Edinburgh

I am sitting in flat in Edinburgh right now. I am actually the first up (by hours) when it come s to all my flat mates which is a very new experience for me! I've always wanted to be that person that was up first and already taken a shower and gotten ready then everyone else gets up and I always feel like such a lazy person seeing them. The funny thing is I got up at 10am - they just don't get up remotely early. Maybe I'm finally starting to get up early and without an alarm! And I don't feel tired even though I only had about 7 hours - when I think about it this is great!

So yesterday we went to Edinburgh Castle. It literally is on a really tall hill in the center of a giant metropolitan city. It was pretty cool! There were a ton of Americans there and they are so easy to tell with the accents. I'm starting to be able to distinguish UK accents a little too!

This city is packed with "stag dos" and "hen weekends" apparently they go on large group trips for their bachelor and bachelorette parties. They all love to were matching themed clothes too lol. We went to this club and it was packed with them. It looked like a giant themed party, but there were like 25 themes. The guys either were a themed outfit or they wear custom made shirts and they usually have nicknames on it or numbers! I have never seen so many guys coordinating their outfits it was pretty funny.

So some things that I have learned about English people - they actually do drink a lot of tea, they go out to pubs all the time, for the most part they are pretty polite and they don't eat as unhealthy as I would have imagined. They use "I just couldn't be bothered" instead of the word lazy. For the most part they like America and almost everyone has gone to Disney in Orlando lol. The flat were we are staying for the weekend seems to hold the people who are the exceptions to the rules. Other than the people we know living here the other are actually pretty mean! I walked out of the room this morning and saw one of the roommates and said a friendly hello. She literally just looked at me and walked away! I tried to hang out with them a little bit yesterday (I was the only one brave enough to go out and sit with them). I tried to be in the convo, but they just answered my questions then ignored me! These people need to learn some manners! Luckily I haven't met many people like them.

One funny story before I have to go: so the day after I got back from Belgium it was Monday and I had lab. I usually get up around 8:30am. So I actually woke up before my alarm and I checked the time. My phone ( the only clock I have) said 9:10pm - at first I was just like o well this must be wrong. I got up to find my parents phone that they left me and it also said 9:10pm. Then I started to panic and I was in shock that I could literally sleep from midnight to 9pm the next day. I got up to look outside and it was sunny - unfortunately it stays sunny really late so I still was in a panic. I ran out into the kitchen and looked at the clock, but it wasn't a digital one so I couldn't tell anyways. Finally I turned on my computer and googled England time and it was 9 in the morning. It was one of the stupidest thing I have ever done and I was literally about to call up Michael (my professor here) and apologize for not making it in to lab!

I may be coming back for July. Almost all of my flatmates will be gone on summer break by then so I will have to make all new friends again! Hopefully it won't be too hard! OK well hopefully everyone gets up soon and we can go shopping at all the vintage stores!

Belgium

Yesterday - It’s 7pm in Brussels and we are lounging around our hotel room snacking on some chocolate we bought today. Candied oranges covered in chocolate mmmmmm! We have on the British sports channel and it’s all about football. They can’t actually broadcast the game on normal cable so they are playing radio coverage of the game and just posting up flats on the screen. The football fans must go crazy trying to get an update without actually seeing the game! The games all just ended and now they can show dramatic shots of fans and players. Liverpool just won 3-1 and it looks beautiful in Liverpool – too bad I’m out of town lol! Everton also won so it’s a good day for Liverpool. Liverpool got second in the League and sadly they had the least number of loses, but they had ties which hurt their score (it was their highest finish in 7 years). Newcastle just got knocked out of the Premier league and they are showing all the old men crying on the tv, but I have to give them credit because although they are crying they are still singing their team’s song and clapping for them – how dramatic. I have a lot of respect for football players and fans – they play a ton of games compared to our sports and the fans are so loyal. Well the season is over and I never actually watched a game lol. You have to go to certain bars to watch matches and everyone I know either went to the games or didn’t care about football.

Hello Blog!!

So... I am a slacker blogger. I've never been a big writer lol. But I'm going to try and be better for the second half of my trip :) So an update: I am living in a little dorm style flat that's a few minutes walk from my lab, I have amazing flat mates, everyone in lab is soooo nice and I have gone on a few trips!!

So my first weekend here was my birthday and I was kinda nervous about potentially having nothing to do and no one to do anything with! But, I met lab people in the morning for some early morning drinks at a pub before a LFC game (I just stuck with oj lol) and then at night my flat mates took me out down town. It was fun and it was a good time to get to know my new flat mates. And the best part of the evening is that I got carded and I got a bday shot! So now I'm legal :) and at the clubs here I'm way over legal, they usually don't even bother carding me lol such polar opposite from gville.

The next weekend I went on a day trip to the Lake District (a pretty national park in the north of England). There are all these "walking trails" in the area it always cracks me up that they just call it "walking" and not hiking here-prbly because there are no mountains! So I actually didn't end up going on one of these trails, but I visited a castle and beautiful mansion! It's so crazy how there is so much history everywhere here!! I'll upload some pics!

So the next two weekends have been spent with my mom and dad. We went to London last weekend and saw a ton of amazing things like Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. The Queen was at Windsor Castle!! The castle was crazy giant and it was like a museum with all of its giant portraits and cool treasures (although it was all prbly taken when countries were taken over by the British). I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of one the two princes lol. Stonhenge was alright. I was right by a highway, cold, rainy, and windy - not really the right mood. You will see in the pictures what I'm talking about. Bath was amazing and the streets were so beautiful and packed with people! There was this amazing shopping street, but of course the bus didn't stop there lol. Apparently some famous people lived there and some celebrities live there now. I am going to try and go back so I can really venture around the city!!!

Right now I am sitting on a hotel bed in Bruges (Belgium) watching Jerry Macguire. They don't really have many choices with only two stations in English. I feel like all I have done in Belgium is eat... frites(fries), waffles, gelato and chocolate. The waffles are pretty much cake made in the shape of a waffle on a griddle - really really rich and sweet! We went on the most boring city tour in Brussels today. It was a walking and bus tour of the city. We walked around for about 15 minutes and saw a hidden (on the locals know where it is) statue of little girl peeing -lovely- and people were actually posing next to it for pictures! Then we went on a bus and instead of being one that is accommodating for sightseeing it was a coach with tinted windows lol. I actually fell asleep lol. I can't imagine what the people in there car passing the bus thought of the tour with half the people on the bus sleeping. We literally had about 2msec in front of their palace before we passed it because we couldn't stop lol. It was like being held captive on this bus watching all the amazing sites go by. Luckily we got two 3min picture stops at two places lol. I say we're better off on foot! By late afternoon we were on a train to Bruges! Bruges is nice and I was picturing this picturesque little town with amazing buildings. Well it is picturesque and has some amazing buildings but is defiantly not undiscovered and it is not so little. We get in and the taxi has to fight the crowds to get us to our hotel. There had to have been thousands of people out on the street! We walked around and went into all of these cholatiers - gourmet chocolate shops. Luckily a few had samples :) Tomorrow is our buying gifts day and I'm sure we're going to be buying pounds of chocolate! It's late and I have another day in Bruges and Brussels ahead of me so I am going to sleep. I will be better about posting stuff now :)