Home!

I'm home and it's awesome!

The flight back was so long! I sat by the window from London to Houston. That flight was 9 hours at 45 minutes. It actually wasn't as bad as flying there because I was able to sleep on and off. Once we landed in Houston I was in kind of a bad mood beacuse we had to go through immigration, get our backs, go through customs, re check our bags, and make our way the gate. We had about an hour to do all of this and it was really stressful. My flight seemed like it was going to be on time, so I waited at the gate. Then it got delayed. Then they changed gates. Ugh. I just watned to get home. Luckily, when I landed my mom an Daniel were waiting. It was great to see them. None of my luggage got lost eitehr! Yay!

So being at home is wonderful. I've loved seeing everyone and being able to relax. I've started working out which is part of my new healthy and happy life plan. hahaha. I went on a half an hour run the other day and did some weights stuff today. Woo Hoo.

Tomorrow Daniel and I head to San Diego to move in some of my stuff. It should be good fun! I'm excited.

Yay summer!

Happy Happy! Weeeee

I just got back from the goodbye party sussex held for all of us. I got free dinner which was sweet. What was even better was that Johnny was there! It was so awesome to see him. I got soooo excited! There were a bunch of us talking to him. When I had to leave he told me that I did really amazing work, which made me smile so much. I didn't know what to do, so I just ran. I ran and ran.. Then I got a cramp. haha. It was pretty awesome

Now I need to write my paper. Right now I have about 1000 word outline. I need to turn that into a rough draft by midnight. Then it's sleep and editing in the morning. I have to turn in the paper at 4. That's totally do able. Then off to dinner with Kara and others.

Overall, today has been a pretty good day! =)

only one week

It's Sunday.. that means that I will be home in a week! Eep. It's crazy how fast this whole trip as gone by. I've enjoyed it so much, but I am very excited to get back to the US. I think the exchange rate has gotten to my head. haha.

These past couple days have been pretty uneventful. My friends were all out of the country, so I hung out with.. MYSELF! It was boring at times, but actually kind of nice to get some down time and get a head start on research for my paper. In addition to reading about race, I've become addicted to the show Heroes. It's so good! Luc always told me it was awesome but I never wanted to watch it because I don't really like Hayden Paninwhateverhernameis. It's very addicting and kind of scary. Hiro is the most awesome character though. I am getting really frustrated with the internet connection though. Grr. I bought episodes on Itunes and they are taking FOREVER to download and keep having errors. Itunes is supposed to be BETTER than illegally streaming videos.. why is it not working that way?!

I've also watched some movies. Two nights ago I watched "Walk The Line" (I almost just typed On The Line... remember that movie with Lance? Awesome). I can't say I really liked it. I thought it was quality acting, but it's hard for me to like movies where I really dislike the main characters. Johnny Cash was such an a-hole. Didn't like him. I also went out to watch the Simpson's movie, which was surprisingly good. It's crazy how one person does like 10 voices. That is just super cool. I rented Miss Potter to watch tonight, but I might not get to it until tomorrow. We'll see.

I've also become addicted to online shopping, even though I havent bought anything. I made an amazon wishlist that made me just want to get a job so I can go buy cool stuff. haha. Weeeeee.

I know this week is going to go by fast. On Thursday or Friday night I have decide I am going to eat really badly as a celebration for surviving 2 months in England on my own. I am going to go to Shake Away and get a banana-nutella shake, then eat traditional fish and chips, then get the best doughnuts ever on the pier and sit by the beach. It'll be a nice goodbye to Brighton. Saturday, Vanessa, Kelly and I will be heading to Gatwick to drop off our crap then having a last hurrah in London.

I feel like I'm growing up so quickly. It's kind of scary.

I'll probably update this again before I leave because I will procrastinate and not want to do my paper. haha. Oh well.

See you all soon!

Prauge, Stonehenge, Bath, Vanessa's Bday

Blogging isn't as appealing as it used to be. I guess that's because I feel sort of at home here. Things are becoming normal and don't seem as exciting. I'm sad though. Just as I am really getting used to Brighton, I am about to leave. I guess that's okay though. I feel sort of bored tonight.

