6 days....

This last week has been....hard....Saying goodbye to everyone was and is sad. Who knew how important all of these people had become to me. I think I'll be able to stay in touch with them but its sad. I feel like I'm getting ready to leave my life and move to a completely new one. Nothing in the US feels familiar anymore, and though I talk about things like root beer and taco bell, I don't really remember or want them. I miss my family and my friends, and yet I feel like I don't know any of them anymore. Its only been 9 months, and its only felt like 1 but thinking about going back is just strange. Part of me is excited, part of me is scared, and part of me is sad. I've met some amazing people that I may or may not ever see again. I've learned the culture and the money, and the speech. I'm used to the foods the flavours and the spellings. I don't notice the accent on the British only on Americans.

I can't believe I only have 6 days left. Its very surreal and very scary. It hit me the other day that when I get back there won't be sheep everywhere and I won't be a 3 hour train ride from Scotland and London. I didn't think I had changed much, but now I am starting to feel it. i can't describe how I feel, just that its strange.

Tonight I went to dinner with Jenna, Dave, Joe and Caitlin, we went to weatherspoons. of course. and then walked around the castle for awhile. It was a nice night. We've all hung out a lot this last week. which just makes everything harder.

Last week Carolin left. We got to spend some time on the field before she left and had dinner. And then I went to the train station with her.

Magda and I got Chinese and went shopping on Saturday. We bought out Boots on little green lunch bags. The cashier thought we were crazy, and well, we are.

My last exam is on Saturday. Its going to be 35 min long. Then I pack and head to the airport in the afternoon on Sunday. Its not long now. If I blink I may miss it.

I'm next to leave.

Busy couple of days;

Wednesday I went into town to return some things and on the way back I ran into Silvana. We took the bus back to uni together, on the way onto the bus a drunk guy was getting written up by the police. And then he got on the bus with us. He was mumbling to whoever would listen for the entire bus ride. At one point he was singing. He got off at Lancaster with us. It was ridiculous.

"Its hard being English, you don't know how hard it is, I wish it were easy but its hard, I am superior. There's so many foreigners. America is not the place to go. Just shoot me, shoot me then, like john lennon. I'm more English then the fucking queen. The queen is german. Fuck. I'm in so much pain, you don't even know how much pain I'm in. Here. Here. Here." (must be read in the poshest most stereotypical english accent possible)

Then I took a package to the post office, and the lady decided that it would be cheaper in the long run if I added to the box. The box was already barely closing, but I left it there and got some more things to send home, and re-packed it in the post office. With the help of the nice post office lady, we got a bunch of books and stuff into the already full box, and couldn’t get it very close to closing so we added a piece of cardboard, and I spent the next 10 min taping the box. The post office, of course went silent, as I was taping my box, and everyone was staring, I’m pretty sure my box and I became the laughing stock of the Post office. The people there were really nice and really helpful, but I think the US post office is going to laugh when they see this not quite closed very well taped box come through……

Later Chad, Jenna, Dave, and I spent some time just hanging out down the hall, there was a tootsie roll throw and other random activities that should not have been fun, but we were all over sugared and over tired so they were.

Thursday I went to Carlisle with Carolin and her friend Magda. We went to Carlisle Castle, walked around downtown Carlisle, and then took a bus ride up to see Hadrian's wall. It was a good day, and the view from the wall was really georgeous. Of course, I managed to fall off the wall. And on the way back our bus never came, but we eventually found one that would take us back to Carlisle.

And finally today I hung out outside with the flat, we had a pizza picnic, and just talked. When it started to get dark and cold we went inside and cut Shad's hair. Then resumed our tootsie roll toss.

Tomorrow is flat movie day.

So,

Sunblock in this country is sooooooooooo expensive.

That is all. 

The Lake District

Silvana, Carolin and I went to the Lake District today.  We arrived into Windemere, and walked down to the lake, saw some very large swans.  Hung out and planned by the water for a little while. Then we took a boat ride over to Amblesway walked into town there, passed a car boot sale.  Which took me ages to understand.  Its like a garage sale but out of peoples car trunks.  I learn new British customs and words every day.  We had lunch out side at a cute little restaurant, just enjoying the first sunny day we've had in a while.  (I had a duck wrap, I'm not sure when this whole duck thing started, but I kind of like it)  Then we walked toward the bus stop but came across a sign pointing to waterfalls, so we followed that for a little while instead.  It took us up a nice little hill in the woods and past a few little waterfalls it was a really pretty walk.  Then we took an open top double decker bus to Grassmere.  The ride was really lovely, lots of mountains and views of the town from up high, and because it was open top we could see everything.  (though I'm sure that 40 min in the sun only made the sun burn worse).  When we got to Grassmere we walked through a garden and just wandered down a street for a little while before heading back to Windemere to take a train back to Lancaster.  

