It was a good day!

So, today's class was Oulipo. And now it is done - no more Oulipo ever. I'm ok with that - Oulipo's hard! That being said, we got our papers back today. So far that's the only class that's returned them. So, when I left class I hit a comp lab to see if the packages had arrived yet.

They had! Both of them! So I stopped at the post room first and picked up my packages, and then went to the lit office to pick up my paper, and dragged all of it back to look at.

I got a 74 on my paper. For those of you who don't know, that's a First. With bells on. The prof included comments such as "Pure genius" and "brilliant" annnnd now my head is the size of a house, but lets face it, I'm freaking awesome.

As for the packages! Contained therein were my contacts, hearing aids, scarf, a shirt, and some good wholesome American food: soup, pasta and macaroni and cheese! yay ^.^

Let's see... what else. Finished my daily 5 chapters in Life: A User's Manual. Oh I remember now - of interest to Steph (my sister) and Kai and possibly Steph (my friend), Nikolodean has announced that the new episodes of Avatar will begin July 14 th I believe. There is an awesome trailer at avatarspirit.net.... and yes, I am an enormous dork.

Further! I took video of campus! The following is a recreation of what I saw the first day, the famous bike path that stops in the middle of nowhere, and then a look at the route I would take next time I was faced with 50 pounds of luggage:

I've never posted video before so I hope it turns out all right. I promise that cut on my lip is not as bad as it looks.

So, between the package and the paper, this was just an awesome day. Oh, plus I made a stuffed pepper for dinner. yummmm. And tomorrow I can have American food.

That's all for now!

Sunshowers

This morning it was absolutely pouring rain. Luckily by the time I woke up, it was afternoon and the sun was out : ) I had lunch and then took a walk, but after about an hour the rain was back. Of course the sun was still around too. So, I read my five chapters for the day, and then actually sat down and wrote the script for the first issue of True Neutral. It felt really good to be writing again, and the script went very quickly. I hope it's ok.

Vicki and I made nachos for dinner, and we ate with Sophie and Phil, which means fun conversations were had : )

Annnd... that's actually all I did today. I know it doesn't look like much, but it took up quite a bit of time : P

Tomorrow: Oulipo. And that is all.

Say, does the evil organization give you Sundays off?

So, for myth lecture today we were back to the same professor we had in January. Of course, only four of us showed up for the lecture total, and what's more, the administration had begun dismantling the classroom: the projector screen was spread across the front tables. Professer Cardew tried to get it to come down on the wall for a while before realizing this : P

More people showed up for the 202 lecture at 10, but the lecturer did not, so we all dispersed. And now I am done with Monday classes forever! So now Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are all free until exams start. I wonder if I should be more nervous about exams... everyone else seems to be. Vicki has said she's confiscating the speaker system in the kitchen starting May 10th, when exams start for the entire university. I'm all for it. The thing's attached to a subwoofer, so the sound really carries through the walls and she shares a wall with the kitchen.

Went grocery shopping with Vicki and Lucy today. Vicki and I bought a nacho kit to share sometime. Other than that, no particularly exciting purchases. I read a bit more in Life: A User's Manual, but that book is really hard to get through. On the bright side, it's keeping me from tearing through my novels. On the down side, I'd much rather watch old episodes of Sailor Moon than read it : P

Well that's it for today. Tomorrow... who knows...

Mass, archery, and not much else

Today was a nice day - in the 60s, sunny, and raining at the same time : P

I went to Mass today, and they gave us lunch! yay! Ran into Miguel and Chiara there, as well as Annie - she's a Roman Catholic, but this is the first time she's been to Mass at the chaiplancy. So I've gone from knowing no one to knowing three people.

After Mass I wandered about campus enjoying the sun. And the rain. Then it was back to the room for some reading before archery. manbeast forgot about archery today, so when I went to get him he had just started cooking dinner and he asked me to wait for him. So we were about an hour late for archery. I don't mind that so much, but I do mind that I then had to watch him eat. Remember the scene from Beauty and the Beast where the Beast doesn't know how to use a spoon? A lot like that, yeah.

Anyway, it would appear that taking a month off has completely wrecked my shot : P Hopefully next weekend will be better because I was all over the place tonight. I didn't go to Top Bar after because I was feeling a bit run down for some reason, so I just came back to the room for some more recreational reading (ie, webcomics)

And that's about all.

