St. Patrick's Day and Other Amusements

My friend Dez came and visited me this past week. We totally had a blast! We spent a few days in Canterbury, one day in Dover, and a couple days in London. It was cool to get to show off the town that I've been studying in for the past six months or so to someone new. (It also made me realize that a lot of what I do here is study, stare at the Cathedral on bus rides, and shop in the little boutiques.) But Dez and I discovered some pretty residential areas on our rambling walks, and we also found a really gorgeous little courtyard/garden in the Cathedral's precincts.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, so of course we had to celebrate. We went to Rutherford Bar where they had all kinds of Irish-themed craziness like Guiness-shaped hats and Irish dancers. It was super fun! Oh, and we also totally made green pancakes that morning. We put green food coloring in the batter, but once we cooked the pancakes they sort of lost their green coloring, except for around the edges a bit. But still, how many people can say they made green pancakes on St. Patrick's Day? We can.

On Wednesday we went to Dover, which was completely awesome. We climbed two mountains that day! Well, big hills and cliffs really, but they sure felt like mountains. The Cliffs of Dover are every bit as gorgeous as the photos make them out to be, and then some.

The weekend we spent in London, doing cool stuff like seeing Shakespeare's Globe Theater, went on a "Blood and Tears" walking tour of London (the guide talked about Jack the Ripper, Sweeney Todd, and other creepy London stories), and even saw a musical. We also saw the obligatory sights, like Westminster and Covent Garden.

Dez's Visit

21st Birthday!

Monday was my 21st birthday. Woohoo! Another year older and another year wiser. Well. Another year older! Woohoo! The girls and I went out to Rutherford bar, which was really fun. They had board games there, so we played Guess Who. :D

Other than that, nothing that interesting has been happening lately. I go to class, I walk about, I hang out with people. :P I feel like I've become too blase about being in England--I have to get psyched about being here again! Hopefully I'll have lots of fun things to do this coming week, as my friend Dez is flying in tomorrow. (I have to get up at 6:30 and go to London to pick her up. So early!) We're planning on doing some pretty cool things in London, like going to the Camden markets and maybe even going on a creepy supernatural London tour. Spooky.

Anywho, it's pretty late here, so I will leave you with this interesting tidbit: in Britain, substitute teachers are called "supply teachers." Neat!

Birthday (Blog)

Flat Dinners and Fire Alarms

Not a causal relationship, I assure you.

Last night we had a lovely group dinner in the flat. Valentina made lasagna and Gabby made buchty, which is a traditional Czech desert. It's basically dumplings with jam inside. It was delicious!

Later that night we were all rudely awakened, however, by the fire alarm going off at 3:30 in the morning. For a minute I thought I was dreaming, but no such luck. So we all trooped outside and stood in the courtyard for half an hour while they checked the flats and turned the alarm off. Then we went inside and back to bed. But THEN! At 5:30, the fire alarm went off again, and we had to go through the whole rigmarole a second time. Nobody was very happy about it, as you might imagine.

As for some positive news, I got my paper about Scottish architecture done and turned in last week, so I've spent the weekend doing productive things like reading about Andean pottery. Yeah, I really did.