Academic Achievements. . . ish

I guess I should maybe write a little bit about my academic life here.  In British Studies, that life is AWESOME!

I mentioned in my Poland blog that I had a marathon paper writing session the night before I left, because my draft was due that Monday and I was determined to turn in a full draft and not an outline.  Well, the week after I got back I realized that I had no idea what I was supposed to know about Belvoir Castle (where we went on a field trip earlier that month) so I went to see Dr. Green to 'have a chat' about the upcoming test.  So we talk about the test and how I should approach the question blah blah blah, he makes fun of me for being hungover, then he says he has read my paper.  Basically he told me that I don't need to change anything, just a few little things, write my conclusion and turn it in.  BALLER!  I was so excited.  Simon de Montfort will forever be my hero, for being so damn interesting that my 2500 word paper is 'excellent'.

So that was awesome.  Even better was the fact that I got a freaking A on that test (which I took on Nov. 5th I think), like the complete baller that I am.  I thought I did really bad because I didn't write a single date down on it, but oh well.  Either I did well or Dr. Green just loves me, either one is fine with me!  I also got an A on my British Studies presentation, the one that I stayed up until 3am the night I got BACK from Poland completing!  I've also done no worse than a B+ on all of the 5 quizzes we have, so barring a complete failure on this last test I think I'm set for at least a B!

Politics, on the other hand, is a nightmare.  I managed to scrape two B's on my papers so the D and the C paper are dropped, but our final is 40% of our grade and I can't motivate myself to try.  It's just so boring and uninteresting to me that it is literally painful to get out of bed to go to that class.  I don't even want to talk about it.

History is going to kick my ass.  I enjoy the subject and it's interesting, but this class is tough, and when you get a study guide with 136 people, places and events that you need to know, out of which she will pick 7, out of which you need to know 4, AND two essay questions . . . even Dr. Bujak looked at it and said, "Well, this is a bitch."  I got a B- on the midterm, a B+ on my paper and an okay grade on one of my quizzes, but she hasn't yet graded one of my papers and the final is . . . well, a bitch.

So academically speaking that's where I stand.  At least I'm doing well in British Studies, which is my favorite class for a few reasons :) and it's also my easiest one, which some people can't believe.  Someone told me that if I would have taken Genetics as well, I would have had the hardest schedule possible at Harlaxton, and I'm pretty sure I believe them.

Cymru = Wales

Ahhh!  Wales was so long ago I can hardly believe it!  I'll do my best to detail it though, it was a very nice, very relaxing weekend!

However, I slept in super late and woke up at 8am - when we had to leave at 8:30am.  I'm a complete badass, though, so I managed to get up, shower, and finish packing, and make the bus with about 5 minutes to spare.  AMAZING.  And I didn't even forget anything.

The coach ride wasn't too bad because Wales isn't that far away, obviously.  Our first stop was Chester, which is still in England.  It's a Roman town with pretty walls, it's really old and cool looking but I wasn't really into shopping so we just walked around and admired the prettiness.  Then we hopped on the coach and got to the town where we were staying, this BEAUTIFUL resort town on the Atlantic Ocean.  Here's the view from our hotel!

 That night Mallory, Alex and I just had dinner and a few drinks at a pub and called it a night pretty early.

The next day was probably my favorite part of the trip, Caernafron Castle.  I said in a previous post that Blarney was my favorite, but nope, now it's Caernafron.  Edward I built it just after his conquest, and it's so fun to just crawl through everything, take the stairs and find the secret rooms, and just pretend you're a medieval court member.

LOVED IT!  I bought a few souvenirs here, then we set off to Portmeiron Village, which is this lovely little Italian-style seaside village, really idyllic and such.  It was gorgeous, but we didn't do much there, just had a delicious ham-and-cheese panini for lunch and walked around admiring the general splendor.  After that it was off to the Victorian slate mines!  That was really fun, we got to wear helmets and descend into the mines and listen to the life of a Victorian slate miner in Wales.  Daniel got felt up by an old lady in the dark, and I laughed for literally fifteen minutes - so long I got a headache!

We then headed back to our hotel, where we were going to go out but since I didn't feel like clubbing we ended up just parking in the hotel bar and drinking a few, then Daniel, Kelley, Mallory and I just hung out on the beach at night in North Wales!  It was so 'chill' and awesome.

The next day we were headed back, but we got to sleep in till about 10!  That is unheard of here, so it was extra nice!  After breakfast we left and stopped at Swallow Falls, a crazy waterfall that was especially nuts because it had been raining for a few days before we got there!  Then it was back to good ol' Harlaxton and the disgusting Sunday 'roast' dinner we all know and love.

Oh, and I bought some souvenirs in Wales because -- guess what? -- I'm WELSH!  I love my Welsh dragon necklace!