After we were all completely sun burned (and decided that tomorrow was the designated Sun Block buying day) we headed back to Lancaster and Carolin and I went to pizza hut for one final time before she leaves Lancaster.  I’ll see her a few more times, but that was our last pizza outing.  

I really would like to go back into the lake district and do one of the planned walks they have up through the mountains, they are supposed to have gorgeous views.  I just might do that next week.

It was really nice to get out of Lancaster with really amazing people.  I've been going stir crazy, but I have a couple weeks before I have to start really revising again, and I plan to see things in that time.  

Blackpool!! And other adventures of Erika and Carolin

Carolin and I went to Blackpool today. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Absolutely perfect. We walked barefoot on the beach and went in the Irish Sea, walked on the piers, and went into sea life. All of it was great. I came back slightly sun burned which I'm perfectly fine with because it means I actually saw the sun. Its supposed to rain again tomorrow but at least we got one nice day. It was really nice to get out of Lancaster for the day.

After we'd exhausted all that Blackpool had to offer, we headed back to Lancaster and went up to the Ashton memorial, which by the way is located in a really nice park in Lancaster. (I've been trying to figure out if there was a park here for a while, so needless to say I'm pretty excited about it.) It was full of people, and dogs, and just really nice to be outside and around non-uni people.

We're planning another trip to the Lake District this weekend, and probably going to Carlisle sometime next week. Tomorrow we're getting cheesecake and going to the cinema. I'm really looking forward to that too. Ah, so much to do and only 25 days to do it all. Wow, 25 days, have I mentioned that I'm freaking out about this? No? Well I am.

I'm in an incredibly good mood tonight.

Belfast

This is kind of long, but it was a big trip so read if you want…

Belfast was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better large trip of the year.

I left on April 5 to stay at Gatwick airport for a night. I had booked a Yotel, which is supposed to be based off of Asian style hotels; they’re small and cheap for airports. I got to Gatwick early and had a coffee before checking in. After I checked in I went into the airport to find dinner, on my way back I was almost run over by some police officers with really big guns, they said something about waiting by the toilets for someone to come out, and I ran back to the Yotel. It was fun to stay there; I had a TV for the first time in a while.

I got up early the next morning to get my flight to Belfast, it took a little under two hours I think, and I was there by 9:45. I found Steve in the coffee shop (which I was afraid was going to be more complicated then it actually was). Everything that day went smoothly. We spend that day just walking around the city, trying to keep him awake, and familiarising ourselves with Belfast. We walked down by the river, along a path and then went through the botanical gardens.

The next day we went on a black cab tour of the murals in N. Ireland, it was a really cool tour, I really didn’t know that much about the conflict in N. Ireland so I learned a lot about it and it was fascinating, the tour guide was also very helpful and interesting. After the tour we got on a bus to find Belfast castle. We missed our stop and ended up a stop further near the zoo. We figured we could get to the castle from there so we started climbing. At one point I found a half path off of the normal one and we just climbed up it. I met Gorse for the first time, and didn’t like it. We climbed all the way to the top of cave hill it was beautiful up there. Then headed down to find a cave that we saw from the top. We kept going down till we hit cement road (and an Indian wedding being filmed). And realised we had gone past the castle so we headed back up and found it. Walked through, (it had been turned into a conference centre) and headed back to the city centre.

Then it was time for our drive up the N shore. It was a beautiful drive. That part of the country is gorgeous. We went first to A castle then onto Carrick-Fergus and crossed the “scary” rope bridge, I didn’t think it was that scary, but again it was a beautiful area. Then it was on to the Giants Causeway, which was amazing. Then on to Dunluce castle, which we barely made before closing. Then headed back, we were going to cut through cities but ended up kind of lost and got yelled at by a crazy N. Irish man who didn’t like his driving. That was, um, interesting.

The next day we went to the Folk museum which we both agreed was better then we thought it would be. And we managed to avoid almost all of the Titanic exhibition we decided not to “sink into history with the titanic” (actual slogan) That took most of the day, and we both were pretty tired so we took the night off and went to a movie (yes in Belfast, no shows were available or cheap)

Then for the final day we explored North of the city and saw some of the old pubs and churches and things. Some drunk guy told us we could take a picture of him for £1, we did. It was a nice relaxing walking day. Then we went to a nice restaurant for dinner. A relaxing end to a busy week.

