Yes it is true, i'm still cameraless. My mom gave me the tracking number to find it and apparently it was attempted to be delivered on September 18th. I gotta do some more research so until then, still no more pictures!
Thursday night was pretty fun. Like i said we were going to our friends flat to go hangout and drink there. We played a new game they created called "Pass the alcoholic parcel". It pretty much follows the rules of a childrens game they play here where a gift is placed in a box and wrapped with wrapping paper many times. You take turns passing the box around until the music stops and you peel back one layer of the wrapper. Then it goes again until the music stops and so on until there is no more wrapping paper and that person gets what's in the box. So the alcohol version is the same except inbetween each layer of paper is a post-it that says something like "take a shot", "finish your drink", or "add to the pint". There are numerous "add to the pint" post-it and usually towards the end one person picks the "drink the pint" post-it. Our pint thursday night consisted of wine, vodka, Strongbow, and i'm sure other things and the guy who had to drink it couldn't and kinda made a mess. I was well intoxicated at that point and decided to finish it and don't remember tasting it at all. It's a game that lasted pretty long and was fun. I'm supposed to bring it back with me to the states. (One of the girls even created a facebook group to make sure it goes global so look for it if you so desire!)
After the game we ventured into the city to go to some club. At this state i had drank a good amount of vodka and was feeling on top of the world. We took a taxi and went to a club i later found out was falled 42nd street. Or something like that, (i still don't know it apparently). We got in and went straight to the bar and no one had money, but me! Got some drink and went dancing. Don't remember much of it, just know we were dancing! Got home somehow after some difficulty and had a great night.
I get to sleep at like 5 that night i'm pretty sure, only to wake up at 9 to get to the student fair. I initially thought it only went from 10-12 because that's what my syllabus said. I even set my alarm to make sure i wouldnt sleep through it. It turns out it went to 5 that night, so 4 hours of sleep could have been many more! Anyways i met Mikael there and we walked around. They fill you up with flyers and useless paper there, which all ends up on the ground. (Which leads me to say that the ground here is covered in garbage. There is litter everywhere. I don't know if this is a manchester thing or something else but you can't go 2 feet before seeing garbage on the ground). I signed up for Ski and snowboard club, basketball, and football (soccer).
Later on Friday Mikael and i went to play football with some local guys here. At first i was pretty intimidated and didn't want to play because 1) i love the sport but i've never played in a real league so i'm not very good and 2) this is their countries sport, everyone here plays it, so my thoughts were that they all were going to be extremely good. We get there and it's, what i thought to be, a bunch of foul mouth construction workers. And i think i was right but i had an amazing time playing with them. I picked it up really fast and our team ended up winning. I had two shots on goal, both of them should have been made, but i still feel like i learned a lot. We will be playing with them every friday i believe, or at least i hope!
After soccer i went over to the flat and watched The Devil Wears Prada with Mikael, Sarah, Kathryn, and Gemma. Assuming it was a chick flick, and it was, it actually wasn't too bad. It wasn't as bad as The Women or The House Bunny, both terrible movies i've seem to seen with a majority of girls. I came back after that and watched 21 with Lindsay. I liked that one much better! I'll be practicing my card counting soon and will be winning lots of money!
Saturday Mikael, Lindsay, Andy and I went to downtown Manchester to watch the United game on tv. We found a pub, but no united game. No one was broadcasting it though. I ate a really good meal called bangers and mash. (Thanks Gemma) It consisted of mash potatoes, with 3 sausages (bangers) covered in gravy and onions, and served with peas. Oh so good! I still have yet to have fish and chips, maybe soon. We walked around for quite awhile after lunch. Walked past The Oyster which I later found out is the oldest pub in Manchester. Somewhere i have to visit before i leave!
Saturday night i went out with Andy to the Pav and had a drink there. Played English pool and kinda just hung out. It was a pretty low key night.
