Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to say, hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Its a little weird not to be in the US for Thanksgiving. I actually had forgotten that it was today. I am going to have Thanksgiving with other Americans tomorrow though.

Have a good one and eat lots of good food :)

Also, please keep my Aunt Kim and her family in your prayers. They recently lost all of their personal belongings in a house fire.

Catch up.

I'm sitting down to update this blog because I'm tired of people send me angry messages to do it.(*cough**cough* Laura and Sierra).

Ok, so the rest of my trip to Germany was amazing! I did a lot of traveling around during the time I was there and I managed to go to Muenster, Cologne, Vallendar, Koblenz, Bonn and Maastricht (which is in the Netherlands). In Muenster I stayed with Charlotte and her parents and we enjoyed her mom's amazing cooking. We also went to a traditional German fair. I was SO much fun. It almost made up for missing the fair back home. The fair had all of the rides you would expect to find, plus food from every European country possible. I had a really really really good bratworst fresh from the grill. So so good. Anyways, when we were back in Vallendar I just kind of hung out with Charlotte and went to various activities. I went to some of her cheerleading practices, which was fun. Also, I went to a spanish class with her, which was really weird because they translated everything into German, so basically I was forced to communicate through Spanish. Ummmm, I'm trying to think of what else I did with Charlotte. I suppose I should've sat down to write this as it was happening.

Oh, on Tuesday I took a train down to Cologne, which is a fairly large city in Germany. Not as big as Berlin but its really nice. Taking the train was quite an adventure because that morning the train workers in the Vallendar area staged a general strike. Meaning none of the trains I needed to be on were running. Very, very annoying. So basically, Charlotte and I ran around until we found a train headed to Cologne and I just jumped on it hoping it would actually get here. I think I should've been more concerned with the situation given the fact that I only know about 10 word in German, but I was suprisingly calm. I finally did make it to Cologne though and my friends from school met me at the train station. They took me to the huge cathedral in Cologne and to an amazing Italian restuarant called Vapiano. Apparently they have a Vapiano in New York. I may have to research this. Anyways, I'm pretty sure the highlight of my day was going the Chocolate museum. There is an entire museum run by Lindt dedicated to chocolate. It was amazing. You went through and learned about the production of chocolate and the history and all that fun stuff. But the best part is at the end there is a HUGE chocolate fountain. I was in heaven. We also sat down in the cafe in the museum and had chocolate cake. It was delicious.

After Cologne, I returned to Charlotte's flat and spent more time with here. And she took me to a house party. Quite interesting, especially since I couldn't communicate with anyone. But it was fun. On Friday, Charlotte and I decided to go to Bonn. Which is a really nice, historical city in Germany. We went there and walked around and had a look at the city. I also went to the house where Beethoven was born. Pretty cool. And among other things, I ate an entire pizza. I was pretty impressed with myself. That night we went back to Muenster, to Charlotte's parents' house. Her mom was having a party in celebration of her birthday so I met a lot of interesting people. They were pretty interested in why I would come to England to study when it wasn't required of me. For me, its a hard thing to explain to people, why I'm here. Because a lot of people can't understand why I would just come for the experience when I could be at home in University. But I try, and sometimes they get the concept.

On Saturday, Charlotte and I drove to Maastricht, which is supposedly one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands. We had a bit of trouble getting there because of traffic and because we didn't really know where we were going, but we made it eventually. It was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in a really cute hostel in the center of town. When we got there we actually had Mexican food for lunch, not as good as home but good enough to satisfy the craving. And then we took a walking tour of the city and saw all of the historic parts. There is a wall that runs through the city that was part of the originial fortifications. Its highly interesting. We also got to see some gorgeous cathedrals and churches. The river running through the center of the city makes everything so much more picturesque. That night we ate at a little restuarant that served all kinds of food. I had a risotto dish that was to die for. I would love to go back to Maastricht one day and see more of the city.

