Wednesday, October 28 - Swamped

This past week was busy busy busy, definitely just wasn't class and homework. This week went by so fast, and in general this trip so far has gone by so fast. I have less then 2 months left and i'm gonna make it the best that i can!

Tuesday i had nutrition class. We learned about minerals and vitamins, boring but important stuff. Tuesday night i went out to the Comedy Club again with Mikael and the other International students: Sophie (France), Agathe (France), Jason (Australia), Connie (Austria), and Theresia (Austria). One of the comedians there spent a few years in Rochester, MN so we chatted on and off stage about that, it's a small world. After that Jason, Connie, Theresia and I went out to the Pav for club night. The clubs here love host dance parties, something they don't really have in Winona which is a problem cause everyone likes to dance and it's going to be an adjustment for me. So we got our dance on and had a good time.

Wednesday is my day off so Mikael, Jason, and I went to Old Trafford (where Manchester United plays) because Mikael had a job interview there. After that we had some time to kill so we decided to take a tour of Old Trafford. It was pretty impressive, here are a few pics from inside the stadium, players rooms, and the pitch (field):


"Holding" the European Cup!


The players lounge where they relax before the game.


Those lights are to trick the grass into growing when the sun goes down.

After the tour we went in to the city to meet up with Andy, Sophie, and Agate to go to Brannigans, a sport's bar, to watch the United vs Moscow game. I'm pretty sure United won that game. They had 1 pound burgers which was the best deal i've ran across since being here. It's like a $1.65 a burger, needless to say i had a few. While everyone headed back to the houses i met up with Will, Amy, and Sophie to watch the basketball team play. I know Peter, Muff, and Chris on the team. I've been meaning to play with them because i haven't played bball since being here and have been itching to do so. (Speaking of which i haven't heard how the intramural team has done so far!) The team here doesn't have a coach so Muff has taken over and has been doing tons of work for them. He had to make their own jerseys and set up their own games. They won 65-59 but it was an ugly win. It was kind of expected though since it was their first game. I had fun and it just made me want to play again!

Thursday was a boring day of class. We spent all day going over data and how to analyze it using software. It was the worst day of class i've had so far because of the lack of hands on. Tomorrow we are doing more sprints and work outs so it should be a better time. Thursday night Andy and I went to the International house and drank there. For some reason the French (Mikael, Agathe, and Sophie) locked themselves in Sophie's room and Jason was trying to get in. I had a few drinks in me and decided to join forces with Australia to help get them out. I remember giving up for a while and then coming down to see how progress was going and i saw they wrote US and AUS on their door with shaving cream, clearly the stakes had been raised. I think Jason started floodding their room and i thought that was a good idea so i helped as well. This is a picture of that step:



The French still wouldn't come out so i proceeded to do the next step, because as most of you know i like a good prank and sometimes go too far; i went ahead and put a piece of chewed gum in Sophie's lock. Well it didn't have an effect at that time but i'll go into detail later about how that ended up. It got to be really late and they went to sleep so we left at like five in the morning forcing the three of them to sleep in her tiny room. Sorry French! Also during this night Andy, Lindsay, Jason, and I bought tickets to Malaga, Spain Dec 4-6. It's a gorgeous city on the Mediterranean,check it out here: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=malaga%20spain&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

I'm pretty excited for that trip!

Friday Lindsay and I had off so we went to the city. But before that i had to go to Sophie's room to fix her door which wouldn't lock. Apparently the gum that was in there dried (weird right?) and so i had to try and fix it. Well it actually didn't take that long and just took a little bit of Mitch Magic to get it working again. I've now repaired relations between France and the US! After that Lindsay and I sowent to the city to top off our phones again. Speaking of phones, my 2 year contract with Verizon ends when i get home and so i'm looking to get a new phone. I've seen this one phone that i really like but i don't know what it's called and i can't find it. I know it's made by Verizon, but could also be used with other networks, but this phone's digits are all LCD and if you push a button the numbers disappear and turn to letters so you can turn it and use it as a keyboard. I thought it was pretty cool and just wanted to more about it so if any of you have it or know what i'm talking about could ya help me out?!