Halloween at Harlaxton

Once again, bear with me -- I've been such a crappy blogger that I have to go back into the depths of my memory to grab the things that happened A MONTH AGO!  This time, it's Halloween at Harlaxton, yet another crazy night here in England.

So Chris and I were sitting around my room with Mary trying to figure out what to be for this party that wouldn't require a ton of money.  We tossed around really stupid ideas for a few minutes before he just said, randomly, "Let's be Jim and Pam."  So the next day we went to town and bought a few things, and this is the end result.

Pretty decent, huh?  So we got together with a bunch of people and did NOT at all drink beforehand, then walked up to The Greg where Harlaxton had rented out the entire thing for the night.  It was really fun, there were some great costumes -- Sam Baker was Michael Jackson, Mary Johnson was John Lennon, etc. -- and there was a dance floor, which was cool!  And it was extra nice because we didn't have to pay for a cab to get us there or back.  

On the way back -- oh dear.  Chris had a little too much to drink so Pam had to drag Jim's ass all the way back to the carriage house, where she ended up having to tuck him in and witnessed him be a complete ass to Manny, which was probably the funniest moment of her life!  Then Alex and I and a few others smoked some hookah, ate some delicious pizza and called it a night.  Altogether it was an excellent Halloween, definitely one I won't be forgetting any time soon!

POLSKA

WOW I SUCK! I've been completely and utterly slacking on these blogs, which is unforgivable. I just hope I can remember enough detail from a month ago -- A MONTH! That's how long ago I was in Poland. Crazy!

So I stayed up really late the night before we left for Poland to finish my British Studies paper. It was an intense marathon writing session but it paid off, as I will detail later. So I slept through politics since I was really tired and I hadn't packed yet. Ed was mad, but oh well. He saw me at lunch and glared at me. One of a few drawbacks of living in the same place as your teachers.

So right after lunch Jessica and I grabbed a cab to the train station, hopped on our train to Stansted, and got there in PLENTY of time. Jessica was nervous since she hadn't done any of this before, and I hadn't either, but I ended up taking charge and just pretending like I knew what I was doing. We ate in the airport and found Ryan and Sam, boarded our flight and all was peachy!

We landed in Poland and took a cab to our hostel Can I just say that this hostel was AMAZING!?

 It was nicer than our room at Harlaxton for sure. And the people were amazing. We met this drunk guy from Liverpool who sang me High School Musical songs, it was so great. But we were exhausted so after a dinner of Polish chips and a Carlsberg we went to bed.

Next morning was the beginning of a very long, but very awesome day! We woke up early and went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines which was amazing. I saw an entire cathedral carved out of the salt. After that we had lunch then we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was incredibly depressing but I'm so glad I went. Not many people can say they have been to Auschwitz, but now I can, and it made me really proud that my papa and great-uncles fought to liberate the people from the camps.

We didn't get back to the hostel until about 9pm, but Jessica and I had to change hostels so we got our stuff and walked around Krakow looking for it. We found it and once again it was super nice and the people again were AMAZING, we got free hot dogs for dinner and free shots (Polish Mad Dogs, SO GOOD! And I'm not a shot person.) Then we met up with Sam and Ryan back at the old hostel and went to dinner. HOLY LORD IN HEAVEN, THE PIEROGIS! So so so so good.

Can I also mention that the currency, the Polish zloty, has an exchange rate of roughly 1 USD = 3 PLN? So I got a liter beer for 12 PLN which -- yes -- means I got a liter of beer for FOUR DOLLARS. AMAZING.

Then it was back to the hostel for Jessica and I, we got a good night's sleep then in the morning we checked out of our hostel, but they said we could leave our stuff all day since our flight wasn't until later that day. So we roamed around Krakow, went to THE BEST MALL I HAVE EVER SEEN, people-watched a souvenir shopped. It's an amazing city, I loved it so much.

We caught a train to the airport, and camped out for a while because our flight didn't leave until about 10pm. I had a beer before I got on the plane, haha. When we landed in England we got a shuttle to our hotel at Stansted, which was nice, and once again I had a really great night's sleep. The next day we took a bus to London, walked around, went to the British Museum, took a picture at PLATFORM 9 3/4 at King's Cross (!!!), then caught our train back to Grantham and saw our friends Courtney and Mallory coming back from Ireland. That worked out well because then we just split a cab back to the Manor and got back by dinnertime!

POLSKA was fantastic and I would recommend that people go there. It's CHEAP, the people are so nice, the hostels are fantastic, and Krakow is incredible. But there are pigeons everywhere.

Week at the Manor!

The weekend of the 15th-16th-17th was actually quite nice, I stayed here at Harlaxton! Let me back up though, to that Wednesday which, as of right now, has gone down in history as the best day I have ever had at Harlaxton!