So thats pretty much my trip to Germany. I'm back in England now. Actually, I just got back from a weekend in London. Again, I had train troubles (what is it with me and trains?) because the weather was so bad. I ended up hopping trains, starting in the opposite direction, until I got to London. I went to have Thanksgiving with the other Americans in my program. It was a really nice dinner, although they didn't quite get the pumpkin pie right. I guess nothing will ever be as good as my Moms. I must say I'm very tired now because I stayed out late both nights. The first night we just walked around a bit, went to Tesco, and talked until like 3 AM. The second night we got all dressed up and decided to sample a little bit of London's nightlife. It was so much fun, but I definitely could not live a continuous party lifestyle. First of all, its too expensive. Second of all, I just can't handle the lack of sleep. On the second night we had to take a bus to get back to our hostel because the underground had closed for the night. The bus ride was probably one of the most interesting bus rides of my life. There was either a problem with the system on the bus or someone was just trying to cause trouble. If you aren't familiar with public transportation then I will explain how it works. If you're on the bus and you want the bus driver to stop at the next stop, you have to push the red buttons and it will make a sound and he will stop. Well, on our bus the buttons were being pushed over and over and over and over again, causing us to hear a really annoying sound many times and causing us to stop at every stop. Well there were these really rowdy boys on our bus that were getting blamed for causing the trouble. We were sitting upstairs with them and we could plainly see that they weren't doing it. But everyone downstairs believed they were. So first a french man comes upstairs to yell at them. Next, an italian guy came upstairs and said 'I will call the polizia because I dont take caca'. I think you can assume the meaning. Really, it was all very entertaining because the french and italian accents make everything funny. But then the bus driver actually stopped, shut off the bus, and came upstairs and it turned into a huge argument. So a bus ride that shouldve taken us 30 minutes took us over and hour. But I don't really mind because it means I have a good story to tell.

I don't know if I'll have any pictures posted but I'll see what I can do. Its really hard to do anything with the lack of good internet I have. Let me take the opportunity to say I don't have wifi, or complete facebook access, or access to most chat systems. So stop scolding me for not being on skype or whatever, I CANT HELP IT! Seriously, I would love to be able to skype and communicate with everyone but its really beyond my control.

Anyways, I better go because I shouldve been doing work but I chose to update my blog instead. Cheers.

Deutschland.

Hello all!

I am currently sitting in my friend Charlotte's flat in Vallendar, Germany, enjoying some Musli (cereal). I got to Germany yesterday afternoon then drove here with Charlotte yesterday evening. Its quite a surreal experience to wake up in St. Bees, England and go to sleep in Germany. But I love it.

Charlotte goes to school here and the town is so beautiful. I'm going to take some pictures at some point this week and hopefully put them on facebook. If you think of a stereotypical European town with the narrow, stone streets and the gorgeous architecture, thats pretty much what it looks like.

And if you didn't know already, I turned 18 yesterday! Its a big deal here. Like, much more of a big deal than I expected. I actually had a drink in the airport before I left because I could. I made such a fool of myself when I went to order it because I was so excited to be getting it legally. It was quite amusing. The bartender looked at me like I was insane, but oh well. I forgot to mention that before I left for Germany my friends at school threw me a party and ordered Indian takeway for me. It was lovely.

Warning: If you don't want to hear about innocent little me drinking alcohol, don't read the next paragraph.

Last night Charlotte took me out for my birthday and it was a lot of fun! Actually, she had champagne waiting for me in her flat for before we went out. It was really sweet of her. First, she took me to this party that was outside, sort of in a garage. It was fun. Everyone was really nice although I couldn't understand most of what they were saying. Her friends were excited to find out it was my birthday. One of her guy friends gave me this vodka (wodka as it is here) and I thought my esophagus was deteriorating. It was pretty strong. And they also gave me an authentic German beer. I have to say, German beer is very good. I can't really compare it to anything because I haven't really had American beer but I can imagine it doesn't compare. After the garage party we took a cab and went into Koblenz. It reminded me of the night we took a cab from St Bees to go into Whitehaven, which was kind of funny. But anyways, we went to this club. It was insane. It was set up so there was multiple dance floors and themes. Like one was house music, one had German music, one had American hits, etc etc. It was really fun because everyone dances, including the guys (I'll get to them later). At the club I had a malibu and coke, its become my drink of choice. And someone convinced me to try a red bull and vodka. It was ok, but I don't think I'll have it again. And before you get any idea, I wasn't drunk because I paced myself AND I ate before I went out. I'm a smart girl. I think we got back at like 2 or 3 am. Which is apparently an early night for most people. I was thinking "If this is an early night, I don't know if I could make it on a full night out". I guess I'm just not used to the lifestyle. But overall I would say I had a really great 18th birthday.

