Sunday, December 20th - Snow!

As most of you may know, i have a God that most of you do not worship. I have a strong belief in this God and i am positive that no one can take this belief away from me. He has fulfilled my life every year and He has never let me down. Every morning and evening during winter I pray to The Snow Gods. Oh my have they blessed me whilst being here in England! First of all, it rarely snows in England and if it does it's gone the next day. Second of all, there has been snow on the ground for the past 4 days and it's like...2 inches deep, amazing! As i write this now i am watching more snowflakes land on the England ground. Such a thing makes it difficult to watch from the inside so i am going to make this short and sweet so i'm able to enjoy the snow one last time in the final 17 hours i have here. (I just hope the snow doesn't effect my plans to go home.)

Andy and I are one of the last people left in Castle Irwell. It's dead. All of our friends have left us leaving us with a room needing to be packed. Most of our friends have had problems traveling home. For example Nuria had her flight canceled Friday morning because the pilot went on strike so she had to buy another ticket with a different airliner for the next morning so she had to come back for another day. Malgosia is hopefully surviving her 36 hour bus ride from Manchester to Poland. Keep in mind this is 36 hours before, most likely, getting stuck in the chunnel for up to 14 hours because a train broke down. Theresia missed her connecting flight because the original flight was late causing her to wait a few hours for the next flight. As i type now Sophie, Agathe, and Jason are stuck in the Manchester airport because of the snow and are waiting to go home. Lindsay flew from Manchester to Atlanta to Chicago where she had to wait for 2 hours so her extremely nice parents could come pick her up and bring her back to LAX. So now it's just Andy and I left wondering what the hell is gonna happen to us and how are we gonna get home. I do have a feeling though that The Snow Gods will bless us with a break of snowfall so we can arrive home on time.

Since i've written last time there has been a lot of goodbyes which have been said, plenty of homework finished, and partying. I've eaten fairly well this past week and a half. One of our housemates cooked up an authentic Chinese dinner which was very good. This past Sunday 18 of us went to the Wellington for a Christmas dinner. I had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, fries, salad, bread, gravy, and some delicious Christmas pudding for dessert. Andy and i went to they city yesterday to take care of some last minute stuff and we stopped at one of the first restaurants we visited when we came here. I even ordered the same thing: bangers and mash. My favorite authentic meal here in England.

I wrapped up our group project after many hours spent with my group for Biomechanics. I also wrote a 2500 word nutrition paper which analyzed my nutrition intake and the effects of exercise and nutrition on the body. The grading system here is much different then back home which makes it difficult to understand how the grades transfer back home. I feel it's not a fair process and although i can't recall what exactly the numbers are and how they transfer, i will look into it and find out how it can be changed because when it comes down, it's just not even/fair.

The past week i've also been partying as everyone has been leaving. Tuesday night was the last night at the Pav and we all went out in style. Thursday night we ended up in Manchester at Baa Bar and then to a gay club which was....well yea. Fine. Friday night was spent at house 40 where we said some more goodbyes and had another good night.

Last night i said goodbye to Soph, Agathe, and Jason. No one likes saying goodbye. Afterwords i watched City of God while kinda packing...It was number 3 on www.IMDB.com's list of best movies of the decade. It definitely deserves to be there and has to be seen by everyone. Today i've just lounged around, avoiding cleaning. My plan is to stay up all night tonight so i'll be exhausted for my 9 hour flight to Chicago and i'll be able to sleep during the whole trip. (I hope!)

I will miss bangers and mash along with Prawn Cocktail Crisps, the chocolate, the burger van, and Strongbow. As for things which i will miss and can't put in my mouth: i'll miss the friends i've made here (Applied Sports Science - Pete, Abi, Danimal, Cheryl, Rebecca, Becki, Elly, Cheryl, Matty, Jason, Krastyo, and everyone else which belongs to that major including Phil, Paul, and Anna! House 43 - Theresia, Connie, Lars, Zuzka, Nuria, Jason, Soph, Agathe, Olga, Malgosia, and Linda! The Flat Crew - Mikael, Sarah-Beth, Gemma, Kat, and James! House 32 peeps - Chris, Will, Sophie, Suzie, Sophie, Muf, Amy! My house mates - Koala, Elith, Sonia, Louise, Emma, and Suzanne! And to the rest of you randoms who i've met and have not forgotten about including XiXi, Emma, Shakira, and everyone else who i've forgotten!)i'll miss how everything is new to me, i'll miss the accent, the pub/club/dance scene, the laid back style of EVERYTHING, the public transport, and the traveling.

So that wraps it up basically. 3 months spent here and i'd say this experience is right up there with college. I have no regrets and can say i've learned a lot more then i thought i would about coming here. I'll have one more post for you before this is done. I appreciate whoever follows this and reads it, so to you i say thank you. I dont know who reads it but if i know at least 1 person follows it then it's worth it, i just wanted to share my experiences and i hope i've been able to do so. Once again thank you and the next time you hear from me i'll be back home in good ole Minnesnowta!!