Catching up to spring break

Whew, I have a lot to catch up on. I promise that for the next few weeks that I'm here I won't leave such a huge gap between entries. It's crazy that I'm only here for a little bit longer though! I think my finals are done May 15th or so. I'm still figuring out the dates of my last classes (the UK system does final assignments, "revisions", and last classes kinda confusingly for a newbie). After I do that, I can finalize what I'm doing this summer, and book a ticket home. But now to dive in WAY back. Dates might get fuzzy, but I'm sure you'll forgive me.

On 2/25 we celebrated Frank's 25th birthday. He turned 25 on the 25th and I turned 21 on the 21st! He's a friend of my New York friends because they're all doing a Sports Management masters program. Of course, we went to The Sports Cafe because they're Sports Management. Then we headed over to one of our favorite places, Tiger Tiger. Definitely a fun night.

On the 27th a group of us went to a delicious Italian restaurant in Piccadilly Circus and then hung out at The Rocket. On the 29th I came down with a bad flu/cold. It ended up being quite the saga because it turned into strep throat, I got the wrong antibiotics which prolonged the agony, and then by the time I got new ones, I had an eye infection. I was basically sick for two weeks and missed out on celebrating St. Patrick's Day, which sucked! I was able to make it to programming but I skipped my morning class on Tuesday to try to get better. That night I was able to plan spring break a little bit at least.

On 3/4 I was feeling a little better so I had crepes with Sheena, worked out, napped, and was able to go to the GSE event which was Fulham vs. Hull City. The game wasn't that great, but I got a taste of what English football is all about! The cheers were great and completely from the crowd, with no prompting like they do in the states.

The next day was my second Human Structure and Function practical which was all about measuring parameters of the respiratory system. We celebrated Allie's 21st birthday with our English friends with a marathon-Roadhouse to Stables (where I saw Mischa Barton, omg celebrity sighting!) to Barfly to The Big Chill. Definitely a fun night and I hope she had a good birthday.

The next day we took the train to Edinburgh as a part of a GSE event. We checked into our hotel and had an Italian dinner and checked out the neighborhood nightlife. The Scottish music was fun! The next day we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and walked to Waverly Bridge to catch a tour bus. The tour guide was barely understandable but I caught the gist of the history of the city. We sat outside on the top of the bus which was pretty windy, which probably contributed to me getting sick again. We went to the Edinburgh Castle which was just as cool as I remember (we went to Edinburgh when dad was working in Bath). We did some souvenir shopping and had a late lunch around the Royal Mile. We explored and walked back home because I needed a nap. We had some pretty good Mexican food and (expensive) margaritas for dinner. We walked out to George Street but it started pouring so we soon were taking a taxi home. Strangely, we met two separate forty year old Scottish women that both had 4 year olds. It was awesome talking to them and one prescribed a "hot toddy" for me which she said would help with my cold since it was acting up pretty bad. Nice ladies! In the morning I tried the full Scottish breakfast which included haggis. I would basically describe it as peppery grease. I knew it was something gross, but I'm glad I wasn't told it was sheep guts until after I ate it! We then hopped a train home, which took about four hours.

When I got home I met Sheena's Barbados friend David who had been visiting. I caught up with everyone after the long weekend and got some groceries. I spent some time in bed watching Knocked Up since I was sick again. I found out that my friend from CMU, JW, was coming to London for his spring break and was going to crash at my place on Tuesday.

The next day I went on a hunt for new headphones since mine broke and went to this place called Argos. It was really different from any place we have in the states because its like a modern version of a general store. You pick what you want from a catologue, write down the number, and then present it to the clerk and pay. Then you wait for someone to bring your item up to the front. After class, I picked JW up at Kings Cross station and brought him over to Nido and introduced him to people. We then headed over to O'Neils to see Liverpool beat Madrid. We walked around Angel a bit before calling it a night.

On 3/11 I finally got a doctors appointment (but would later find out I got the wrong antibiotics once I didn't respond to them). I was dissapointed to find out that GirlTalk tickets were sold out. He's a DJ from Pittsburgh that I really wanted to see, but someday I will! I met up with Erin down by where she lives and we did some spring break planning. Then we met up with the gang at Lock Tavern in Camden because Ryan's friend works there.

