School Daze, Gloucester, and A Whole Lot of Nothing

Sept 21-Mon
I woke up about 9 ish to get ready for classes and give myself enough time to walk there (possibly get lost) and get there by 11:15. Turns out I knew the way better than I thought and I got to campus and found my class by 10:50. So I sat around and snacked on my bag of cereal until class. My first class was “The Language of Literature” and thankfully another BCA-er, Emily, is in there with me. It didn’t go too bad, except when we found out that the class was being split between three groups because it was so big. So basically, you could not have class at this time, this day, or even in this room. Awesome. I ended up in a group that meets the same day and time but a different room and not with Emily. Problem is my class after that starts right when the first one ends, so they need to close enough to get to in a few minutes (teachers end class early on purpose for students with back-to-back classes). We’ll see how it goes.

My second class was “Project in Prose” which is basically a writing class is one hour lecture and 2 hour workshop, but only every other week because the 2 groups switch off. My group went this week, so next week we don’t have to but our group does have to meet for at least 30 minutes together when it isn’t our turn. The stuff we write about is just whatever we are working on. Oh and I am the only American in my class. Scary! It is also a full year course, so the “mock” assessment in November will have to be “non-mock” for me. I asked my teacher about it but his very thick Scottish accent left me only hearing “…..e-mail me…..” so I’ll just do that.

After class I was starving and realized my lack of food, when I had to eat Dani’s bread and peanut butter. So Kelsey, Dani and I went out grocery shopping and planned to make tacos for dinner. A British girl on Dani’s floor, Liz, also came with us and ended up helping us cook. She’s a vegetarian so we made her a quesadilla, which she'd never had, but loved. She in turn, made us all desert, called Angel Delight, which is like mousse and it comes in different flavors. We had butterscotch and it was good, even if the color and texture looked like doggie doo-doo. After we ate, Liz taught us a card game called Zombie Flux, and other flatmates joined us (Jesse and Jade). We played two games then called it a night. We have plans on Sunday with Liz, she wants to make us a traditional English Sunday roast. Yum! She is so sweet.

So the fire alarm went off again. This time it was at 3:45 am. I shot out of bed like a rocket, fumbled for the light, grabbed my keys and left. No one looked happy and apparently some drunk kid pulled the alarm. Great. This better not be a weekly occurrence.
End of Day 11

Sept 22-Tues
I met Dani in the courtyard at 10:50 for our 11:15 class we have together (and with 6other BCA-ers) called “Myth, Epic, and Folklore”. This class is a literature class that will also be split into two groups for size but neither times or days are changed, just rooms, but they aren’t that far apart, which is good since I have another set of back-to-backs on Tuesdays. That class sounds fun and exciting. My last class is “Exploring the Self” which is a creative writing class that deals with autobiographies and self reflection/confession. My teacher is Canadian, and Mike, a fellow BCA-er, is in that class with me, so I don’t so out of place. I’m most excited about this class, it sound so fun! Oh, I almost forgot (thought how could I?), when I was printing something in the library, the fire alarm went off on campus. I kid you not, 2 alarms in 8 hours. It was annoying and I waited for my papers to print before I left, haha.

After class I walked home and made myself food, yay! Then Kelsey, Dani and I walked to a restaurant called Wetherspoons for dinner because we didn’t want to cook. It was good but I ended up having to rush to the Christian Union meeting at FCH and had to walk there alone. I stood there awkwardly and made small talk with some people. I was so glad when a group of BCA-ers showed up to save me. We had some worship time, then a speaker, the quiet prayer and reflection, then tea and coffee. All in all we enjoyed it and plan to come back next week and for Bible study on Thursdays. Then we came back and Kelsey and I watched a random British gangster movie in Sonny, one of her floormates’) room. Cambria calls him Slumdog Millionaire because he looks like the guy from there. I went to sleep after that because I was falling asleep during the movie. Gloucester Cathedral tomorrow! They filmed Harry Potter 1 and 2 there!
P.S. Sonny was an extra in Harry Potter 6 and 7, he is in the Dumbledore death scene, all the way to the left, in Slytherin. He is also in a couple UK Wii commercials.
End of Day 12

Sept 23-Wed
Yay for sleeping in! I got up around 10am and got ready for the day. Dani said the day before that Amy wanted to got to the Gloucester Cathedral around 12 because she had class until 11:15. So I was ready by 12 but of course we didn’t leave on time. We ended up waiting for Amy’s friend Rachael to get out of class, and then the five of us walked to the bus stop to catch the 2:10 university bus into Gloucester. We had researched it before and realized that the bus would drop us off at a location that is 9 mins from the Cathedral. We paid our 70 pence and got into Gloucester with no problem. We even found our way to the cathedral without getting lost, but it wasn’t hard to miss the huge towers in the distance, haha. We were very glad to find out that we didn’t have to pay to get in, but all taxpaying UK residents were asked for a donation of £3 to take pictures. We aren’t taxpayers so we just walked on through and took pictures anyways.