Okay, so let's backtrack a little bit. Prague!

Lauren and I got to Prague on a Thursday night. The first thing we did was try to find our way to our hostel. It took a really long time and we could not figure out the busses. When we got to our hostel, we realized it was the wrong one. Finally we found it. It was a college dorm that looked pretty much like a jail. It was kind of depressing. So then we went to go buy some water at this store/bar thing. Immediately we felt like we were being ripped off. That kind of sucked. So then we decided to shower.. so when we got in the bathroom we were like hmm why are their urinals? I don't get it. So we showered, not even thinking that we were in the mens bathroom, which we were. haha. It was okay though, we laughed about it after.

The next morning we went on a 6 hour tour. We had this awesome Czech tour guide who told us so much about the history of Prague. He was hilarious too. With that tour we pretty much saw everything. We also got a river cruise and 3 course czech meal. It's crazy how old some of the buildings are there. The Charles bridge is older than the USA! Nuts. The city was so pretty. It was really great.

Since we had seen everything the day before, Lauren and I just kind of wandered around. While I was trying to buy postcards, the guy working at the shop said he would give me a discount if I kissed him. It creeped me out and I ran away. We avoided him the rest of the trip. haha

Last day we mostly just saw the Jewish Quarter and went to museums and stuff. The Old Jewish Cemetery was probably one of the coolest things we saw there. That sounds so weird, but its true. Then we flew home.

Sorry that was a really brief overview. I guess look at the pictures? haha. I dont know.

Last Friday Vanessa and I went to Stonehenge. That was cool but one of the things I only want to do once. On our busride there a bee flew through the window and landed on my knee. I screamed really loud and everyone looked at me. For like 10 minutes the bee WOULD NOT move. I was freaking out. Even as I walked off the bus, it stayed there. Turns out our bee friend was quiet dead. haha. Still scared me. The theories of how stonehenge was build were so funny. Some people think it was the devil or Merlin! haha. Awesome.

Then we went to the Roman Baths. that was kind of cool.. but weird. I don't know. we drank from this fountain of bath water. It supposed to be really good for you, but it tasted like egg. It was gross gross gross.

Monday we celebrated Vanessa's bday. We ate, went bowling, and ran around on the marina. There are these amazing donuts on the pier. OMG. So good. I ate 5 in 2 days. haha.

Ag. I'm so lazy. I posted pictures though. Go look at them Sorry this post is lame.

Prauge Pics, Othello, and Randomness

I'm sorry. I am feeling incredibly lazy and don't really feel like writing about my Prague trip right now, but I promise I will. For now you can check out the photos in my gallery.

I went to the Globe last night to see Othello. It was really fun and exciting being at such a historic place. I like Othello, but I didn't like the actor. He spoke wit a growl the whole time, if you know what I mean. It was really strange and made it very hard to understand. Rodrigo was awesome though <3 hahaha. I got some postcards in the gift shop to send to my mom and brother. There are a couple pictures posted on the album.

I've decided I get motion sickness kind of easily. On the coach to London, I feel horrible. I slept on the way home, and when I woke up.. I felt horrible again. It's no bueno.

On another note, I can not drink milk here. I bought milk for the second time the other day. I drank it today. I figured I needed to drink most of it today because it will go bad the day after you open it. I'm not sure if I just can't drink the milk from England or because I haven't drank milk in so long I am a tad bit lactose intolerant, but I felt disgusting after. I hope I can drink some wonderful American milk when I get home.

I got my grade back for Sex Drugs and Rock n Roll. Basically I got an A+! Woo. I heard most people got As, but I am still super duper proud of it. I loved that class. Johnny wrote really nice comments about me which made me feel awesome. This is some of what he said: "Consistently made the best contributions across the two student groups. Consistently excellent over all forms of assessment. Very thorough and incisive. A valued member of the class....Very astute and observant. Consistently strong contributions." Go me. I hope my grade in my class now will be just as good. =/ We'll see.


