A Visit From Scotland!

Unfortunately, I am having a very lame Saturday night, in bed by 11:30. But I partially couldn't help it. For one thing, Saturday nights aren't really big here, people do more partying during the week and secondly, almost every underground line I need to take to get into the city is freakin' closed! Once again, a fallback of living in Harrow. I just have to keep reminding myself I have my own bathroom, I have my own bathroom!!

So Thursday was a very rough day. Not much to say but I felt some extreme highs and extreme lows. It was an oddly intense day. I felt really homesick and loved my life at the same time. Sounds like remnants of culture shock or PMS, I'm not really sure because neither would make sense right now. However, I must talk about the highlight of Thursday, which was riding in a car for the first time since being here. Yes, I've taken the bus and a van the first day of being here but I got to sit shotgun in my friend Gerri's car. It was terrifying but in a good way of course. For one thing, shotgun is on the left.. weird and we were on the wrong side of the road.. weird. But technically if the steering wheel is backwards and the road are flip-flopped, then that makes it right-side up? (Yeah, a little Alice in Wonderlandish, I know.) But seriously, I think I could handle. However, I can't handle the fact that Brits drive worse than Rhode Islanders and I mean that in the nicest way possible. At least in Rhode Island, the rules and regulations are considered "guidelines", but nope, not here, rules don't exist. Seems like survival of the fittest! Nuts I tell ya!

Friday was much better because after my five hour class, I GOT TO SEE CHELSEY AND ALEXA! They took a 4 and a half hour train ride from Edinburgh to come see us! It was great because I had that 5 hour class (which I fell asleep in) and then Kristin and I went straight to Covent Garden to the Roadhouse again for happy hour drinks and dinner to meet up with Alexa, Chelsey, Natasha, Erin, Jade, Corrin, Rachel, Alex, Will, Marc and Henry. It was wonderful and because I had had such a rough Thursday, I cried when I saw Chelsey and Alexa! What a sap, I'm my mothers daughter. When it came time to pay for dinner, we ended up with 30 extra pounds!? And literally could not figure out why. Basically because there were so many of us and we all paid a pound or two over but still, 30 pounds? And they were 3 ten pound bills, so we couldn't split that. So our conclusion? Buy 30 pounds worth of beer and split it! Which I think worked out fabulously.

After buying the golden goods, we went back to Tash's room to get ready to head to a flat party to play some good old fashion American beer pong before heading to a bar/club called "Trafik." We were only there about and hour or so when Chelsey, Natasha and I decided to head back to Tash's. Half because we were tired and out of money and half because we so happy to be reunited that we wanted to catch up. While Natasha was skyping, I slowly made my way into her bed and Chelsey shortly followed. Needless to say, Tash was nice enough to let us sleep in her bed while she slept on the floor and I snuggled with her sweatpants because I didn't have Eukie—yes, that is my bear I've had since i was 8 okay? Okay. But I must say, it was nice to wake up to friends instead of my lonely single—don't get me wrong though, the privacy is amazing since I don't have my car as an escape route here.

We then woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, (9:15) and made our way to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards.. or so we thought. Turns out, the website lied to Erin saying that it would be today at 11:30 but after standing around—on the coldest day we've had since being here—Kristin found a sign specifically saying "There will be no changing of the guards today". Talk about a real bummer cause we were cold and tired. We then made our way to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We were going to go inside of the Abbey but the line was long and no one seemed to have patience today, again probably due to the cold and sleep deprivation. Running out of gas, we decided to go to Garfunkel's for lunch. It was good, but I hate how much we go out to eat, too expensive! OH! AND, I tried fish and chips finally. It really wasn't all that bad and this is coming from someone who LOATHES fish, the smell, taste, looks, YUCK. Needless to say, if I had to fish and chips, I would. Not sure how well I could take down the whole fish but a little wouldn't be so bad. We then headed to Portobello market for dessert at the famous "Hummingbird's Cupcakes." I wasn't going to get one, I swore I wouldn't and I didn't. Nope, instead, I got a big hunk of chocolate in the shape of a cupcake called 'rockyroad' with everything you can imagine crammed inside. It was fantastic but I couldn't finish it, I really should have taken a picture. Anyways, it was a very long day because we did a lot of tube traveling so by the time we got back to Erin and Natasha's, Kristin and I just grabbed our bags and headed back to Harrow; well we tried.

Our route consisted of 4 line changes; had it been running normally and if we didn't live in the boondocks, we would have only changed once! Not that this means anything to most but, we had to take Old Street to Moorgate on the Northern Line where we would have gotten on the to Metro Line, not problem. But because it wasn't working (along with our two back up lines), we had to get off at Moorgate, walk a few blocks in the opposite direction to Liverpool Street—which was closed when we approached but then realized we just had to go in a different entrance—and take the Central like to Bond Street. Here we had to get on the Jubilee line to Baker Street—which is like our main marker. Finally at Baker, we were able to get on the half of the Metropolitan Line that was working and got 'home' in an hour and a half to Northwick Park. At least we found a pretty building through this interesting street!..?

The plan was to nap, shower and make dinner, then meet back up with the girls in Oxford Circus (about half way) for drinks. Well, this never happened. After all of the trouble we went though to get home, it was about 5:30 by the time we go back here and we never napped or showered. So by the time we got the plan, it was almost 9. So with about and hour travel time and the tube closing at midnight, it was just absolutely not worth it. Luckily, we are going to visit Alexa and Chelsey in Scotland in a few weeks, so I will see them again soon. It really was great to see them. Now, they are just going out for a drink or two in their area and there was no way I could go back there anyways, so it was for the best. AND by staying in, we all booked out trip to Paris! Anyone have any suggestions for hostels?

Anyways, have lots to do but all I can think about is sleep. I just want to go to bed when I'm tired and wake up without an alarm—though I think I could sleep for a week if I wasn't disturbed—which leads me to my theory that I may have mentioned earlier. Bristish students, especially the girls, are half robots or aliens or something! They don't sleep! Ever! They go to bed around 3am and wake up around 8am and fully function. I don't get it! Girls also walk around in little clothing and huge heels! WHAT? How are you not freezing or limping in pain, it's the city. Now, I definitely take note on fashion but there's gotta be a compromise with fashion and comfort right? I think so. Call me crazy but I would rather sacrifice fashion so I'm not crawling and icing my feet that night or thawing out my body parts.

So my next few missions; get an internship, write some papers and book spring break. Hmmm....