The next day I ventured back to Lancaster, I took a 30 min flight to Edinburgh and then travelled for six and a half hours back to Lancaster. It was much smoother then I expected it to be, a flight, a bus, another bus, a train, another bus, and a walk. But I guess I am that used to this country.

It was an amazing trip I’m really glad it happened.

Tomorrow is Easter and my Birthday....

Absolutly Nothing Exciting, but It's the End of the Term

The last three weeks, I just wanted to be home, not because anything was bad or because I stopped loving England, I guess it was just because so many things were changing at home, and not better changes, that I felt like I had to be there. but things settled down, and some of the drastic changes that I thought were going to occur did not.


I'm back to enjoying England. And I have lots of really exciting things coming up in the next month. Reuniting with the Secret Seven in York, Going to Belfast with Steve, meeting my best friend from elementary school in London. And a few other invites that I'm still debating.


I've had a pretty unproductive term, but I got everything done before the night before it was due, so it was also pretty un-stressful which is nice. Next week I have 2 end of module tests, 1 lectures, and 1 seminar, and one coursework that I should get done even though its not due till April 20. After that its just studying for finals. I have a final April 20, 22, 23 May 1, 18 and June 13. (Crazy Lancaster) I think I'll be coming home on June 23. Which is mostly sad, but a little exciting to think about. So, I'm not thinking about it yet. by then I should be excited to get home. We'll see.

"I'd rather live in America"

"I'd rather live in America" definitly not a phrase I hear very often, so naturally when I do I get curious.

I was in the library yesterday working on some homework with one of my friends, somehow the conversation turned to where we would rather be living, She said that she'd rather live in America then in England. Every time I say I would rather live somewhere other then the US people ask me why, and I'm never sure how to answer that without writing them a book, so I decided it would be fun to see what she said. Her answer to this question was that England was too 'politically correct'. She said that in England they welcome people from all over the world with open arms and don't care about really preserving their culture, they don't mind a culture blend. But in the US they don't do that, they don't let other cultures in, they have stricter immigration rules, and aren't so warm and friendly towards people of other nationalities that we forget are own culture. Now, I don't know if I've just been traveling to much but it seems to me that a country that is willing to embrace different cultures and make adjustments so people from all over can fit in, is a much happier and peaceful place then a country where they shut out people who are different. I also don't see this as being very true, maybe I'm just a naive American but I don't see the US as being such a culture centred country as she said it was, don't get me wrong I'm not saying its perfect either, but as a population I don't see it as being as closed off as she made it seem. Which brings me to my other concern, do most people view the US as this culture centred non welcoming place, because if so, I think we need to make some changes.

Sometimes I'm just not proud to be an American.

British English to American English Dictionary

A growing list of words whose definitions I didn't know:

Plasters- Bandages
Jab- Shot
Bobble- Hair Tye
quaver- 8th note
semi-quaver- 16th note
Rubbish- Garbage
Black Bag- Garbage Bag
Cheers- Thank you, your welcome, Thanks
Ta- Thank you
Tyre- Tire
Single- One Way
Return - Round trip
Ring- call
Purse- girls wallet
Handbag-purse
Rucksack- Back pack
Back pack- Really big back pack
Footpath- Sidewalk
Thick- Stupid
Full Stop- punctuation mark at the end of this sentence.

England-the NHS, public trasportation and being here for 4 months.

I've been here for 18 Weeks, a little over 4 months. Wow. I still love every minute of it, even when nothing exciting is happening, when I'm just going to class, and band, and grocery shopping, and discussing homework problems with people, I love it.

Public transportation is amazing! its nice to not have to worry about parking a car, and how long its been parked, and if your going to get a parking ticket, you just get on a bus and go wherever your going. It is a pain to carry groceries back on the bus, but once you get used to it, its not too bad. Being able to hop on a train and get anywhere I need to go is pretty fantastic too!

I've been to see an NHS doctor 3 times now, and that is always an adventure, the second time I went was good (I may have just told the doctor what tests to do, but he listened) the third time was very different then it would have been in the US. I went to have blood drawn, in the US they send you to a hospital, where there are these fancy chairs with arm rests, here I had a pillow under my arm and the nurse kneeling on the floor (not too big of a deal, NHS is poor, no fancy chairs, whatever). In the US they clean the skin twice with alcohol and wear gloves. Here they don't sterilise the skin and they don't wear gloves. It's fascinating, all the precautions we take in the States that no other country takes. I was shocked at first when she didn't use alcohol swabs, or wear gloves, I grew up in a society where they are overly clean all the time, I took a phlebotomy class, that taught me why we use alcohol and wear gloves, and stand to draw blood, and now I'm over here and they don't have the same rules. And probably the most shocking of all is that they don't do any of that, and everyone over here is still alive...