Sunday was also pretty low key. Had to go to the grocery store so i could finally start eating. I would have loved to weigh myself a few days ago cause i felt so skinny and unhealthy. I realized i can't be stingy with my money for food. I'm not gonna go crazy and spend it all but i figure i might as well eat some! I think us Americans are gonna go out once a week for a new restaurant so we can just try some of the food here and get a good feel for new places. So when we come back again we know where to eat.
After the grocery store I came back and made my first home made meal here, spaghetti with hamburger sauce and a salad. Oh it tasted so so good. Sunday night was Koala's birthday so i helped celebrate it with him. I got drunk off some real fun games. 1st game of the night. Everyone get's 2 or 3 dice and 1 person calls off what to get and you slam your dice down and turn them over till they match up with what was called. Last person to get it has to take a drink. For example i call out 1 three and 2 fours. Last person to get it and clap has to drink. 2nd game we played consists of liquids (vodka, water, lemonade, anything that is drinkable) and cards. Everyone grabs a card and doesn't look at it. Put it on your forehead so everyone else can see. You then go in a circle adding what you want to the bowl depending on how you feel about your card. The lowest card has to drink whatever was in the bowl. Koala (birthday boy) was showing a 2 and so his bowl consisted of quite a bit of vodka and a little lemonade, until it came to me when i added my cup of baileys and milk. Poor guy saw that come up this morning. 3rd game is too difficult to explain over the internets so ask me in person or on the phone and i'll explain. It too also gets you drunk. To top off the night we had a huge cake fight and everyone got messy, including the room. I say it was one of my more finer Sunday nights while here at Manchester.
Today, monday, was my first day of class! I didn't have it until 1 so i was able to sleep in until 12. I had a nutrition lecture which went for a few hours. Just kinda talked about absorption and intro stuff. It's a class in which i've already taken back at Winona so i'm not too worried about it. Basically just a review. Should be fun though!
Played a little bit of football today with Koala, James, Mikael, and Andy before going out for a movie. We went to the most amazing mall I've ever been in. Just check out some of the pictures out at google http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=trafford%20center&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
They have marble flooring everywhere. Terraces, gardens, ponds, fountains. It's gorgeous. We went to the theater there and watched District 9. It's about aliens that land over earth and stay there. The South African government takes care of them but gets sick of taking care of them so they start moving them and they get all pissed off. One of the guys gets sick and both sides are fighting over him. I won't explain too much but if you liked Independence Day, you might like this. It's not as good but it's comparable. Tomorrow i have class at 1 but i gotta continue catching up on sleep.
This was a long one, i promise to keep them shorter for next time!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday, September 24 - Footy
I left off with Tuesday i believe?
On Tuesday Andy and I had to go to the city to get our cellphones fixed. I knew that the public transportation was super easy before coming over here but i didn't think it was this easy. I literally have to step outside the gate of my dorms and catch a bus right away, or taxi. It's very nice to have such a convenience. There is also a train available to take to the city or anywhere in England for that matter.
Andy and I kinda wandered around and found it pretty easy which was nice. Got our phones updated/fixed and went to Tesco, the local grocery market here. It's similar to Wallmart except on a smaller scale. They look at it as a Wallmart here but it's too small. Although they have everything a college student needs. We were out to find some hot sauce to spice up the food here and got that. Also bought some Koala Yummies, man have i missed those! We finished up there and walked around to find a bus to take us there. We ended up in Picadilly Garden where all the buses come in and out so we found one to take us home.
Later tuesday night we went out to the Comedy Club. It was pretty good, some not so good, but overall a good time. Us Americans were pointed out and of course we were made fun of but it was all in good laughs. Later we went back to our place for a party. Lot's of people, friends, music and good laughs. It was definitely another good time. I think we ended up going to bed at like 3:30 and slept through some meetings, but they weren't very important.
