It has officially been a week, and I am STILL living out of a suitcase... Well actually, the suitcase has been put away. So I am living off the floor/bed/desk/window seal/chair/music stand/fan...

That's the worst part about coming home after a long absence... putting everything back where it used to belong. Mostly, I think I'm just too lazy to... but also, I'm getting ready to move into a new apartment, and I still have boxes of stuff in my room from when I moved back to my parents house a year ago.

More pictures of our family vacation to Ireland will be posted... eventually... once I stop watching the whole box set of Sex and the City that Travis bought me for my birthday.... and once I put away all this stuff...

Here's a random picture of Lisa and I... We found a TV out by the river in Norwich...

LOOK WHAT WILBUR SENT ME...!!!!!!!

To Kas: Here's a Big Hug from your favorite Wildcat across the Pond

Love, Wilbur the Wildcat

...Now, I just have to figure out how to get it home without crushing it...!

With all the school work and traveling I've been doing... I've been a Bizzzzzzzzy Bee...

What happens when three COMPLETLEY SOBER girls buy bee outfits for an LCR night that they decide not to attend?

Continue scrolling down and you will find out...

 

....Not too sure what the umbrellas or the glasses or the books were about... but it gave us a good 45mins. of pure, clean entertainment. :)

Paris Post #4: Random

I'm actually not touching the ground....

Some very cool music I bought

They have wishing wells in France, too?

Some random French lady playing the accordion

My Brand New Racing Car

Don't worry Ma, I just charged it on the credit card... No Worries...

Emily and I

Mikayla's friends and I:

L-R: Acsana, Mary, Mikayla, Emily, Me

Mikayla and I

Some girls that I hung out with and went salsa dancing with...

I can't remember their names anymore, but they were SO nice.

Jessica is the girl on the far right.

I met her in Norwich at salsa dancing once.

She just moved to Paris for school/job. My friend Alex was visiting her...

This is my friend Alex. He is probably one of THE nicest guys I've met here.

Can we say, "Chatty Cathy?" ...definitely

Mikayla, Alex and I flew in from Paris on the same plane. We got in around 6p.

Mikayla and I had tickets for the coach, but we wouldn't have left the airport till about 9p,

and by the time all the travelling/layovers would take place, we would have been home at 2a.

Instead, Alex offered us a ride home since his car was at the airport!

So instead of getting in at 2a, we got home about 11.30p :)

We would have been home around 11, but Alex got lost.

I was in the front seat so I got to be his co-captain and figure out which roads to take.

England is ridiculous. TOO MANY ROADS; going every which way.

Anyway;

Thank You Alex!!!! <3

Paris Post #3: Bridges and Such

There are about a gazillion bridges in Paris. Each one beautiful and unique in it's very own way.

My favourite bridge was this one:

Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor

One reason why it is my favourite is because it's in one of my favourite TV shows!

Sex and The City.

Season 6, Episode 94: "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"

It's the part after Carrie and Alexsander get in a fight, and she meets up with Mr. Big. They are walking together, and it was basically right where I'm standing where he tells her that she's "the one".

Good Episode! :)

Also, the fence is full of padlocks. Emily told me that couples come here, and place a lock on the fence, to sort of symbolize their love for one another... locking the padlock = you're the only one for me; forever...

aww.... Very cute

Walking along the river was is one of my favourite things to do in a big city... London, Dublin, Paris... Love it...

Have you ever seen the movie 'Ratatouille'? LOVE that movie... well, in the beginning of the movie when Remy (the rat) is first discovered in the kitchen, the garbage boy, Linguini, is told to destroy him. He walks out to the river and is about to dump the rat into the water, but he just can't.

While Mikayla and I were walking, I saw the end of this part of the river and instantly thought of that movie. Right before the bridge on the right hand side.... that HAS to be the part of the bridge that they copied for the movie....

And then at the end of the movie, when Remy is running from the small bad chef, with Linguini's papers... and he leaps from the trees onto a boat... TOTALLY the middle part of this picutre! I swear! It looks just like it!

So one day, Mikayla and I were walking alone. No Emily, no Alessio, no Mary... just us two. We SORTA got lost, but that was the whole point. To see where we would end up... We happened to come across this random garden thing. The only other person in it was a bum who was laying in the grass taking in the beautiful sunshine.

WARNING: The blog which you about to read is full of rambling and nothing ness. Proceed only if you have NOTHING ELSE TO DO....


So honestly, I havn't really been up to anything latley. I returned from Dublin to an empty flat. :( Everyone is either on holiday, or have gone home for Easter Break. Zahra came back for a day, and Ruth has been here for the past two or three days, but I don't see her except for if we bump into each other in the hall as she is coming or going, because she works all day.

I eagerly await 6th April when Mikayla returns from London. Because on the eve 7th April, we are on our way to Paris!!!! I can't wait. Her friend, Emily, is currently studying abroad there, so hopefully we will get to hang out with her some... She came to Norwich for a week - very cool girl

To keep myself busy, I have been practicing my trumpet, watching movies, walking around the lake, and going SALSA DANCING!!
My favourite people to dance with are Fabio (from Italy) and Alex (from England). Alexandros (Alex, for short, from Greece) is a lot of fun to dance with, but he just started 3 months ago, so is still a bit crazy when he dances...

I dance the best with Fabio... except for last night. The place was very crowded, and I wasn't trusting him enough when he tried to dip me, so he gave up on me for the night!! Haha... that's okay. I can always dance with him later.