When have you ever seen the captain do any rowing?

Today was absolutely beautiful - perfect for wandering around Colchester. Which is what manbeast, his 16 year old brother boybeast, Laura, Mike, and I did today, so that's good.

We left University around one despite the best efforts of Mike and I to get people moving. We ate a late lunch in Colchester. It's lucky I know my way around that town already because no one else did - and manbeast and Laura have been here since September.

We ate at the Wimpy Burger, despite Mike's lobbying for something a bit classier. Cheaper won out. I'm not too impressed with the Wimpy Burger, but hey, food is food.

After lunch we went to Castle Park. Just about everything is blooming now! It's so pretty and colorful. Mike gardens so he was able to tell us what flowers were what.





These are the BIGGEST tulips I have ever seen. They are mutants. Most of the tulips are normal sized, but these are overachievers.



Castle Park has lots of pretty flower patterns. And palm trees for some reason. Wishful thinking, Britain.



This is the Roman wall behind Colchester Castle. I believe it used to be the city wall... but I'm not certain. But man when those Romans built things, they were serious about it.



Ok, here's the group! From left to right is Laura, Mike, boybeast, and manbeast. Further profiles to follow. But first!



Oh look, ducks in a pond.



Oh look, boats in a pond! We rented paddle boats : ) That's manbeast and Mike in a boat. boybeast had his own, and Laura and I shared. Quickly becoming adept at the paddle system, we then declared outselves admiral of the fleet. No one argued. Possibly because they were on the other side of the pond at the time...



We chased off the enemy fleet! ... er... that is, flock.



The admiral of the ducky pirates hides his head in shame.



Unfortunately, heavy casualties were taken in our battle with those fowl pirates (!), and Captain Mike and manbeast's boat sprang a leak! We headed for shore and leapt to safety before the two could get completely soaked.



Look, a castle. and... er, three random people.



Colchester castle actually used to have another floor on top. It got lopped off and they added a dome. Improvement? I don't think so.



Here's the old temple foundations.



There is a tree growing on the roof. I do not know why.



Ok, so here is boybeast. And, me for some reason.... they said get in the picture so I did. But really, boybeast and I did not get along. His real name is Steven. He's 16 years old. He tags along with manbeast because manbeast buys him alcohol. The only reason he was with us today was because he thought he might get a drink out of it. He smokes pretty much constantly and also actually bought some drugs off of someone at some point. He spent the whole day complaining about how he wanted to sit down and have a beer. He was actually whining about it, like a small child. "I don't waaaanna go in a castle, i want a drink!" Ugh. I won't go into detail, but by the end of the day we were all pretty much disgusted with him.



This is Admiral Laura! She's a creative writing major specializing in fantasy ^.^ We got along swimmingly. She's also the only one who managed to wear this helmet and still be able to see. Woo. Oh by the way, it's a Norman helmet, and the chain isn't part of the original design. It's just to keep people from stealing it (the other end is attached to a wall). Did I mention we're inside the castle in the museum? Because we are.



Here's manbeast. You already know all about him : P

Mike did not put on the helmet. Or rather he did, but I was not quick enough with the camera. He is far too sophisticated to be caught doing something like that on film anyway : P The story with Mike is, he and manbeast have been best friends since high school. I suspect Mike is from that upper class I keep hearing about. He is very well spoken and polite. He was somewhat appalled at the University. Turns out Essex is well known for being a party school, but he couldn't believe the things that go on around here (like... a 16 year old being able to purchase drugs, for example). I was able to wholly sympathize with him and we got on quite well. He goes to Canterbury University and invited me to come visit in June, which sounds like lots of fun. Canterbury, for the record, is not a party school >.<

We stayed in the museum until it closed around 5 and then hung around the park a bit more.



That's St. James, I believe. I could be wrong. But coming from this angle, with the gates and the old church, Colchester just looked like a really old town. We wandered about a bit more before going back to university and trying to find a place to eat. The only places open were SX Express and the SU bar. We didn't want to eat at the Express because most of us had had burgers for lunch, and we were avoiding the SU bar because we knew if we went in there boybeast would start drinking and then we'd have to deal with him. So we went back to manbeast's room and ordered Chinese, and watched this old British comedy called Fawlty Towers which, despite being a bit dated, is really funny.