That day should have been awful. In preparation for our field trip the following week, we had double British Studies so, two lectures and two seminars. However, for the first seminar, we got split into groups and had to perform a scene from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. My teacher challenged us to come up with something creative, but then said that most people just sit and read it. If you know me, this kind of stuff makes me SUPER excited. My group is awesome and we decided to set all the "airs" (songs) to the tune of QUEEN songs. We had Bohemian Rhapsody, Fat Bottom Girls, Another One Bites The Dust, and We Are The Champions. Also, I had to play a pregnant whore, so I had a scarf balled up under my shirt and I had to scream at my friend Sam for knocking me up and promising to marry another chick. My teacher LOVED it. We did so awesome. Far better than all the other groups who just read it out loud and sat in their seats.

So I was flying high after that, and it was pizza day at lunch so that was just icing on the cake. Then we had another lecture and my favorite person ever was giving it so Anne and I of course sat up front, then seminar afterward was good because Dr. Green said "I hate Romantic poetry, and I especially hate the daffodil poem." BALLER!!!! We didn't have to read the daffodil one. Then we got our tests back and I got an A-! So excited.

THEN it was Mexican Night for dinner! Another quality meal. Then it all came down to the Big Kahuna . . . 80s night in the Bistro. I went as Robin Sparkles from How I Met Your Mother, complete with shoulder pads, blazer, black net gloves, pearls, everything. It was amazing. Best night I've had in a long time. I peed in the faculty bathroom. I'm not sure if that's definitely off-limits or not, but it was totally awkward.

One of the best parts is that I didn't have Politics in the morning so . . . I got to sleep in! The day was just so good in so many ways.

Saturday was a day trip to York, which was fun. Kelley Boothe and I just basically walked around, climbed on more Roman walls, sat in a pretty park and talked about stupid sorority stuff--it was nice! That night I just chilled out in the room all by myself and watched The Young Victoria which is a pretty damn good movie.

More stuff to come -- I still have to blog about Poland and Halloween! Not to mention I'm leaving for Wales in about 8 hours! YIKES!

Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge

Wow, loyal readers, I'm really sorry I've been so suck-tastic at blogging lately.  Truth be told, I'm just so busy/tired/lazy to do it, so here goes nothing!

The weekend of the 9th-10th-11th I went to Oxford, Bath and Stonehenge.  It was a really laid-back trip.  Oxford is a pretty cool place, the best part about it was Christchurch College which is where . . . yep . . . HARRY POTTER was filmed!  So awesome.  The other super cool thing about Oxford was Alice's Shop, because Lewis Carroll wrote a large chunk of Alice in Wonderland in Oxford.  They had some really cool stuff -- I bought some postcards and a copy of the book.  I sent Matt a postcard of the thingee smoking a hookah, which he loved.

We ate at a cute cafe where the guy gave me a free cookie for no reason, then hit up the bus again to go to Bath.  Bath is a really REALLY beautiful town, but our hostel was at the very top of Bathwick Hill which is a BEE-YOTCH to climb.  Sweating, panting, calves aching, the whole shebang.  It was far away from the center of town where all the cool stuff is, but we braved the hill and went to a cheap and awesome bar for dinner.  We were all pretty exhausted, though, and went to bed fairly early that night.

Saturday was nice -- we slept in for the first time in weeks!  Six girls getting ready in one hostel room was a challege, but I'm pretty laid back so I just let the girls hog the mirror and brushed my teeth and called it a day.  We set off down the freaking hill but soon split up because some people wanted to go shopping and some wanted to see sights (like me).  So me, Jessica, Danielle, and Alex went to the Jane Austen center which was so cool, I bought Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility as well as a Colin Firth card for Katie.

Then we basically just wandered around, shopped a bit, went back to the hostel and took a nap.  We didn't feel like getting ready and going out, because that would entail walking ALL THE WAY there and back again, so we ended up in the hostel bar.  Unfortunately, they closed that at 9:30pm. REALLY?  So somehow I ended up at a pub with the Dean of Students (Ed), Alex, Matt and Danielle.  I got . . . intoxicated  . . . and when we woke up the next morning at 8am to go to the Roman baths let's just say I still felt it.

The baths were amazing!  The Roman stuff still kills me.  They were so advanced, and then civilization kind of reverted . . . I don't know, it's just very interesting.

I got to sleep on the bus on the way to Stonehenge so needless to say I was in MUCH better shape for that one.  It really is just a circle of rocks, but it's hard to explain how fascinating it is.  The stones were transported from Wales, aligned perfectly with the solstices, human remains were found in the Y and Z holes, and I'm standing there thousands of years later looking at it.  I wish you could get close to it, though.  I wanted to pull a Claire and get transported back in time to find my Jamie.  (Any Outlander fans here?  No?)

All in all it was a great weekend, pretty laid back but well worth it!

THE MOTHERLAND! Ireland!

