For all of you who thought I was over here studying. . .

Too much fun best describes this past weekend! On Friday the entire group (sans Tim and Beth, who spent the weekend in Dublin) got together for a Boggle Tournament. A bunch of English students playing Boggle was a lot more hilarious and a lot less nerdy than it sounds, trust me! I totally bombed, by the way. . . I think I found three words.

The peeps pumped for games and enjoying the fruit tray Gabby made. She's a sweet hostess!

Heat # 2 in the Boggle tournament- feel the tension??

Boggle gave way to a passionate game of Password, although passionate may be a bit of an understatement (see video on Laura’s blog).My team won, by the way- both times! The night ended with a three hour discussion about everything and anything which ended at about 1:30 in the morning. Then I slept over at Laura’s and did nothing all morning until it was time to play some soccer and soccer-baseball in the rain for a couple hours. For some reason soccer tends to coincide with rain for us, but we are way to die hard to care! I’m pretty sure the village thinks they’ve got more than enough idiots. After that we warmed up with hot chocolate and watched I Am Sam and then decided we needed to have breakfast for supper which turned into a bit of an ordeal (people running around in the literally pouring rain looking for ingredients and then making pancakes without a recipe). But as always, it was worth it.

The chefs. I look awful, but I'd like to blame it on the rain and the bacon grease.

Sunday was supposed to be a productive day but Laura and I spent most of it planning our St. Patrick’s Day party for Monday night. One of the several highlights of the day (wink,wink-Laura) was when Sharon arrived home from her cousin’s in London with her Mom in tow! She surprised Sharon! Also awesome was the goodies Mrs Heuving brought me from Mom and Dad- which included more peanut butter, of course!!

Monday was St. Patty's Day. Our party was a smashing success with food, games, poetry, story telling, and we even had our very own DJ O'Reilly (aka Alisha) who mixed up some Irish music for us! The pictures say it all!

The spread. It included punch, strawberries, veggies and dip, m&m's, skittles, chocolates, popcorn, crisps/chips and cake!

The hostesses. I was also the bouncer.

No, we are not praying. SOMEBODY was peeking during Mafia!

Team 'Better Than Couch' (as opposed to 'Team Couch'), minus Alisha. Best team ever! I'm pretty sure we practically won Cranium. Actually, we would have if Mark knew how to draw a flower girl.

We couldn't believe how divine the cake was. Sharon couldn't stop eating for the picture, it was just that good!

Us giving the peace sign. Because.

So that was last weekend. Tomorrow we're heading up to spend this Easter weekend in Stourhead where we pretty much get to do what we want, so I'll probably use these next four days to do school work.

Fun

Yesterday was an awesome day! Alicia, Laura, Ree, Sharon and I played tackle American football in the mud and goofed off on the jungle gym (don’t worry we didn’t kick the little kids off- it was raining, so their mum’s wouldn’t let them out of doors). We got really muddy and felt like we were 10 again- it was great! I just wanted to share some of the fun:

Dublin, Belfast and. . . Shakespeare??

So Sharon and I departed from Edinburgh at 10:30 at night to arrive in Dublin an hour later and spend 9 hours in the Dublin Airport praying that the airport police would keep interrogating the guy over at the other bench and leave us alone. We were happy when we finally left because it was sunny and metal benches suck, but then we got into the city and it was ugly- think endless horizon of Industrial Revolution-esque brick buildings! However, Dublin's saving grace was its massive gorgeous parks and sweet cathedrals!

St. Stephen's Park (and Sharon)

The city was a bit sketchy too and we were told to be careful in the area around the Guinness brewery, which of course is where I wandered around alone while Sharon toured Guinness. I wasn’t too worried though because I saw an elderly lady walking by herself and she wasn’t getting mugged, so I figured I was fine! St. Patrick’s Cathedral was sweet, we were befriended by a caretaker who took out his keys and let us into the Lady Chapel where tourists aren’t allowed! Oh yeah! This is also the church where Jonathan Swift was minister!

