I am over here! Sorry about the lack of an update, but with the combination of jet lag and homework and exploring I've been a bit busy. My flight was not too bad, although I was rather upset with the movie selection, Nancy Drew and an episode of the King of Queens on a jankety projector? Really, US Airways? Anywho, I arrived on a stereotypical English day: foggy and chilly. We couldn't even see the manor properly when we drove up. But, the manor is spectacular, I mean it is a castle. There's a long gallery, great hall, refectory, ante room, morning room, the state room (where I have my British Studies class), the conservatory, and many more castle-y things. Plenty of statues all over the place and creepy fireplaces and secret passageways that aren't so secret since they were just there to keep the servants hidden. British food is different, not bad, but different. First day there we had fish and chips for dinner and I had the fish. I really do love chips, though. They're tasty.
Now for a taste of where I am currently living: This is the great hall. I have choir here and Harlaxton Players here as well. The chandelier was made to go to a Spanish castle, but they were afraid it wouldn't make the trip since it was during wartime so the owner of Harlaxton Manor at the time was just like, "Oh, okay, I guess I'll take it. I think it'd look nice in my long hall."
This is the view from my British Studies classroom/the State Room. That would be the front courtyard and the gates into the manor.
And this is where I actually live, the Carriage House.
About the rest of the pictures: I have a link here for my Snapfish account, but I do believe you will have to create an account to see them. If the link doesn't work for some reason then you should e-mail me or leave me a comment telling me to e-mail a link for you. http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=19161200511361400/l=347056588/g=118731805/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB just copy and paste that link and hopefully it will work for you. Since you can't see the whole link, just highlight it that line down to the one below it, if that makes sense. If not, just send me your e-mail.
On Friday night our UET class of 2010 celebrated Christmas by doing secret santa! We started this little tradition last year by going to Justin's house (he lives in Evansville and has a very nice house for hosting get togethers) and eating lots of food and swapping presents. Well this year we did not have all of our class there since half of them have been gone for the semester abroad, alas the show went on! We had a good time and made several videos to Christmas songs. I would post them on here, but I'm not sure how to get videos from Facebook to blogger . . .Just trust me that they were hilarious! The videos started by singing along to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." A couple of the girls decided to dance around and sing it to a bunch of people in the room. And the second video was to "Santa Baby" by the Pussycat Dolls. Well, at this point Michael, the guy filiming, decided he was going to be a great director and started off the video all artsy on a candle and panned up to all of the girls sitting on the couch singing along, and then Donny came down the stairs and we all proceeded to seduce him. What a Christmas! The best part of the night, other than the delicious food, was trading secret santa gifts. Here is me giving my gift to Steven (I tie dyed him a shirt, a hat, and some socks): And here is his reaction to getting the gift (i love this photo!!):
The next Christmas party was on Saturday. It is the annual UET Christmas party where everyone gets all prettied up and dances to Christmas music! It's a ton of fun! I got all prettied up: Before the party Sarah, Angela, Leslie and I went out to dinner at Olive Garden in our Semi-Formal gear. That was pretty awesome. Here's a picture of me and Sarah: We're pretty hot, we know. And we decided to make these faces all night really, or at least according to most of the pictures taken we did . . . Here is a picture of Sarah, Leslie, Me, and Angela before the party: Once we got there I had to have a picture with my theatre family (everyone in theatre is in a family where the parents are members of the theatre society and give us fun things for different occasions. It's fun). That's my brother, Daniel, and my sister, Sarah: ANd I did dance a bit. Dancing to Christmas music is such fun! That would be Elissa and I dancing the night away. We're so pretty! All in all, Christmas party is really the most fun party of the year because you get to see everyone in their fancy clothes and just having a good time. Oh, and there are tasty treats as well, such as Fererro rocher and chips and tasty dip! Anyway, that's all for now. Wish me luck on my last final and packing for home! ah!
