Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Europe isn't big into Halloween... Ireland and Scotland are starting to get into it, but those places are a bit too far. So, the Kasteel Well staff is throwing us a party. Everyone here is scrambling to make a costume out of the ordinary clothes we brought to the castle, plus weird makeup. It's quite funny, people are coming up with some pretty interesting ideas.

I am the creepy girl from May

Heather is Samara, the creepy girl from The Ring

And Jill ia A Cat.

Much merriment in the Castle Barn, and then off to the Linden pub to make all the Dutch people roll their eyes at the CRAZY Americans we all are (as opposed to the stupid Americans we usually are).

That's about all interesting that's going on right now. Many more interesting updates after this weekend when I go to Switzerland :)

P.S. AARON VISITS IN EXACTLY ONE WEEK

P.P.S. The name "Aaron" looks funny in all capitals because of the double first letter.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Amsterdam!

When you step off the train in Amsterdam, the first thing you notice is how the air smells. It literally smells like marijuana. It's crazy. I thought all the pot-craziness was just a stereotype but no, the air actually smells like pot. It was an interesting city though.

We didn't see too much since we were only there for the day. We spent most of it just wandering around, searching for the Red Light District. We found it, and it's very interesting. Women just stand in the windows. Most of them are talking on their cell phones. It's quite funny, they don't try to get any customers, they just stare off into space or talk on the phone. And it's only one street (or at least just one that we found) and if you don't look too closely at what's really in the buildings it's actually really pretty. There's a canal down the center where people ride boats and there's swans and ducks floating around it.

We didn't go to any of the places I really wanted to visit, which is fine because I'll be there for three days with Aaron and I didn't feel like spending 7Euro to get in the Anne Frank house or Van Gogh museam twice. I bought a good amount of souvinirs though, and got some touristy pictures.

Today is utterly boring. I couldn't find anyone to go shopping with (Venlo or Nimegijn), and everything is closed here since it's sunday, so I'm just sitting in bed with my laptop waiting for a movie to load. Later I'll do the little bit of homework I have.

Though next weekend should be awesome, SWITZERLAND. So exciting and terrifiying, hehe. Then the weekend after that will be even more awesome, because Aaron visits :) Lots to look forward to!

Love and miss everyone, as always.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I Survived!

Midterm week is finally over. Thank God. There was one that was really hard, one that was fairly challenging, and one that was pretty easy. We'll see how I did.

Last night was American Night at the Linden, always a good time. I feel like the local teenagers just laugh at the silly Americans who come in to get drunk on Wednesdays... but it's not my group of friends who dances on the pool table, so I think we're doing okay.

There really isn't much new stuff to report, Midterms have been killing our souls all week. Hopefully we'll have a nice, relaxing weekend. We're staying at the castle for the most part with a day trip to Amsterdam on Saturday. I think tomorrow we're going to the spa, it's fairly inexpensive, 10 Euro for 2 hours in the thermal baths. Maybe we'll explore Nimeijn since we haven't been there yet.

I am sleepy and boring, I apologize. I'll have more interesting things to write about later.

Miss and Love you all,

Ashley

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Ireland = Amazing in every way possible.

First, I'd like to mention how gross traveling makes me feel. For one, hostel showers are very sketchy, so often we don't use them and end up greatly regretting this decision later. I am all sorts of gross and there is a line for the shower. So I guess I'll blog.

Wow. Ireland was gorgeous. From what Azelie told me I thought I was going to be dissapointed with Belfast since it didn't seem as populated and interesting as Dublin, but she forgot to mention how absolutely beautiful it is up there. Okay, not the city really, that was kind of sketchy and gross, but the tour we took of the Giant's Causeway was spectacular.

Okay, those of you who didn't know my travel plans for this past weekend: Our friend Shaunagh's dad grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. So we all decided to go with her for the weekend, even though we didn't know exactly what was there. My good friend Azelie, from home in Hatfield, is studying in Dublin (Ireland, not Northern Ireland) and I've been dying to visit her, so Jill decided to spend a night with me in Dublin. When we arrived at the Dublin International Airport, Jill and I took a bus into town, and the rest (Shaunagh, Shawna, Heather, Nick, Whitney, and Megan) took another bus up to Belfast. It took Jill and I a fairly long time to find our Hostel, but when we finally did we were greeted by an adorable German boy who became our travel buddy for the rest of our stay in Dublin. His plane had been delayed or something so he had to stay in Dublin on his way back to Germany. It was really cool to talk to him and get a different view on America from someone our age. I don't think I'd really made friends with an ACTUAL EUROPEAN yet (I tend to get shy and think no one likes me because I'm American, so I don't start conversations often), so it was really interesting for me. Yay for international friends! His university isn't too far from our Castle, so there's a chance we may see him again before we trek on back to America.