Anyways, the German boys are soooooo cute! Seriously. They all look older than their real age and they are just so adorable. I mean, I don't know if all German boys are like this or if Charlotte just has really attractive friends but it doesn't matter because I had fun just hanging around them haha.

Today, I'm going to hang out here until Charlotte gets back from her meeting. And then we're going to her cheerleading practice (yes, I said cheerleading practice; I'll have more on that after I do some observations). And then we're driving to her parents house in Muenster for the weekend. I'll try to update as much as I can, but we all know I'm really bad at updating this so we'll see how it goes.

Hello all.

Once again I'd like to establish that I stink at updating this blog. BUT, I have made a list of things to talk about and catch up on. So lets get to it.


So last weekend I went to my first English party. It was fancy dress, which means costume party. A group of us went over to my friend's house and got ready together. English girls get so much more dressed up for everything than we do at home. They would be horrified to go out into town without heels on. Like absolutely horrified. Its crazy. Anyways, for the party we were cave girls. I must say we looked pretty good. The party was at the Seacote Hotel, which is basically the only hotel in town. There was a DJ and a live band and a huge buffet. It was really nice. There was also a bar, but we all know I didn't touch it at all because I'm underage. Duh.Ok ok, so I had a couple of drinks, but I'd like to say I ended up taking care of my English friends at the end of the night so I had complete control over myself thank you very much.


After the party we went out to 'town', aka Whitehaven. It was kind of a surreal experience to just catch a cab and walk into the clubs like its a completely normal thing. Which I guess it kind of is normal here, but still. It was weird. But I had so much fun going out with my friends. I think I'm going to be sort of spoiled to that type of freedom when I come home, because you just can't go out to the clubs at home. At all. Oh well.


So there was my weekend. It doesn't sound very exciting in writing but it was actually a blast. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to go out with my friends and get away from school for a night.


But then it was back to reality. School on Monday was really entertaining because all anyone could talk about was the party. Literally, every time I walked up to my friends or overheard a conversation, it was about the party. That's all the crack anyone had. It was hilarious. It's such a small town that the party was enough to provide gossip for a few days.

I've had a couple of new developments as far as my extra-curricular activities go this week. First, I got elected as Company Secretary of Young Enterprise. Young Enterprise is basically a club where we create and manage our own business. It's not a mock situation, we actually develop, manufacture, and sell our own products and keep the profits. Its also a competition between schools to see who can develop the best business. Second, I got chosen for something called the Engineering Education Scheme. Basically there is a team of  6 of us and we work with an Engineering firm to solve a real life engineering problem. We get to go to Newcastle University to do practical experiments related to our problem and in the Spring we present our solutions to a panel of judges. I'm so excited to be involved and I can't wait to get started. We're going to the launch day on Monday so its starting soon! The last thing that I got involved in is the Cipher challenge. Basically I'm on a team of about 4 people and we solve a different cipher every week. Its also a competition but its less serious than the other two. I went from having absolutely no extra curricular activities to having almost more than I can handle. But I definitely think its a good thing to be involved while I'm here. I'm taking advantage of every opportunity possible.

On a completely unrelated note, I was sitting in class yesterday and I suddenly heard a faint noise, almost like a baby crying. After racking my brain trying to figure out what it was, I finally looked out the window and realized it was the sheep. There were sheep just chilling outside the window. Apparently I was the only one amazed at this because the rest of the students didn't even blink an eye. But, really, sheep? Just hanging out. So funny.