Yesterday was all about going to the Manchester United game. Andy, Lindsay, Mikael, Koala, Sonia, Elith and i all walked to the game from Uni. It was a 40 min walk and for the most part we kinda knew where we were going. Before going into the stadium we ate outside and had some pretty delicious american burgers. Double bacon cheeseburger was my choice, prime stuff. The security there was amazing, police everywhere. On foot, horse, car, motorcycle. The game we went to was not a big match so i would have loved to see how the security steps up for a big match. We got in and got our seats. They were very nice, i was expecting to be in the nosebleed sections but we ended up being 19 rows back i believe. We met some of the other faculty there, Julian, Phil, Dan, and Louis the cappuccino man. It was a good game, United played the Wolverhamptom Wolves. United won 1-0.
We took a taxi back and went to the Pav again. (You'll notice it's a recurring theme here in my blog to visit the Pav!) I didn't drink but we met up with some people and played some pool there. We then went back to their house and had a party there. Met some more cool people and danced, sang, and did all of that good stuff. Came home at like 2:30 to head off to bed to get up for today's meetings.
At the meetings Julian introduced me a girl who is a snowboarder and told me of an indoor ski and snowboard hill here. Her friend Emma also talked about it and it got me excited to get back to snowboarding again! It's fairly reasonable i believe, about 20 pounds which is like 37 dollars for 3 or 4 hours. A little more expensive here but it's still snowboarding, my passion so anything is good. I might be able to make it out to the Alps this year, cross fingers!
Other then today's meetings i haven't done much. We were gonna play some soccer but didn't have a ball, i think we are getting that all set up for tomorrow though. In an hour or so we'll be at our friends Flat to have a party then go to the _ _ _. (Guesses?
It should be another good night, enjoy yours!
Tomorrow i'll hopefully get my camera and can to begin taking pictures!!
On Tuesday Andy and I had to go to the city to get our cellphones fixed. I knew that the public transportation was super easy before coming over here but i didn't think it was this easy. I literally have to step outside the gate of my dorms and catch a bus right away, or taxi. It's very nice to have such a convenience. There is also a train available to take to the city or anywhere in England for that matter.
Andy and I kinda wandered around and found it pretty easy which was nice. Got our phones updated/fixed and went to Tesco, the local grocery market here. It's similar to Wallmart except on a smaller scale. They look at it as a Wallmart here but it's too small. Although they have everything a college student needs. We were out to find some hot sauce to spice up the food here and got that. Also bought some Koala Yummies, man have i missed those! We finished up there and walked around to find a bus to take us there. We ended up in Picadilly Garden where all the buses come in and out so we found one to take us home.
Later tuesday night we went out to the Comedy Club. It was pretty good, some not so good, but overall a good time. Us Americans were pointed out and of course we were made fun of but it was all in good laughs. Later we went back to our place for a party. Lot's of people, friends, music and good laughs. It was definitely another good time. I think we ended up going to bed at like 3:30 and slept through some meetings, but they weren't very important.
Yesterday was all about going to the Manchester United game. Andy, Lindsay, Mikael, Koala, Sonia, Elith and i all walked to the game from Uni. It was a 40 min walk and for the most part we kinda knew where we were going. Before going into the stadium we ate outside and had some pretty delicious american burgers. Double bacon cheeseburger was my choice, prime stuff. The security there was amazing, police everywhere. On foot, horse, car, motorcycle. The game we went to was not a big match so i would have loved to see how the security steps up for a big match. We got in and got our seats. They were very nice, i was expecting to be in the nosebleed sections but we ended up being 19 rows back i believe. We met some of the other faculty there, Julian, Phil, Dan, and Louis the cappuccino man. It was a good game, United played the Wolverhamptom Wolves. United won 1-0.
We took a taxi back and went to the Pav again. (You'll notice it's a recurring theme here in my blog to visit the Pav!) I didn't drink but we met up with some people and played some pool there. We then went back to their house and had a party there. Met some more cool people and danced, sang, and did all of that good stuff. Came home at like 2:30 to head off to bed to get up for today's meetings.
