Run for the Hills!

As many may know, the floods have hit England. The rain is, well, loud (6 am wakeup call for me with such loud rain). The weather is cliche Britain to the nines - woke up and looked like a dry day. Ohhh no. Warm in the morning, freezing in the afternoon. Gale winds. Yes, you heard right. And the places I've visited have been taken over for Noah to explore in his ark.

Went to Cork 2 weeks ago...

Now it looks like this...

Went here with Mike...

Now it looks like this...

Saw this, home of Wordsworth...

...Looks like this these days...

I guess I can say I finally am experiencing true English weather!

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. IX]

It's baccccckkkk!

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: One of my favorite bands (headed by frontman, Ryan Tedder - Number 1 on the Homewrecking list) came out with their sophomore album, and even though it isn't drop dead awesome yet, it's growing on me QUITE quickly. I will be excited to return to the states to see All the Right Moves by Ryan & co. in concert (again!)

Brit Slang of the Week: I've been learning Cockney. Just because I feel like I should. Things I've picked up -
"I'm all out of bees" - Bees = money. Bees & Honey rhymes with money.
"I just did it for a good bubble" - Bubble = laugh. Bubble bath rhymes with laugh.
"Man, I have quite the pain in my Gregory" - Gregory = neck. Gregory Peck rhymes with neck
Oh those cheeky Brits

What's on Telly: I have discovered podcasts - The Soup!, Chelsea Lately, NPR Programs (I'm such a grandma..) and my favorite 30 minutes of gawking - Anderson Cooper 360. As a friend of mine said, "He makes world issues sexy." Hahaha.

Mingers in the News: The students here are ticked! Apparently they are raising the prices of tuition here at Lancaster. It used to be less than half of what tuition is at Gettysburg to about half of what it is... I sympathize... to an extent. Uni Brits have no idea what the cost of an education is really like. However, the protest was quite cool to see through my window...

Let's Get Cultured - British Style: Virginia & I attended Dani's orchestra (and choir - but she wasn't in that) concert to learn things about British performances. 1) They don't turn the house lighting off. Awkward 2) The Choir sounds really good when they sing classical stuff. They sound a little ridiculous singing American favorites like Shenandoah [Mis-zerrrrriiiiiiiii] and Downtown 3) They make a big deal out of first chair, which is awesome since it was Dani 4) Dani totally owned their souls

It's 4:40pm, What Does Your World Look Like?: Dark. Note the picture I took for all your viewing pleasure.

Ending the Week on a High Note: I'm missing my first Thanksgiving :(. However, I'm apparently being skyped in to family dinner (technology these days), going to a dinner provided by my lovely English women Laura & Emily, and making my first homemade pumpkin pie courtesy of Paula Deene. I'm also attempting to make this for a certain American boy's birthday. Wish me luck.

Kissing Stones in the Emerald Isle

Taking a break from the paper writing, I decided to finally update on the trip to Ireland (I promise I'll be better updating on the home stretch).

Rule #1: You can't lose each other if you wear matching outfits.

Dani & I seemed to miss the memo to wear sneakers, jeans, a blue rain jacket and carry a green L.L. Bean backpack on our journey to Ireland. Good thing Virginia and Nate matched though - if Nate wandered off (he has that tendency...) we could just show someone Virginia and say "But a dude," and we'd get the point across. Traveling to Ireland was pretty smooth. Well... up until the landing in Cork and the 50 minute taxi ride.

Rule #2: Make sure you take advantage of the stupid tourist things - like the worst statue of John Lennon ever made.

Back in England though, us Beatlemaniacs had to get a tourist picture in the John Lennon Airport. Coolest airport ever (solely for its love of Lennon & crew).

Rule #3: Learn to be a true Irishman (or woman) and drink Guinness, Beamish or Murphy's.

To the dismay of parents and grandparents, I sucked it up and got a Murphy's at a real Irish Pub. And I drank it. And enjoyed it. And realized that Murphy's (the darkest beer you get before Guinness) was good and I was turning into one of those people from the British Isles... and then I stuck to Budweiser because it was surprisingly cheap.

Rule #4: Become truly Irish and try some Jameson... and try to make the least disgusted face possible.

Nate insisted on making us completely Irish and bought us shots of Jamie. The three girls stared at the glasses with the little amount of liquid in it like it was the elixir of death. But we all took the plunge. Dani and I split ours up to make it less horrible (or double the pain?) but in the end, Virginia actually took it the best like a champ (she took Dani's other half), and Nate looked like he was going to keel over for the next 10 minutes. It must be the Irish blood in us girls.

Rule #5: The Shandon Bells are actually in the Goldfish Church.

We didn't have enough time to ring the bells, but we did stay in the hostel directly behind the church. When we received the directions it said it was behind the church with a Goldfish on top. We were like WHA??? because our churches have crosses and bells on the steeple. There really is a goldfish... oh the Irish. I was hoping to find a church with a silver loaf of bread on top, but alas...

Rule #6: Learn to do AWESOME grafitti (American grafitti just isn't cutting it)

We discovered this amazing grafitti. Check it out (you have to look REALLY close)

Rule #7: Go to the Blarney Stone when it's sunny :)

Oh yeah, we picked a great day to see the Blarney Stone. Especially because it is outside. The grounds of the castle are AWESOME and we had a great time exploring (or in Nate's case, breaking rules).