Then Azelie appeared and hugged me for a good ten minutes straight. Her friend from school, Amanda, was also visiting. She is doing a semester in Spain. So we bar hopped for a while. It was a Thursday night, so there weren't too many people out, but it was really fun. I don't like Guiness beer, I have decided. It tastes like what dirty cat litter smells like. But Azelie introduced me to this beer and black currant liquor mix that is called a Snakebite, those were good. I wish I had been able to spend more time with her, I really miss her a lot. But she's going to Amsterdam the same weekend me and Aaron are going, so I'll probably see her at least once there.

The next morning Jill and I woke up to one of our roommates shaving his chest in the morning light coming through the window. Hostels are quite interesting like that. There's usually lots of people in a tiny space and from many different backgrounds. Chest-Shave-Man didn't speak much English, we think he was from Spain. So anyway, Jill and I packed up, got some lunch, said bye to Sam (German boy) and got on a train to Belfast. We found our hostel pretty quickly, it was really nice. Almost like a hotel with bunk beds. Megan had got us a private room, so we didn't have to lock our bags in cages like the last hostel. Then we took a nap. Got dinner. Went to the pub with the rest of our group who had just gotten back from getting tattoos.

The next morning we got up painfully early and hopped on a bus to the Giant's Causeway. It was so beautiful. We stopped at a lot of pretty places. I will try to get pictures up soon, I'm really behind in getting the non-facebook pictures up. I need to switch picture websites since I'm out of room on my flickr account. Anyway, first we stopped at Carrick-a-Rede, this beautiful little bit of land by the sea with all these land masses sticking out of the water. To get to one of them you have to cross this tiny rope bridge over a cliff. It was awesome. We also stopped to take pictures of these old castle ruins before finally heading up to the Causeway. When we were not even two minutes from the spot, our tour bus hit a car. This took some time. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't cut into our touring time. But finally we got there and it was beautiful. Again, by the sea, huge land masses, but between the two there's these volcanic formations. It's just a really pretty spot, it's hard to put into words. Pictures, soon.

So, that was Ireland. It was definately amazing. Now I have to shower and study for midterms, ugh! Next weekend we're going to Amsterdam, but aparently plans have changed and now we're only going for one day. But I guess that's fine because Aaron and I will be there in two weeks and it'll leave more stuff for us to see together :) I'm really excited, I miss him so much. I can't wait to show him my castle and Well and just everything. And I miss Siobhan, but she can't visit. And my cats. And my family. I'm getting homesick pretty bad. But if I break it into parts it doesn't seem to long. Amsterdam next weekend, then Switzerland (don't freak mom: I may go paragliding! I am so excited! I know Dad would be rooting me on to do it) and the ski trip, then Aaron visits, then it's the Prague trip, after 5 days in Prague we have 5 days for Vienna and Italy, then I think it's Greece and that's the last weekend before I go home!

So, yeah, amazing weekend. :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I am in love with the Pringles Man.

Since the train coming back to the castle from France on Saturday, I have bought and consumed four containers of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. No, not the little tubes, the big, full-sized ones. Yes, I did have some help. But, wow. I hope these things don't have TOO many calories, the nutrition facts are in Dutch. There goes however much fat I burned off walking a million miles in London/Paris... I think this will be one of those occasions where I OD on a certain food until I can't stand to look at them anymore. Previous cases: Bologna sandwiches, cottage cheese, the buffalo chicken sandwiches at the dining hall... not that I don't still eat all of those (minus bologna) on occasion.

Also on the subject of food: Yesterday in Intercultural Communications we got to learn about different countries and their types of food. We also got to EAT! He brought in different foods from other countries for us to try. It was wonderful, our favorite day in that class so far. We also learned about Dutch Christmas, which was pretty cool. They have Santa Klaus instead of Santa Claus, and he lives in Spain instead of the North Pole. He's dressed more like a preist or pope instead of the guy on the Coca-Cola cans we know and love. Instead of elves, his helpers are two little African slave children. Um, yeah. Then we got Santa Klaus chocolates and slave children lollipops! It was... interesting... and delicious.