Anyways, Friday Lindsay and I got our phones fixed then walked around the city. We went into the Arndale Mall and ran right into this:



They were using a type of carpet that acted just like snow. It was amazing how they were able to turn on it, if you weren't looking at the carpet you would have guessed that they were on snow, very impressive. We walked around some and met up with Andy and Mikael for our weekly dinner night out. This time we tried out JD Wetherspoons and i liked it. I had a beer/burger combination for 7 pounds which is a good deal. The burger was huge, had onion rings on it, and tasted delish! I supposed good food does exist here, ya just gotta hunt for it. Friday night i went to bed early cause earlier in the day we bought tickets to Birmingham!

So Saturday morning Andy, Lindsay, Mikael, Jason, Malgosia, XiXi, Nuria, Sophie, Agate, and I left Manchester at 8 and took a 2 hour bus ride to Birmingham. It's a city similar to Manchester but just a different atmosphere, something new to see. We visited the Bullring, a modern building designed for shopping. We walked around the city and visited St Paul church, the Cathedral, Town Hall, Canal Park, and The Birmingham Museum. It was fun, i finally was able to get a shot glass from a city i've visited! Let's hope this luck continues onwards to more cities i visit! We went out to eat at a restaurant called Fullers Ale and Pie House. It was very good but expensive. Apparently it's one of the best restaurants in the UK so we chose a good place to eat. I ate some bangers and mash and fell in love once again. After lunch we just continued to walk around and shop until the bus left at 10! Here are some pictures from the trip:


City Hall


My meal of choice: Bangers and Mash!


The group posing with the bull in the middle of the Bullring shopping district.


The modernized Bullring shopping building.

We got back that night and went to their house to celebrate Daylight Savings Time. We had a dance party and i was practicing The Carlton. I swear I'll get that dance down, it's easy and it's a classic. Hmmm maybe i'll be Carlton for Halloween?

Sunday Mikael and i got up and went to the gym for a few hours. After that we rushed lunch and shower and went to the city to watch the Man United game vs. Liverpool at a pub in the city. The game was good even though we (united) lost 2-0. The only reason i say that the game was good was the entertainment at the pub. The locals there were all very drunk and pissed off that United was losing. There was one poor guy there rooting for Liverpool, not being loud or anything and everyone there was just giving him crap after Liverpool would score. At the end of the match everyone was throwing their drinks at him and before i knew it beer, soda, water, and cups were flying everywhere. It was quite entertaining. Sunday night Mikael, Andy, James, and I went to go see Saw VI. I usually see it with the group from Winona every October but obviously i couldn't so i was forced to see it without them. The movie was the same: crapping acting, gore and terrifying ways of dying, half the movie consisting of flashbacks, and *SPOILER ALERT* leaving the movie open once again for yet another one to be made. It's good to say though that i saw it and now can check that off my long list of movies to still see.

Monday was relaxing, i just went to class and watched an episode of Top Gear. I gotta get ready for the season premeire on November 15th. If you have no idea what i'm talking about i'm sorry but it's the best show ever. (I don't know anyone in Winona that would like it other then Pete, Micki and Mike because it involves cars, and pretty much only cars.) To give a quick summary of the show, it's about sexy cars and funny humor. The only two ingredients you need for a great show is that right there. It's not on American TV but the BBC so you have to find it online unless you have BBC America, in that case you're lucky and you need to watch it when it's on! The rest of you can go to www.watchtopgear.org and catch up on all 13 seasons before the 14th one starts shortly.

Yesterday i had class as well and it wasn't anything too exciting, just learning more about plyometrics, agility, and creating workout plans. I watched another episode of Top Gear before heading out to the International house to hang out there. Afterwords we went to the Pav for club night again. It wasn't as good as it was last week because there weren't nearly as many as people there. It was still a good time though cause we still got our dance on.

Today i didn't have class so Louise drove Lindsay and I to The Lake District in England. It's a national park where there are lakes. It's kind of funny because in MN we have over 10,000 lakes and seeing a lake isn't a big deal. But here lakes are rare so people travel from all over England to come and see these mysterious bodies of water. Therefore it's a big tourist spot filled with old people with canes and children throwing loafs of bread at geese. Needless to say it was still very beautiful because i haven't seen a lake in over a month and that's what i've always lived around. My whole life has been in and around lakes: Medicine, Minnetonka, Calhoun, Boundary Waters, Superior,and the beloved Winona Lakes. It reminded me of home for sure so it was very surreal and relaxing. We ate some good there and proceeded to get somewhat lost until we ended up 50 miles away at a big body of water known as the Irish Sea. It was gorgeous, reminded me of Mexico other then the fact that the water was freezing. The noise of the waves crashing is something that will also relax me, i honestly could listen to that noise for the rest of my life and truly never get sick of it. Overall the trip today was perfect, it was time spent with good friends, inexpensive, simple, and beautiful. Take a look at these pictures of the trip today:


Lake Windermere


Carvery Lunch. It's a buffet with only 1 plate. Needless to say you load up. It was only 3.50 pounds. 5 dollars = GREAT DEAL and cost of trip!


