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!