Anyway. I am very nearly caught up with all my work here. I just have to write one essay for Ethics and I am back on track. Midterms are next week though, hopefully I'll do okay. None of the teachers have given us any clue what to expect on them, so it'll be tough. But none of the mid-terms count for a particularly large amount of our grade, so it'll be okay.

Tomorrow I'm off to Ireland for the weekend. Jill and I are staying in Dublin for the night so I can visit Azelie, then we're meeting the rest of our usual travel group in Belfast sometime the next day. I'm excited to be going somewhere that speaks English. I have no idea about the food there, but if potatoes are still plentiful that's fine by me. Also, Irish is one of my favorite accents. Aze says it's beautiful but suggested we stay in Dublin because there's more to do and Belfast is kind of dull in her opinion, but we've already made reservations and such so we'll have to make do.

The weekend after that I visit Amsterdam with Jill and Heather. I think that's it, but there may be more of us. I'm excited to scope out the area and pick out the best spots for when Aaron and I visit. I know I want to see the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank House, the Sex Museum and the Torture Museum. I doubt I'll try anything in the "coffee shops" but it'd be interesting to see how one worked. And I'd like to see the red light district, but maybe in the daytime, because I could imagine that place being sketchy at night. I booked the hotel for Aaron and I last night, I found a pretty inexpensive one in a nice location within walking distance to the major attractions with breakfast included. I think I did a good job. I'm so excited for his visit :) EXACTLY THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY! He arrives on Wednesday the 7th, he's taking a train/bus to Well, staying in a nearby hotel for the night, then Thursday afternoon we're going to Amsterdam until Sunday, and then he'll be back at the hotel for Monday and Tuesday and we'll hang out in Well and the other little Dutch towns and then he leaves on Wednesday. I'm beyond excited, I miss him lots.

The weekend after Amsterdam with Jill and Heather I just decided to go on a ski trip in SWITZERLAND! Okay, so, some of you are laughing. This is probably because if you know me, you know that: 1. I do NOT like the cold, 2. I cannot ski, 3. When I attempted snow boarding it resulted in a BROKEN LIMB, and 4. I am not very good at things that require a lot of physical endurance. Yes, all this is true. However, I have always wanted to learn how to ski, I enjoyed the little snowboarding I did, I will bring every warm piece of clothing I took to the castle and wear it constantly, and it's fairly inexpensive at like 140 Euro for the entire weekend: lodging, rentals, access to the slopes, and for 15 Euro more you get instructions. And at least one other person can't ski and is going, so I won't be left behind or whatnot. Jenna, Shaunagh, Sammantha, Whitney, and I think a few other people are also going. I'm excited. Even if I tire myself out even more, it's definately an experience I'm looking forward to. How many people can say "I've been skiing in Switzerland?" it just seems like a cool thing to do.

After that weekend, AARON VISITS! :)!!!

Hehe. That is all.

Love and miss everyone, like always, I enjoy your comments so keep them coming!

<333 Ashley

PS. Leave your address if you'd like a postcard! I don't know when I'll get around to it (and stamps are .89 euro each, ugh!) but I'll try to send one to everyone who wants one at least once :)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Paris...

Okay, so, now for the Paris Post.

Paris was lovely, and I was really happy to spend time there with mom... I just didn't enjoy it as much as London. There's many reasons for this.
-I was dead-tired from all the walking around London we did. My back and legs were in a constant state of pain.
-It was cloudy most of the time, I think if I'd seen it in summer I'd find it more beautiful
-I don't know as much French as I used to, so I felt really dumb whenever I tried to converse with a French person
-I missed our usual travel group (though I love Heather and Jill dearly I kept thinking how much fun we'd have if John, Jenna, Eric, Shanagh, etc. were there)
-By the time we left for Paris all my clothes were dirty and gross because I only packed like four shirts and two pants into a single backpack, plus my hair was frizzy and disgusting since I didn't have my vast assortment of curl-tamers with me and I'd left my straightener at the castle.
-I built Paris up so much in my mind I couldn't help but be a little dissapointed.

This isn't to say I didn't have fun there. And it was really pretty. I don't know, I just wasn't completely in love with it like I thought I would be. But I did have a fun birthday. Mom took us out to an Italian restaurant and we had spaghetti and this wonderful wine, then we trekked on up to Sacre Coeur, where you can see all of Paris. It was this cute little section of Paris that was really old and rustic looking. Jill and Heather went back the next day, while I went to the Musee D'Orsay with my Mom and Val. I wish I'd seen Sacre Coeur in the day, but The museam was wonderful. It had some of my favorite artists, Monet and Van Gogh, plus a lot of works that I'd studied last year in Art History. Mom cried when she saw Monet's painting of the bridge, it was her favorite painting ever. She said it was one of those "once in a lifetime moments." I'm hoping my favorite painting, Starry Night, will be in the Van Gogh museam in Amsterdam, I wonder if I'll have the same reaction.