Freezing but worth going in. (Well at least up to my ankles in it.)

Obviously i've done a terrible job updating this and that's why it's quite the journal today. Hope you enjoy the pictures and stories and maybe i'll find some videos to put up of random shenanigans going on here! I will talk to you within a week!

Monday, October 19 - Spoons!

I'm sick. I think I've been sick for the past week or so. The worst part of my sickness is waking up in the morning to my throat. Not many people are at their best when they wake up and seldom to people like waking up, I'm one of those who enjoys waking up and especially when i have this intense soreness in my throat in the morning. It's like i feel it when I'm breathing and when i go to eat breakfast i eat only yogurt. Needless to say i'm gone through quite a bit of yogurt this past week. One would think that drinking water at night might help it during sleep but i wake up having to pee so bad that morning, it's not worth it. Just thought i'd let you know!

Wednesday i ended up not going out but i did enjoy watching part of the initiation. The rugby team had their initiation right in the middle of all the houses here where i live in a courtyard area. I was in my room and heard this rumbling of people outside for quite a while. (It's very common to hear chants and such here because everyone is watching football matches and sings songs and chants after wins.) After some time the noise is still going on so i went out to check what was going on. There were about 100 people standing around a group of 15 or so guy who were basically butt ass naked chugging pint after pint of beer and throwing up and doing it again and again. All 100 people were laughing and taking pictures and it was pretty enjoyable. Apparently before i got there the first year rugby players had eggs, flour, beans, and fruit thrown at them. Then they had to run around naked. Then they started drinking pints and what not. Their was an awful mess that night after everyone left and the next morning. This picture doesn't describe it too well, but gives you an idea of what it looked like:



Thursday's class consisted of us recording our data from the previous Thursday's class session. We need to use all this data in a lab write up which i haven't started yet but will soon. Thursday night Andy, Mikael, and I went over to another international house and we hung out there. We met two girls from Austria, two girls from France, and a guy from Australia. The night was full of cards, laughs, and broken English. I taught them how to play spoons and they all loved it and we played a bunch of rounds of that. A chill night.

Friday i didn't have class so Lindsay and I went to the city to get her phone fixed. After that we kinda walked around the city to go exploring. We ran into this filming process. It was real weird. There were cameras everywhere videotaping a bunch of random people who were dancing which was choreographed in the town square. We were asked to go dance but we just weren't feeling it... We walked around some more and found a river which we followed. There were a bunch of house boats on it, see below. We saw a lot of potentially good restaurants and saw a different side of Manchester which was good. Below is the river we walked around and you can see some of the house boats that people live in!



We got back and went to go to the gym, kinda. The lockers here have keys and you put in a pound to lock it. There was one locker opened and there was someones stuff in there so i decided instead of leaving my stuff in the open i'd put it in there and not lock it to be nice to whoever left there stuff there. Well i went for a run on the treadmill and it was eating at my mind to go lock it up cause i had my wallet and keys in there, I didn't really want to lose that stuff. So i go back and the locker is locked, it backfired on me. I sat around for 15 minutes to see if someone would come back and open it but they didn't. I had to leave cause i was getting weird looks from people cause i was just sitting there on my iPod while people were changing in front of me. I went to the workout rooms and asked people if they had the key but apparently no one did. So i had to go to the front desk and get a master key to open it up and see if my stuff was there. It ended up being there and the extent of my gym session was just me running for a mile on the treadmill cause i had to get back to shower and go out for dinner!

This past Friday, Mikael, Andy, Lindsay and I went to Louisiana Kitchen. (Yea yea i know it's American food but it looked good and Mikael wanted to try it out.) I had some gumbo that was very expensive ($20), not very filling, and didn't taste the best. I was pretty disappointed but everything else looked good. After dinner we went out to the friends flat and hung out there before going to a house party. They had a few live bands there which was pretty cool. We met up with the other international students and had quite a group go. After that we went back to the flat and chilled there till we got real hungry and went to the food cart outside where i got this:



It's so good but so unnecessary. That put me right into a food coma but instead of going to bed at like 2 we came back to our place and played some cards for awhile. After some good cards and spoons everyone left and Koala, Edmond, Sonia, and Elith came up and we played some drinking games. I took the week off from drinking so i just drank water while we played a bunch of Chinese drinking games. It was really fun and can't wait to bring them back to the states! We didn't get to bed till like 5:30, i was exhausted Saturday morning.