When I think of England, I've always thought of it as a place that mostly had the same standards as the US, I've quickly found out that that isn't true. Everything here is different, it truly is a different culture then the US. The standereds here are not higher or lower then the US, just different.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is made with 'high fructose corn syrup', what you may ask could they possibly use instead? They use sugar, imagine that a non-man made substance in food. I couldn't believe it myself, but they do. look at the ingredients in your Coke, or your cranberry sauce at thanksgiving, check M&M's and maybe even ketchup....high fructose corn syrup in all of it, not here, here they use sugar. There are less preservatives, less added colours, and less sugar in almost everything.

England is a fascinating place to me still, because it so similart to the US and yet so different at the same time.

Christmas Holiday Part II (Wales and The Netherlands)

We spent the next 2 days, resting, watching movies, going to the grocery store, talking. On the 27th my Grandparents arrived and I took a train in the afternoon to meet them in Chester. We had dinner and headed back to their hotel, we spent the next day with my step-grandma's pen pal Shirley and her family. And the next day we went on a drive through Wales. It was really nice to see them. and Shirley was fun. They left the following day for Paris, and I went back to Lancaster.

Rayna had planned on going to see her cousin for New Years Eve, and so we had a ferry the following morning (Jan. 31st) to go to Rotterdam. Since the ferry left at 9am we had to take a train that night to make it. So we took the 8pm train from Lancaster to London. From there we took an 11pm train to Colchester where we had to wait from 12am to 5:45 am. Yes thats right 5 hours in a closed train station. I was not looking forward to it. We got there and there was a crazy girl who bought beer from some random people passing through the train station. She said she had fallen asleep on the train and missed her stop and now she was lost. She claimed not to be drunk, we still are undecided on this. She talked a lot, and lucky for us, she somehow talked the station guards, to put us in the 'white room' which supposedly had heat. It was freezing in there. We moved into a warmer waiting area at 4am, when the station opened. We got on our train at 5:45, we were at the ferry docks a little after 6. We slept in the waiting area until we got to board at 8. We were exhausted, we got on the ferry, and we had the bright idea to save money and not get a cabin, having been up all night, we slept on chairs pushed together in the waiting area, and played rummy until we docked at 4pm.

We took a train with Rayna's cousin to her moms house. Showered and left for a new years eve party, with some friends of the family. We had traditional dutch new years eve, oilie bollen, or something like that, and then watched the fireworks and had champagne at midnight. there were so many fireworks. Apparently its the only day they are legal, so people buy tons of them. and burn christmas trees, it was amazing, and crazy all at the same time. We stayed there until about 2 am and then went back to Rayna's second cousin's house. And finally got to sleep. We slept in until 3pm.

Then next day we met Raynas great aunt, and her family. Raynas great aunt is adorable, and funny. I have never kissed so many strangers before. by the end I got used to the three kisses on the cheek, though. We ate dinner with raynas extended family, and then headed off to Rotterdam. We talked to Rayna's cousin Nina for a while and then went to sleep.

Nina is a squatter which means she lives in an abandoned building and doesn't pay rent. The first night it was freezing. but after that it warmed up. The next day we went and explored Rotterdam. We went to museums and had drinks and dutch food at the New York Hotel. Apparently there was a photo-shoot going on there and we saw some models. Rayna and I went into a 'coffee shop' just to see what it was like. The coffee shop is where they sell marijuana, we were buzzed in and immediately had to show id. There were all different brands for sale.

The next day we went to Amsterdam and had raw herring, I don't even want to talk about it. We also went into Anne Franks house. Which was very interesting, I loved her diary when I was little, and so walking up the stairs behind the bookcase was amazing. We walked around for awhile, and then headed back to Rotterdam. The next day Rayna and I went to the Hague. We saw the peace palace and the peace flame, and took some crazy pictures. We went to the sea, looked at it and decided it was too cold. We got on the tram and just rode it for a while, then we went back to Nina's spent the rest of our euros, and got on the Ferry. We took the night ferry and got a cabin so it went much smoother.

The back to Lancaster for a day and a half, before rayna went home.