I was going to try to attach picture to this post but I couldn't get the photo uploader to work. So I'll try again next time. And I'm going to try to update more often. I know I say that every time but I really really mean it this time. Sort of.

I suck at updating.

I apologize for lack of updates lately. I'm really bad at sitting down and writing a blog post.

School is going really well. I'm starting to get used to the teacher's various preferences and all that good stuff. I still hate the uniform. Its a torture device and I can't wait to get home and take it off everyday. I don't know how the kids in my class have worn the same thing everyday for years of their lives. It would drive me absolutely insane.

I have finally figured out my half term plans. I'm going to GERMANY!!! Yeah, you read that right. I'm going to Deutschland. I'm going to visit my friend Charlotte for 4 days. She lives in Munster (I don't know if that's spelled right) and she has her own flat. So that should be fun. Oh, and did I mention the first night I'm there is my 18th birthday? Partayyyyy. Anyways, for the last half of the week I'm staying with two of my friends from school. One of those friends, her dad owns a club in the center of Cologne. Once again, PARTAYYY. Ok, I'm done now. I am excited to sight see and experience Germany from a native's point of view.

I find it really funny that everyone from home is complaining about the rain. Um, hello, try living in England. I
bet you won' t complain about one day of rain ever again. The weather is crazy here. Its so cold already and I've been told that it will get bone chilling cold and it will rain for 4 straight months. Bring. It. On.

I don't really have much exciting things to talk about because I've just been going to school and coming home and doing work. Although, I did go to the cinema (aka movie theater) this weekend and that was a bit of an experience. First of all, the popcorn is sweet. Sort of like kettle corn but covered in sugar. Its actually really good. And second of all, there was a bar in the cinema. A BAR. You get your concessions and everything then you walk through where you give your tickets to the person and there is a bar. You can go sit down and have a drink before your movie. I've never seen that in my life. Veryyy interesting.

I will try my best to update again on Sunday, or maybe sooner. But I'm going to a fancy dress party (costume party) on Saturday so maybe I'll have some interesting stories to share after wards.

Tah tah for now.

Customs sucks.

Today I got a letter in the mail. Someone sent me a package. YAYY, right? No. Because Customs is holding it because of international fees. AHHHH. Why can't I just have my package? :(

Anyways, I'm done ranting. I know I said I would update on Saturday but I couldn't be bothered. Sorry.

This weekend we went to Keswick, which is in the Lake District. It was gorgeous! Seriously, you know the lakes in the Harry  Potter movies? And the scenes where you can see the landscapes from the trains? It looked EXACTLY like that. So pretty. Even when raining. We went out on this boat on the lake and it was so amazing. Really funny though when we had to turn the boat around because an umbrella flew out of someones hands and was floating on the lake. Oh and I also had my first authentic scone. So good!

I think because people are getting to know each other more and getting more comfortable, they don't mind asking questions about my background. This week I've been getting a lot of inquiries about life in America. And people have been voicing their opinion a little bit more freely too. Last week we had a guest lecture and he asked the audience a question and he jokingly says "You know I usually talk about how ignorant Americans are, you know how they don't know anything about anyone else and they're only concerned with themselves but I think you guys are proving me wrong". I think every person in the room turned around and looked at me for my reaction. SO EMBARRASSING. Its not that I mind when people talk to me about America, but its starting to get a little uncomfortable because I feel like I'm constantly fighting off stereotypes.

I always think of things to put in my blog but forget to write them when I get here. Maybe I'll post again tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Whats the crack?

You may be wondering why the title of this blog is "Whats the crack?". Well, I shall explain. The crack is Cumbrian slang for Whats up? or Whats the gossip?. Its actually quite funny to hear someone say it. I had to ask for a translation when it was first said to me. This week I've learned a lot of new English terms and phrases. I'll share some of them with you now. 'Naught' is zero. 'I can't be bothered' means 'I'm too lazy'. 'Biscuit' is cookie, but almost everyone knows that.