At the meetings Julian introduced me a girl who is a snowboarder and told me of an indoor ski and snowboard hill here. Her friend Emma also talked about it and it got me excited to get back to snowboarding again! It's fairly reasonable i believe, about 20 pounds which is like 37 dollars for 3 or 4 hours. A little more expensive here but it's still snowboarding, my passion so anything is good. I might be able to make it out to the Alps this year, cross fingers!
Other then today's meetings i haven't done much. We were gonna play some soccer but didn't have a ball, i think we are getting that all set up for tomorrow though. In an hour or so we'll be at our friends Flat to have a party then go to the _ _ _. (Guesses?
It should be another good night, enjoy yours!
Tomorrow i'll hopefully get my camera and can to begin taking pictures!!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, September 21 - Celebrate We Will
As I start writing this journal, blog, or whatever you call it i can't help but think of Green Street Hooligans and Elijah's character who is a journalist and gets his ass kicked cause of it. If you haven't seen it, go see it.
I've been here for only a few days but it feels like it's been a week. I'm exhausted. A combination of late nights, early mornings, and jet lag have been with me since I've arrived.
Plane ride was fine, it went very slow though. Watched My Life In Ruins. It was pretty funny. The second movie was Mama Mia. I fell asleep for a couple hours on the plane but it wasn't terrible.
My plane got to the airport and after waiting for an hour for my visa i was able to get going, kinda. The university was supposed to provide someone to pick us up there, but they weren't there. So i waited with Crystal, a girl who was on the plane and also going to Salford, for an hour. The taxi ride to the University was prob 3 hours or so. Not bad except it was only supposed to be a 30 min ride. The taxi driver got lost and gave me the map to find our way. Not good. (You should get this vibe that England includes a lot of waiting time. There not very punctual and live by the clock like Americans do)
Got in, settled, and then went to downtown Manchester. Walked around and spent too much money on stuff i needed. It sucks that everything is so expensive here, but i'm sure you get used to it and i'll be real excited to start paying for things when i get home. I'll be offering people all kinds of drinks when i get back to get in the swing of things so come find me.
The past 2 nights we went out and it's been pretty good to us. First night we went to a local pub on campus and met some people. Already had the politics talk with a gentlemen but it was pretty respectful. Played quarters, they haven't played it here so we called it pounds and everyone got drunk. Met Danny, Alex, KoKo, the Sophies, and Hanna.
Went to bed at like 3 and woke up at 12:30 so i got some sleep there, can't complain. We watched the Manchester United vs. Manchester City game on the t.v. at the Pav. The Pav is a local pub, club type place. It was a good game, United scored the final goal, 4-3, with less then a minute left in stoppage time.
After the game we went to a BBQ and met a group of very cool people who later we ended up going out with. Highlight of the BBQ was probably a robber. Some student ran off with the till. It was an event outside and everyone was just minding themselves talking and all of a sudden we heard change clanking really loud and we looked over and this guy had the biggest grin on his face staring at all of us as he sprinted off with the till. It didn't really hit us until a couple guys started chasing him. His buddy then ran off in a different direction with some cash. Apparently some students caught them and held them down before the police came.
Last night we went out again to the people who we met at the BBQ. James, Katherine, Gemma, Sarah, and Michael. They all are really cool and approve of them. We played some Presidents and Assholes. But since we are in the UK i think we called it Queens and Peasants. We ended up going out to a house party and had a good time. Bed at like 3 to wake up at 8 for a meeting at 9:30. Not good.
The 3 of us didn't feel very well and concluded none of us were in a good state of mind to be listening to people talk. Had subway for lunch. So good. Just got back a little bit ago from Old Trafford and buying our tickets for this Wednesday's game. Pretty excited about that! They ended up being like $65 dollars. I was expecting a lot more expensive so i can't complain at all.
Tonight is going to be a chill night to give our livers some rest and catch up on some sleep. Too much Strongbow (a delicious hard cider). I also had some candy vodka stuff which was good i think. Much more to learn though about alcohol here!
Enough writing for today i think!
Catch up with you later!
I've been here for only a few days but it feels like it's been a week. I'm exhausted. A combination of late nights, early mornings, and jet lag have been with me since I've arrived.