It's been a while since I last updated but aside from two major trips, not too much has been going on.  I'm still hating the school aspect of school, but everything else is great!

Ireland!  I'm just going to begin by saying that it is hands-down the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  I felt like it wasn't real the entire time I was there.

Anyway,  after I bombed my British Studies exam on Wednesday, we took off on the coach to Wales where we caught a ferry over to the Emerald Isle.  The bus ride / ferry ride sucked because it was overnight, so sleep = none.  However, when we got to Ireland in the morning we stopped for a "full Irish breakfast" which was delicious.  Then it was back on the coach heading for Blarney Castle.  Yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone and I have a certificate to prove it!  The castle was my favorite so far I think -- you could explore all these random dungeons and passageways and see graffiti from the 19th century and stuff.  Pretty amazing stuff.  It's also really cool to go into gift shops and see your name all over everything!

We got back on the bus and headed over to Killarney, in County Kerry.  Such a cute little town!  I had some amazing Irish lasagna (sounds weird, but it wasn't Italian lasagna . . . ) which was freaking fantastic, and I tried Murphy's beer which was very good, tastes a lot like Guinness.  That night we were exhausted so after dinner we just went back to the room and watched Heathers on my computer and went to bed.

The next day -- holy shite.  The Ring of Kerry.  If anyone goes to Ireland ever, I mean it, do the Ring of Kerry tour.  It is gorgeous.  We began with a stop at the Red Fox Inn and Bog Village, and the Red Fox Inn has world famous Irish coffee, so I had coffee and Jameson's whiskey at 10am and it was beautiful!  The scenery was breathtaking.  Then it was off for more sightseeing on the bus, and we stopped at this gorgeous view of the Atlantic Ocean.  We ate Irish blackberries growing by the side of the road.  So quaint! haha.  Back on the bus, more awesome scenery, and we stopped in a little town for lunch.  This pub had 10 Irish men at the bar at 11:15am, and we watched them drink 4 Guinnesses each - and that's just what we SAW them drink.  It was just like O'Hara's :( .  I had another Irish coffee and this one was much stronger.  2 whiskys before noon -- I think I'm an O'Hara.

After that we stopped at Waterville, a tiny seaside town on Balinskelligs Bay, which again, was BEAUTIFUL.  I'm trying to find more adjectives, I apologize p

rofusely.  I took off my shoes and ran into the sea, but it was really cold so I basically ran right back out.  But now I can say I had my toes in Ballinskelligs Bay.  I stole some rocks from there too.

Then we went up a mountain to another amazing view, where we met an Irish man who played the accordion and his little dog that played Frisbee with us.  Some people climbed up the rest of the mountain and we definitely enjoyed watching them try to book it down to make the bus. 

Our next stop was Sneem, a tiny town in which all the houses are painted a different color.  This way, when an Irishman is stumbling home from the pub piss drunk, he can find his house easily because it's the only one of that color.  I bought some great gifts for my aunties here :)

And after Sneem is the stop which basically made my entire trip.  We stopped at Ladies' View in Killarney National Forest, and I have a hard time believing that I took this picture with my camera.  It looks like a post card.

 The picture at the top of this post is from Ladies' View too.  Not gonna lie, I teared up a little bit looking at this.  After Ladies' View we stopped at a beautiful waterfall, then headed back to Killarney.  All in all the Ring of Kerry was SPECTACULAR.

That night in Killarney, we went out to a really good dinner, then even though I was starting to not feel well we went to a pub where WE FOUND O'HARA'S BEER!  I stole the bottles to bring home with me.  We got hit on by two Irish guys, it was weird.  

In the morning I woke up with a pretty bad sore throat but I trucked through and we made our way to the bus to head to Dublin.  The thing about Ireland is that even a 6-hour bus ride is awesome because of the landscape.  We stopped for lunch somewhere and I bought cold medicine and cough drops to get me through.  When we got to Dublin Alex and I booked it for the Guinness Factory since it closes at 5pm and it was already 3:30.  Needless to say we spent way too much time in the shop and barely any on the actual tour, but it's okay.  Then we did a little bit more shopping, went back to the hotel, watched a movie then went to a beer hall where they literally had over 300 kinds of beer.  Then it was back to the hotel and to bed.  I'm kind of sad we didn't get more time in Dublin, but I'm more sad that I was sick and couldn't get drunk in Ireland.  But we had to be on the bus at 6:30am on Sunday so I wasn't too upset!

The ferry ride back to Wales was much better because it wasn't the middle of the night.  I got coffee and shopped in the little shop and slept and read my stupid History book.  In Wales we stopped at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which is the city with the longest name in Europe.  I'm not lying.  All we did was eat lunch there though.  So basically, Ireland was a success, although I really wish I would not have been sick!  I'm bringing my parents there one day for sure :)