A stone from the well that St. Patrick used to baptise converts. . .supposedly.

The crypt in Christ Church Cathedral

After two days in the Ugly City we left for Belfast which is an amazing city (lots of shopping centres, even one in a cathedral!!)Our first day we just cruised around and checked out the Botanic Gardens and with its greenhouses built in the 1800s!

Flowers in the Palm House

Tropical Ravine. This flower is bigger than my hand!!

The next day we did a bus tour to the northern coast to Giant’s Causeway.

I just really like this picture of the huge waves- it was crazy windy!

The rocks!They were huge!

We also hit up Derry which is where Bloody Sunday happened, a sobering experience- that was some crazy stuff that happened!

One of the many murals depicting the Conflict.

On our very last day we went for a hike in the hills of Belfast, specifically Cave Hill, we kind of assumed there would be a bunch of caves- we found one.

The one cave.

It was crazy windy at the top and it started to rain, so it felt like we were being attacked with knives, but it was worth it! Of course, by the time we got back down it was blue skies all around!

We hiked out onto that edge!

Sharon had decided to get her hair cut, and once she did I was jealous of her clean, styled hair so I got mine cut too. The lady who did my hair almost had a heart attack because the hike earlier had turned my hair into a disaster area (her reaction, and I quote, was “Merry Christmas!!”) That night we decided that it was time to splurge after a week of peanut butter sandwiches and went out for dinner. I gorged on protein- steak, pork, sausage, back bacon, and an egg, and of course no veggies! (Although, strangely enough I had started to crave broccoli by the end of the break)

The clock tower in Belfast- proof you don't need to go all the way to Italy to see a leaning tower!

We travelled back home the next day via plane and train and were super pumped when we ran into some of the gang at the Oxford train station!
And that was the end of our trip!

Monday was the first day of Drama Week. Everyone was so pumped to see each other and we were all so hyper the whole day, poor Glena, our director!

This is Glena!

Our production was called Shakespearean Confusions and it was a collage of scenes from various plays in which people think people are people they’re not. I was Longaville in Love’s Labour’s Lost (I dress up like a Russian and try to woo Laura, who I think is Sharon- but she totally shoots me down!) and Malvolio in Twelfth Night (for any She’s the Man fans, it’s Malcolm!) I had to be pompous and bossy (that’s kind of close to sarcastic and huffy, right Eric?). We practiced every day from 9 to 4 and performed it on Friday night, so it was a crazy intense week. In the end, though, it was totally worth it because we all had tons of fun and did a whole lot of bonding (plus I look so incredibly hot dressed up as a man!)

Three merry men be we! (Gabby, Beth, and me)

Edinburgh!

From London Sharon and I took the overnight bus to Edinburgh. This mode of transportation was chosen for its twofold cheapness. First, it was way cheaper than train or plane and second, it meant not having to pay for a hostel for the night. I’m not ashamed of being cheap! When we arrived after a night of what don’t think qualifies as sleep, we dropped off our stuff at our hostel and hit the town. The strange thing was, we appeared to be almost the only ones in the entire city awake at 9 in the morning, and nothing was open (except the tourist stuff).We assumed that store owners had determined it was pointless to open up shop because the entire town was in bed hungover. (Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, not everyone in town was hungover- we ran into two guys who were still completely drunk.) We started off the day by checking out Palace Holyroodhouse. This is where the Queen sets up camp when she comes for her visits. It’s also where Mary Queen of Scots lived with her husband who killed her guy friend. One room of the Palace was dedicated to artefacts from these people’s lives with a scary amount of locks of hair.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey built in 1128.

Another picture of the ruins, just because I like it.

Then we hit up the Scottish Parliament, which is a completely modern building which some people apparently think is an abomination in the world of architecture. I thought it was pretty cool. After that we went to the Edinburgh Museum which had a multi-room display dedicated to the town’s relationship with alcohol throughout the years called, “Here’s Tae Us.”

