With a trip to Trapani, Sicily planned for mid-May and the Grand Europe Tour with Diana planned for June, all I can do now is twiddle my thumbs and procrastinate my exam studying.

Luckily, I have amazing flatmates to get me through these long, hard Springtime days (oh, so difficult to sit on the grass and enjoy the flowers!). For example, the other day was the birthday of a fine gentleman - we call him Australian Dave. Aussie Dave loves the Lewis Carrol classic of Alice in Wonderland. Thus, his birthday party was an Alice in Wonderland theme party, and everyone came:


(Back row: Tweedle Dee, Playing Cards with the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar, Dave as the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dum, the White Rabbit, a Flower.
Front row: Tranny Alice, Knave of Hearts, yours truly as the Dormouse, my boyfriend as the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, more Flowers.)

We ran around campus dressed up, garnering wolf-whistles in the square and stares from the students sunbathing in England's rare sunshine. It was absolutely epic. We had tea and cake, then the Queen of Hearts, the Knave of Hearts, the March Hare, and I had a dinner of Southwestern Pulled Brisket, ala the SmittenKitchen.com, with a homemade coleslaw and a dessert of Ginger Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote on vanilla ice cream. I know I made it myself, but can I just say... YUM! Probably the best dinner I've ever made (besides Valentine's Day's black pepper encrusted steak in a mushroom sauce!).

The days seem so easy and luxurious... I don't want them to end!

Spanish Holiday

I'm far behind on talking about everything - but I admit, that's the beauty of life here. While every day is still nothing short of amazing, I've fallen into a routine of living in England and I find it difficult to write.

If I continue to catch you up, I suppose I should mention I went to London for New Year's Eve. It would have been a good experience, except I had mild food poisoning and spent a lot of the evening wishing I was in bed. As spectacular as the fireworks were, I could definitely have given them up for a glass of stomach-easing gingerale and a warm blanket (it was FREEZING!).

Otherwise, it's mostly been a matter of school and the mundane activities that come with just living. Oh, except, y'know, our trip to SPAIN!

Not just Spain, but one of the Balearic Islands: Majorca. If I'm honest, the idea was to immerse ourselves in holiday-land: sun, sand, and sea. It was partly a birthday trip, so I was really excited to just relax (and maybe tan! I love you, Vitamin D!). But when we got there and found ourselves surrounded by Little Britain: Seaside Edition, I had a bit of a panic. I needed to see something Spanish. The sea was fantastic, don't get me wrong, but after one taste of paella, I needed to get away from sunburnt English football fans and beans on toast.

So, to combat the xenophobic tourist experience, Liam and I took a day trip to the city center where a giant - and I mean GIANT - cathedral stands. We explored it, as well as the nearby palace and incredibly ancient Arab Baths. It was amazing. Things in this part of the world are so old and there is so much history. Even the streets we walked on were older than anything I've seen in America! And everything was built to be beautiful. It's hard to appreciate the modern metal cities of home when the gorgeous, lasting castles and cathedrals of Europe remain.

But don't worry, it wasn't all history class. We did spend most of our time at the beach, exploring the rocky tide pools and basking on the sand. The Mediterranean is an absolute beauty, crystal clear and full of sealife. I swam in the sea for the first time in my life, and Liam, my English boyfriend, taught me to snorkel (one of my favourite things I've done so far, despite an initial panic when my face mask filled with sea water). The fish get so close! I was in awe for half the trip, pointing down to the fish at my feet with childish glee and collecting handfuls of seashells to bring home.



I can't wait until my next time at the Med - I think it'll be late June, actually, when I travel to Greece! Snorkeling, here I come!

As always, click the link to the side to see more photos on my Facebook.

Flashback

It's been far too long since I've updated, but there is so much to say! I might as well break it into a few posts.

If we could just take a trip down memory lane, back two months, to the good ol' days of December...

December was wonderful. In my previous post, I showed some of the gorgeous snow we had. It stayed for quite a long time and every time it even flurries, I still get a little gleeful feeling of "Oh my goodness, snow!" But the problem with snow is that sometime soon after it, there's usually ice. And ice, besides being obviously cold, is not cool.

It was pretty icy taking the train down to Ipswich on Christmas Eve (even the Ipswich postman got his mail truck stuck in an icy ditch). Ipswich is only about a forty minute train ride from Norwich, and it was where I spent some of my Christmas holiday visiting my flatmate's family. My flatmate, Liam, had invited me to see a real "English" Christmas, although my religious views sort of meant it was one of my only Christmases!

Liam's family was incredibly welcoming, and the house - gorgeously historic! - was full to the brim with his parents, three brothers, aunt, uncle, and cousins. I felt really lucky to be a part of their holiday celebration, including a proper Christmas dinner (complete with Yorkshire puddings and Christmas crackers). It ended up being one of my favourite things so far on this trip, and really helped with some of the homesickness I was experiencing watching everyone else get to go home to their families. It was also one of the best ways to really see what English life is like, and the small differences between that and the American dailies.