We also went to The Louvre. Saw the Mona Lisa and many other wonderful works of art. That place was just far too massive. I had to sit and take a break in like, every room. It was cool though, definately a must-see in Paris. We also saw Notre Dame, but I'm not totally into churches and religious stuff. I just kept thinking of the Disney movie, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and kept trying to remember if the movie showed the church accurately.

Two nights we had dinner in our room (not allowed for whatever reason, which is weird... but they allow you to have food and chips you buy AT the hotel) and it was adorable, because it was fresh bread, cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine. And chocolate! It was so much fun, we felt very French. I liked this almost as much as the nights we ate out :)

At the hotel there was one really nice desk clerk, and one really mean one. The mean one was this woman who yelled at me about the internet and was giving my mom a hard time about calling a cab. Plus, she accused me and Heather and Jill of staying in my mom's room an extra night after we'd checked out and gone to the hostel. I'm sure my mom complained about her to the manager or whatnot, she was quite rude. The nice desk clerk was this guy named Dipesh from Nepal. We stayed up late and talked with him about America, it was cool to get an outside perspective of our culture. He also asked us to correct an essay in English for him, and talked about all the places he'd traveled and such. I feel bad we didn't meet up with him again, but we're facebook friends so hopefully he'll keep in touch.

Jill's birthday was a day before mine, and Heather and I had bought Jill a dress she had wanted in London. While she was in the shower, we hung it up over her bed, next to the window, with a sign that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" I told Heather I bet Jill wouldn't even notice it. Which she didn't. It was hilarious. Heather and I were cracking up laughing because she was just sitting on her bed complaining about how the razor she bought gave too many knicks. Finally I asked her if she could tell if it was still raining outside, and she pushed the dress aside with the curtains, stopped, realized what it was, and was like "ooooh!" since she thought we were laughing because we poisoned her chips or something. She seemed to enjoy it, and it fit! :) For my birthday they got me a shot glass and bag that I'd wanted that said Paris on it. Two things I had wanted since I got there :)

After two nights in the hotel we went to the Aloha Hostel. I got us lost because I'd brought us to the wrong street. But when we finally found it, it wasn't too bad. Free breakfast, and there was a bar. It was a bit of a change, going from comfy beds and a nice big shower to bunk beds and a shower that we couldn't figure out how to turn on. Our last night in Paris we split a plastic bottle of wine and Heather drank a bit too much. Then Jill and I chilled in the bar for a bit. The next day we hopped on the train and came back to the castle.

I missed the castle a lot, I'm very happy to be back. I'm happy to feel clean and wear different clothes. I am running a little low on conditioner for my hair, which is scary because they don't seem to have Pantene Pro-V Sleek and Smooth here, which is the only stuff that gets my hair the way I like it. I don't ever want my hair to be how it was last week. Yuck. Next two-week trip I am definately taking two bags, I don't care how inconvienent it'll be or if it's 12 Euro to check it on Ryanair.

Now, back to the endless amounts of homework! Hurrah!

Oh, my Brussels trip is finally on Flickr. I may be changing image hosting sites soon though since I'm running out of space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/internationalashley/ click the box on the side that says "Brussels"
If you have facebook, the London and Paris pics are there. For those of you without facebook, I'll figure out some way to post them when I have time.

Love and miss you all like always... comments? <3

Friday, October 12, 2007

Aloha!.... from Paris?

At the moment I am blogging from the Aloha Hostel in Paris. I am very tired and my feet hurt like hell. I am now 20 years old, hurrah! One more year until the fun starts back in the States, right? It was a pretty fun day. We went to the Louvre, saw numerous famous works of art, then got lost trying to find the hostel, then met up with my Mom and Val for dinner and went to Sacre Coeur.

This computer won't let me see my email, wonderful. Gar!

But, more about Paris later... like, tomorrow, if I want to pay another 2 Euro for thirty minutes and not be able to check my internet. I would like to discuss LONDON.

London was amazing. This may be mostly due to the fact that they actually spoke English and we felt a little less like Dumb Americans. However, we did go to every touristy site imaginable... haha. But it was amazing.