But the biggest new word I've learned this week is not even a word. Actually, its a letter. Did you know that instead of saying the letter z, they pronounce it 'zed'? I can promise you I'm not making this up. This is real. If you are just as shocked as I was when I found this out you will need a couple of days to accept it. I don't know about you, but I was under the impression that the alphabet is one of those steady, unchanging, reliable things. But apparently not. Even the alphabet can be changed. Lesson learned.

I'm very tired now, but I promise I will sit down tomorrow and write a longer blog post. Pinky swear.

Crazy week.

Dear blog readers (do I even have any?),

I am soooo sorry for neglecting you this week. So as I eat my biscuit and drink my tea I will try to fill you in on as much as possible.

I finally moved into school on Monday night. I got here, dropped my suitcase in my room and was immediately rushed off to have tea. They really don't give you any time to think here. I went down and was greeted with a sea of new and equally frightened faces. An oddly comforting sight. Knowing I'm not the only one scared and completely lost is always a good thing. I got unpacked in my room and all that good stuff. Then, I finally looked around and said to myself, "Wow, I'm really here in my dorm room. In England. About to start school. Is this real?".

On Tuesday, I actually started classes. The system here is soooo weird. I am only taking 3 subjects. Maths, physics, and spanish. Usually you take 4 subjects as a Lower Sixth pupil, but my Maths is called Further Maths meaning its double the amount of maths than usual. Confused yet? Just wait. For each regular subject you have two different teachers. For example, in Physics I have two teachers- one to teach the mechanics part and one to teach everything else. In maths, I actually have 4 teachers- one for Statistics, one for Core, one for Further Pure, and one for Mechanics. For Spanish I actually only have one teacher, because there is only one Spanish teacher. I think if they could find another one they would have her, haha. So basically its like taking 4 math classes, and 2 physics classes. Utterly confusing.

But classes are the least of my worries at this point. If you have ever seen a movie about snobby english boarding schools, alot of the stereotypes are probably true. There is a sort of heirarchy system here in which you're position is determined by your year. I am in Sixth Form, which is the highest form. But there is two divisions of sixth form- Upper Sixth and Lower Sixth. I am in the Lower Sixth. Which means I sit at the middle lunch table and I get to sit in the second set of chairs in the Sixth Form center. If I did any differently I think heads would roll. But I don't mind it too much. The other students are all really nice and I seem to be fitting in quite well. I kind of float between the English students and the German students. I live with the German ones (my roommate is German) so I spend alot of time trying to understand the German flying around me.

My physics and maths classes are quite good because I've done most of the material, but sometimes I feel like I'm relearning English because of all the different terms they use. This is something that only math geeks would care about but I'll put it in here for my Dad's benefit. When we're solving equations instead of saying "negative two" they say "minus two". What do they say for subtraction you ask? "4 minus 2". Why did they shun the use of the word negative when it makes it much clearer whether you are refering to an action or the sign of the integer. Also, in upper math classes you usually begin to use a dot as a multiplication sign to differentiate between the variable x and the multiplication sign. Here they use the x sign still. Even in Further Maths. One of my teachers even said "I think England is the only country that still uses the cross for multiplication". Well, can we get on changing that? Cause it would make my life alot easier. Anyways, thats enough of my nerd rant.

As far as living on campus goes, I'm really enjoying it. I like living with a bunch of girls. Really. There's no sarcasm there. Its actually enjoyable. The discussions we have in the common room can get quite interesting.

Oh, and I finally found out what a prefect is. A power trip. Basically. Supposedly its a big honor and I'm sure it is. They basically just have to make sure everyone is following the rules. Tuck in your shirt, put your collar down, button the top button, you can't be here now, go to the library, etc etc. Can't say I wouldn't like to be one though.

I'm really tired after a long week so I'm going to bugger off and go watch a film. I will try to update again this weekend with more about school and everything.

Tah tah for now.

Scenic route.

