.
- Orange juice is made out of oranges and apple juice is made out of apples; it would be natural to think that squash juice is made out of squashes. In reality, squash juice is actually a term for any fruit-flavored juice. I can't tell you how confused I was when I found this out.