friendsss

so when we went out to arabesque two weeks ago i met this kid mike who was very cool and very fun to talk to. then when we went out last thursday i got a chance to meet up with him again and hang out some more which was nice. he's a really awesome person and he has this gorgeous tattoo on his arm inspired by the early november and he recommended a good place to get a tattoo done in banbury. and he said that if we go there, he'll come with and hold my hand! and if i'm lucky, he's going to try to stop by wroxton sometime before we leave for paris this thursday morning :) xx

you shook me all night long

so last night at wroxton we had an earthquake. according to BBC it was "the biggest earthquake in the UK for nearly 25 years." it was a 5.3 on the richter scale, which is pretty intense. it hit the campus around 1:40, when a large group of us were hanging out in my room. it was a 10 second quake with a depth of 15.4km (9.6 miles).

literally, the entire building shook. at first we thought it was the wind. then we thought it was a stampede of sheep or something equally ridiculous. then we sort of looked at each other and wondered aloud if it was an earthquake. we stood up very slowly and pulled on shoes and coats. as soon as it ended we ran down the stairs and huddled in the great hall. no one in the basement felt anything, but there were at least 15 of us that did, so we knew it wasn't a group hallucination or anything.

weekend trips - brighton and bath

22 Feb, Brighton - an absolutely beautiful city! we went into the royal pavillion, which was incredible. the rooms were incredibly luxurious, and there were dragons everywhere...i'm planning to get a tattoo while i'm here so i think i might get a dragon now, i'm not sure about anything more than that but the idea is stuck in my head so i'm going to run with it for now. afterwards, we split up and walked around for a while. my group stumbled upon a £3 lunch special at an italian restaurant, so i got a margherita pizza and had more than enough in leftovers!! then we walked around and stopped in a few shops before heading toward the waterfront. we went onto the pier, which not only had food but also games. i was so proud that i held back on how much i gambled with because it could have been a lot. we spent an hour or so there, then we walked on a backstreet until we found a teahouse. ashley and i got this really yummy fruit tea and it was exactly what we wanted. then we walked along the beach for a bit, picked up a few pretty stones to use as paperweights, and got back on the bus to school.

23 Feb, Bath -our first stop was obviously the roman baths. the architecture of the whole building was incredible, and also very old. it was so interesting to see all the ancient structures. there were a lot of inscriptions for the roman pantheon which was super-cool. a large chunk of the main pool was under construction for repairs, so i had to work around that for picture taking opportunities. after we were done with the baths, we still had several hours to kill in the town. our first stop was lunch of course! i got a bacon and cheese pasty that was more potato than anything else :( but it was still delicious. after that we picked a direction and started walking. sara and i found a second hand store where i found a book for £1.25. now i have almost a complete series in my room here! we wandered around some more, finding various stores to walk into (a sweet shop, a music store, etc). we stumbled on this really pretty park so we sat and rested for a bit before sara went and picked some daffodils for everyone. we walked along the river for a while, but it started to drizzle so we went into a few more stores. i bought a little soapstone dolphin that's a beautiful marbled indigo color, and now i need to think of a name for him. we went for teatime at this little restaurant, and just wandered for a bit. there were several groups of street performers - we saw a man playing a violin, a man playing a pipe of some kind, two guys in thongs who played with fire, and a silver statue man who squeaked. such a fun trip!

boys :)

so his name is david, he's 23, and he works at a ski shop in banbury...
and he is adorable!
and i'm seeing him again tonight!


ok so i really like him and he's a sweetie, but i'm here to have fun and i don't want to get too involved and be heartbroken when i come home in three months. we're still talking all the time, and i haven't told him this, but i will when or if he brings up the idea of something more serious.

went to the priory and arabesque on thursday with jess, nancy, sara gelpke, sonnier, rachael, brenna, and allie. had a blast. met some friends. danced and had a blast. life is good!

museums and Britons and castles, oh my!

so this past weekend the trips were to oxford, manchester, and kenilworth castle. i ended up not going to manchester because i had no real interest and because i was hopeful i would get a lot of work done on saturday.

