Just thought I would tell you a little bit about what I have been up to lately...
Tuesday, we went to the beach with a big group of people and just hung out and drank some cider. It is so pretty to sit on the beach at night, especially when the stars are all out.
Wednesday, I met Ara and Madison at the beach to lay out because it was sunny and warm out! :) That was fun, and I love how late the sun stays out here! Then, Chelsea met us for dinner at Nando's- I can't get enough of that place! After dinner, we were all pretty tired so we just came back and hung out in our rooms.
Thursday, we went out for our friends birthday, which was fun, as always going out in Brighton.
Friday, I didn't do too much. Just hung out with Ara and Madison, then we booked our trip to Liverpool!! It is me, Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, and Madison all going. We leave Friday night on a train and get to Liverpool at 7 something in the morning Saturday. Then we spend all day exploring and walking around the town and leave at 7 something that night and get back to Brighton around midnight. I am so excited!! Get ready for pictures, because I am sure I will be taking a lot!! A little while after we booked Liverpool, Ara, Jen, and I headed to the beach to hang out. On the way there, we got subway and cider. Perfect combo! :) It was fun, but really cold. I was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and my North Face jacket over it and was still a little cold! It is so weird wearing that many layers at the end of May! I don't like it at all and am definitely ready for a hot St. Louis summer!!
Besides going to Liverpool next Friday, I also have my last exam at noon that day. It is weird not having any school work for almost 2 weeks, then having this random exam. I don't like it at all and am ready to be back in the American school system! After I take that exam, I am home free!
I leave here in just 16 more days... It is weird that is it that close to me coming home. I am both excited and a little sad to be leaving as I have said before.
This week is supposed to be nice, so hopefully I will get lots more beach time in, and maybe get a tan? In England! Haha, probably not...
xxxx
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
24 days left in Brighton!
So I have just a little over 3 weeks left and I will just take a minute to update you on what I have been doing since we got back from our Stratford-upon-Avon trip- which isn't much...
My mom is in Hawaii right now and I am super jealous! She texts me every day telling me about going to the beach, snorkeling, and how beautiful everything is. She gets back to St. Louis on Sunday and I am looking forward to skyping her. I haven't talked to her except for texting and a couple e-mails in two weeks and I miss her!! I know she is having a blast, and is lucky to have such awesome friends to take her on this trip! I am sure she is getting tan, and I am a little envious...
The past 3 weeks have gone by pretty fast! I have mostly been working on all of my papers. I have 6 to start with and only have 2 left! I am done with classes now- this week was my last week, which was very exciting! It is so weird still having school stuff to do when all of you guys back in America have been done with school. I really don't like having all this work to do at the end of the semester. It is stressful and no fun. I would honesty rather study for finals back home then write all these papers here. I am almost done, though! I turn my last paper in on Wednesday, have an online exam to take some time within this next week, and my last exam on June 3rd! I cannot wait for that day because then all the pressure will be off and I can just focus on having fun before we all go home!
Thinking about going home is so bittersweet. I am super homesick and really miss all of my friends and family, but I love Brighton, and the people I have met here are awesome!! Lindsay, Chelsea and I are already talking about me going to California to see my Uncle Johnny and seeing them too! Last night we got dinner and some drinks and just went and sat on the beach and all talked. I am going to miss being on the coast! But, I wont miss how cold it is for sure. I miss the hot St. Louis summer!!
Talking about my Uncle John in California makes me think of when I went to London and had dinner with him and since that was 2 weeks ago, I haven't talked about it yet! I knew that at some point in May, my Uncle John (my dad's brother who was born exactly 2 years later) was going to be in London and we had talked about possibly having dinner. It worked out that he had a night in London that we could go out to dinner before he went back to LA the next day. He told me I could bring a friend to keep me company on the train ride, so I brought Lindsay and Chelsea and we met him at the train station on Sunday, May 8th, and went to this Italian restaurant someone at his hotel suggested. It ended up being a famous British chefs place, Jamie Oliver! Uncle John insisted that we get everything and anything that we wanted so we all started off with drinks, then appetizers, main meals, and then dessert! We were all so full by the time we left, it was ridiculous! The food was delicious and definitely one of my favorite places I have been to since we got here! We had a nice, long dinner. We all talked about why we came here to study abroad and what we were studying back home and why. Then Uncle John was telling us all of the stories from his job. It was so fascinating! He has an amazing job and gets to see so much of the world! I really wish he lived closer and I got to see him more because it was so much fun hanging out with him for the night!