Saturday was pretty chill. Went slack lining for the first time in England with Koala. I can now check off 2 countries I've slacked in. It got me thinking that when i go to Paris i should slackline near/under the Eiffel Tower. I'm going to see what i can do! Koala tried it and was able to get up (kinda) and walk (kinda.) He really liked it so i'm hoping to set it up again this week for everyone else to try. Saturday night Andy and I went to a house party and hung out there and had some fun. We left kind of early cause we had to wake up at 7 Sunday morning to catch the bus to go to Leeds!

We decided to buy a bus ticket to go to Leeds the night before just because it's something new and it cost 15 or so dollars. We went with the other international students. Leeds is a town similar to Manchester about an hour inland. We walked around, visited a few museums, ate at a good restaurant, visited a pub, and walked around a lot more. Lindsay and I walked around for the longest time looking for a shot glass but decided the entire city doesn't have a single shot glass that says Leeds on it. We both collect them from every big city we go to and they didn't have any, bummer. The first museum we went to was the Royal Armories Museum. It was full of weapons from many centuries ago. Nothing crazy, had some fun. After that we went to the city center and walked around and saw some cool sights. Watched Mikael dance with some African musicians and dancers in front of a group of people. We went to another museum which was...meh. Ate lunch at a oriental buffet because for some reason it was difficult to find food there! We walked around some more and ended up at another pub by the bus station to wait for the bus. It was a good, inexpensive day trip. I hope to take more of those to see the rest of the country! Here is a picture of the City Center:



Today i did some laundry and went to class. Other the that it's been pretty chill. Might do something later tonight with some friends but other then that today was a catch up day from yesterday.

I'm trying to save money here, but still have a good time. Meaning i'm saving money in the food department. Buying only the necessary stuff which still ends up being 35 dollars a week. I've been able to make some good meals here though so far, stir fry, chicken Caesar salads, spaghetti with cheese bread, steak and garlic mashed potatoes. I love cooking but it's difficult when you're budget is low and stuff is so expensive!

Here are some words they use here that have made me look like a fool so far.
Football - Soccer (i've gotten this one down)
Toilet - Bathroom
Crisps - Potato Chips
Chips - French Fries
Boot - Trunk of a car
Fit - Someone is good looking
Snogged - Kissed

I'm hopefully going to the Chill Factor this Wednesday to go snowboarding on their indoor hill! Other then that it's just class and homework! Enjoy yourselves this week and i'll be back soon with more Manchester news!

Wednesday, October 14 - Memory Like A Fish

One reason i started this blog was to remember all of the fun times i've had here. For some reason the past few years my memory has been terrible. I used to be really good at remembering what people said in our conversations and recall just the little things. Now i can barely remember what i wore two days ago. Sometimes i don't remember what people said to me. Now that it's been a week since i've last blogged i don't really remember what i did starting Wednesday night. This means that i need to start writing more often.

I'm pretty sure that on Wednesday i did indeed play some football with Andy, Mikael, and James. But i don't really remember what i did afterwords. Most likely just relaxed and got to bed early for Thursday's festivities.

Thursday we spend all day in the lab. We had to do a variety of demonstrations such as drop jump, single leg jump, 15 meter spring, 5 meter spring touch and back, and a concentric/eccentric test. We used force plates, speed cameras, and velocity guns. It was really interesting being able to perform the task then use the technology on another student and see how it works and get the feel for it. Like i said earlier that classes are really hands on and i really like that.

Thursday night Lindsay and I went to the pav to watch a hypnotist with Kat, Gemma, Shakira and Sarah-Beth. It was awful. The guy had 10 subjects and spent maybe 30 min with them and couldn't get anything to happen. People in the audience started talking or leaving and you felt pretty bad for the "hypnotist". Then you started to feel really bad when 9 of then 10 subject on stage just walked off. He was left with one and was trying really hard to get him to by hypnotized and he actually got it to work. (It's a possibility that he just told him he would give him 20 quid if did whatever he told him to do.) But like i said he wasn't a very good hypnotist and just kinda did stuff that either a) didn't work or b) was stupid. I think the guy who does it back at Winona was much better. After dinner Sarah-Beth and i went to go get some Indian food. I've never had Indian food before so i didn't know what to order, i ordered some type of chicken with rice. It wasn't that bad, a lot of food. I'd try it again. I learned of a Mongolian BBQ place that has a buffet on some nights. Definitely going there!