Carlo (from Italy) I met last weekend and I loved dancing with him, but he is off to the States on 7th April to do some research/work. I went to Holy Thursday Mass with him, and will probably be going to Easter Mass with him as well... it's always nice to have someone to go to church with! But let me tell you, he is VERY Catholic!!
The one thing that I do not like about Mass here in England is that during the 'Our Father', people don't hold hands. I mean, it's not like I was DYING to hold Carlo's hand or anything... I just think it's weird that here they don't. I noticed it the last few times I went to church, and it always surprises me... I thought the whole point of that prayer was to unite together; to pray together, and the holding of the hands was to bring the congragation together as one... but, maybe that was just in my head...

Mom, I know what you are thinking, WHERE ARE ALL THE GIRLS??!!
I'm sorry! But I can't exactly dance with GIRLS!! These girls here don't know how to lead, and I can't lead salsa either, so I'm FORCED to dance with boys... ;-)
But no, I do have some girl salsa friends. My favourites are Kelly and Jo. Kelly is American and she is this tiny asian girl, but MAN can she move her body!!! I feel so weird next to her haha. And Jo I met last night. She is this TALLLLL lady, I'm thinking around 35? But she was really cool. Hopefully if I go dancing tonight I will see her again.

There is this one lady there, who you KNOW she is only there to
1) get laid that night
2) find a husband
3) get free drinks
and/or
4) all of the above...
Victoria, you know the kinda lady I am talking about. We see her at salsa and swing everytime we are out... the lady who probably has curly hair, but wears it straight, who wears loads of makeup - dark eyeliner, red glossy lips, obnoxious amounts of blush, who wears the tighest pants she owns and the most youthful tight shirt she can find, and 4'' heels.... and did I mention she is around... oh, 40? .... Yup. And you KNOW she isn't there with her husband or just to have a good time, because when she is dancing, she is always looking around. Trying to see who she will dance with next, trying to see who is with who, and making sure that EVERYONE there is watching her.... She's alright. Not a bad dancer, but VERY annoying. Fabio told me that he doesn't dance with her because she does that.  He believes that when you are dancing with someone, you should concentrate on that person only. It doesn't matter who else is around, or who you want to dance with next... you two are having a conversation through dance... and all that your focus should be on is you two at that moment in that small space on the dance floor...

Ever since he told me that, I have been trying not to let my eyes wander. I have a habit of either looking at the floor, or getting distracted by some cute guy or hott lady dancing in the background... But I have found that if I DO pay attention to the person I am dancing to, and make eye contact with them almost constantly, that I dance soooo much better, because I am so much more aware of what they/we are doing.

Speaking of small space...
The place I went to last night was TINY!! I got there around 11p, and it was PACKED. The dance floor was probably as big as my bedroom. No joke. And it didn't help that there was a huge crowd at the bar, flowing onto the dance floor. Around 12/12.30 though, most of the non-dancers started to dissappear, but it was still crowded because new dancers began to show up... The floor finally emptyed enough to dance in a space more than 1' X 1' around 1am... but by that time, I was exhausted, so I went home... Shucks...

There is also a place called Bar Tapas, that I LOVE. It has this Mexican resturaunt feel, well... because that's what it is during the day! Every Sat. night, they move all the tables and chairs and open it up for salsa dancing. Very Fun...

So besides Salsa Dancing, I mentioned that I have been practicing my trumpet... well, probably not as much as I should, but I've been trying to! Last Tuesday though, I went to a Brass Band rehearsal. Now, they wern't amazing, but I still had a blast!!
For those of you who don't know what a traditional English Brass Band is, check this link out...
For a brass band, I do not play my trumpet. I instead get to play a cornet, which is basically a smaller version of a trumpet...
I got to sit in the 'front' row... which is where the top Cornet players are kept... The music wasn't hard, but there WERE a few rhythmic errors made by me, but I was able to figure it out the second time we played it...
Halfway through the rehearsal, they took a break, in which they drink tea, eat scones and cake, and talk about anything and everything. I'm pretty sure that was my favourite part!! haha...
Now you are probably wondering... You brought a trumpet, AND a cornet with you??
Ha. No. I WISH I had a cornet!! One of the band members let me borrow one of his. He let me hold onto it this week, so that next week I can bring it to rehearsal myself... This man just met me, and he let me take him his cornet that is £2,000!! Thats around $3,029!!!!!

Alright well. I feel as though I have rambled on enough for today.

Chio! xx

So today I was sitting at my computer working on my essay (I'm actually doing Homework?! What?! - yes..) and I look up to see a crowd of about 20 people walking past. Now, I normally wouldn't have been alarmed from this sort of activity. Who knows. They could all be going to play a nice game of football, or maybe to have a picnic, or possibly to just strole around the lake, taking in the sunlight and the rather cold breeze... but No. These people were different. I knew for a FACT that they were going to do none of the above!

First off, they were dressed in a sort of medieval attire, and were carrying swords and daggers and shields.

I went outside to invesigate, but kept my distance, in case they decided that I was an enemy and that I should be slayed...

For a while they did nothing. I noticed two groups of people. One with about 15 and the other with maybe 9... all of a sudden, they started screaming and running towords each other!! Then, the sword fighting began.  People would periodically fall to the ground, playing out their tragic death.  It was ridiculous. 

I guess this is some sort of club here on campus... crazy, crazy people...
_______________________________________________________________________________

A few nights ago the boys were drinking the night away in the kitchen. Everyone who was not with them woke up the next day to a lovely piece of cutlery taped to their door. I just thought I would share this with you, for I find it rather amusing:

_________________________________________________________________________________

I thought this was a cute picture of Bob and I. I am on my tippy toes! That shows how tall he is! He gave me a ride on his shoulders as we all walked to a party in another flat. I felt like I was a giant!! He also does rowing - which is crazy cool. He practices every day. I feel sorta bad though, because he has a lot of gross sores/blisters on his hands; but to him, its probably worth it.

(More flatmate bios to come, once I get to know them a bit better...)