Plane ride was fine, it went very slow though. Watched My Life In Ruins. It was pretty funny. The second movie was Mama Mia. I fell asleep for a couple hours on the plane but it wasn't terrible.
My plane got to the airport and after waiting for an hour for my visa i was able to get going, kinda. The university was supposed to provide someone to pick us up there, but they weren't there. So i waited with Crystal, a girl who was on the plane and also going to Salford, for an hour. The taxi ride to the University was prob 3 hours or so. Not bad except it was only supposed to be a 30 min ride. The taxi driver got lost and gave me the map to find our way. Not good. (You should get this vibe that England includes a lot of waiting time. There not very punctual and live by the clock like Americans do)
Got in, settled, and then went to downtown Manchester. Walked around and spent too much money on stuff i needed. It sucks that everything is so expensive here, but i'm sure you get used to it and i'll be real excited to start paying for things when i get home. I'll be offering people all kinds of drinks when i get back to get in the swing of things so come find me.
The past 2 nights we went out and it's been pretty good to us. First night we went to a local pub on campus and met some people. Already had the politics talk with a gentlemen but it was pretty respectful. Played quarters, they haven't played it here so we called it pounds and everyone got drunk. Met Danny, Alex, KoKo, the Sophies, and Hanna.
Went to bed at like 3 and woke up at 12:30 so i got some sleep there, can't complain. We watched the Manchester United vs. Manchester City game on the t.v. at the Pav. The Pav is a local pub, club type place. It was a good game, United scored the final goal, 4-3, with less then a minute left in stoppage time.
After the game we went to a BBQ and met a group of very cool people who later we ended up going out with. Highlight of the BBQ was probably a robber. Some student ran off with the till. It was an event outside and everyone was just minding themselves talking and all of a sudden we heard change clanking really loud and we looked over and this guy had the biggest grin on his face staring at all of us as he sprinted off with the till. It didn't really hit us until a couple guys started chasing him. His buddy then ran off in a different direction with some cash. Apparently some students caught them and held them down before the police came.
Last night we went out again to the people who we met at the BBQ. James, Katherine, Gemma, Sarah, and Michael. They all are really cool and approve of them. We played some Presidents and Assholes. But since we are in the UK i think we called it Queens and Peasants. We ended up going out to a house party and had a good time. Bed at like 3 to wake up at 8 for a meeting at 9:30. Not good.
The 3 of us didn't feel very well and concluded none of us were in a good state of mind to be listening to people talk. Had subway for lunch. So good. Just got back a little bit ago from Old Trafford and buying our tickets for this Wednesday's game. Pretty excited about that! They ended up being like $65 dollars. I was expecting a lot more expensive so i can't complain at all.
Tonight is going to be a chill night to give our livers some rest and catch up on some sleep. Too much Strongbow (a delicious hard cider). I also had some candy vodka stuff which was good i think. Much more to learn though about alcohol here!
Enough writing for today i think!
Catch up with you later!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Friday, September 18th - Stuck In Chicago for 7 Hours
As I’m writing this, I am sitting alone in Gino’s East Pizzeria in Chicago waiting for my world famous deep dish pizza to arrive. I’m sure I look pretty pathetic typing on my computer at a restaurant, alone, waiting for my food to arrive, but I couldn’t think of anything else better to do since I have already soaked up all of the information in my bus and train map (which wasn’t comprised of much.)
I waited to pack until the night before which I thought wasn’t going to be a bad idea, but it turned out so. I was up until 3:30 trying to get stuff organized, cleaned, and moved around. All that rushing I guarantee that I left something home but can wait to find out exactly what that is when I get to Manchester. The car is in the garage, battery out and ready for storage! Room is clean and will probably not be clean when I come back. Overall I think I did a good job for being half awake last night.
The plane left for Chicago at 9 so I had to wake up at 6, which turned into 6:30 because I learned I can’t operate on 2 and half hours of sleep. I arrived in Chicago without a problem. Well other then the fact that the plane had a landing that could be compared to that of a head on car crash at 40 mph. It was nice.