Tonight was the UET (University of Evansville Theatre) 2010 Lady's night and man was it fun. No joke, we had a blast. I wasn't as excited about it since half of our class is gone to England, but it was really fun. L's, Siri and I went shopping earlier today to go get snacks and sparkling grape juice for our get together and that just started to get me excited about it! Last year we had such a good time and this year was definitely comparable. We basically got a bunch of junk food and sodas and pizza and sat around talking for a while, then we played Apples to Apples (if you haven't played it, you need to!) and then we read Glamour and Cosmo and then we watched the Holiday. I had forgotten how much fun it is to just sit around with friends and talk for a while. And it is really relaxing to know that soon it will be Christmas break. Granted that means that soon I will be on a plane flying to England (ahhh!) but we won't think of that for right now. And man is the Holiday a good movie. Jude Law. yes, please! That is definitely one fo those movies that you have to watch with a bunch of girl friends just so you can all sigh in unison. I'll post some pictures when they show up soon. And here they are: We ordered pizza. When the pizza came, 2/3 of them weren't cut, they were still pizza pies. We played Apples to Apples and according to the only round I won, I am appetizing. And then we toasted to us: the women of UET 2010! Don't worry, it's sparkling grape juice. After our toast we proceeded to read Glamour and Cosmo, like the girls we are. Other things to stay tuned for: Monday is ten night, our class's celebration of being a class . . .yeah it's just a time for all of our class to get together and have a good time and we are drawing names for secret santa! Yay! Oh man, I went shopping for our Adopt-A-Family (charity program where you buy christmas presents for a child in a needy family) on friday and it was just so much fun! I just love getting in the holiday spirit! And then there is UET Lady's Night on Tuesday, always a good time. And then finals start . . .And then I'll have a new niece!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *excitement!!!!!!!!!* And then there is 2010 Christmas (if you can't tell, our class likes to get together alot; we're tight like that). And then there is UET Christmas party, which I got a lovely new dress for :-D And then it's Rachel's birthday, and I come home! Whew. I've got quite the week ahead of me. Well, wish me luck, and I wish you Happy Holidays!
That has been me for the past couple of weeks which is why I have not updated anything for a while. You see, I am currently the head of wardrobe for the play "Grand Hotel: the Musical," which requires quite a bit of time and organization, which i am short on both currently. Yay! But at least i get to see my family this weekend and it is only 6 days until i leave for thanksgiving break! Whoopee! But until then, actually until Monday, my life will be chock full o stuff to do. but, c'est la vie, right? Anywho, for anyone intersted, i will be posting new pictures probably next week or something. Now all you devoted readers have something to live for, i know. To any and all reading this I hope that your week will be significantly less stressful than mine!
In the beginning of October we had our fall break. And what better way to spend your fall break than going to the Smoky Mountains. It was a much needed break from school! I went on this fun little road trip with my friend Courtney. We drove from Evansville to Nashville and then over to Gatlinburg. Our first night out we had intended to spend camping in the Smokies, but we kind of got there a little late so we just ended up staying in a sketchy hotel in Pigeon Forge on our first night. Courtney had never been to Gatlinburg before so we had to go into Gatlinburg that night, and man did we have a good time! We had dinner, which wasn't so great but eh, and then we talked around and window shopped for a while. After shopping for a while we decided to stop into this nice massage place and get some lovely massages. They were the water massages like you see in the mall. It felt very nice. We got headphones with soothing music and there was even a little lamenated picture of a beach that was laying below you when you opened your eyes, not exactly soothing since it was so pixely but it was a nice effort! After the massages came cheesecake and coffee. What better way to end a night, right? Man we were roughing it. The next day were were ready to get up in the mountains and hike!!! No joke, Pigeon Forge was crowded and we were both just ready to get away. But, one last little tid bit about the night before . . . . Guess who got her belly button pierced on fall break? That's right ladies and gents, miss courtney. As anyone who has been to Pigeon Forge and/or Gatlinburg knows there are a ton of piercing and tattoo places along the way. Well, Courtney kept joking about getting her belly button pierced and I jokingly egged her on (although she will blame this whole thing on me). So we had been talking about it the whole day and as we were on our way to wal mart to get some groceries for the trip we passed a place and courtney said, "Alright, after we go to wal mart, I'm getting my belly button pierced at that place." Sure enough, after wal mart we went to the tatto/piercing place (American Rebel I belive was the name) and Courtney got herself a belly button piercing. The place was not very sketchy, it was very clean and the people were nice, little odd looking, but nice. So that was a fun way to end our first night of fall break! Moving on: After we ate breakfast we were off to the mountains! We decided to hike to Alum Cave Bluffs, part of the Mt LeCont hike. That was a beautiful hike and it was utterly refreshing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to just get away to nature after you have been at school for two months. It may not seem like a long time, but stress builds up quickly. Yes, I did wear my "Where the Hell Is Bell Buckle" shirt on the trail and I did get one person who recognized it since he went to MTSU. The hike was a great success. BTW: Pictures from the whole trip are below in a little slideshow type thing. If this doesn't work for you, just comment. I was just trying to try something new so I don't have to post every single picture from the trip on here.