Friday, went to the gym with Lindsay and Andy. No idea if the weights are in kg or lbs. It's so messed up. I just lift what feels right. Seemed to work for the first day. After lifting Andy, Lindsay, Peter and I went out for the traditional Friday night dinner. We went to Chiquitos, a Mexican restaurant downtown in the Printworks.
I had a spicy beef wrap, it was really good. After Chiquitos we went to the Sinclairs Oyster Bar again for a drink.



After the bar i went to the casino to meet some friends for Mahjong. An Asian gambling game. We didn't gamble i just tried to learn the game. It's especially confusing if you don't know what the symbols on the tiles stand for. This picture pretty much sums up my first experience with Mahjong with Edmond and I:



After the casino I met up with Lindsay, Andy, and Peter again and we went back to our house to play Ride the Bus. A drinking game which Lindsay is very bad at and got drunk very fast. I also wasn't the best at it but was feeling it towards the end of the night. Rules are simple. Lay out 4 cards face up and 1 card face down in the middle of the 4. Starting with card 1, you guess if the next one to be flipped is higher or lower, if you're right you go to card 2, if you are wrong you take 1 drink and start over. This idea continues throughout the cards. If you're on card 4 and get it wrong, drink 4. The middle card that is faced down has to be guessed red or black. It's a fun and easy game to learn, ask Lindsay!

Saturday i played some football with Mikael, Andy, and James. We also went to the city to do some shopping. Bought 2 shirts for like 35 dollars, which is a really good deal here. Saturday night was a little too much partying for me. We went to the flat and hung out there with the crew and played ring of fire. We then went to a flat party and hung out there for a bit. It was really crowded so we went to IQ for another party and it ended up being kinda quiet there and the guys wanted to leave. So we left there, went back to the flat party and security showed up and kicked everyone out. So we just chilled out back at their flat. I had a mustache drawn on me with permanent marker and went to bed with it on. I woke up and it was on my sheets, comforter, and pillow. Not good. So Sunday morning i try to wash it off and end up tearing my skin off cause i was rubbing too hard. So now i have a scar and some of the mustache left on my face. I think I'll get around to cleaning it off later today.

Sunday i played some more football with the guys and a bunch of randoms. I was afraid to play cause they looked really good, and in fact were pretty good. But i was able to keep up with them and scored twice. Sunday night James, Mikael, Lindsay, Andy and I went and saw Inglorious Bastards at the Trafford Center. That place always amazes me. You can check the picture below to see what i'm talking about. The movie was really good. It was directed by Quentin Tarentino so you knew some parts would be gory. Besides that though it was a great flick, i recommend it!



Monday came around and I didn't do much. Had nutrition class. Went to optional training for Theory and Practice of Training. We practiced the clean (an olympic style lift) for an hour and half. I'm pretty sore from that. By the end of the year we need to explain how to properly do the lift to someone who is learning it for the first time. After that I went to the flat and hung out with Mikael, James, and Andy. Played some Fifa and just relaxed.

Yesterday was Theory and Practice of Training. We worked on Plyometrics for an hour and then practiced the clean again. I'm going to get really good at this clean soon! Last night I finished a book i've been reading for the past few weeks called 90 Minutes In Heaven. It's a non-fiction story about a gentlemen who get's involved in a car crash and dies. During his death he visits heaven and for 90 minutes gets a taste of heaven before he is sent back down to earth. The accident was extremely graphic and the author had many surgeries and spend countless months in the hospital recovring. He goes into a deep depression because of his injuries as well as being back on earth, and not spending his time in heaven. He later overcomes his depression and anger towards God and uses his story to heal others. If you aren't a big religious person i would still recommend this book to read. He is not a terrific author, but that is expected because not everyone is and he felt he needed to share his story even if he isn't an author. Although he isn't very good, it's still very interesting to read how he viewed heaven and how his story has helped others. Go and read it if you're looking for a book!

