Post #2 That Sums Up A Lot of Time

Okay, so I know what you're thinking. That I really suck at this whole blog updating thing, which is true. But I do have an excuse! I've been waiting to post because I've been waiting for my beautiful package from home to come here so I can have a camera cord and can upload pictures! Because I really wanted to post some pictures.

24 days and counting...and still no package.

Kaitlin: 2 packages. Michelle: 0 packages.

Clearly I must have offended the post office gods in a past life. Further evidence of this? Today I checked my mail and had a letter from parcel force worldwide. And it said they had my package! At their "depot". Very nice and ambiguous that is. And I have to pay 18.75 pounds to get my package. What?!?!

I really want to boycott this, but on the other hand I really want my package so....shucks. Why post office gods, why??

Anyway...quick update. I was going to post all about Glasgow and our epic train ride. Epic in the sense that we got to the train station an hour early and then when the train finally pulled up and we walked up to it, we were told we missed it! Excuse me, how can you miss a train when it is right in front of you? But after a bit of desperation and running we got on it.

But Glasgow was fantastic. It was great to see and chill with Lael. And it was absolutely gorgeous weather and Glasgow Uni IS Hogwarts. Really. Oh! And we made cookies. Really strange ones but I thought they were awesome.

Hmm, what else. I've been going to a lot of rehearsal and not a lot of class, which is nice. :)

Last Thursday I went to Morecombe Bay with my Ecology class and we really just hiked and walked around. It was so beautiful there! It was sunny and cool and the bay was really gorgeous. One minute into the hike I slipped in the mud and just got mud caked all over my pants/my right glove/my backpack. I'm sure everyone was impressed with my grace. One of my favorite parts was seeing this vibrant green pasture with sheepies and a stone wall fence. It felt like Pride and Prejudice (I keep thinking that when I'm here--it's fun!).

This last Tuesday was pancake day! Which I guess is when you are supposed to eat all of your junkie type food before Ash Wednesday. So after rehearsal I went into town with some British students and went to some people's house and made pancakes! Now British pancakes aren't really pancakes. They're crepes. Or really they or more like really confused pancakes that think they are crepes. Because they don't taste like crepes, they taste like pancakes, but they are all thin and everything. Then they roll them up with lemon and sugar and eat them. It's delicious! But not pancakes. Me and Yumi (who is Japanese/American/British?) made American pancakes from scratch. So good! And all the British people really enjoyed them. Dot and I tried to make a ginormous pancake (aka "the biggest pancake in the world!") but we couldn't quite get it to flip, which was pretty tragic. But it was a really fun night, spent making pancakes and watching House. I also somehow managed to lose my phone! Que triste! Holly and I ended up catching a bus back to Uni at about 1 am. And I had class at 9 am!

So I got 4 hours of sleep, so yesterday I was pretty tired. Then somehow I ended up going out with Amy (my flatmate) and some of her Colorado friends and Kaitlin. We went to this super sleazy skeazy place called the Carelton. We missed the first bus, made the second one, then had to wait forever out in the snow (!!!!!) to get into the place. Plus it was 4 pounds to get in. Yikes. So we get there and it's all club-like and everything, and there's a ridiculous number of people there. I couldn't believe how many people that place could hold.

But despite all that it was still way fun and kinda surreal going out on a Wednesday. I'd been told you had to go to the Carelton once and...now I've done it!

Yep, so that's probably everything. I'm sure I'm missing quite a few things, like going out for "cheeeeese and wine!" with my cast at this nice pub called the Sun where Dickens is said to have spent time drinking! And eating delicious cupcakes every wednesday!

Ciao for now!

I will leave you with a picture of me and Lael in Glasgow! Stolen from Lael's pictures because I alas can't yet upload pictures.

The First 2+ Weeks

So I left for England on the 4th and now it's the 20th and I finally made a blog! Better late than never right?

So the first 2 and a half weeks...it's weird to think I've been here that long because it almost feels like I just got here. So I suppose I will just try to sum up the past few weeks to bring anyone who might so happen to be reading this up to speed.

So getting here was a bit of a trek. I left my house in CA at noon-ish on the 4th of January. My plane was delayed by a half hour or so, so I putted around LAX with the fam, then finally took off on a 10 hour flight to London. The flight was pretty good. The man next to me was this adorable middle aged British man, who basically told me his life story. Cliff Notes version? He was lucky in his career as a businessman and not so lucky when it came to love. He had been in LA visiting this woman he met online and had seen once before and talked to for a year (oh the wonders of online dating). But he was super adorable and tentative about it and I could tell he was really angsting about the relationship. He also told me that tea in America is "quite bad", which is funny because I can't tell the difference between US and UK tea. But besides talking to this British guy, I also watched some movies (Time Traveler's Wife, which was awful, 300 days of Summer, which was not) and tried very hard to sleep, though I gave that up in the end. So I land in London, exchange some $$$, buy a coffee and try to find my terminal. Then I realize I can't find the terminal because my flight has been delayed. My flight keeps getting pushed back, again and again, and again and then finally it is cancelled. They tell us to go first to one place, then another, then collect our bags, then go through customs, then wait in a line, then go someplace else, and so on. I got a lot of good complaining in with the locals, all of whom were quite nice. So about 8 or so hours later I have a bus voucher in hand and am told to get to the bus stop at 4 so I can get coached up to Manchester, because no planes are landing due to "heavy" snow. After waiting outside (it was cold!) for a good 1.5 hours the buses come and 4.5 hours later I'm at Manchester airport. By this time it's around 10 at night on the 5th of Jan. I drag my luggage to the train terminal, almost fall in the snow and am told all the trains to Lancaster are not running. Somehow I managed to find a driver who was going to Lancaster and long story short at about 1 am on the 6th of January I arrive, only to climb 4 flights of stairs with 100+ pounds of luggage. Needless to say..it was exhausting. That and I hadn't slept in...a very long time.

So then there was orientation stuff which was mildly interesting. I got lost a lot. I found Kaitlin, who got stuck in Switzerland then Belgium. I got lost some more and...well just picture me lost for the first 3 or so days.

But now I know my way around campus (well mostly) and am registered for classes. Tomorrow will be the end of week #2 of classes. I'm taking a BIO373 which is Enviro Plant Bio, which is pretty interesting (albeit kinda easy), a 300 Creative Writing Workshop which seems really lax, ENGL 302, a Women Writers class, which is like being back in high school english class and Principles of Biodiversity Conservation, which is way easy. Actually class here is so much easier than Beloit. I'm only in class 4 days a week, some of my classes only meet for 1.5 hours a week and my Bio classes don't have real labs. It'll be nice once I start traveling.

Last Sunday Kaitlin and I auditioned for some plays! 4 plays are being put on during Lent term and you kinda audition for them all at once. It took up most of Sunday afternoon but was also a really fun experience. Callbacks (or recalls as they say here) were Monday and Tuesday nigh, so after some more auditions, today I found out that I got a part! It's just a chorus part in the play Antigone, but I'm really looking forward to it. The person directing it has some really sweet ideas--she wants to use old Japanese theatre styles as influence for movement and make-up as well as the traditional Ancient Greek stuff. Anyway I'm way excited to get back on stage. I haven't done anything since high school and I forgot how much I missed it! I really wanted to do tech for a play too, but apparently you can't act and do tech during the same term.

Ok well I didn't get much sleep last night and I think that's definitely enough for one post! I forgot my camera cord at home but once it gets shipped to me, I'll post some pics!