After dinner, we walked around London for a little while. It was getting late and we had a 2 hour train ride back home (it was longer than usual because it stopped at so many different places), so we went home after that. It was so nice for him to take us out to dinner and we all had an amazing night!!!! It felt so good to see family while being over here, and I was glad we were able to work out getting together. My dad was supposed to come over with him and go to dinner with me, and he was definitely there in spirit. I was so mad at myself for not getting a picture of Uncle John and I- I completely forgot until we were on the train! :( But, I will always have the memory!
The next week I will be finishing up my last papers and taking a test, and then I will be done! Except for my random test on June 3rd, but whatever. I will update you all some time in the next week or two. We have talked about possibly going to Oxford and Beachy Head, so I will let you know what great things we do before we leave. I can't believe it is already to that point! Only 24 days until I am back in America with all of you! I know it will fly by and I am going to enjoy the time I have left! Love and miss you all!!
xxx
My mom is in Hawaii right now and I am super jealous! She texts me every day telling me about going to the beach, snorkeling, and how beautiful everything is. She gets back to St. Louis on Sunday and I am looking forward to skyping her. I haven't talked to her except for texting and a couple e-mails in two weeks and I miss her!! I know she is having a blast, and is lucky to have such awesome friends to take her on this trip! I am sure she is getting tan, and I am a little envious...
The past 3 weeks have gone by pretty fast! I have mostly been working on all of my papers. I have 6 to start with and only have 2 left! I am done with classes now- this week was my last week, which was very exciting! It is so weird still having school stuff to do when all of you guys back in America have been done with school. I really don't like having all this work to do at the end of the semester. It is stressful and no fun. I would honesty rather study for finals back home then write all these papers here. I am almost done, though! I turn my last paper in on Wednesday, have an online exam to take some time within this next week, and my last exam on June 3rd! I cannot wait for that day because then all the pressure will be off and I can just focus on having fun before we all go home!
Thinking about going home is so bittersweet. I am super homesick and really miss all of my friends and family, but I love Brighton, and the people I have met here are awesome!! Lindsay, Chelsea and I are already talking about me going to California to see my Uncle Johnny and seeing them too! Last night we got dinner and some drinks and just went and sat on the beach and all talked. I am going to miss being on the coast! But, I wont miss how cold it is for sure. I miss the hot St. Louis summer!!
Talking about my Uncle John in California makes me think of when I went to London and had dinner with him and since that was 2 weeks ago, I haven't talked about it yet! I knew that at some point in May, my Uncle John (my dad's brother who was born exactly 2 years later) was going to be in London and we had talked about possibly having dinner. It worked out that he had a night in London that we could go out to dinner before he went back to LA the next day. He told me I could bring a friend to keep me company on the train ride, so I brought Lindsay and Chelsea and we met him at the train station on Sunday, May 8th, and went to this Italian restaurant someone at his hotel suggested. It ended up being a famous British chefs place, Jamie Oliver! Uncle John insisted that we get everything and anything that we wanted so we all started off with drinks, then appetizers, main meals, and then dessert! We were all so full by the time we left, it was ridiculous! The food was delicious and definitely one of my favorite places I have been to since we got here! We had a nice, long dinner. We all talked about why we came here to study abroad and what we were studying back home and why. Then Uncle John was telling us all of the stories from his job. It was so fascinating! He has an amazing job and gets to see so much of the world! I really wish he lived closer and I got to see him more because it was so much fun hanging out with him for the night!
After dinner, we walked around London for a little while. It was getting late and we had a 2 hour train ride back home (it was longer than usual because it stopped at so many different places), so we went home after that. It was so nice for him to take us out to dinner and we all had an amazing night!!!! It felt so good to see family while being over here, and I was glad we were able to work out getting together. My dad was supposed to come over with him and go to dinner with me, and he was definitely there in spirit. I was so mad at myself for not getting a picture of Uncle John and I- I completely forgot until we were on the train! :( But, I will always have the memory!
The next week I will be finishing up my last papers and taking a test, and then I will be done! Except for my random test on June 3rd, but whatever. I will update you all some time in the next week or two. We have talked about possibly going to Oxford and Beachy Head, so I will let you know what great things we do before we leave. I can't believe it is already to that point! Only 24 days until I am back in America with all of you! I know it will fly by and I am going to enjoy the time I have left! Love and miss you all!!
xxx
Monday, May 2, 2011
Stratford-upon-Avon/Warwick Castle Trip!