The next day I mainly rested up and tried to get better and then in the evening we THOUGHT we were seeing Friday the 13th….but had actually bought tickets for the next day. DOH.
The next day I hung out with JW on his last day. We went to Pizza Express and saw the West End play, Three Days of Rain with James McAvoy. It was SO GOOD. Good writing, good acting. And now I’m completely in love with James McAvoy. Mainly because after the show, all the actors came out in support of a charity foundation. One of them said that James usually warms up by doing handstands and that he was going to do one and if he stays up five seconds, we should donate 5 pounds, if he stays up 10 seconds, we should donate 10 pounds etc. James looked like he TOTALLY didn’t know this was going to happen but was a good sport and did it anyway. The entire play he had an American accent but he said ONE thing with his normal Scottish accent before he did the handstand and it was quite exciting J. I then met up with Ashley and her friend AGAIN to finally see Friday the 13th. Jared Padalecki (from Supernatural, one of my favorite shows) was in it, and Ashley actually knows one of the actresses in it because they lived on the same street and are Facebook friends! Haha.

I desperately needed some new jeans because my only pair were ripping at the seams so I set out with the roomie, Sheena. As soon as we got out, we realized that the weather was super nice so we took a detour to Regent’s Park, walked around, got some coffee, and laid in the sun for a bit. We then went to Oxford Circus and I got some jeans at H&M. Sheena had a ton of spring break visa issues for her Barbados passport because she couldn’t get appointments in time, there were all these complications and paperwork, and was constantly on the phone and getting nowhere. It totally sucked because she had to scrap the spring break she was planning and plan a new one to countries that didn’t require visas. But it all worked out because her mom came and visited and she went to Istanbul and Switzerland.

Once my antibiotics had also run out and my throat still looked bad, I made another appointment and got the right antibiotics. Things cleared up and I felt a lot better quickly.
Then there, were a couple of weekend trips in quick succession.

GSE had a day trip to Oxford and Stratford. We took a bus out to Oxford and had a guided walking tour. We saw plenty of Harry Potter landmarks and decided to have a traditional meat pasty for lunch. Lots of reference to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and plenty of old houses at odd angles as well! We also ended up checking out the science museum which had a lot of old navigation equipment. We then hopped back on the bus and went to Stratford upon Avon. We stopped at the Hathaway Cottage first, which is where Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s wife) and her family lived from about 1400-1900. Really low doorways, creaking floors, and the typically whitewashed walls and thatched roof look that you’d expect of an English countryside cottage. The gardens were really pretty too! We then went to the town of Stratford itself and walked around the main area and got some fish and chips along the riverside. We walked over to the church where Shakespeare is buried and saw his grave. We found a really pretty landscaped garden with a lot of flowers in full bloom and hung around there before we realized we had to figure out where the heck the bus was! I definitely napped on the way home after that long day.

The next weekend a few of us had an Ireland trip planned. We got in late the first night so we barely had time for the guys to pick us up in the (stick shift! Driven on the left side of the road!) rental car, check into our hostel (where we discovered we had one roommate, Mike from Pennsylvania), and check out the Temple Bar area we were staying in before it was time to get back to bed. The next morning Danielle and I took a stroll around the area and took some pictures. We gathered up all our stuff and walked to where the guys reparked the rental car that morning….and discovered the car was missing. After an intense “DUDE WHERE’S OUR CAR???” moment, we figured out that the guys had parked illegally…it stated so right there on the sign. DOH. So we had to figure out who to call and paid our 80 euro fine over the phone by credit card and they told us where we could find our clamped car and that someone would be by soon to unclamp it. Once we FINALLY got moving, we started our journey to Galway. Once we finally got there, it was worth it because the Cliffs of Moher were absolutely gorgeous. Everyone was making me nervous by walking so close to the edge though! Of course, we found an American bar in Galway and Danielle and Sheena rode the mechanical bull! Much hilarity ensued. The next day we drove back to Dublin and checked out the grounds of Malahide castle, which were gorgeous. The sun was starting to set so we had fun frolicking around. Ireland had just won a rugby championship that they hadn’t won since 1948 and also won a big boxing match, so everyone was in a pretty good mood back in Dublin! The guys had a super early flight that they missed, and I nearly lost my iPhone in the rental car but they recovered it, luckily. But we all got home in one piece!

That was pretty much it before spring break, but that’s the next entry!