A miniature of a pub. The little dude had fallen over, which we thought was funny, because he wasn't supposed to be like that, but it's probably what would've happened in pub anyways.

We also checked out a museum called The People’s Story, which we had some fun in.

Posing with the ladies. This is the same place we also punked it out in the preview picture from my last blog. I don't actually remember the point of this display.

That was pretty much it for the day. We went to bed pretty early, which was probably a good thing seeing as we were woken up a couple times by our drunken roommates stumbling in and out of the room!

On Sunday, we went to church at St Giles Cathedral where John Knox was once the minister, we thought that was pretty sweet! Then we went for a three hour hike in the hills of Holyrood Park. Absolutely gorgeous!! It was one of my favourite parts of the entire trip! It was also our first of a few experiences with ridiculously strong wind on the trip.

The ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel up in the hills of Holyrood Park.

A view of Salisbury Crags from the hill of Arthur's Seat. We hiked all along there. You can see the tiny people at the bottom. That's how big these hills are- this was no wimpy hike!

Me at the peak of Arthur's Seat. I am not leaning against this pillar, the wind is pushing me! (Notice how my ponytail is blowing straight back!)

That night we met an American named Katie at our hostel and she showed us where JK Rowling penned ideas on a napkin which would eventually make her rich and famous (she’s the author of the Harry Potter series for those of you who didn’t know). We also went out for a drink at The Last Drop. It was named this because on that street is where they hung people back in the day, and apparently people’s last request was usually one last drink.

Katie and Sharon at The Last Drop.

The next day it was a windy and rainy day, so we were a little bummed out after having two days of good weather. We checked out Edinburgh Castle which was sweet. We saw the Stone of Destiny which is placed under the coronation chair and has been used for centuries, and the Royal Honours (the crown, sceptre, and sword)and a bunch of other stuff.

Edinburgh Castle

Me. terrified to go into the prison.

We also checked the Writer’s Museum, when we finally found it after walking forever in the lovely wind and rain. Anyone know Robbie Burns? He’s a big hit over here and was quite the looker too! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon killing time before we had to head to the airport at 8. We whined a lot about the stupid weather, but when we weren’t complaining we had fun laughing at our moping selves.

That’s it for Edinburgh. The next city we went to was Dublin, which Sharon and I somewhat affectionately call the Ugly City.

Reading Break: London

Now I can move on to my reading break holidays, which could become the largest post ever if I’m not careful, so I’ll try to make it short and include lots of pictures for those of you who get bored of reading.

On Thursday (21st) morning we left for London. We went to the British Parliament buildings (yeah Big Ben!!) and watched both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in progress- which is apparently something very few Britons get to do. We also had lunch with three MPs, which probably isn't a common experience either! I also noticed a police officer standing outside the doors of the building with a huge assault rifle or something (I know nothing of guns) and the viewing gallery in both Houses was separated from the floor below by plexiglass, which surprised me in comparison to the Parliament buildings in Ottawa but honestly, who wants to attack the Canadian parliament?

Beth, Sharon, Big Ben, and I (and Mark in the corner there for some reason). The reason that I look like I'm moving is because I am. A guy asked someone to open the gate for him, and as I was the only one who heard and he was carrying something really heavy, I felt that I should help him out, regardless of the fact that this was our fourth attempt at this particular shot.

Afterwards we went out to explore the city. We checked out Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Then it was time to check into our hostel. For some reason Tim insisted that we walk there instead of taking the Tube as suggested, and then the street number for the hostel didn't exist, the numbers just skipped past 229. . . I was convinced it was one of those Platform 9 ¾ deals and we just had to run straight at a wall, but it turned out not to be the case and we found the hostel down the block. That night was a much less interesting experience of watching The Homecoming. We had been forewarned that this play was quite sexual, "a pornographic male fantasy" to be exact. In the end it was pretty much the dumbest play ever!

