So, that homework...yeah, you have to do it!

It's been a very busy week in some ways. I spent a lot of time relaxing after my extensive break and most of my assignments kind of just fell by the wayside. Don't worry, none of them were really due last week. So the only thing I did was make things harder on myself...go figure! It's not too bad though. We leave for Ireland on Thursday and I'll have a lot of time while we're driving around to read and stuff. Maybe. If we're taking a bus it'll be iffy. 

Last Monday night, Mandy's mom was here and she took us out to dinner for my birthday. It was the second time I've been in a car in England and it was super trippy. I don't think I'd be very good at driving over here. It's just too weird. We went to a restaurant called the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. It was perfect because I was SO OVER Italian food and all I wanted was a good American Hamburger. I suppose that's still not really what I got, but it was close enough. And I had french fries and on the menu it actually said 'french fries' not 'chips' so it felt a little more like home.

Then on Tuesday, Emily made me some banana pudding! Except, they don't have pudding mix so she had to use ready-made pudding and they don't sell whipped cream so she had to make that as well...and the don't sell Nilla Wafers so she had to use digestives (they're just cookies...nothing gross). I mean, you could kind of taste the differences but it was still SO GOOD! And  a bunch of the guys came over, for the food, but Mandy made them sing Happy Birthday to me. And then I tried to skype with my besties back home but one camera wasn't working and one couldn't figure out their sound and it was so  noisy in my kitchen that I couldn't hear anyone anyway. It was sort of a fail. Erika got me a birthday present: a dress and the movie "Due Date" which we proceeded to watch after pudding. The only problem is that it's the British code disc so I can't watch it in the U.S. without a special DVD or something. So, yeah. But I've already watched it twice here, I love it so much! And I haven't worn the dress yes. It's really pretty though. And I'd tried it on before, Erika and Emily and Mandy made me go shopping with them one day and gave me things to try on and they liked some of the stuff but I didn't want to spend money on it. 

Then Wednesday I was really upset because as I was walking to class, one of the guys walks in and goes, "Hey, we decided to do a cook-out tonight just to get everyone together after the break." and of course, Wednesday nights are the nights I volunteer from 5:30 to 9:30. So I missed the cook-out! And there were hot dogs and hamburgers and lemonade and sweet tea and all sorts of delicious desserts! I got home just in time to stand in the kitchen while some of the girls were doing dishes. It was a bummer. Also, I had two papers due the next day and I hadn't even started thinking about them so at like 11:00 I sat down at my computer and began typing. I finished one of them at around 2:00 and left the other one until the morning.  I usually wake up about 4 hours before my classes on Monday and Thursday and I was totally confident in my ability to write the second paper well before that time was up. I succeeded and, if I do say so myself, it wasn't the worst poetry explication I've ever done!

Thursday I went to a birthday party. One of my teachers here brought his family, I don't know if I've mentioned it before. They have two of the cutest little girls you'll ever see in your life!! Well, the oldest one turned 8 on Friday and on Thursday night, she invited all the girls on the trip over for Cookies and Strawberry milk and a marathon of Charlie and Lola. It was so much fun and that little girl is so dang smart! She's been known to correct Emily's grammar at times. It's hilarious! After the birthday party, we went out to get some Ali's for dinner and we walked all the way there and he wasn't there! The van was not in it's usual spot! It was very upsetting. So we went and got burgers again.

Friday and Saturday and Sunday were really nothing special. I realized how much reading I had to do so I spent most of my days trying to catch up. I really am the slowest reader on the face of the Earth! My teacher assigned a book to be read before class today and told me it'd take two hours at most. Yeah, it took me 4 hours to read less than half of it!! What the heck, reading skills. Come on! And today I got out of class and sat in my room and it was beautiful outside so I opened a window. What should fly in but one of the BIGGEST BEES I'VE EVER SEEN?! Seriously, it was HUGE! And I didn't know what to do and Emily didn't know what to do so, naturally we got on facebook chat and tried to get one of the boys in the house to come help us get it out of here. It took like an hour and the promise of cookies for someone to finally come and when he did, he caught it in a cup, put it on top of my dresser, and said, "Alright...now it's your problem. I'll bring you a recipe later". So I had to pick up the cup and let the bee out of the window! But now it keeps coming back because Emily decided to pour honey on the ledge to lure it out of the room! I feel like that was destined to only work when the bee was on the outside. Oh well.

I realized last night that I only have 45 days until I'm back in Colorado. That is so weird to me. It seems like a long time when I think of it like that, but at the same time...not. It's going to be so sad leaving here and not being able to see all of my beautiful scenery everyday when I walk somewhere. I still need to plan my second five day break and I have no idea where that will take me. Like I said, I leave for Ireland on Thursday, then we get back the following Friday. The next Thursday night I leave for Berlin for the weekend, then I'll get back late Saturday night and on Thursday I'll leave for wherever I'm going on my next trip. After that I think there are only about two and a half weeks left. And I am no closer to finding/marrying Rupert Grint than I was when I got here. What have I been doing with my life?!