London would probably be quite near the top of my list of favorite cities if it wasn't for..
-My fingernails were CONSTANTLY dirty, no matter what I did to remedy this
-When you blow your nose, it comes out BLACK, which probably has to do with reason 1
-The 2-to-1 exchange rate, which was very much not in our favor
-People are too dressed up... I'd like this, because I looove dressing up, but living out of a single backpack for TWO WEEKS doesn't allow many options. I felt slobby, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

We got to see TWO Broadway-ish shows in London's West End. I saw Wicked AND Spamalot. They were amazing. And, even with the shitty exchange rate, probably half of what it would cost to see them in the US in New York. Wicked was even better than I thought it would be, even though I was expecting American accents because of the soundtrack... guess I'll just have to figure out a way to see it in the States too :) But yeah, it really surprised me how well they went by the storyline (even though there were many major changes). It wasn't as comedy-ish as I thought it would be. And Spamalot was hilarious. I kept thinking about how me and Dad used to love The Holy Grail, and how much he'd be cracking up at the show if he'd been there. And I'd probably be embarassed at his loud laughter, but it'd make me crack up too... I think about him like that a lot, I miss him...

But on a happier note... Yeah, it was awesome. Mom and Val took me to the Tower of London, which was this old castle where they used to keep prisoners. It was pretty cool. Then my friends and I went on a tour of London about Jack the Ripper, also very cool though we went through some shady areas. We also went on The London Eye on the ONLY day it rained during our stay... still awesome though. The hotel room was tiny tiny, our hostel room now is bigger than the one Emerson provided... but still, it was a good time. We saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and Camden and all sorts of cute little places. The Tube is actually surprisingly easy to navigate. Leister Square and Piccadilly Circus are probably two of my favorite places ever. Definately a good time. I'd love to live in London someday.

So, Paris is wonderful so far, surprisingly I'm not liking it quite as much as London, but probably because I feel even more "dumb American" here since I've discovered my French has somehow gotten even worse since the Brussels trip. I need to take more French classes somehow. I can understand like 70% of what I read, but I can't speak it well or understand it spoken at all.

Like I said, I'll talk more about Paris when I get the time. I just didn't want to have to try to remember two whole weeks at once. This is my London entry, mostly. Hehe.

Love everyone and miss you all like CRAZY. Spending time with Mom has been awesome though and made me a little less homesick. But still, I miss home! I'm even getting homesick for the castle!

<333 Ashley

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

The President's Visit

(okay Siobhan, just for you, and update... haha)

So the President of Emerson College arrived yesterday. She's here to meet with the governor to try and work out the whole visa issue that's been going on. Therefore, we had a huge dinner to welcome her. It was really nice actually. It wasn't mandatory to go, but pretty much you didn't get to eat unless you went, since the caterers that do our dining hall were the same ones catering the event. We all had to dress "Smart Casual" which we took to mean dressy-but-not-school-dance-dressy. It was fun, I love dressing up!

The president used this occasion to honor all the staff members of the castle. She gave them all sorts of crystalwear gifts with the Emerson logo on the bottom. It was pretty cool. Dulcia was given high honors and such, as she should, since she's pretty awesome. Jill, Heather, and I arrived late so the table with our friends was full up. So we ended up sitting with the photographer, a teacher, and two of the dancers. It was pretty cool actually. The photographer was trying to explain to me that red wine doesn't taste good chilled. I was disagreeing. I guess my wine tasting abilities are not up to par.

Speaking of wine... they just kept refilling our glasses. I think I had about four glasses over the course of the meal before I decided to stop, leaving me with a light buzz. Some people took it a bit too far. We heard stories of a few drunken people that Dulcia rolled her eyes at. Really smart, getting drunk when the president of the college is here to make important decisions about the program... Anyway. I forget the guy's name, but the entertainment was this Dutch musician who was pretty famous in the 60s and 70s, with I think two number one hits in America. When he came on stage the teacher and photographer gasped and one was like "My parents have ALL his records!" and the photographer was like "he was my IDOL when I was 15!" so I guess this guy is a celebrity. He sang and played piano and flute (SIMULTANEOUSLY, it was cool).

The lyrics to one of the songs was kind of silly, it went like this:
Someone left a cake out in the rain
and I don't know if I can take it
because it took so long to bake it
and I'll never have that recipe again...


So, yeah, if you know that song, that's him.