On Friday we visited the Globe, aka the remake of the original Globe theatre in an altogether different location, but it was cool! Then we took off to explore the city again. We went to Tower Bridge, and along the way saw London Bridge which pretty much just looks like a slab of cement lying over the Thames. Funny story though: the New London Bridge (built after the Old Bridge burned down) was bought by an American, who thought he was buying Tower Bridge and then got a big surprise when the bridge was shipped over.

Laura, Ree, and I excited that Tower Bridge is awesome and way better than London Bridge. I look a little stupid, but oh well, we've determined that for the most part Oosterhof's aren't particularly photogenic, among other things. (Some of you know what I'm talking about, right girls?)

We also got go to Evensong at Westminster Abbey, after Laura used her wiles on the security guy, which is where the Queen was married and also had her coronation! We visited Buckingham that night, lying on the steps outside the gate and then walked down the Mall where they have all the Royal Processions.

Buckingham at night. I saw a light on and someone moving around inside. I'm certain it was the Queen. Originally, I though it was Prince Harry, but as we all now know, it couldn't have been him because he was in Afghanistan.

We visited St Paul’s Cathedral to, which is crazy massive, as you can see:

That's Sharon and I hugging a pillar, see how tiny we look! And that was even before we spent an entire week living off of peanut butter sandwiches!

By the end of the night Sharon, Ree, Laura, and I were dying from walking for hours and riding the Tube for hours, and lugging around heavy luggage for not quite hours, so we decided the only thing to do was head for the golden arches, at which sight Laura nearly cried with joy.

Us at McDonalds. That's me in the flowery shirt. Ree's sort of hidden by a stranger. Laura's in pink at the back of the line. I'm not quite sure why we made her go last after her emotional reaction to the very sight of the place because clearly she needed it more than us.

So that was London. Not as many pictures as a promised at the beginning of this post, but I decided I didn't really want a bunch of pictures without people in them because otherwise they're not all that interesting for those of you at home. If you really want to see the million pictures I have of all the buildings and monuments that I saw, you can sign up to see them when I get back.

Anyways, I decided to do my vacation in stages over the next week. The next instalment in the series is Edinburgh. Here’s a sneak peek:

Better Late Than Never!

So it’s been a long while since I updated my blog. I’m sure some of you have probably given up on me and have stopped checking in. If so, I harbour no ill will and take full responsibility! My excuse was that it was the end of the first half of the term and I was really busy writing papers and studying for exams! I have proof to: here’s a picture of me writing an essay at the station while waiting for the delayed train to show up.

So here’s a brief update: I got to get all dressed up and go to Formal Hall at Regent’s Park which is basically a really formal dinner. Sharon and I really pumped about dressing up!I was supposed to be striking model poses, but I can't. This was my best effort.

Heather is mad because she is left out. Poor Heather.

Then we went to Stratford and visited Anne Hathaway’s house (she’s Shakespeare’s wife), Shakespeare’s birthplace, and a couple other Shakespeare related places, including the church he is buried in. I didn't include any pictures, because they're houses, and not that exciting unless you 've been in them and know what they're all about. However, I include this Stonehenge-esque picture.

On the way home we stopped at the Rollright Stones, a perfect circle of rocks which is apparently an army of King's men turned to stone by a witch.

For Valentine’s Day we held a talent night of sorts in which Sharon and I created a collage of Bible verses about love, we were rather liberal in our adaptation at times, but it sounded nice when we read it!

I helped Sharon man the bar, and Laura just wanted to be in a picture. As you can see, she wouldn't have been cut out for the job anyway, because she forgets that the juice is supposed to be poured into a glass and not onto the floor.

The next two days were stress filled exam days, but after our exam on Saturday we went on a CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien themed tour of Oxford.

A nice view from along Addison's Walk, the path on which CS Lewis became a Christian.

Then the next four days were dedicated to writing essays, which may have turned into more like two days, because I may have, perhaps procrastinated a little (sheepish grin).

So that was brief two week run down. I hope it suffices.