Tomorrow I am going to Stonehenge and Bath with Vanessa, Lis, and Jessica. It should be exciting. Saturday I am doing another school trip to go to Royal London (tours of Kensington and Buckingham Palace. Oooh!). I will write a better blog post then.

can't read.. ughhh

I finished another book today. Killing Yourself To Live (Chuck Klosterman) was very entertaining. I plan on reading more of his work when I get back home. Thats 4 books down. I have 3 3/4 books to read by the end of August. I think that's do-able. I think now I am going to try to finish Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger (The Devil Wears Prada). I'm like 1/4 of the way done with it. I think I'll bring it with be to Prauge.

I seriously am having THE HARDEST time getting back into academic writing. I just get so bored and want to kick myself in the face. It's horrible. I mean, the material is interesting. I've read about a lot of this before,I just would much rather have an evening in with my lovely friend Harry Potter than discuss white privilege and black feminism. I mean, it's important, valid, and relevant information. I just don't understand why academic writing must be so freaking dense. Ugh. I feel like this class is kind of like DOC1 all over again. Oh well.

So I have a presentation for class next Monday. I'm meeting with the girl I am doing it with tomorrow morning, then we're both heading to different countries. This could be interesting. I really need to finish that reading by tomorrow morning.. ugh. NOOO motivation.

Prague should be interesting. I hope it will be. At least I have a guide book and stuff this time. We'll see how it goes I guess. Part of me would rather just sleep all weekend, but it will be fine. I hate not having the internet or being able to talk to people from home though. It's miserable.

Okay, well enough ranting...enough reading.. it's movie time!

I'll be posting about Prague sometime next week. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Ireland and 2nd session

Today was the first day of class for my second session. I am in "Race and Ethnicity in British Society." So far I really like. My class is only seven people which leaves lots of room for participation. My teacher, Yaa, is a really nice, funny woman. I like her a lot and she creates a really good atmosphere. This time, instead of buying 32 books, we have a reader which is nice. I need to start reading because I have a presentation to give next Monday. Fun. Luckily, or unluckily, today has been rainy. It's made me just want to stay in and read. I haven't started the course reading yet, but I have started a new book now that Harry is done. I'm doing pretty well on this summer reading thing. So far I really like it. The book that I'm reading, Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman (Not as morbid as it sounds, I swear) is really interesting. It's about Chuck working for Spin magazine going on a country wide roadtrip to look at rockstar death. I know it sounds really gross and depressing, but it's not. He talks about his personal life and all this other stuff. He seems like a really interesting guy and he makes me want to write. I've always said I want to write a book or do something like that. Reading this book is kind of motivational. Watch out, one day I'll be a published author. haha.

Reading academic works again is really difficult. The packet that our teacher gave us is put together in the weirdest way. It's hard to turn the pages and it's frustrating. Also, I have no good place to read really. My desk is like my computer area. My bed is my sleep area. I have no good studying area. Hmm. I think I may have to go back to that cafe. I have lots of reading to do already. Eep. At least it's somewhat interesting and I am sort of familiar with the topics.




Did anyone else buy the new Stars album on Itunes? I did.. I want to know your thoughts. I'm still debating. I think it needs a couple more listens and I want the lyrics.

Also, I've decided I think I have a thing for Bob Dylan covers. It Ain't Me Babe (Dave Melillo) and Simple Twist of Fate (The Honorary Title) are worth downloading. I wonder if Bob Dylan would be disgusted to read that.. oh well.


Anyways, Ireland!

We left for Ireland on 2pm last Thursday. The airport was really crowded and kind of crazy. For some reason, I never get searched. I'm not complaining but I just think it's funny. Vanessa was wearing a tanktop and jeans, and they like thoroughly searched her. They even were like checking her bare arms, like she was hiding drugs in her skin. It was the weirdest, most awkward thing. I felt bad for her. They didn't even give a crap when I walked through. I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Anyways, we got on our plane. RyanAir isn't actually bad, considering how cheap it is. Our flight to Ireland was only 12.5 pounds, or like 25 USD. Once we landed we spent a while trying to figure out where the hell our hotel was. We ended up taking at 47 Euro taxi. Our hotel was really an apartment, and it was super nice. When you walked in, there was this hallway. On the left you walked into the kitchen/living room. The kitchen was really pretty and had a dishwasher, fridge, and washer and dryer! Awesome. We also had 2 leather couches, a flat screen tv, a patio, and a dining room table. Out bathroom was really good size and nice and clean! The bedroom had a queen size bed and a single. Very good accommodations for pretty cheap. That night we pretty much just bought groceries for our kitchen (just like cereal and such) and pizza. We watched tv too, for the first time in a long time. Exciting.