Hello all!!
I got back last night from our last trip with our program. It was a little sad- but I am looking forward to spending the last month and half I have left here in Brighton!
We woke up early on Saturday morning to catch the bus at 8am. We got to Stratford-upon-Avon around 11:30am, and checked into our hotel. It was the cutest bed and breakfast I have ever seen!! We just had time to set our stuff in our rooms and then we walked to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We had a little bit of time to walk around the city before Macbeth started at 1:15pm. We just went into a few shops before we headed back to the theatre for our show. Macbeth was AMAZING! The acting was so good and it was an awesome show! The theatre was like the Globe- the seats were around in a circle and went almost straight up.
After the show, we decided to walk around the city more. We went into a bunch of little shops along the street. We were looking for a place to eat dinner and we finally found this place along the river. We sat outside because it was so nice outside and had dinner the 8 of us. It was all people from my program- Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, Madison, Amanda, Mark, and Matt. It was a lot of fun and so nice to sit outside and eat! Chelsea and I split a pitcher of Pimm's, which just made it perfect!
All weekend there were different events to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday, so we decided to go to The Law of Love, which was two hours of drama, music, and poetry with performers from the Shakespeare Institute. It was an interesting 2 hours, but the acting was pretty bad. There were more American actors than we anticipated and they were bad. I was a little embarrassed...
We were all super tired from not getting much sleep the night before so we decided to just go back to the hotel and go to bed. When we got our hotel room (Chelsea, Lindsay, and I were all in a room together), we turned our TV on and watched Friends! We love how much Friends is on over here!!
On Sunday, we got up and had a full English breakfast in the morning, which was delicious! An egg, toast, bacon, sausage, beans, mushrooms, a tomato, and tea of course. Then we left for a tour around the city given by Wendy Bowie- who was awesome! She showed us around the city and taught us so many new things! See the following:
Goodnight Sleep Tight: They used to tie ropes to the frames of beds to create a grid to put the mattress on top of. When the ropes were lose, the mattress was less comfortable. When they were tightened, you would get a better nights sleep.
Eavesdropping: The were holes in the eaves in the roof because of the thatched roofing so you could hear from one room to the other.
Canopy: The ceilings used to be made out of straw-a thatched roof- and birds would peck through them and sometimes drop some unwanted things into people's bedrooms. People put canopies over their beds so that nothing fell onto their faces while they slept.
Barber pole: Barbers used to be the people who performed surgery- the Doctors were just GPs and didn't do surgery. The barber poles are red and white because of the blood and bandages.
Frog in your throat: They used to tie a frog's legs together and put it down someone's throat when they had the whopping cough to get rid of their sore throat.
We learned so much from her and she was so nice! After our tour, we had some free time to get lunch and walk around a little. We went to a Shakespeare store and went into a few souvenir stores, then it was time to head back to the bus.
We got on the bus and went to Warwick Castle. We had almost 3 hours to roam around the castle and see some entertainment. Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, and I all decided before we went into the castle (while we were at the gift shop) to buy swords to fight each other all day. We also all got Princess crowns. I felt like a little kid again and it was so much fun! We were Princess Warriors for the day and I know you are all jealous! After spending the afternoon in the gorgeous weather walking around the castle, we headed back home around 4pm. It was a really fun last trip!
We were originally supposed to go to Oxford Saturday morning, but since it was Shakespeare's birthday weekend, our tickets for Macbeth had to be during the day. The night tickets were already booked for a special showing and we weren't able to get those tickets. With all the traffic and such, Oxford had to be cut out of the schedule. We were a little bummed about this, but we might take a day trip one weekend to visit the University. If not, it gives me more reason to come back!
Well I have a lot of school work to do, and really should get working on it. I have 6 papers due within the next 3 weeks- basically I hate school here! I only have 3 weeks left of school and 6 weeks left until I come home! I can't believe it is almost time to leave. It feels really bittersweet!! Although I miss everyone at home so much and want to go home, I love it here and don't want to leave!
I don't have any more trips left to update you all on, but I will keep you updating with things I do in Brighton! There wont be much the next 2 weeks with all the papers I will be working on- so pray that I get them done fast!
