It's Slowly Sinking In...

Heya!

The more I walk around Grantham...the more I believe I'm actually here!

So...update!!

My birthday was amazing!!! I loved it, but I still don't quite feel like I'm twenty. Wow! So, classes started on that day, and yeah...I used the whole, "Its my birthday!" thing as a sort of ice breaker....but hey, people knew my name once the day was done! :P So, Andrea, Lauren, Kensie, and myself met with my host sister here, Steph, and her boyfriend Dave, at a local pub in Grantham (about four miles away) to meet. We were initially going to grab some food, but it was getting late, and we didn't know if food was still going to be served, so we ate before going. Anywho...we all met and Steph gave me a gift from my host family that turned out to be a wonderful box of chocolates! It was a beautiful gift, and yummy too! Then, don-don-don-donnnnnnn we ordered drinks! Yeah, I know, it's kinda lame, but hey! It was my first legit drink! Andrea, Lauren, and I decided to split a small pitcher of what is called a "Woo Woo". Yeah, dumb name. But, it was a good drink! It had cranberry and peach that masked most of the schnapps and smirnoff. After the glass, we left the pub and headed home. That entailed a funny little bit where I didn't know the number of the taxi company, so Andrea and Lauren graciously asked the bartender for it while Kensie and I stood outside. Then our driver didn't see us waiting for him, and drove around the block a couple of times....it was all a good laugh!

So. Classes! I'm taking a manditory British Studies class that entails an hour long lecture every Monday and Wednesday morning with the whole shcool, which is followed by a 50 minute seminar where we break into smaller classes and talk about the lecture and are given assignments. Dr. Green, my seminar leader, is an absolute hoot to listen to and learn from! Typical sense of humor and beautiful accent.

I'm also taking a Biology class to fulfill a GE. It's my least favorite of my classes so far, because it meets for an hour and a half Monday, Wednesday, AND Thursday. But, on a positive note, it's for non-bio majors so the stuff we're learning is pretty rudimentary....we just learned what the scientific method was today....Thank you Mrs. Teal for making that part of class interesting in 8th grade when I last learned about the stuff, but remembered it!! :)

My last class, yeah...I only have three...is MY FAVORITE! It's a literature course dealing with British Novels. I've got a healthy stack of books to read, like Pride and Predjudice, Robinson Crusoe, Silas Marner, Dubliners, The Heart of Darkness, Wuthering Hieghts, A Christmas Carol, Tess of the D' Urbevilles, Joseph Andrews and Shemela. Whew!!  I'm reading Robinson Crusoe now, and I can see where it's my dad's favorite!

In further news, we're traveling to London tomorrow night! I'm SO excited!! We've got our weekend kinda mapped out...but we're going to kinda take it one day at a time. (We are there till Sunday.) There are some things that we HAVE to go to, like the tour of the Tower of London, but that's really something that I'm not going to complain about!! I've been obsessed with that place for how long??? Haha, and now I get to go!! Our mantra for this weekend is, "We're only an hours train ride away..." meaning, that we aren't going to try and cram everything we want to do there into one weekend. I think it's a good thing to go by.

A couple other girls and I have started looking into our trip to Nottingham next weekend. We are thinking of hitting up the castle there and the Theives Forest, where Robin Hood is suspected to have met Friar Tuck and Little John. Also near by to there is where Will Scarlett is buried...so, if we have time, we'll go there too! OH! And yes Dad, Sherwood Forest does exsist! I was actually kind of dissapointed when I was looking into Nottingham and the forest, because there's only bit's and peices of the forest left. Where we're going is in Nottingham, which makes sense, but there are parts of it in Manchester and even farther north of that! I just figured it was all going to be left untouched...but there is my nievity. Also, we heard from Steph and Dave that Nottingham is related in a lot of gang activity, which made us double think staying a night there. But we are. However, we're making sure we get a hotel and not a hostel...for a bit of added peice of mind.

I will give you an update of my shenannigans(?) when I return from London!!

Hope this finds you all safe and happy!