Over the boarder!

So, after the London trip, my birthday came up. I invited everyone in the house out to a bar (Jolly Sailor) and we all hung out there. It was fun to be with new people, but I was also really sad when my friends would e-mail me birthday wishes because I won't be seeing them for so long. I still had a great time though.

I finally got my class schedule all figured out because I had been having problems with it and it was getting very annoying. I have class from 9-1 and 3-5 on Tuesday and Wednesday. I only have one class from 3-5 on Monday, but I don't really count it since it's one class. I normally just say I have class Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It's weird only having classes for part of the week. I'm not complaining though. I'll only have Monday-Thursday classes when I get back to ISU in the Spring, so that's good.


So, on October 1st, me and 4 of my friends went to Calais for the day. The way you get there is to take a bus to Dover, and then a ferry (takes about an hour and a half) into France. This is the English Channel! We actually picked the worst day to go because it was rainy and gross ALL DAY as you can see in the picture. We were thinking of going to Paris for the weekend, but we waited a little too long to plan it and we ended up planning this trip the day before. It still wasn't much though because the bus was 5 roundtrip and the ferry was 12 roundtrip.


This is Calais! There isn't really much to do here except eat and go shopping in a couple places. They do have an awesome lighthouse, but it's only open on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays for the rest of the year...and since we went on a friday, we couldn't go up. They say that if it's a clear day, and you go up the 271 steps to the top, you can see Dover 26 miles away. I love nautical things, so this was really nice to go see, even if I didn't go inside.


This is Notre Dame Church...not to be confused with the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. We were hoping to go inside (to look around, and to also get out of the rain), but we couldn't find a way in. There really wasn't that much to see in Calais, but it was still fun to practice my french with the locals and buy pastries. I got a beignet to eat there, and a chocolate eclair for later. I ended up eating the eclair for breakfast the next morning, which was one of the best decisions I've made since coming here! So good. :]

Overall the trip was okay, but I'm still looking forward to going back to France in October where I'll be in Paris this time.

I'm pretty terrible at keeping this thing up-to-date

It's been a couple of weeks since I updated this. >.< Hopefully I'll be better about it from now on because I haven't even started taking my large trips. I figured I wouldn't say where I'm going just yet on here and instead would just say where I was when I got there! Trust me, it will be worth the wait.

So! Let's get started.


This is the outside of Buckingham Palace. We went there on the 25th for a small day trip. It was only 15 quid for a roundtrip, so that was awesome. We spent a lot of time just sitting around because everything to see in London is all pretty close together so we walked around a lot that day, but I wasn't even tired at the end of the day.


This is an epic picture of Big Ben. I took a lot of other ones, but I love how pretty it looks with the sun. :] It is the tallest four-faced chiming clock in the world! Looking at parliament next to it made me think of Harry Potter. In the 5th movie, the Order escorts Harry to the house and they fly right in front of it. I wish you could go in Big Ben...kind of like the statue of Liberty, but I understand why you couldn't. People would probably go deaf in there.




This is found in Hyde park which is over 350 acres! We didn't around all of it, but we did walk around a lot. It was a nice place to sit and relax. There were flowers everywhere and there was this really pretty water fountain that we sat by. We found a tree that looked like it started growing in the right direction, but then all the branches grew towards the ground. It made a dome that you could stand it.

So that was London in a very small nutshell. :]

Classes and traveling!!!

So! So far, I've had a couple classes and they are pretty boring. haha The tutor talks for like 2 hours and I just want to do stuff. We have this small assignment due tomorrow in class and leave it to me to start the day before. If I were a Disney princess I'd be Procrastihontas. :]

Other then that, I've just been making plans to travel. So far I just have a small day trip this Saturday to London, but I'm in the process of going on a weekend trip next week. Probably to Paris and such. I've pretty much planned out the time when my sister and mom come to visit. We're going to Paris for the weekend and to London a couple of times. I think we're also trying to go to Dublin for a bit, but not sure where else. I hope to go to Italy sometime while I'm here. I want real pizza! Instead of this 50p crap from Tesco.

Also, my birthday is next week! Just 5 days away and I'll be 20. I used to think 20 was so old so this is an odd feeling finally getting here.

I finally have internet!

I've been in England for about a week now, but I haven't had my internet working. Everyone else in my building has, but not me...awesome. Anyway, it's amazing here. I love being around old buildings and the view from my room is beautiful. There's this little cafe of something next door, so I always here people at night hanging around.


This is the courtyard at my school. There's like lily pads on the water and a bridge and a small waterfall. It's super pretty. There's a cafe place through the door on the left that has sandwiches, salads, fruit, pasties (YUM!), and different kinds of hot and cold drinks. This random science tutor (that's what we call teachers here) came up to us on Wednesday and started talking about America and a bunch of other history stuff. He was super hyper so we didn't know what he was talking about, but it was funny.


This is the Cathedral in Canterbury. We get in for free because we're students, but others can pay 7 quid to get in. It looks like Hogwarts. Oh and, we had a library tour yesterday and some of our bookshelves are compact. Which means to get in, they move around. =O It truly is Hogwarts. but anyway, it was a really pretty day outside when I took this. It normally looks like this, but cold. haha



We all had fish and chips for dinner! It was the first time for all of us and it was really good. I only ate it with ketchup because I hate vinegar. I didn't get sick, which was nice. There's a milkshake place around there that I want to try before my mom and sister come, so hopefully I'll do that sooner than later.

3 days left

I have three days until I leave. >.< I have a lot done already, but it's still stressful. So, instead of being excited or nervous, I'm worried about 500 other things. It'll be okay by tomorrow since that's when I'm going to have everything all packed and ready.

Next time I update, I'll be in England.

It's official

I finally got accepted into Canterbury today! Which is very exciting because:
1. That's a big part of why I started this blog
2. I haven't signed up for a room and/or classes for next year
3. ....because it's England! :]

I will have another post either later today or tomorrow with the very few pictures I took while in Texas a couple weeks ago. I hopefully will be taking another trip there this summer, but we'll have to wait and see.

I go in Wednesday to pick up an acceptance packet, and I'm not even sure what's in it.

Also, Postsecret's Frank Warren is coming to my college to talk about stuff and I will hopefully be getting him to sign a copy of my book since I love when I can get my books signed...even though it's happened twice.

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Housing

So, housing keeps contacting me to sign up for a room, but I'm not suppose to. I'll probably call them tomorrow/today and ask them about what to do. It's just annoying.

But anyway, I am flying to Austin from Chicago saturday afternoon to go see my sister. We're suppose to talk tonight about what we are doing so I know what to pack, but regardless, I'm sure it will be awesome. Very excited for the warm weather and no school.

ALSO - I can hopefully bake a bunch over my Spring Break so I can post pictures on here. :]