I’ve only been in Chicago for a few hours but have already fallen in love with it. I got to Chicago at around 10 and was on the train within an hour to head to downtown. The train was cheap and somewhat fast, took about 45 min to get downtown. One of the first people I ran into was a security guard who was definitely not having a good day and looked hung over. I got off on the Washington exit which happened to be at the courthouse. I had to use the restroom there and you have to go through security to get to the restroom since it’s in a court. Well a bushel of students went before me and he let them all through while the metal detector was going off as he continued to wave and yell them through. No Minnesota nice here.
I got off the train and wandered around till I found Millennium Park. I saw the big bean, the spitting water fountains, pretty gardens, and other “artsy” stuff; don’t get me wrong, it was all gorgeous, just…weird. After this pizzeria I’m hoping to find a Wells Fargo so I can print off some type of statement showing I have money in my account so when I apply for the Visa in Manchester they won’t turn me down and send me back. After that I hope to have enough time to go to Sears Tower and go to the observatory deck then off to the airport. The plane leaves for Manchester at 5 and should get there around midnight central time, 7:20 Manchester time. I’m going to try and sleep on the plane so jet lag doesn’t start to take affect early on the trip.
Pizza should be here soon so I should probably stop looking like a loner in this place and stop typing. I’ll let you know how the pizza was in the next entry!
Also, I have no camera today and for awhile. As most of you know my camera is busted so I sent it to Olympus to get it fixed. It was supposed to arrive at my house yesterday, Thursday 17th, but it came a few hours after I left today. I’ve resorted to taking subpar pictures on my phone where I will post when I get some internets.
I waited to pack until the night before which I thought wasn’t going to be a bad idea, but it turned out so. I was up until 3:30 trying to get stuff organized, cleaned, and moved around. All that rushing I guarantee that I left something home but can wait to find out exactly what that is when I get to Manchester. The car is in the garage, battery out and ready for storage! Room is clean and will probably not be clean when I come back. Overall I think I did a good job for being half awake last night.
The plane left for Chicago at 9 so I had to wake up at 6, which turned into 6:30 because I learned I can’t operate on 2 and half hours of sleep. I arrived in Chicago without a problem. Well other then the fact that the plane had a landing that could be compared to that of a head on car crash at 40 mph. It was nice.
I’ve only been in Chicago for a few hours but have already fallen in love with it. I got to Chicago at around 10 and was on the train within an hour to head to downtown. The train was cheap and somewhat fast, took about 45 min to get downtown. One of the first people I ran into was a security guard who was definitely not having a good day and looked hung over. I got off on the Washington exit which happened to be at the courthouse. I had to use the restroom there and you have to go through security to get to the restroom since it’s in a court. Well a bushel of students went before me and he let them all through while the metal detector was going off as he continued to wave and yell them through. No Minnesota nice here.
I got off the train and wandered around till I found Millennium Park. I saw the big bean, the spitting water fountains, pretty gardens, and other “artsy” stuff; don’t get me wrong, it was all gorgeous, just…weird. After this pizzeria I’m hoping to find a Wells Fargo so I can print off some type of statement showing I have money in my account so when I apply for the Visa in Manchester they won’t turn me down and send me back. After that I hope to have enough time to go to Sears Tower and go to the observatory deck then off to the airport. The plane leaves for Manchester at 5 and should get there around midnight central time, 7:20 Manchester time. I’m going to try and sleep on the plane so jet lag doesn’t start to take affect early on the trip.
Pizza should be here soon so I should probably stop looking like a loner in this place and stop typing. I’ll let you know how the pizza was in the next entry!
Also, I have no camera today and for awhile. As most of you know my camera is busted so I sent it to Olympus to get it fixed. It was supposed to arrive at my house yesterday, Thursday 17th, but it came a few hours after I left today. I’ve resorted to taking subpar pictures on my phone where I will post when I get some internets.
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