After finishing that i picked up Once A Runner. A fictional story with a non-fictional background. It goes though what life is like as a competitive runner from college to old. I'm not a competitive runner myself but i do like to run. So far I've read a few chapters and it has already pulled me in. It's been talked about as the best book while describing a runner, so naturally i had to pick it up. I haven't been disappointed yet. I'll let you know after i finish it how i felt about it!

Today i didn't have classes so i attended Operation Pavillion. It was put on by the Greater Manchester Fire Service as well as many police man, and ambulances. There had to been a few hundred servicemen there. The point behind it was to simulate a terrorist attack in which we the subjects were contaminated and needed to be properly taken care of. It started at 9 in the morning and didn't get done till 2. I initially didn't want to do it, even this morning waking up but i ended up going and had an alright time. I met some people, ate some good food, and helped out the services here! It basically consisted of us changing into these special suits, going into a shower, cleaning, and then leaving. Of course it was much more then that, but that's the basis of it.

Other then that i've just been hanging out today. I bought my plane ticket to Paris today! Lindsay, Andy and I are leaving the 13th of November and coming back the 15th. I'm so broke though, i'm waiting on some checks from boss man over summer and then i'll be safe for the rest of the semester i think! I went to the gym with lindsay and got nice and sweaty also. I think tonight i might go out with the sports teams here for Initiation night. All the sports teams initiate the first year players tonight. From what i heard it consists of them being egged, floured, forced to drink pints of vinegar, eat dog food, wear hideous outfits, and so forth. Luckily i won't be doing any of this cause I'm not in any sports, just going for the entertainment! This should wrap up my day quite nicely.

Some random thoughts:

Prawn Cocktail chips are soooo good. They are a sweet/sour mix. I'm gonna try to either send some home before i leave, or go home with a duffel bag of them.

Leave a comment with your address if you'd like a postcard from me sometime this semester! I have some people already but if you're like my friends Megan and Christine and you collect them, it's a nice touch to your collection!

Yes they do walk on the left side of the sidewalk here and up stairs as well. Takes some getting used to.

Listen to "Riverside" by Sidney Sampson

The 3 things i miss as of right now are Family, Friends, and Food!

Wednesday, October 7 - Solid Weekend

Weekend was real good. Started off with those fish and chips i was talking about, the supposed staple of Great Britain food. I went with Gemma and Lindsay and it was pretty decent, but even better priced. I got a huge piece of cod and some chips (fries) for 2 or 3 pounds. Had to get vinegar and salt with it as well. I wasn't able to finish it, so i had it for dinner. I put it in the oven to crisp it up cause it was pretty soggy.

Early Friday night Lindsay, Andy, and i went to the city to walk around and eat. We went to a Spanish restaurant called La Tasca. They serve tapas, smaller appetizer-like meals. We all decided that once a week we are gonna go out for dinner and try something new. Half the time i order food here i have no idea what it's composed of so it's always a new experience. I had chicken croquetas. It's hard to explain what it was, but they looked like mozzarella sticks but kinda had a gelatin inside. They also served it with a roasted garlic mayonnaise. It was small, but good. After La Tasca we walked around and went to Manchester's oldest pub, Sinclair's Oyster. It has a large outside patio and the architecture just screams old. It was built in 1720 and has been moved a few times. The most recent move because of the IRA bombings. It was a good time.

After the city we went to Peter's house. Peter is our mentor and fellow classmate. Of the 3 times i have seen him out of class, all 3 times he has been drunk. But don't get me wrong, he is a great guy, he just likes to drink. We went to his house and met a bunch of people there. Hung out there for a while and then went to Amy's house in IQ. It's part of Uni but just a different location. Similar to East Lake at Winona. Just much nicer apartments and living conditions. I remember Mean Girls was on the TV and after that we put in Green Street Hooligans. I didn't finish it though and i need to finish it cause I've been craving to watch that movie since I've been here.

There is a trend for that when i come home from drinking i hop on Skype and anyone i can find i talk to. It's like drunk dialing 2.0. Matt is usually the go-to-guy because i catch him before he is going out or studying or something. Anywhere from around 8/9 central time to 11 is the best time to catch me cause that's about when i get home at like 2-5. I promise it's worth it, hopefully Matt can attest.

