Heeey all!
I’m not really sure where I left off but I'll start with the tale of Friday. Oh man! So I haven't really mentioned my roommate at all but I have to tell a story. So my roommate is 21, a communication major and for the most part really kewl. I didn't know her before I left other than a random encounter at a friends fake birthday party completely by coincidence. As it turns out we are the only 2 people here that are doing the 6-months classes and co-op deal, so we were paired together as roommates. She is pretty chill and easy-going. She also has bf and we compare stories and get on really well.
Ok, so Friday night rolls around and I didn’t go out for long because I had to wake up maaaaad early for the trip to Wales (bus departed at 7). So im chilling in the room, cleaning, packing and whatnot and she rolls in a little trippy around 12 midnight and grabs the wine from our fridge and is just chillin outside out building in the park (cuz your allowed to drink in public); totally fine.
A little later I call my Bf to say goodnight and all that Jazz and hop into bed. [Aside: I Miss him sooooo much it is almost UNBAREABLE!]. About 20 minutes later my ma calls - its cool b/c I wasn’t sleeping yet and I had been waiting for her call earlier. So I talk to her about how everything is going, let her know I am alive and what I have been up to and what trips I have been planning and how much the pound is Raping me (I wont go there). Then I hop back into bed and fall asleep around 2-ish. A bit late but still enough sleep to be ok on Sat.
About an hour later just as I had fallen into a nice comfy sleep my roomie comes in. Totally pissed and crying. She turns on the light and proceeded to give me the disclaimer "only a minute. Calling boyfriend". She managed to dial the calling card number, the pin code, and the 10-digit number to call her bf. She proceeded to drop all her stuff on the floor, lie down and cry to her bf for like an hour. Now, I am all about talking to one's significant other, but honestly with the light on in the room when someone else is trying to sleep? :-/ Not too cool. Now i really like my roommate and I do understand that she was pissed and misses her bf and is sad - i feel the same way. I thought it was annoying then but its kind of entertaining now.
I woke up Sat morning; needless to say I was running late. But my roommate was still on the floor, in front of the door, fully clothed, with shoes and all. Wow. So I left and went to catch my 7:00am bus to Wales with Neha, Cait and Kim.
Those girls are Awesome! Sat was pretty nice out (at least no rain). The trip up to Wales wasn’t too bad. Although it took a good 3 hours, Neha and I claimed the big back seat and slept the entire drive up there. So since Sat was nice and Sunday was expecting rain, we flipped the itinerary, and went horseback riding along the country. It was BEAUTIFUL and I would have taken a million pictures but they would let us take anything on the horses. They claimed that it was too much of a risk – if I were to fall off, the object would hurt me. (I thought: as if the fall wouldn’t hurt me and I signed a waiver, I’d like to risk it.) But I paid good money so I wasn’t going to waste it and not get to go riding. Mental pictures all the way – but unfortunately I can’t share :-/. So after horseback riding we went into this town called Hay on Wye for lunch.
Story of Hay on Wye (as told by Iva the Driver): In this town, there was once a man who owned a furniture store. He wasn’t selling anything so he decided to make it look cozier so he set it up like a living room and added books to the book shelves. People would go in and sit on the chairs and couches he was trying to sell and read the books on the shelves. He never sold any furniture but soon sold the first few books and so he put many more out the next time – they also sold immediately. So, he took out all the furniture and lined the store with shelves and found a very lucrative business. One-by-one he bought all the stores in the town and turned them into bookstores. He continued to buy the gas station, the market, clothing stores and any property he could until he owned the entire town and it was all bookstores. When he passed away, he left the town to his son, who coincidently has no interest in books at all (personally, I think I would be ecstatic). The son sold off most of the stores to the people who were working in them and managing them. It is still a town FULL of books! AMAZING – I loved it!
So, after 20 minutes in this town I had discovered a bookstore in which all of the books were 1pound (less than $2). I left with 4 books and a HUGE smile – I was happy!
After Hay on Wye, we hit up the hotel. We enjoyed a dip in the pool, the sauna, the steam room (but left shortly b/c it smelled) and then the hot tub, which barely felt lukewarm after the sauna. But it was nice. We then got ready for our 3-course dinner. IT was a flop! Honesty, I am not sure how one messes up steamed vegetables and pasta, but it CAN be done. I would have been hungry if it weren’t for the raspberry torte (which wasn’t even good – just edible).
Later that night after a glass of wine and some chocolate and the discovery of pouring rain, we took a taxi into “town” which was a collection of 4 bars and clubs. Neha and I had a drink and a few dances while Cait and Kim looked as though they would die of boredom. Once we all agreed that we wanted strangle the DJ for conjoining MJ and milkshake if we stayed any longer we decided to bounce. We attempted to check out another place just half a block up the road by running thru the rain, only to discover that there was a cover change (we weren’t down with paying). So we taxi’d back to the hotel and got in around 12 (we are so lame, but in our defense, it was POURING).
I wasn’t tired at ALL, so I stayed awake a read one of the books I had bought which was… interesting. It’s about an Indian lesbian and her adventures in NY, yes interesting. I attempted to call my love but he was in the movies (I think). I went to bed without saying goodnight to him for the 1st time since I’ve been gone. L
Breakfast was supposed to be at 8:30 the next morning – we woke up at 8:30 and got down there at like 8:45 (not too bad) ate another awful meal. It consisted of undercooked scrambled eggs, deep fried bread, cold tea, wanna-be hash browns, and sausage (which I don’t eat, being a veg), sour orange juice, and cereal. So I had tea, and cereal with water.
We started our day on the coach at 9:00am and drove to Cardiff. Cardiff was ok. The main reason for stopping was the castle but since I am not really that INTO castles I went to the mall in search of a rain jacket. Everyone looked at me like I had 5 heads. But I did get a pair of jeans and 2 skirts for less than $30 (yes dollars).
After that we went down to Cardiff bay – that was really pretty but it would have been a lot better if it wasn’t sooo rainy and muggy. :shrug: I guess that’s just the UK for you.
So after that we stopped in another town for another castle. (Castles are pretty but I really don’t feel like paying 4 pounds to be rushed thru). So I went to the pub and got a cider, and kiddie order of Fish and chips (gooood stuff!).
I read on the way home and we got in just as the football game was starting. So I stayed in and watched the game with my neighbors. Wow what a crazy game – to win a WC game in OT with Penalty shots – I just cant like that. But it was really intense – especially the head butt – what was he thinking?!?!
So that was my weekend. Today I woke up late and got to my business class juust on time and was pretty tired all day. After an hour of business our professor let us out because of a field trip we had for our British Culture class; we went to Parliament. That was really pretty. Yet another place that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures though. Very uncool! When we got back to British culture we had a mid-term- We’ve been here 2 and a half weeks, and we had a midterm. It wasn’t too bad but I felt very rushed because we only had an hour to write 2 short essays and answer like 15 questions. Intense. I’ll let you know how I did.
Then tonight, I heard from Joe and Nikki. They are 2 of my friends from home who have been traveling around Europe for almost 3 weeks. We went to a pub for dinner and just walked around Covent Garden, Trafalgar and Piccadilly Circus. They told me about their travels, museums, parks, churches, cathedrals, and other sights and showed me a bunch of pictures. Very awesome! They are leaving tomorrow afternoon, so I won’t get to see them again but it was a nice piece of home. ( I miss everyone so much). But I guess it’s not really that long in the grand scheme of things. I’ll be home before Christmas.
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