friday's trip was to oxford. we had to go because it was required for the art class. we visited the Museum of Modern Art first, which was really interesting. i took down the names of a whole bunch of images that i loved, and if they'd been cheaper i would have bought one. however, all the ones that i liked were super expensive. i really want to look them up online to see if i can buy a print, but i keep forgetting to. a performance artist did a piece for us in the main gallery, which was basically a combination of dance and yoga while wearing camping gear. he did the entire performance in a frame that was about 4 feet square. afterwards we walked over to the Christ Church, which i didn't enjoy at all. firstly, i obviously don't feel any spiritual connection to the paintings. secondly, we were all very hungry because we got there late and that made lunch later. we had free time for two hours in the afternoon, so we walked over to the market square to eat lunch and do some shopping. after that we went to the Ashmoleon Museum, which was both good and bad. the teacher led us through an exhibit that i didn't really like with an intense lecture. we got done a few minutes early, so jason and i made a quick run through the egypt exhibit. then we ran to the bus and came back to school.

sunday we went to kenilworth castle in the afternoon. it was a beautiful day; all sunshine and bright sky. it was a bit windy but not too cold, the perfect weather for walking around. the ruins were so interesting to wander around because you could climb up some of them and go down into the dungeons of others. we spent over an hour just exploring the ruins of the castle before moving on to the exhibit of what the history of the estate was and what it used to look like. we all met up and got a cup of tea at the cafe, which was great because we missed teatime (which is probably my favorite meal here).

hair party 2.15.08

so last night we had a hair party. and by that i mean, we cut hair. first i gave sara gelpke the most adorable haircut. literally, i cut off about six inches. right now it's just at her shoulders and absolutely adorable and i'm slightly jealous of my own skill. then sara senter gave ashley some choppy layers and side bangs. then we were hanging out and i decided i'm sick of having this dark brown hair because the red is already shining through because it was red for so long its still underneath. but i don't want to go back to the solid red. so i'm thinking that in a month or two, when i run out shampoo and conditioner and need to buy more anyway, i might dye my hair. not quite sure what color yet, maybe a really deep auburn or light brown. but i have time!

then we sitting around in the saras bathroom, and chase wanders by. he bleached his hair and then we dyed it blue the other day, but it ended up looking a bit odd and it wasn't the shade of blue that he wanted. so we ended up shaving his head. and when i say shaving, i mean with a regular razor, not clippers or anything. so he is as bald as a cue ball, and it was so much fun. it seriously took us over an hour because we had to trim it with the scissors and then go over it with the razors about five times to get it all, but it actually looked really good when it was done. i think i may have missed my calling as a hairdresser....

v dayyy

so my valentines day was fantasic, which is great considering i was worried it was going to suck because of the you-know-what. we all dressed up for dinner which was really fun, and sara curled my hair and i felt so pretty! it was actually a really nice feeling. so we ate dinner and then headed back to hang out in jason's room. we took tons of pictures, so that was definitely a good time. then we took a cab over to the priory in banbury. however, sara senter, ashley and i left our id's at school, so we came back and got them, and then were able to get into the pub. it was £ night at the priory, so pints were a pound (normally a pint is about £2.60). so we had a few more drinks and hung out. nearly everyone from wroxton was there which was nice, so i got to talk to a bunch of the girls that i hadn't had a chance to hang out with yet. we were dancing for a bit and had a smashing time.

ashley was hanging out with this group of british boys so i took it upon myself to go introduce myself....and ended up meeting a this really nice guy whose name i couldn't quite remember. it would be fun to have a real relationship while i'm over here, but i'm not sure if i really want to get into something serious when i know that i'm leaving the country in three months ♥

then ashley pulled me away when the pub closed and we shared a cab home with ross. then we had a photoshoot in her room, somehow managed to make tea without burning down the school or hurting ourselves, and hung out. jess and i fell over each other while hugging in the hallway, which resulted in a bruise on my leg. we came down with our laptops to the reading room and were there for a few minutes eating illegal cereal.

post-weekend in london

DAY 1 --> we got on a bus at 8am to go into london, where we got dropped off near trafalgar square, although we didn't know it at the time. we got on the tube and went directly to the hostel to check in and drop our bags. the place was kind of sketchy, but pretty much what we expected. so then we got on the underground and went into piccadilly circus to explore some and see what kinds of things there were. we all did a little shopping at the street, some people got new phones, and we picked up like soap and stuff for the hostel. we went back to the hostel to change and figure out what to do for dinner, since we had split into two groups in the afternoon. we ended up going to dinner at like 9, and nothing was open, so we ate at this weird restaurant where the food was good but super-spicy.