Saturday Mikael, Lindsay, Andy and I cruised around the city. We went to a pub to watch the Man U game but Mikael was off in the timing so we went and had lunch at Hog's Head and watched some football. It was a pretty good place, plenty of teams and good food. I had some type of chili, rice, bread mix. Like i said i don't know what have the stuff i order is, i just know it's good. We did some shopping, had to buy a pair of white shorts for class. I'll get to that later. Came back relaxed then went out with Andy. Andy, Chris, Will, Sophie and I headed to IQ to meet Amy and her friends and housemates. We had no tv, cards, or music. So us guys just had chugging competitions while the girls got all dolled up. In to the story comes Becky, who i will from now on call Riverside. She is Amy's friend and is a pretty funny girl. I can't remember how i named her but i know it was because of a club song played here called Riverside by Sidney Sampson. It's a club song that just throws the words from the movie Juice with Tupac in it, "Riverside mother fucker". It's a damn good song, so Riverside was her name and all of us went out after riverside and her crew got all pretty.

We went to The Ritz, another club. It was good, they had a air bounce thing right in the middle of the dance floor which i thought was weird. Stayed there till the wee hours and came back to IQ where we chilled. Amy made fries and used mayo with them instead of ketchup. I don't know if this is an England thing but i haven't seen anyone do that back home, it was delish. I highly recommend it. Riverside is somehow an amazing artist with mascara. She wrote all over Chis' ass and face. She "tattooed" riverside on my arm and i was so impressed with how it turned out i had to take a picture. It was with my phone so i'll upload it when i get some service back home. I'm sure i came home late that night and didn't sleep untill 5 or something.

Sunday was pretty much a relaxing day. Had to get some groceries to keep me good for a day. I made an awesome salad that night. Grilled chicken Caesar salad with tomatoes, red pepper, green pepper, cheese, croutons, and caesar dressing. Oh it good. I went over to the flat afterwords and played a little Fifa and hung out with the guys.

Monday i had Nutrition and learned about the macro nutrients again: Fat, Carbohydrates, and Protein. Pretty normal, basic stuff when you're learning it a second time. Lindsay and I got groceries afterwords. I spend 21 pounds of my 72 pounds a week allowance. I calculated it out that of all the money i have now in my bank account, i get to spend 72 pounds a week before i go completely broke the day i get home. So i went ahead and made this chart to help myself keep track of my spending.



As you can see, Monday was a wreck because i had to get my camera!

Louise drove Lindsay and I to Parcel Force where i had to pay about $50 to get it. My mom paid 70 to send it from her, and i paid 50 to get it. I also paid 120 to get it fixed. I should have just gotten a new camera but i love this one too much. I'll put some pictures up here so it's not always just text and boredom. Louise also hooked me up by giving Lindsay and I two tickets to go see The Parlotones. I had no idea who they were but we went anyways and they were really good. Kinda hard to say what they sound like but typical guitarist, bassist, drummer and a few songs they had acoustic guitar and keys.

After the concert Lindsay and I met up with the Sport Science group to go out. First stop was Baa Bar. A shooter bar that was pretty fun. They have 40 different Shooter choices. All crazy colors, super cheap, with some alcohol in them. It's a good way just to start off the night. This is all of us that went out and belong to Sport Science.



The story behind it was that i believe Jason (guy in orange) used a pick up line on a girl. He asked if she was a vet and then proceeded to make this motion saying "cause these swans are sick". Now everyone makes fun of him for it.

After Baa Bar we went to 5th ave. A indie club where they play all indie music, really loud, and good music as well! Once again this club had an inflatable game as well. Except it was similar to sumo wrestling, just with kangaroo outfits and boxing gloves. We all had a good time there, sang, danced, drank. Club shut down at 2 and as we left everyone started singing Hey Jude. I don't know what that was about, but i liked it. We somehow got back to Castle Irwell and had another sausage, bacon, cheese Bap. I think that's 3 now for the semester. I'm shooting for at least 10, they are so good.

We stayed up till like 4 or so before heading back to the rooms. I didn't get to bed till 5:30 that night cause i had to watch the end of the Viking vs Packer game. Glad to see we won even though i don't really love the Vikings. Just kinda forced to cause i'm from there.

Yesterday I had Fitness of Training where we did Olympic lifts for two hours. Kinda sore today. We practiced a whole variety of them, but towards the end mainly focused on the clean. First time learning it and it went alright, sore today and we barely had any weight on the bar. I didn't do much else yesterday. I didn't want to go out so i stayed in and watched the Twins beat Detroit in what might have been the best game i've watched on "TV". I say "TV" cause of course they don't show it here so i had to use a stream version and that was crappy connection and was constantly getting shut down. Then Matt was giving me a play by play of the thing while i was watching the play by play on the twins website. Then Brad Skyped the game so i could watch it but that was pretty bad connection as well. I did however feel like one of the guys watching the game so it wasn't that bad. I was planning on going to bed early last night but the game went into 12 innings and then i was talking to people and before i knew it, it was 4. Still haven't found my sleep schedule.