The cloisters (hallways) were used in Harry Potter 1 and 2 and we all took many pictures of them. We also pretended to be the characters. I was Luna, so I skipped down the corridors. There were also other parts to see, but the Potter parts were most exciting. After we spent time being nerds, we left and explored a cute thrift shop down the street. I almost bought a Jane Austen novel called “Persuasion” for 75 pence, but I already have a lot of books to read and I needed enough change for the bus ride back. Rachael has it and said I can borrow it if I want. Everyone was hungry after that so we went to Wetherspoons which is cheap and good, and I shared nachos with Rachael (weird side note: their salsa is sweet, not spicy. Weird.). We found our way back to the bus stop and back to Cheltenham all by ourselves and we felt so proud and accomplished to go on a self-planned trip without supervision or help. We went back to the dorms and I uploaded the pictures, took a shower, updated my blog, and went to bed.
End of Day 13

Sept 24-Thurs
Thursday during the day was pretty boring. I slept in, which is good, but I literally did nothing all day. I did some reading for class and some writing also for my classes. Then I just sat around on the computer, did some laundry (which took nearly 2 hours) and sang loudly to my music. Exciting huh? Dinner time came and I got no call or text from Jay, so I am in the clear, hopefully. Dani, Kelsey and I ate dinner together but we each made our own food. Then Dani went to choir practice and Kelsey and I made plans to go to Blush that night. While we were waiting for Dani to get back and get ready Kelsey and I took weird pictures of ourselves, played cards, and painted our nails. Then it was time for Blush.

We were freezing as we walked there because we didn’t want to check our coats in for £1.50. Blush was really fun, but I had a really sore throat and a cough, so Dani and I left around 1am because I was sick and I had a Skype date with my mom. Then Dani and I remembered, when we were already back at the dorms, that we had put our keys in Kelsey’s room so we didn’t have to carry them, and Kelsey stayed longer with Tia. So now we were locked out of the dorm building and our rooms, with no phone also. So we stood at the gate to the dorms and yelled for someone to open it for us. We finally got in and got to Dani’s floor, where the RA lives and asked Greg if he could let us in our rooms. He then said he doesn’t have the master key anymore because he isn’t allowed to (sure, that makes sense). So we had to call security. But we had no phone, and no number for security, so we asked Khouri, who is Dani’s neighbor, to use her phone to call. Then security took forever letting us in and we still had to wait to get our keys back from Kelsey. Finally at 2am, Kelsey gave our keys back and I was finally able to talk to my mom on Skype, after she’d been waiting for an hour. Sorry mom! The I talked with her until 3:30 am and knocked out.
End of Day 14

P.S. I also dropped a cough drop in my hair after if fell our of my mouth. I am a genious.

Sept 25-Fri
Friday I pretty much did nothing. I slept late and played online for a few hours. Then the three of us decided to stop being lazy and do something, so we went to the local bookstore to look around and buy some books for class. We ended up spending an hour there because we are nerds and the store was 3 floors! So much to look at! After Waterstones (the book store) we went into a shop called Accesorize which, of course, sold accessories. Scarves, bags, gloves, hats, jewelry, everything. Good thing the store was closing soon because we all would have gone broke. I bought a present for my little sister and that’s all, because I restrained myself. Then we ate at McDonalds because we were all craving that for some reason, and then went back to Kelsey’s room, because it is the biggest, and watched a Harry Potter musical put on by some college kids on youtube, and some episodes of Merlin that they are trying to get me hooked on. After that we were all tired and our stomachs hurt (probably from McDonald’s; never again!) so we went to sleep.
End of Day 15

Sept 26-Sat
Once again, I slept late and did a whole lot of nothing. I sat around and waited for something to do. We had made plans the night before that we were going to see a movie at the “cinema” today. So Kelsey called me and Dani to work out movie plans and we decided to see Fame, because Dani really wanted to see it, but Kelsey and I could care less. We decided on the 4:15 showing and until then we would make travel plans. Making plans was confusing, scary, and daunting, so the only one we booked was to London on Oct.4 (Sunday). The rest we put aside for now. Then it was time to go see Fame. UK theaters have a lot of commercials, previews and talking people. There were also about a million pre-teen girls giggling and being annoying. The ones behind us kept kicking Kelsey’s chair on purpose and didn’t stop when she asked them nicely to. So the movie experience was very fun with that. The movie itself was ok, but Dani loved it of course. After the movie we grabbed dinner at Pizza Hut then went to Kelsey’s room to watch Merlin and Moulin Rouge (my first time seeing it). I went to bed shortly after because I’ve been sick for three days and felt like death. :(
End of Day 16

Sept 27-Sun
Sunday I skipped church (I know, SINNER!) because I was really feeling “poorly” and I could barely bring myself to wake up before 11. I once again sat around and relaxed but I didn’t feel as guilty because I needed to rest to get better. I finished my homework and was going to nap when I heard a commotion in the kitchen and smelled smoke. Then the fire alarm went off. Amber (British flat-mate) burnt her toast. I calmly got on some shoes, grabbed my keys, and left. There was smoke in my hallway but it wasn’t panic worthy. The fire department came again (3rd time now) to sort it out but they were not happy. We all plan to send them a fruit basket at the end of term. After all that we went back in and joked about how if there ever is a real fire, no one, not even the firemen, will take it seriously, haha. I did more nothing after that and ate dinner with Kelsey and she let me have one of her instant pasta mixes. Then Kelsey made plans for a movie night in her room, since she has speakers and it is a big room, at 9pm. At 9, Dani, me, Nick, and Liz went to Kelsey’s to watch “The Orphanage”. It was really scary and I hid for most of it. Thankfully I didn’t have nightmares that night.
End of Day 17

P.S. I bought Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream at the One-Stop-Shop for five pounds and it is amazing. I think it cured me of my sicknes,haha.