DAY 2 --> saturday we went on a free 3hour walking tour of a lot of the sites. we started off at the palace, where we got to see the changing of the guard. then we moved on around london to see some statues, trafalgar square, parliament, westminster abbey, the royal guards, and hyde park and much more! we lost anthony at the palace, and he was the only one who didn't have a phone so that was a bit worrisome. but we found him again at big ben, and life was good again. we split up again after lunch, and i went with a bunch of people into camden which is this really artsy, alternative, market-vendor section of the city. i bought legwarmers and two scarves. afterwards, we went back to the hostel to change because we were all kind of gross, and we went back to piccadilly for dinner. a bunch of us ate at this little italian place, and it was pretty good. afterwards, i got a call from nancy that camden was on fire, literally, some buildings were burning down. crazy! i'm so happy we got there earlier in the day. gelpke, angela and i were going to stay and go to a club, but we ended up heading back. the train broke down so we had to figure out the bus schedule (the system is down!). apparently because we ran out of the station some londoners though there was a bomb on the bus, which should not be as funny as it sounds. and then we went for drinks at the pub that magically appeared next door to the hostel.

DAY 3 --> woke up, ate, checked out of the hostel. then some of us explored the graveyard behind it. we caught the tube into london, however it broke down on the second stop. so we sat there for about an hour, before we had to walk down the tracks to get into the station. literally, we were walking down the tracks. it was so cool! then we waited for another 20mins for a train, and finally got into london proper around 12ish (after leaving at 10:30 on what should have been an 21 minute trip exactly). our group ended up eating lunch at subway because it was cheap. then we stopped at tesco (supermarket) to pick up some stuff. i got tea, honey, and some granola cereal for snacking on. trev got some tobacco because he bought a pipe in camden haha. then we just walked around for a bit before going back to the train station. we just sat in front of this building and did homework. the dean said he would take the bus and leave at 3:30 even if he was the only one on it, so that was incentive to get there early. back at school we just unpacked and hung out til dinner, and everyone went to bed early

the inside info

So as everyone knows, I'm spending the semester abroad in England. I'm attending Wroxton College, which is owned and operated by FDU from January 31st through May 19th. We live in this amazing old restored abbey that's absolutely beautiful. I am in room 26, which is technically part of floor 2.5, and my primary exit method during a fire drill is through a fire escape out my window. We have close access to both the local town and several pubs, where I'm pretty much guaranteed to spend most of my money this semester. I'm taking five classes: Core 3, Art (The Development of British Painting), English (Modern Novels on the Screen), Sociology (Women & Race in Modern Britain), and Inter (The Anatomy of Contemporary Britain). Brian Swanzey and I are officially BFFs, and I've been to the pub with him nearly every night. The food here is pretty good, my room is huge/beautiful/MINE, and it's such a blast being here with all of my friends. We've inducted two girls from teaneck into our family: Jess & Nancy, who are cool enough to live on our floor. I've been starting to look into travelling around, and as far as I'm concerned, the semester can only go up from here!

For contact purposes, mail takes about a week and should be sent to:

c/o Rachel Gutin

Wroxton College

Oxfordshire, Nr. Banbury
OX15 6PX UK

Or if you want to call or text me, I can be reached at 001-44-079 756 33678. Please don't leave a voicemail since it costs me to check those!

I also got Skype the other day, and my name for that is "tocausemischief." But I don't regularly sign on, so if you want to talk that way, let me know :) That's also my screenname, and I'm often online, but remember Britain is 5 hours ahead of the USA (pretty much I eat dinner when you eat lunch)

oh yeah, and I got to fly a red-tailed hawk that Jason and I named Tobias :)