All of the pictures that were taking in The Netherlands, are gone, my camera says they aren't pictures and they are no where on my computer....I'm pretty sad about that.

Christmas Holiday Part I (London and Prague)

What a break! Christmas holiday was non-stop, it started on Friday 12 December. Lindsey and I left that Friday for a few days in London. We met up with my friend Zaid who I met in India, and stayed with a friend of a friend of Lindsey's called Joey. We stayed in a house he lives in with a bunch of other people about 20 min from central London, in the living room, which was fine, and cheap so aside from the fact that we had to have a day tube pass for everyday, and it was hard to go back to the house and then back into town it was fine. I took Lindsey to all of the usual places, Big Ben, Buckingham, Tate Modern, ect.... And we found some new places with Zaid, like a museum that featured an exhibit of wax old men in electric chairs moving around the floor. it was weird. and we had the best cookies ever at Uncle Ben's. We went on the London eye, which was cool, but not really £12.50 cool. It was a whirlwind trip but also a lot of fun.

We came back on Sunday the 14, Lindsey left Monday the 15, and I went to the GP to see if I was anemic, they told me I didn't have a bladder infection...no really? The rest of the day I spent preparing for Tuesday. on Tuesday the 16 Rayna and Casey got here, I picked them up at the train station at 12ish, and we found a bus (that was almost and adventure, sonme buses say they are running over uni break, but they aren't), and got back to lancaster. On 16 Wednesday, we got up early to get to Birmingham international airport to leave for Prague. The flight took off on time, and everything went smoothly until we landed. By landed I mean until the plane fell onto the runway with a very loud "Thump!", so loud and hard in fact that everyone started clapping. Never a good sign. But we all survived and we were in Prague.

From the airport we took the Metro to a stop that was completely unpronounceable, since it was a stop we needed to remember I started calling it the closest english word to what it looked like 'smirnoff'. And so started the renaming of all the Metro stops we used. The common ones were 'jello and pudding, stair master, music, and milkshake' sounds stupid, but it kept us from getting lost. Unlike what lonely planet claims, not that many people in Prague speak English, it happens, and its doable. The metro was busy, so we implemented 'emergency emu', in the event that you get separated from the group and can't see anybody you hold your hand up in the shape of an emu, and anyone who sees it follows suit. We got some interesting looks from people around us, but it helped a few times so it was worth it. The hostel was not to far from the metro, but up about 74 steep steps, unusually unpleasant steps. The hostel was cute there were 7 beds, and the most people in there were 6, including the three of us. We did unfortunately have the 30 year old drunk guy, but he was pretty harmless. The hostel had free breakfast so everyday we had breakfast, and made sandwiches to take with us for lunch. Prague was gorgeous. There was a christmas market in old town, that was very cute, and busy, and at night it was lit up. We went around and saw all the stuff your supposed to see, the random art around the city (which included two guys peeing into a pond, babies on the TV tower, and a freud look-a-like hanging from a pole) We also went to the castle which was interesting because it isn't just one main building, its almost like a city within the walls. We also went to Franz Kafka's grave, statue, and bookstore. the 3 of us are now major Kafka fans. We spend most of the time just wondering around climbing hills, and finding new things, somehow we managed to go to Prague and not go to a jazz club, or any club of any kind for that matter, still not sure how that happened.

We left Prague on the 21 December, to go to London. (this was my 3rd time in London, for anyone keeping track) The first night there, I dragged for Casey and Rayna all around, from Russel Square to Buckingham, on the way back, I got us lost, but we found a bus and made it back to our hostel. We stayed in Smart Russel Square. Which had pod beds.....i can't describe it so I'll post a picture. we were tightly packed with 21 others. It was 'smart' russel square because it was a green hostel. Apparently this means that the showers should be in the basement? I don't know why, but they were, down 2 flights of stairs, around a corner town 2 more flights of stairs, down a long white hallway, and another hallway and then on the right. Not only did we have to hike 6 miles to get to the showers (which was not that big of a deal) but the showers were 'push-on', you know, like the sinks, where you press the button and the water stays on for 90 seconds and then turns off....yeah but a shower. The first night this was interesting, especially since it was all open and the only changing area was outside of the main shower room. By the second night we had a routine, and figured out the best way to keep the showers on, it pretty much involved a dance, but I'll spare you the details.

While in London, we took a duck tour, which was fun, who knew the going into the water part actually was dangerous, went to the florence nightingale museum, saw, big ben, and buckingham changing of the guards (they played Santa Baby, as one of their songs) and walked around alot. We left london on the 23 of December, and headed back to Lancaster