Chicago is calling my name!

Short update before I head to bed. Early day tomorrow.

This week has been pretty uneventful, which was why I didn't really update. Finals went well and I got most of my grades back and they were all relatively good! So I've really just been hanging around with all of my friends. Going out and all that fun stuff.

So excited to be home tomorrow! And so excited to see everyone on Sunday! I can't wait. Love you all and miss you so much!
-Sam

London Calling (Again!)

Hey everyone!

I'm alive, I swear!

This last weekend was amazing. Ware was gorgeous as usual and my friend Jordan came up with me. We didn't get to go inside the church because it was locked, but I think we found Grandma's old house. I can't upload any more pictures to my flickr so you guys will just have to wait until Easter! Sorry!

After Ware, we went into London and bummed around Leicester square and Soho and ended up getting tickets for Avenue Q for the following day. It was an amazing show! We didn't do too much on Friday night but it was a blast too.

Saturday, we went into the London Eye! Which was absolutely amazing. So gorgeous and while it was rainy, we still got some amazing pictures. It was so much fun and such a great ending to my trip.

Overall, everything was fantastic. I have all of my papers done so now I'm just kind of chilling out until next week for finals. I have to start doing my packing and everything... but yeah. Soon I'll be home!

Love you all and miss you!
-Sam

Weekend Trip!

Sorry, everyone, for the long wait between updates. There wasn't much going on around here until this past weekend when the Americans all took a field trip around England. It was a lot of fun :] Flickr, unfortunately, is only allowing me to upload about 200 photos total, so there aren't a lot and the ones I've posted are not the only ones I've taken, so you all can see the rest once I get home. The pictures start here!

First we went to Windsor and got to see the castle. It was so pretty and the Queen was home when we were there! Which meant we couldn't go inside, but that was alright. We had a great tour around Windsor and the town was so pretty. We also went over to the neighboring town of Eton and got to see the schoolboys in their uniforms. Unfortunately it was raining a lot so when we got to Stonehenge it was a bit muddy.

Stonehenge was so amazing! It got nicer while we were there and it was pretty cool. We didn't get to go inside but it was still pretty cool. A lot bigger and we actually were pretty close.

Then we got to the hotel and we ordered pizza and just kind of hung around for the night. The following day was Bath which was so gorgeous! We got another walking tour and everything and it was such nice weather. 52* and sunny. So awesome. We spent a ton of time there and shopped and just kind of bummed around again. Then it was back to the hotel. Sunday we went to a small village of Lacock where there was filming done for Harry Potter! We got to see a few houses that had been in the movie but weren't allowed in the abbey that had some of the Hogwarts corridors.

After the small detour, we went to Oxford that had a bunch of other filming locations for the movie. We had a fantastic tour guide who was so energetic and got us into one of the small college campuses inside the University. It was fantastic and so pretty! I wish we could have spent more time in Oxford, but unfortunately we couldn't. I bought a sweatshirt and a t-shirt though for the university.

Overall, it was a great weekend and I'm sure I'll tell you guys more about it when I get home. Love you all and miss you!
-Sam

Tattoo time!

So I went to get my tattoo this morning! It's the first chance I've been able to get online since my friend went and got her first one today and I went with her. The pictures are a bit blurry but they are here and here.

It says Riddikulus and any of you guys that are Harry Potter fans will recognize it. I know, I'm a dork and I accept that fact. It's a spell that banishes fear, in the most basic definition of it all.

The pain was minimal, although it was more annoying than anything. And it only took about 15 minutes! He was really quick and I'll probably get more added to it when I get back to the states. I just wanted something that I could easily take care of while I'm here.

So yeah :] Better pictures when I get back to the flat. Love you all and miss you!
-Sam

London Bridge is Falling Down...

Sorry about the delay, everyone! Been a busy weekend.

Meaning I actually went out and had a drink or two over the weekend. Go figure! Anyway... London again!

