A "Wale" of a Week

Oct 12-Mon
Monday I went to class but I was very tired from the weekend. I got to my first class and we found out that our teacher was sick, so the other lecturer for our class came and gave us an assignment to do and give to her next week. Lame! Then I had my creative writing class and my group met with each other to hang out. It was a little awkward and I was ignored until a really sweet girl named Giselle started to talk to me. After that I came back to the dorms to go to Tescos with Dani and Kelsey. We bought lots of stuff for dinner then came back to make it all. We had nachos, garlic bread, and many more. Then we freaked out because we realized we were late for our BCA meeting and lecture on the European Union. But it wasn’t a big deal and we weren’t in trouble.

Then we came back and decided to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch with the Nestle Tollhouse recipe. We burned the first batch but the ones after that were good. We offered them to our adoptive floor mates and everyone said we were awesome and always welcome on their flat. Then Kelsey and Hannah went out. I was going to but I was too tired and I have class the next day. So I talked to my older sister on Skype, took a shower (in warm water!!!) and went to sleep.
End Day 32

Oct 13-Tues
Tuesday I got up to walk to class with Dani and sit through a lecture on The Odyssey. Fun stuff. Then I had my other creative writing class and we had a workshop and thankfully people really liked my work and said it was very well written. Yay! Then I came back to the dorms and did some work and surfed the internet for a while until Dani got back from class around 5:15. Then we decided to make dinner for our own selves and I made macaroni and cheese, and it wasn’t too bad, but it’s no Kraft. By then it was time for me to go to the Christian Union and Kristen went with me so I didn’t have to walk by myself in the dark. The CU was good and fun and I am so glad and thankful to have a place like this to grow in God because it is hard to keep him on my mind in such an unfamiliar place. When I got back I watched Princess Bride with Kelsey, Dani, Hannah, and Alex because Hannah had never seen it (!) I was tired though and I fell asleep. When it was over we went into the kitchen to hang out and I tried to wake up. We ate candy, joked and talked, then drew funny pictures until we started to get too loopy and decided to go to bed. Oh and we planned to go to Wales on Saturday! Yay!
End Day 33

Oct 14-Wed
Wednesday I got to sleep in and I went online and did some work when I woke up. By that time it was around 3pm and Kelsey was back from class. Since it was a nice day and not rainy we decided to walk around town. So Dani, Kelsey, Hannah, Jesse and I headed down to the party shop in town to look at the Halloween costumes to get an idea about what we wanted to be. We still have no idea and the store was expensive, so we left. We then decided to checkout the famous Cheltenham Literature festival in town, but it wasn’t as exciting as we thought. We were like the youngest ones there by like 50 years and there were only tents full of old people reading in chairs. It was kind of disappointing and “very British” as Jesse said, and he is British.
The Jesse and I went to Tescos to buy groceries while Kelsey, Hannah, and Dani went to Primark. Then we all walked back to Regency and ordered Dominoes pizza for the five of us and we all polished off 2 large pizzas, breadsticks, and potato wedges, haha. After that I helped Dani book Paris and watched Merlin with her before coming back to my room, Skyping with my family, showering and going to bed. Oh yeah, we also booked Wales for Saturday! Yay!
End Day 34

Oct 15-Thurs
Thursday I slept super late and had “brunch” and then updated my blog since I needed to. After that I read for class (a little) and started to work on revising my work for my prose class which is due Friday at 4pm. By that time I was bored and waiting for Kelsey and Dani to get back from class. Then I started booking our Scotland trip and had dinner by myself since Dani was at choir and Kelsey and Liz went to Tescos to buy drinks for our night out. Around 8:30 I was done (mostly) with booking Scotland and I had gotten ready, so I went downstairs to Liz’s kitchen to meet Kelsey, Hannah, Jesse, and Jade, to hang out before going to Blush.