It was a pretty awesome night. Afterwards Jill, Heather, and I walked to The Linden, but there weren't too many people there so we went home early. What was funny though: when we went outside as we were leaving, my Literature teacher was sitting at one of the tables, smoking, with like 15 students gathered around him as he seemed to be telling some wild tale. Pretty funny. Tonight is America Night at the bar, the busiest night for Emerson kids, but I probably won't go since I have to finish my homework before the London trip. I got an extention on one essay, so I just have to write an essay about The Oddessy. I'm totally stuck for ideas though. Any suggestions?

I'm so excited for London!!! :)

Be back blogging about it on the 14th. Leave me some pretty comments to come back to! Love and miss you all! <3

Monday, October 1, 2007

I found my keys!!!

The crisis is over! My keys have been found! REJOICE!
They were in the pocket of my brown sweatshirt, in the laundry. Now they are on my Emerson College lanyard so it'll be harder for me to repeat this nearly tragic mistake. Now I can use that 70 Euro for a bike rental! Woo!

Also, my jetlag produced some good results: Last night I was able to do both assignments that were due during the week I was absent. This is good because my teachers didn't give me the kind of extention that I'd hoped for. Basically I have to write two essays and read a book in the next two days because it's all due directly after our travel break. Nice.

Tonight I ate the biggest eggroll you could possibly imagine. It was the vegetarian option during dinner. The thing was like a meal in itself. And, coincidentally, earlier in the day I had randomly stated in Philosophy my sudden desire for Chinese food, in the middle of a group discussion about Hume and Hobbs' views on violence in man. The eggroll was wonderous and just what I wanted, minus the duck sauce. I've yet to try the Chinese food place down the street, fearing that it won't be like my beloved greasy American version... but now I have high hopes.

I created a facebook group to hopefully pull in more readers to my blog. Mostly, because I like comments. It's a need of mine. Actually, I think it just lets me know people are reading and that's the purpose of this blog, so that people back home can see what I'm up to and people who are here with me can relate and add stories and whatnot. If I don't think anyone cares, I'm less likely to post daily. So, yeah. That's that. Perhaps my plan will work...

Heather has also been blogging about our adventures on her blog: http://heatherbeeadventures.blogspot.com/ so head on over and check it out as well.

That's it for now. I have to read a good chunk of The Oddyssey before we all gather for Zombie Movie Night. My jet lag is wavering but still very much here, so it'll probably be another late night.

Love and miss you all like always.

I lost my keys.

I lost my keys somewhere. That's 70 Euro down the drain for a new set. Maybe by some miracle I left them at home and Mom will find them and bring them to me on Thursday... but I probably would have seen them in my packing was that the case. I probably dropped them in the airport somewhere, never to be seen or heard from again...

When I arrived at the castle after a fairly decent flight (though I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep) I had no way in. I looked around for open windows to see if anyone could hear me and let me in, then realized our dorm had a buzzer. So someone rung me in. But I still couldn't get into my room. I was all ready to camp out outside my room until my roommates got back that night since I was pretty sure Residence Life didn't work on Sundays... but then Chester Lee came to my rescue yet again and opened my door. (did I mention that, when I got the news about my Dad, he was the one to 1. Download a train schedule 2. Drive me to the train station 3. Pay for my train ticket 4. Accompany me all the way to the airport and navigate the train switches along the way and 5. Show me which gate to get on in the airport? Plus he told all my teachers what happened, and told me not to even think about schoolwork until I got back. Yeah, he's kind of my hero a little bit)

Jill and Heather had left me Welcome Home! signs on my desk and bed. Also, a shotglass from Scotland with Scottish Terriers on it. I love my roomies.

So, upon entering, I scoured my room for my keys. No luck. So I put on my pajama pants and crawled into bed, hoping to sleep for a few hours at most. This is about 10 am at the latest. I wake up at 5 pm as my roommates return. Yes, that's right, I got a whole 8 hours, a full "nighttime" of sleep. Now it's 2 am and I have no hope of any sort of normal sleep pattern for at least another day. Must. NOT. Nap tomorrow...

Everyone gave me hugs and my friend Eric nearly made me fall over when he saw me by running and JUMPING onto me and hugging my face so hard it made me bite my tongue. Aw, I missed everyone lots.

We leave for London on THURSDAY. I get to see Mom and Val on FRIDAY. I'm really excited :) I'm glad they're still going, even with everything that happened. I'm so excited for London and Paris, they're the two places I've always wanted to travel.

Aaron officially got his tickets today!! I am so excited!!

Lots of fun things coming up. I'll be sure to take endless amounts of pictures!

<3 and miss everyone, as always.