The Chinese food was pretty good, but took about an hour to get there, so not something I'd be doing again. I had chicken chow mein, which I've never had before, and was pleased : P We continued watching funny British people until about midnight, and dispersed.

And now it's two AM! Gosh!

Good night for a barbeque...

Today was a really nice day. The wind was not absurd, and the sun was out most of the time. I had class at nine and an extra long myth class at noon. Seriously, they had to make it extra long so two professors could switch off teaching it. The first professor left at 1 to go eat lunch and handed us off to another prof who kept us til two. Of course, the students are all thinking "how come you get a lunch break?". Ok so maybe some of them were thinking about myth. But there were only four of us there... so perhaps not. I wish I hadn't gone to that class since they only discussed stuff from before I was here, which I am not responsible for. Oh well.

After class I did laundry. The dryer failed to live up to its name once more, and so, once more, my room has been turned into a clothing fort. Only this time, I don't have the heat on so my pajamas probably will not be dry when I am ready to go to bed : ( boo.

Took some pictures of some nice trees by the towers that are blooming:



I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but the blossoms look like this:





They are not very fragrant, but they are extremely poofy...

This afternoon I lounged around online, did a bit of reading, the usual hijinks. Around 7 or 8 my flatmates were like "barbeque!" so I was like "ok!". We all went out onto campus where, lo and behold, they have little grills set up. Cool. So we barbequed in the sunset, in honor of manbeast's birthday which was about two weeks ago. Of course it was perfectly nice all day, but no, we waited until it was dark out. It was fun though. I met Lauren and Mike, two of manbeast's friends, who seem pretty cool. Lauren's a creative writing major! Woo!

Some pics from the barbeque by night (I have no clue if i'm spelling barbeque right... bbq?)



Apparantly we have a swan on campus. Scary.



This is Sophie!!



The library and the lake



manbeast - no he's not drunk... at least not very, but i did take him a bit by surprise.



This is my next-door neighbor Phil. Her hair isn't always that color - that's new today.

Manbeast invited me to go out to the castle tomorrow with him and Mike and Lauren, but I think he may have been a little tipsy at the time so we'll see if he remembers. Lauren and I shoved off a little after nine because we were cold. I showered and tried to change into my pajamas before remembering they were wet >.< Argh!

Tomorrow: the castle and who knows what else

this is a blog post

So, lecture failed to happen today. This means I went to bed early for nothing. foo.

Tomorrow I definitely have class at 9 AM (which means I should definitely be asleep right now). Yes, 9-10:30, followed by a super extra long 12-2 class. I have no idea why they made that one an extra half hour longer, and no idea why that class goes on a week longer than all my other classes. I also have no idea who is teaching it now since the schedule lists no less than four professors. I suppose I will find out.

Hopefully my first class will tell me that the Monday lecture that didn't happen this week will never happen again, thus reducing me to one class on Monday, one on Wednesday, and two on Friday. Not that I need more free time, but just so that I don't have to wake up.

I took a walk after my not-class. Ended up at Tesco where I bought breakfast foods and cheese that does not taste like a crayon, also known as double Gloucester, which I can not eat without thinking of Richard III and King Lear, so that I'm either thinking of money or punctured eyeballs as I munch on my cheese. Whichever.

Speaking of Shakespeare, I am continually surprised at the English peoples' lack of knowledge regarding the bard. The latest example of this (and there have been several) has been the instructor for Oulipo not knowing where the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" passage came from. None of the class knew either... except me! Shame on you Britain.

Ok that's all I've got for today. Tune in tomorrow for... well... more of the same : P

I am enjoying my vacation thoroughly, I assure you.

Ok, so class occured today at an earlier hour than usual. I found out that for Oulipo, the creative writing class, I get the exam itself two weeks in advance to prepare for the one hour period I have to write an essay on one of the passages provided. Does this sound way more simple than any exam I've taken yet? Why yes, yes it does...

Tomorrow there may or may not be a lecture. I guess I'll find out when I get there.

Knowing I was going to have a new professor for today's class, I decided to take my hearing aids along with me just in case he spoke quietly. Luckily, I could hear him just fine. I say luckily becuase, as it turns out, my hearing aids are in America >.< Argh.