The game was fun but then we had to walk to the club in the rain and I was cold and wet with frizzy hair when we got there. Awesome. Blush was a lot more fun than the week before but it was kind of crazy. Dani and I left at about 1:15 and I came back and finished my Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream to make up for my not-so-nice night out. Yum.
End Day 35

Oct 16-Fri
So Friday I slept until 12 but only because I set my alarm to be able to get up in time to write my story for creative writing and have it e-mailed to my teacher by 4pm. I would have slept longer if I could because I was up until 4am after Blush hanging out with Kelsey, Hannah, Ryan and Sonny. Very entertaining. So I woke up, wrote my story, did some reading, finished booking Scotland (hooray!) and then got bored. So I took a nap around 4pm after e-mailing my story. I then woke up and made dinner in Dani’s kitchen then went to One-Stop to buy sweets again. Then we planned film night and while Dani was showering, Kelsey and I came back to my flat and got talked into playing beer pong. I’d never played and I don’t like beer so I made the mistake of letting drunken Tia make my drink. So she took my Smirnoff Ice and mixed it with Bacardi and black currant (nasty berry found everywhere in the UK) juice. I had two cups of that plus a cup of her Strongbow (cider) before I had to stop because it was so gross I thought I was going to puke. I was then pretty tipsy, since I’d never had that much in one go and they all had fun laughing at my giggly, tipsiness. We (Dani, Kelsey, Nick, Liz and I) watched Big Fish and went to sleep. Wales tomorrow! Woohoo!
End Day 36

Oct 17-Sat
Saturday I woke up early to get ready for our day trip to Cardiff, Wales! But I was exhausted because I only got 4 hours of sleep. After getting the bus to the train station and nearly missing the train, we were finally settled and ready to go. It was my first train ride ever and after a few minutes of chatting excitedly, I started to try to sleep. But the guy in front of us had other plans. He most likely picked up on our accents and he kept awkwardly looking back at us as we were talking. Then he made the usual “where are you from” small talk and then he went off on this ramble session about politics, taxes, Wales, bus systems, trains, transportation systems, and tourist sites, and I didn’t get a word in for the whole ride. I didn’t get to sleep and I had to politely feign interest enough in his pointless rambles to satisfy him for an hour and a half! We were glad to leave the train. Then we went to get some food and walked around Millennium Plaza and Millennium Stadium before stopping to ask for help and map.

Once we had our map we went to Cardiff Castle which dates back to 1860s and the fortress which dates back to 1130 and had the smallest, steepest, highest steps ever. I nearly cried because of my fear of heights. After the castle we walked all the way down high street and past business and residential areas to the Millennium Center, which was down by the Cardiff Bay. Apparently there is a show called Torchwood that Dani loves that filmed something there, so she took lots of pictures of the big center, which had Welsh writing (which is everywhere there) on it and the tall rectangular fountain thingy. After that we walked down to Cardiff Bay and walked along the water. It was gorgeous! Then Kelsey and Dani took me to a “Doctor Who” exhibit because they love the show. It was cool, but I had no idea what anything was. Then we got some milkshakes from inside the Center and looked at some little shops before going to find the tourist center. When we were done with the tourist center we walked to the bus stop and went back to high street on the bus. Too much walking! Then we had dinner at Wetherspoons (#4 in 4 different cities so far) and tried to shop more but stores closed already. We ended up going back to the train station and waiting around for the train, so we could rest and nurse our sore legs. I feel asleep on the way back, needless to say, after 4 hours of sleep and a whole day pf walking around a big city. I was exhausted! Then I came back, stretched my legs, uploaded pictures, and crashed on my bed. No church tomorrow. To tired to even try. But it was an awesome day!
End Day 37

Oct 18-Sun
Sunday I skipped church because I was so exhausted and I ended up sleeping until nearly 2pm. Then I had “breakfast” and did some work. Then Kelsey called because Liz had made us a meal because she wanted to (love her!). She made us a “Sunday roast” without the roast, haha (she’s a vegetarian). It had yummy potato wedges and mashed potatoes with Yorkshire pudding (flaky muffin-like thing) and all topped with gravy. Delicious! We then did the dishes for her since she had slaved away to cook for us. After that we got a craving for Pizza Hut cookie dough dessert, so we called in an order for 4 of them and Dani and I watched GLEE to pass the time.

Then we had the dessert and turned Merlin. Kelsey and I then hug out in the kitchen and washed the dishes and did homework because we were in a productive mood, haha. Then Jesse came in and distracted us from our work and we hung out in his room and listened to music and looked pictures and talked for a while. Then Kelsey left to go to bed and Jesse and I watched a show about a magician who uses subliminal messages to control people’s actions. Way creepy! It didn’t work on us though. Then we both were really tired, so I went to sleep. Yay sleep!
End Day 38