After the hike we drove up to Newfoundland Gap and enjoyed the view. Fall in the Smokies is truly beautiful, I highly suggest it for anyone and everyone. After Newfoundland Gap we drove down to Cherokee where we found a nice place to camp. We didn't camp in the park, but we did camp in this lovely little campground where we haad some very nice neighbors. When Courtney and I had issues building our fire and keeping it going they were kind enough to "make it easy" for us by giving us some quick light logs and lighter fluid! They knew how to camp. I still say there is nothing better than sitting around a campfire with a cup of hot chocolate and a friend. But before we settled down at our campsite we went to dinner with a special guest: Daddy! That's right, he decided to come visit us and take us out to dinner and breakfast, it also gave him an excuse to get up in the mountains. Our first try at dinner was at Harrah's, the casino in Cherokee. Well, we knew that you had to be 21 to get into the casino, but Daddy insisted on trying to see if we could sneak in to eat at the buffet. Yeah well that didn't go over very well. Courtney and I walk in and immediately these two beefy guards stop us and ask for our IDs. I swear Daddy was already halfway to the buffet, he moves quick! After that attempt failed we ended up eating at the restaurants at the hotel at Harrah's. It was just as good, very tasty food. The next morning Courtney and I pack up our stuff, thank our lovely neighbors, and go to meet Daddy at this mom and pop place called "Nana's Steak and Pancakes" (or something to that respect). It was a kind of sketchy looking place, but sometimes those are the best, Daddy hardly goes wrong with his breakfast selections. Turned out it was a great breakfast place, just don't try to use the bathroom there, go the Long John Silvers next door. We had a lovely breakfast with Daddy and parted ways. Daddy went off to hike the Chimneys, or at least one of them, and we went off to see the Native American art museum he kept talking about. When Courtney and I went to the art museum we were talking about how it would be funny if Daddy had already been to the museum that day, and what do ya know? We look in the guest registration book and there is my father's signature. Surprised? Not at all. After the museum we went drove across the mountains, enjoying the lovely view and then decided to do one last "Quiet Walkway." The one we went on lead to the creek where there are tons of big rocks to hop around on. So that's exactly what we did once we got down there, just hopped around on rocks and explored for a while. Once again, very fun, very relaxing. After hopping around on the rocks for a while we headed back to the car and said our goodbyes to the Smokies. They treated us well.
One more little bit: On our way back to Nashville from the Smokies we stopped in to see Kat and Jennifer. We got to see Kat and Jen's lovely dorm room and Kat showed us some fun hippie-esque shop where I purchased my favorite magnetic poetry ever:Romance Novel. Oh it's great, let me tell ya. One word for you: Bratwurst ;-) We then ate at the place where Jennifer works of of the UT campus. It twas nice and tasty and I love the fact that Jennifer sat with us and ate our food while she was supposed to be hostessing. Gotta love my friends!
Overall, it was a very successful and fun fall break. One I won't be forgetting anytime soon!
On Tuesday, Oct 9th UET took our semesterly (?) trip to go see a proffessional play. This is called the Simpson trip. Last year we went to Chicago and Louisville. This semester we went back to Louisville to see a play called The Underpants. It was an adaptation of a german play about a woman whose underpants fall down while watching a parade in Germany and chaos and hilarity insues. Let's just say there's an Italian and Jew who likes Wagner. Need I say more? Anywho, so we have some time before the show to go explore and eat dinner. Our little group of people decided to go off and eat at this lovely Persian place called Saffron's. DELICIOUS! Extremely tasty! Please just take a look at our plates. So much delicious food that was soooo much better than our Dunigan Dining! Jared, the man at the head of the table at the opposite end, ordered rack of lamb. I had never had it before so he let me try it, and it was magnificent. Them there sheep ain't just good for wool! They're tasty too! Anywho . . . . For dessert Elissa and I split this extremely tasty ice cream! It was a pistachio rosewater ice cream and it was heavenly! *drools* Granted I like the taste of flowery things for some reason. (the violet pastels for example that no one seems to like except for me and Heather . . .) But I just thought it had a very unique flavor and it was very refreshing (the food critic in me coming out). Outside of Saffron's there were a couple of interesting things. First there was a horse statue (which are all over Louisville, btw) that was dressed Persian? I dunno, but it had a garter, and that just made me happy! Other than the beautiful horse there was some pretty awesome wall art. Extremely pretty, so we decided to take senior pictures and then do a group shot. We're such a pretty group of people. And do make note of the murse (man purse), it just makes the picture complete. After eating at Saffron's we wandered around Louisville over to this park where there were fountains. So, of course, we had a photo shoot. And no, we did not have a wind machine it was just rather windy. And while we were taking the picture, guess what the boys had to do? Hold our purses of course! I just think this picture is pretty funny because Matt, with the green purse, looks pretty comfortable with the purse and Donny, the one in the very front, is actually holding Jared's murse (one on the right). Oh, good times. The play was very funny and good times were had by all. On another note, I downloaded the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows" and it's pretty amazing. I mean it's Radiohead, so how can it not be? And look for another post in a couple of weeks about my fall break, which starts this afternoon! I'm going camping!!!
