1....!!!!!!!!!!!

I head back to the states in t-9 hours.

So how did I spend my last day in the UK? Let me give the brief overview (and be impressed):

My alarm went off at 7:30 but because I had stayed up till 2 am last night, I hit snooze for 15 mins.

I got up and showered, and gathered together a load of laundry, headed down and started it.

Came back, watched last nights episode of leverage. Ran downstairs and put it in the dryer.

Gathered together some money and went to the store to buy a few items (such as lunch) to get me through today. Ran back and took my clothes out of the laundry.

Gathered together some money, and went to a local store to exchange it to US currency. Trip = 3 miles (of course wasn't tired from this).

Came back and started cleaning, realized that I could probably wash my quilt so took it downstairs and started wash number 2.

Continued to clean. Vacuumed my room so now the rug is blue again (not the same shade as my hair color).

Realized that there were a few more items I could wash. Started wash number 3 with all of the hand towels in our flat.

Did all of the left over dishes and put away already clean ones. Started dinner.

Ran to the store and bought paper towels.
Cleaned out fridge and washed it down.

Went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes film (which I recommend if you enjoyed the first because it was excellent). Total travel = 3.5 miles.

Tired because it's late. Took out all of the trash in my flat and recyclables (left behind by my flatmates and what I had as well). Ripped everything I had packed in my suitcase and repacked it better.

Sorted through change for the buses to the airport tomorrow and gathering my carry-on luggage. My laptop will be the last thing since I have to disassemble it from the wall. I also still have to remake my bed (because I washed everything) and finally collapse in it to awake early to head home.

I would write more, but I'm making typing errors all over the place from being tired. But I am nearly there. I shall soon be in the states.

2...!!!

2 more days!!

Tonight was the children's carol service. It was adorable and child oriented so I could keep up. A couple of them read something and they also performed a short skit and we sang carols and they told the Christmas story to them as they were all gathered around the front. We also got oranges with a few sweets stuck in them with tooth picks, a red ribbon wrapped around it and a lighted candle on top called a "Christingle."

For lunch I had this massive burger with salsa on it that was "fiery" or you know, mild. And while I think about lunch, I might actually miss having lemonade standard come carbonated while I'm home. With some lime in it, it's pretty tasty.

3...

3 days left!

Today I made legit chocolate chip cookies with actual chocolate chips in them. It was very very exciting :)

I getting things together to get ready to leave. I'm going to start packing tomorrow and by Monday I'm going to clean, do laundry, and finish packing things together. I'm gathering together money to exchange into US currency because I had half hoped to get the better exchange rate from my bank, but I wouldn't have gotten it until Tuesday at 1pm at the earliest (not particularly helpful...). Oh well.

4...

4 more days until my return.

I've been working on a list of things I'm looking forward to having when I get back the States. My food list is getting rather long:

Food's I Would Like to Eat(A.K.A. What I Miss)

Pancakes, Bacon, and Syrup

Here the bacon is more like slices of ham (although it does taste the same, it just isn't the same as crispy bacon) and you have to pay extra for maple syrup (which of course makes sense it's imported). I do have something that sort of resembles syrup, but it doesn't have that maple/butter flavor to it :(

Eggnog

This is just a seasonal thing (although I haven't found it here, but mostly I'm assuming that it's hidden is some weird corner of the stores that I would never look).



Root Beer Floats

I did find a store that sells cans of root beer, but for 16 pounds a case I decided to wait on that.

Beef Stew

I could make this, but I'm lazy :) my mom said she'd make it for me.

Pizza

This isn't just any pizza. This is white pizza :) When you're flavors are a few choices including the pepperoni and cheese dubbed "The American" that only a few places will have (proof that Americans own pizza and Europeans are the ones copying) you miss all of the good flavors.


Milkshakes

What's a girl got to do to get a nice thick milkshake around here?


A Strawberry Banana Smoothie from my favorite Smoothie place :D

I usually get one when I feel like I deserve it. I think I do.


Doughnuts

Perhaps a whole box, deep fried, smothered in sugar, glaze, icing, sprinkles, frosting and possibly stuffed full of custard. I can't do anymore healthy doughnuts. They are blasphemy to the name of doughnut. In case there is any debate, Webster comes to my rescue:

Definition of DOUGHNUT

1

: a small usually ring-shaped cake fried in fat

Thank you Webster. I shall find a Dunkin Doughnuts upon return.

And lastly:

A cup of Hot Chocolate

Yes there is hot chocolate here. And I did have a good cup at the chocolate tree (that I dumped my candy cane in to make it better), but where are my marshmallows/fluff (mostly fluff)? What about putting whipped cream and chocolate syrup or animal crackers on top? What about white hot chocolate???? (I'm going to find packets of these and bring them back with me).

And this is my list so far. I'm sure I will find other things to add to my list (like pretzel m&ms) but this is a pretty good start :)

5...