I hope you all are getting some better weather over there and good luck to everyone who has finals this week and next!! I found out today that Osama Bin Laden is dead so thank goodness for that! I am proud to be an American, even if I am not with you all!!
xxx
I got back last night from our last trip with our program. It was a little sad- but I am looking forward to spending the last month and half I have left here in Brighton!
We woke up early on Saturday morning to catch the bus at 8am. We got to Stratford-upon-Avon around 11:30am, and checked into our hotel. It was the cutest bed and breakfast I have ever seen!! We just had time to set our stuff in our rooms and then we walked to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. We had a little bit of time to walk around the city before Macbeth started at 1:15pm. We just went into a few shops before we headed back to the theatre for our show. Macbeth was AMAZING! The acting was so good and it was an awesome show! The theatre was like the Globe- the seats were around in a circle and went almost straight up.
After the show, we decided to walk around the city more. We went into a bunch of little shops along the street. We were looking for a place to eat dinner and we finally found this place along the river. We sat outside because it was so nice outside and had dinner the 8 of us. It was all people from my program- Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, Madison, Amanda, Mark, and Matt. It was a lot of fun and so nice to sit outside and eat! Chelsea and I split a pitcher of Pimm's, which just made it perfect!
All weekend there were different events to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday, so we decided to go to The Law of Love, which was two hours of drama, music, and poetry with performers from the Shakespeare Institute. It was an interesting 2 hours, but the acting was pretty bad. There were more American actors than we anticipated and they were bad. I was a little embarrassed...
We were all super tired from not getting much sleep the night before so we decided to just go back to the hotel and go to bed. When we got our hotel room (Chelsea, Lindsay, and I were all in a room together), we turned our TV on and watched Friends! We love how much Friends is on over here!!
On Sunday, we got up and had a full English breakfast in the morning, which was delicious! An egg, toast, bacon, sausage, beans, mushrooms, a tomato, and tea of course. Then we left for a tour around the city given by Wendy Bowie- who was awesome! She showed us around the city and taught us so many new things! See the following:
Goodnight Sleep Tight: They used to tie ropes to the frames of beds to create a grid to put the mattress on top of. When the ropes were lose, the mattress was less comfortable. When they were tightened, you would get a better nights sleep.
Eavesdropping: The were holes in the eaves in the roof because of the thatched roofing so you could hear from one room to the other.
Canopy: The ceilings used to be made out of straw-a thatched roof- and birds would peck through them and sometimes drop some unwanted things into people's bedrooms. People put canopies over their beds so that nothing fell onto their faces while they slept.
Barber pole: Barbers used to be the people who performed surgery- the Doctors were just GPs and didn't do surgery. The barber poles are red and white because of the blood and bandages.
Frog in your throat: They used to tie a frog's legs together and put it down someone's throat when they had the whopping cough to get rid of their sore throat.
We learned so much from her and she was so nice! After our tour, we had some free time to get lunch and walk around a little. We went to a Shakespeare store and went into a few souvenir stores, then it was time to head back to the bus.
We got on the bus and went to Warwick Castle. We had almost 3 hours to roam around the castle and see some entertainment. Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, and I all decided before we went into the castle (while we were at the gift shop) to buy swords to fight each other all day. We also all got Princess crowns. I felt like a little kid again and it was so much fun! We were Princess Warriors for the day and I know you are all jealous! After spending the afternoon in the gorgeous weather walking around the castle, we headed back home around 4pm. It was a really fun last trip!
We were originally supposed to go to Oxford Saturday morning, but since it was Shakespeare's birthday weekend, our tickets for Macbeth had to be during the day. The night tickets were already booked for a special showing and we weren't able to get those tickets. With all the traffic and such, Oxford had to be cut out of the schedule. We were a little bummed about this, but we might take a day trip one weekend to visit the University. If not, it gives me more reason to come back!
Well I have a lot of school work to do, and really should get working on it. I have 6 papers due within the next 3 weeks- basically I hate school here! I only have 3 weeks left of school and 6 weeks left until I come home! I can't believe it is almost time to leave. It feels really bittersweet!! Although I miss everyone at home so much and want to go home, I love it here and don't want to leave!
I don't have any more trips left to update you all on, but I will keep you updating with things I do in Brighton! There wont be much the next 2 weeks with all the papers I will be working on- so pray that I get them done fast!
I hope you all are getting some better weather over there and good luck to everyone who has finals this week and next!! I found out today that Osama Bin Laden is dead so thank goodness for that! I am proud to be an American, even if I am not with you all!!
xxx
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