Today has been quite good. I took the train with Camron (the oldest son in my host family) and he showed me around Whitehaven (nearest big town, think Danville in relation to Chatham). I got some necessary items that I needed. We had lunch, with a glass of wine (woohooo). The cities/towns here are so beautiful and historic. Even modern shops and pubs still have a classic look to them that you just don't find in American cities. Camron also took me around school and showed me my boarding house. I will definitely get lost. Apparently the school doesn't really do any sort of orientation, they just kind of throw you in there so we'll see how that goes. After he showed me around the village and the school we stopped in a pub and I had a gin and tonic. Apparently showing ID is not really required here because technically I shouldn't be able to drink. When in England, do as the English do!

This evening I was invited to a barbecue with some of my school mates- the same kids that will actually be in my year at school. I had a great time and I'm really relieved to actually know some of the kids that I will be going to school with. They all seem quite cool and fun. But whoever said British girls aren't pretty are lying. Definite myth. They let me in on all the secrets of the school and what you can and cannot get away with and such. I'm excited and nervous to get started.

Hopefully pictures to come soon because I literally cannot put into words the beauty of this place.

I shall report back soon. Now bedtime.

I have arrived. Thank buddha.

The last 18 hours or so has been quite an adventure.
I got on my flight to Iceland, no problem. But I guess the fact that I was really leaving the country hit me as soon as we we're about to take off. Boy, it hit me hard. I cried for like 20 minutes. I'm sure the people next to me were a little freaked out. But I finally pulled myself together and settled in. I was starving when we got to the airport so I ordered a chocolate croissant. Holy crap it was soooo good. And it was still warm. Icelanders know how to make some pastries.
After my delicious breakfast I got on yet another plane, this time one that was actually going to England. It seemed like the longest flight of my life. Seriously. There were obnoxious couples all around me gabbing away in icelandic. It was quite annoying.
So, I finally arrive in Manchester and I get ready to go through customs. Blah blah blah, whatever, right? Nope. I am questioned because I don't have a letter proving my scholarship to the school. So here I am, travelled all this way, thinking I'm going to be denied entry to the country because I don't have one piece of paper. SERIOUSLY?! The lady that was 'helping' me was not very nice either. She finally let me in with a "make sure you have your documents next time".
After all this I have to get on a train to Carlisle to transfer to a train that will take me to St. Bees. In case you had forgetten, St. Bees is where I originally set out to go. The train rides went well. With the exception of a few stinky passengers and screaming kids. The views from the train were worth every minute of it. England is like every movie and picture you see- gorgeous. Especially the area I'm in. Its like a fairytale.
FINALLY, I get off the train at St. Bees and meet my host for the weekend. I immediately make a fool of myself by trying to get in on the wrong side of the car. But its all good. Their house is wonderful. They were nice (or crazy) enough to let me make an international call from their phone. They also took me to get some authentic fish and chips. OH MY GOODNESS. So good. Especially because I hadn't eaten since that morning in Iceland. I had tea following my dinner and now I have the house to myself.
Must sleep.
More pictures and descriptions to follow.

The waiting game...

I am currently sitting at my gate at JFK. Patiently waiting to board the plane.
The airport experience hasn't been too bad so far- no mishaps or accidents. But it has been really interesting in terms of the people you see in airports. It's crazy how many cultures come together in one place. It's awesome. I literally could sit here and just watch people.
I really wish there was something of more interest to report, but so far the journey has been uneventful. And I'd like to keep it that way. I'm already really tired but I'm super excited.
I see a woman with a baby waiting at my gate. Kill me now....
Next post will probably be from somewhere in England :D

Epic freakout.

So today has been really interesting.
Woke up- thought I was going to vomit. Then I cried. Then I hyperventilated.
All before 8 AM.
It doesn't seem like I'm leaving tomorrow. But I guess the suitcase sitting in my room, full and ready to go should be a good enough reminder. I'm so excited- but I'm also super nervous. I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss everyone and everything.
Mom just texted me to go to bed- oops.
More tomorrow.