Today i gotta do some homework, sign up for the gym, and maybe play a little footy before going to bed BEFORE midnight. Tomorrow we are in the lab all day working on agility tests. Which is why i had to buy the white shorts cause we are filming each other and this camera doesn't do well with dark colors. It's an all day thing, i'll let you know how it goes afterwords!

We have been planning our trips and we are for sure going to Paris and London. Then if we have money Barcelona. We've also talked about day trips to Stonehenge, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Newcastle, and London. I also really want to go to Rome!

By this weekend we should have a good idea of when and where we will be!

Time to kick my but in gear and get moving. I'll be back!

Friday, October 2 - Classless

Not in the sense of social rank, but in the sense that my first week of class is over. It's a fairly easy schedule, i don't have class on Wednesdays or Fridays, Tuesday i don't start until 1 or 3, and all of the classes are interesting so it makes it go by quicker. My schedule is as follows:

Monday
Practical for Nutrition for Exercise and Health. 10-12
Lecture for Nutrition for Exercise and Health. 1-4
Tuesday
Practical for Theory & Practice of Training. Alternating weeks of 1-3 and 3-5.
Wednesday
Nothing
Thursday
Lecture for Biomechanics for Sport II. 9-12
Practical for Biomechanics for Sport II. 1-5
Friday
Nothing

The teachers are all very nice and helpful, i like them all. Another thing different here then back at home is that your classmates are the same classmates you have for all 3 years of university. Your with them for the same classes, all classes. I like this idea better cause of a few reasons. 1) It forces you to be comfortable with the people you work with so you get to know them very well. 2) When you are comfortable with the people around you, you feel more confident asking questions and doing the homework right because these people will have to rely on you for all 3 years of university. 3) It's a more of a relaxed atmosphere cause you can joke around but still take care of what needs to be done. I have met with a good majority of the students here in our classes and they are all extremely helpful and make sure you feel welcome here.

Other then class this week it's been a much needed chill week, other then Tuesday night. Since some of us didn't have class on Wednesday we went out and enjoyed ourselves. Started at the flats and proceeded to go to the Pav for flirt night. Flirt night consists of everyone getting a sticker with a number on it, and you walk around and look at peoples numbers. If you think one of them is attractive you write a post it note and put it up on this wall where everyone can see them and you hopefully meet/hook up with someone. For some reason there was a bunch of drag queens there who were prancing around in there all too revealing skirts and leggings. Overall it was a good night.

Wednesday i went shopping with Mikael, Andy, and James and the Trafford Center again. Bought some spikes, shin guards, and socks for footy. Went back and played some footy. After that we went to their flat and played the new halo which was pretty fun. Played some FIFA and Madden as well. We also decided to go to the casino which always seems like a great idea. I lost 20 pounds in the slot machines again bringing my total to -40 pounds. Mikael played some blackjack for the first time. Put down 4 pounds at the 2 pound table, hilarious. Then proceeded to get 2 blackjacks in a row and with that luck just kept on growing. He ended with 20 pounds a short while later, beginners luck. To help my soreness in losing we walked across the street to this street vendor who makes delicious, cheap food. I had sausage, bacon, cheese, onion bap, with brown sauce and ketchup. A bap is like a burger bun. It's just a greasy mess of delish.

Yesterday i had class for most of the day. Was able to get registered and get my ID card so i can now sign up for the gym. Last night was a Chinese holiday called "Mid-Autumn Festival". Celebrated it with people from the house. We went out and lit a bunch of candles and kinda sat in a circle and talked, laughed, had a glass of wine, played card games. Reminded me of the times before i drank to have a good time. I kinda liked those days. We played Mafia, the game with cards and you have a killer, nurse, and a story teller. If you don't know of it look it up!

Today some of us are going for some fish and chips, my first! I also gotta do laundry, gym membership, go for a run, and then probably go out downtown!

Oh yea, I'm also one step closer to getting my camera! Still resorting to taking pictures with my cell phone when i remember!

Have a good weekend and I'll be back next week!