The Tower and the Globe Theatre. Amazing stuff. It had stared off raining in Canterbury, but by the time we actually got into the Tower it was gorgeous. Pictures start here. Not a whole lot because we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theatre (I'll explain that later) and my Flickr account is getting full and I still have a few places to take pictures of. I'll bring my digital picture frame to Easter for everyone to see all the pictures :]

So we arrived at the Tower of London and while I had seen it in passing before on our last trip, going inside was just... grounding. It made me really realize the affect it could have on the prisoners there, and apparently (although they deny it) there were executions all the way up to WWI. Go figure! It was... intense. Lots of carvings inside a lot of the towers from prisoners. And the Jewel House was... it was amazing! The Crown and everything were so gorgeous! Huge diamonds and other precious stones... it was crazy. I obviously couldn't take pictures of those, but yeah... it was intense. We saw the ravens and if you don't know the story, check this out. It explains the whole thing and they were huge birds! Crazy. It took us 4 hours to go through everything! And I ate fish and chips in the restaurant there. Yum.

After that, we went to the Globe Theatre! It was... breathtaking and I wish I could have taken pictures. But we got to see a rehearsal of Macbeth going on, which was why we couldn't take pictures. The inside is just... you can feel the energy and I wish that a show was going on when I was here, but they don't start until after I leave. Just the way the whole theatre is put together is so intense and the feeling there is... yeah. Made me miss theatre a heck of a lot!

After that... we had some free time and after going through the Shakespeare exhibit and buying a few things from the gift shop, we walked across Millennium Bridge... if you have seen the 6th Harry Potter movie, it is the bridge that is destroyed in the beginning. It was so cool and there are some amazing shots of St. Paul's Cathedral that are just breathtaking.

I love London... it feels like home... like Chicago does and I know I won't be able to see everything that it has to offer on this trip. We ate dinner and then came back to Canterbury. Jordan and I are planning another trip to Ware and then after coming back into London, staying the rest of that day and the following day. So we have to plan that... around all of the papers I have coming up.

Eep!

Scheduled my tattoo appointment today! Thursday at 11 AM. Crazy, eh? That early! Normally tattoo parlors are open from like... 2-midnight back home, but everything around here closes after about 6 because the license to stay open is expensive. And then on Thursday I have to start my paper due next week.

Lots of work.

I miss you all like crazy! Love you and can't wait to be home!
-Sam

Lack of updates.

Hi, everyone!

Sorry about not updating! I am alive and well :] But I didn't want to post about my trip to London this past weekend until I have pictures up on Flickr. And since I only have minimal space left, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do that. So then you guys can see pictures and all that.

:]

I can't believe I'm only here for five more weeks! Crazy stuff, eh? Lots of papers and all that to start working on as well. Hope everything is going well back home. Love you all and miss you!

-Sam

Haggis?

Got back into England today, a little earlier than we had planned. But after a few days of walking around, we had all gotten too tired to spend the day in Edingburgh and took a sleeper train back to Canterbury from Inverness. There aren't as many pictures as I thought I had on my flickr, but at least you all will get an idea of what we saw.

First was Glasgow and we got there a little after 4 or 5 and only really got to walk around the city center. It was really pretty and a fantastic place and everyone was so nice! A man gave us directions to a hostel that pretty much spoiled us (especially compared to other hostels) and we had some great food in a place called Drum and Monkey. Didn't do much but kind of walked around and just hung out in Scotland that night.

The next morning, we took an early train to Inverness, which was absolutely gorgeous. A smaller town but so quaint and pretty up in the mountains! Really, really far north. The furthest north I've ever been, ever. We walked around for a bit, found a hostel and then kind of meandered around the town. Went into the tourist building and booked a tour up to Loch Ness, where we went the following day. But before that, we walked around and had some dinner at a place called The Phoenix. Everyone was so nice and accommodating, even if our hostel wasn't the best of conditions and we were a bit cold. But that's alright.

Loch Ness was absolutely gorgeous. And no, other than the statue I got a picture with, I didn't see Nessie, which was sad. But the castle and lake itself was just... so pretty. The tour was only about 2 1/2 hours so we came back to Inverness and had lunch, walked around and ended up having dinner as well... and decided to come back to England instead of heading onto Edinburgh that night. Which was fine by me so we took a sleeper train back into London, which wasn't too bad, even if the trip was about 11 hours! Crazy, but worth it and I'm glad I'm back in Canterbury.

The trip was awesome... now I just have to figure out the fussy flat... because I turned on the dryer and I think I blew a fuse.

Hm. Must go figure that out.

Love you all and miss you!
-Sam