The next morning we work up and went into Dublin. Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse. It was actually probably the most exciting thing we did. The tour was really fun and interesting. We tasted the North Star brew which was disgusting. At the end of the tour we got a free pint. It was really pretty and they drew a clover in the top of the foam head thing. So yeah, we pretty much didn't touch ours. It was kind of funny. Everyone else downed their beers, and we grimaced as we tried to take a couple sips. I think beer is disgusting. Vanessa got to pour her own pint which was really neat! I took a video of it. I kind of learned how too. Neato!



Water is an important ingredient.


At the tasting lab. We look happy.. this is before we tasted North Star brew.. which made us want to gag.


Perhaps what we would look like if we drank a lot of guinness and did hard drugs. hah. jk.
The flash got messed up --> blur


We saw the red hat society!!!!


Vanessa got to pour her own pint! neat



After this we walked out and it was POURING rain. Ugh. We tried to go to some cathedrals, and were semi unsuccessful. We saw St Patrick's Cathedral if I am not mistaken. The stained glass was amazing! I think that was my favorite part of the Cathedrals. After a while, they all start to look the same though.



This is a bad picture, but you can see how pretty the stained glass is.


We got some food after that. I got a panini, yum! They have good pastries in Ireland. Let that be known. haha.

After food we headed to Dublin Castle. I was disappointed. It cost a lot to get in and it really wasn't that cool looking, so we left. We made it down to the Bank of Ireland and the Book of Kells. The book was really pretty and I thought it was really fun to look at. Trinity college was really pretty, but I would imagine it would be really really annoying to always have tourist on your campus.

Temple Bar was next. The area was cool and lively, but not exactly what I expected. I really dislike going into bars because its always so crowded and I am paranoid of being pickpocketed and I don't like being around drunk people... and the list goes on. We saw some cool stuff though and had a very yummy dinner. We got leek and potato soup, potato cakes, and potato pancakes. Yum! After that, Ashley, Vanessa and I went home because we were pooped. Lis and Jessica stayed out.

Dublin was fun, but I think the weather kind of hurt the trip. It made all of us grumpy. I also think it's hard to travel with such a big group because it's hard to please everyone. Oh well.

Day 3 was much better. At midnight we headed to Tesco (grocery store) to get HP7! It was really cheap, about 9 Euros. They did a really good job with the crowd control and payment. I was pretty far back in the line, but I had paid for my book by 12:08. There were these really annoying girls though who kept screaming every two minutes. Then they were like flirting with this forty year old guy. It was really disturbing



After sleeping, we headed to the train station. We had originally planned to go to Cork but that didn't work out. After a little "discussion," we decided to go to Kilkenny instead. It was a good choice. We took a 2 hour bus ride there, but it was sunny! We got some food at this weird cafe. Then we headed to Kilkenny castle which was really fun. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but the tour was awesome and cheap! Probably my favorite part of Ireland. The Butler family that owned the castle owned 20 THOUSAND acres of land in the backyard. That is sooo much. We were trying to image how big that is, but I can't wrap my mind around it. Nuts. After that we went to another cathedral and the Black Abbey. Neat. Then we did a little wandering and shopping and went back to the bus. It was pretty leisurely. I enjoyed it. We went to temple bar for dinner. I got an Irish stew which was yummy. The brown bread in Ireland is amazing. Then we headed to the oldest pub in Dublin. It was founded in like 11something. It was too crowded and crazy. They were supposed to have Irish music and they didn't. Vanessa and I left because I needed to get some rest.

Kilkenny Castle! Oooo!



I slept, sort of. I had to wake up at 4:30 and pay another $47 for a taxi to the airport. Pretty much all I did yesterday except for fly home was read Harry. I'm still really tired from waking up so early though.

Well that's all about Ireland. Look at my photo album for more pictures.