I totally got side tracked to night, but no worries; here is day 5.

Tomorrow is my final day of classes for the semester (not that I'm really on a semester system or anything). I may finally be able to sleep in and maybe not be quite so tired especially once everyone else leaves and goes home.

The most exciting thing I did today, was play the pre-released version of Star Wars and become a sith and rebel against my sith masters because I can. Yup.

I'd put more down, but it's late and I should have been in bed a half hour ago.

6...

And with just under a week left...

I've started my lists for things that I need to get done within the week and things that I look forward to over the Holiday. I might share a few of them in the up coming days.

Not much truly interesting today unless you count I found a goat in Minecraft and named him Billy. Other than that, I just want today (and this week) to end as quickly as possible.

A week to go!

This time next Tuesday I will be in the States once again! Woot!!

The UK was hit again by more strong winds and from the sounds of it Thursday and Friday will be worse. Maybe I'll end up with another day off?

It's not fun walking anywhere and having to battle the winds. I got pushed all over the street. Had the last ballroom dance class for the semester and my poor partner looked like he needed a nap. Half way through the jive he stopped and looked at me and asked what it was he was doing. We did a lot of basic patterns. He has exams, and I assume that's kinda of what I looked like two weeks ago.

Speaking of ballroom, i found out tonight that there will be a ballroom competition in January. Should be interesting to see (idk if I would be competing or not...).

Enough for now! Until tomorrow when the count down continues!

8...

8 more days until I return :D

Today I finished the 3rd of my pattern towards my dress (yeahs!!) and started the wing of a butterfly before calling it an evening. I'm going to continue work on it and am going to hold off too many pictures until I start piecing some of them together to see how they will look which will be very exciting!!

I had an easy day of learning about poultry and enjoyed a very delicious hot chocolate with my candy cane this evening (right before I attempted to take half of my finger off).

Speaking of trying to take my finger off, let me explain. In the most ridiculous set-up ever, my flat's entry way is a tiny hallway with two large heavy fire doors that swing in opposite directions towards each other. Also, they overlap meaning that you have to open one all the way and then the other in order to get through. This makes it very difficult to get through. What we do in my flat, is have a door stopper to prop the inner most door open. This allows us to enter by only opening one door (the one that counts). Today as I came in, the stopper came loose and closed while I was holding the other one open and it slammed (because they are very heavy doors) onto my hand and cut into my finger. It hurt, a lot. I used a bag of frozen broccoli (as it was the only thing of mine in the freezer) and bled all over it. I'm a little angry at the doors and the architect that designed the building (I WILL find them).

9....

I have just found out why it is that I haven't had to show my ID that often here; apparently I look much older than I am (at least to people here). And here I thought I actually looked my age. I honestly think height doesn't help me in this area (as people tend to think taller people are older and are supposed to give them more respect but I don't believe the second part...).

So I stuffed myself on chinese food last night, including my new weird craving for prawn crackers. Yes I know what prawns are, and these things kinda make me think I'm eating Styrofoam, but I'm addicted to them.

I'm also going to leave in a bit for a Carol Service (which includes listening/singing to Christmas carols, and eating mince pies and mulled wine). I also had a chat with someone about their trip to the US and some of the different food and while talking about pizza had to ask if they'd heard about the government declaring pizza as a vegetable. Apparently he hadn't. But what I can't figure out is are people seriously going crazy over there? I don't want to complain too much (because I do like pizza) but I just can't see the pizza from our school cafeteria being declared in any way healthy. But since we're on the topic of pizza, someone order my a white pizza for when I get back please!! (They don't really have a lot of pizza flavors here).

10 More Days!!

Congrats if you get the 10 Lords a Leaping reference.

10 more days until I come back to the States!!

Still having issues with loading my Christmas Market video to here. I will continue to see if I can get it to load up (as I know that it has worked in the past).

Today I ordered take away and had it delivered to me! First time ever! I had a chinese food feast to make me a very happy girl while I watch movies from my laptop.

Countdown: 11

Just to keep track: 11 more days until I am back in the States once again.

Also, many apologies to my video fail. I'm working on fixing it and will have it uploaded here soon!! Like maybe tomorrow if I can get myself moving.

I forgot to mention that last weekend I was walking back in the evening and what would cross the street and run right next to me but a fox. Let's just say, my first reaction looked kinda like this:



The exact thoughts going through my head were something to the effect of:



"OMG!!! I'm going to have to get rabies shots!!!"






Just after this massive panic attack, I remembered that in the UK, they don't have rabies. I suddenly stopped panicing and enjoyed being as close as I was with a very adorable fox who didn't pay me much attention anyway and continued along his way.

Until tomorrow!

December and Christmas

Hello All!! Christmas is fast aproaching and I will be returning to the states in less than 12 days!! Sweet!! But while everyone looks forward to my return, here's something to keep you going :)