Rule #8: Yeah, the Blarney Stone is ALLLL the way up there. You gotta climb

Hey Dad, forgot to mention the stone was at the top of the castle. For some reason I was under the impression it was in one of the caves and it was just a difficult reach you had to bend down backwards to kiss a stone and for liability reasons there was someone to hold you. HA! That's a hike...

Rule #9: Break rules.

Yeah, Nate thought that he could just be Tarzan in the castle. We really can't take him anywhere (and you thought I got rid of Jake...)

Rule #10: Kiss stones for the gift of flattery.

I tried to explain to Mr. Bodyholder, that I really don't think flattery is that necessary in my life and I'm not big on kissing but he disagreed with me and forced me down there. I think I kissed it. Barely. Nate on the other hand informed us that it tastes awful. We informed him he didn't have to lick the stone, but I guess he really needs some flattery.

Rule #11: Experience Blarney

It was a super cute village and I could definitely see myself living there. However, we were surprised that Ireland reminded us more of home than England. Not the culture but the actual landscape. Is that even possible?!

Rule #12: Experience Cork at Night

We didn't get to spend much sunlight time in Cork :( but we did get to experience it at night and it's a very cute city. I liked it as much/more than Dublin but it definitely doesn't compare to our little city of Lancaster. Can you believe I actually was ready to go home - and not in the US :)

Rule #13: Wear out the only boy so he has to sleep the whole way back

We think Nate is glad he only had 1 sister, rather than 3. Poor guy - what a good sport :)

Hope everyone has a great week - Again I will update about life back in L'Angleterre soon (ugh this paper...)

Love,

Sarah + her American fam (Nate, Dani & Virginia)

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. VIII]

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: More reason I'm excited to go to Scotland - The beautiful & amazing 5 guys basing out of Glasgow, Snow Patrol, has decided to release more music making this American girl want to Just Say Yes

Brit Slang of the Week: It's not actually slang... but put 3 Americans, an Englishman, and a German in a room and we discover how to pronounce the word "jalapeno". Yes, that's right. Americans (thank you, Hispanic culture being so common) pronounce it correctly... and the Germans do too... but those Brits - Click here to listen. "ha-la-pain-yo" is how I say it... but here I apparently need to pronounce it "ja-la-pea-no". Erlack!

What's on Telly: Dani & Virginia went to Liverpool this weekend, and in an effort to keep the surprise & save money, I stayed behind. But looking at their pictures and knowing they were inches away from greatness, I watched A Hard Day's Night and Help! Not only was I tearing up at random points and so happy that I'm so close to where everything happened, but I confirmed that I have a crush on all four men. I don't care if they're dead and/or 40+ years older than me...
Mighty Minger: Stupid Yankees. Any Brit in a Yank cap gets scathing glances from me, that's for sure. Psh, they don't even know baseball.

Least Mingin' Thing To Deal With: It's a BEAUTIFUL day outside - especially after a superiously gross weekend full of Brit weather (and my computer is back! Miracles do happen)

Reward for High Productivity: Going to Cork for the weekend to kiss some Blarney Stones and rekindle my luck of the Irish. :) :) :)

Like It, Love It, Want More of It!: I got my care package from the girls back home in ADPi and I absolutely loved it! It's nice to feel loved (and it makes me look loved with all the notes on my wall - Even boys are jealous)!

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. VII]

Brit Slang of the Week: Tosser [noun] A person or thing that is useless, pathetic, or incapable of doing anything right That is one tosser of a computer. (You'll understand this example quite soon). [Note: When asking my friend, Tom, for suggestions he said 'reckon' and 'twat'. I told him those are too familiar and easy. Then he mentioned something being 'well good' and we realized that it's becoming harder to find words because they're becoming not only familiar to us, but part of our own vocabulary...]

The Biggest Minger Yet: My wonderful (bold faced lie) computer has decided to go crazy (again) at one of the best possible times (again - this time not the week before finals but while I'm in another country). Quotes from my friends on this matter: "That may be one of the worst possible things that could happen"; "I think I'd rather die"; "How are you surviving? There's no happiness in this place without a computer"; "What do you do with your days?"; "And you haven't thrown yourself off a building yet?" Yes, I love this country but you realize that your happiness stems from having that computer.

Reward for High Productivity: Because I am sans computer... I have higher productivity than maybe half this college. So to reward myself I'm getting a milkshake. I deserve it (I have very little else to look forward to...)

What's on Telly: If I can catch it (because God hates me and took away the only source of it) THE WORLD SERIES! However, Philadelphia Newspapers seemed to miss out on the games as well making this mistake. That's a cruel, cruel joke. Those boys better rally some more!

Hallow's Eve: England celebrates Halloween, too! However, unlike in the US where "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it" (Courtesy of one of the bests), Halloween is the one night a year the British are not slutty and they make anything and everything scary. Us Americans were not having it. So Dani, Virginia, Nate and I went as the people from the Wizard of Oz. See if you can guess who was who.

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: It seems that we have hit a rut in the new music world. Everything "new" here is old back in the US or it's just not British & fun. I was in a 90s music phase yet again (before I had no more music since it's with the computer). It's almost like we're now teaching the Brits music. We'll see this coming week if new things hit the radio waves.

Apres-Weekend Guilt: I surprisingly don't really have any because after the death of my computer, I have been super productive!

Takin' the Sting Out of Tosser Tuesday: I am getting myself that milkshake, making myself some potatoe salad a la Mrs. Heinlen style and going to the netball game with Miss Laura Hayes. I think there will be some planning to get off campus soon too with some flatmates and a possible blue-eyed Brit? I'm looking on the bright side :)