After class I found a scanner in a hidden computer lab in the bowels of the building. I can't tell you which building, but then, you already know that... so I was able to send the sublease papers back to Emily with considerably less hassle than I thought I would have. Then I emerged from the concrete depths intending to go buy breakfast foods. But it was raining. So I took a nap instead. The rest of the day was spent reading various materials, some for school, some not, with the result being basically that I'm a pretty relaxed person.

The end.

oh, there's the sun

Really nice day - sunny and warm. I ran about taking care of little things around campus, like changing my money back from euros and FINALLY going grocerie shopping. I bought some strawberries, and in my excitement, completely neglected to buy breakfast foods. Whoops.

So my class schedule is all rearranged once more. This university is freaking insane. It's a wonder anyone ever knows where to go - I sure don't. So I'm just going to go everywhere and see what happens. Part of my shiny new schedule means that instead of sleeping in tomorrow and going to a 2:00 class, I have to wake up early and go to a 10:00 class. Ok, so it could be far worse. Still, I like my afternoon classes.

Not only are the classes getting switched around, but the professors are too. There are two different professors listed for each of my remaining myth classes, bringing the total of myth professors in residence here at Essex to about 6, if the timetable is to be believed. We shall see.

So, tomorrow the plan is to go to class, and then go back to Tesco for breakfast foods. Then a nap if I know myself... and I rather think I do...

Saw Vicki again this evening. We ate together and she confirmed the existence of a Hogfather movie, which is pretty awesome. She also said that eating avocados is supposed to be good for cold sores, and that petrol is about 1.07 a liter for unleaded.

Time between errand running and good conversation was spent reading. Overall, not a bad day.

ROME!

Woah, Rome's being attacked by a giant cat! Oh... no, wait, that's just left over from my WILD Spring break. Oh the college lifestyle.

So, I woke up Friday morning with two cold sores. I already knew my body hated me, this is just one more example. I was feeling a little better for some sleep, but certainly not at my best. I went and changed my money at the bank and then departed for Stansted to meet Lisa and fly to Rome!

Ok, well, I waited half an hour for a late bus first, but whatever. I got to the airport super early anyway and had a delicious blueberry muffin while I waited for Lisa's bus to arrive. It came right on time, and we checked in and went to our gate. Then they changed the gate so we marched on over to the other side of the airport and waited there. Then they changed the gate again, so we went back in the direction we had come, and down some stairs, and waited there. Then they changed the gate AGAIN, so we went back up the stairs and to the gate right across from where the second gate was and waited there - and dashed onto the plane before they could change it again.

The flight was pretty short, especially after the flight from America. We landed more or less on time and proceeded to look for our bus. We found it and had to wait a good long while for it to fill up and leave. It dropped us off at Termini, the central station in Rome, from whence we would catch the Metro (like the Tube) to the stop near the Metro Hotel where we were staying.

The bus dropped us off in front of some scaffolding, and we looked around, confused, unable to find an entrance to Termini. So we walked down the building, looking for the way in, when a taxi driver hailed us and told us that Termini was closed now for rennovations and he could take us to where we needed to go. We asked how much it would be to go to Hotel Metro and he declined, saying it was way too far for him to go, and why didn't we stay in one of the hotels in central Rome? He didn't seem to understand the concept of being a student with not much money. He offered to take us to another Metro station though. We agreed, because Termini really did look closed, and he took us to another station, talking the whole time about how we'd be better off in a nicer hotel. We got there and he cautioned us to wear our backpacks around the front because of all the pickpockets, and told us which way to go to get to the stop by our hotel. Slightly less than thrilled, we headed into the station.

The station was pretty deserted, so no worry of pickpockets really. We rode the line to its end and got off and looked around, unsure of which way to go. We asked a guy in a bright yellow vest if he could tell us where Hotel Metro was, and he said yes and pointed us in entirely the wrong direction (We asked a guy in a bright yellow vest because in Britain, that means you're a city worker. When we told Lisa's friends Megan and Steph about this later they looked at us like we were nuts). So we went in that direction for a very long time, and asked another guy in a bright yellow vest if we were going the right way, but he only had a little English along with his Italian and French. So we went into a cafe and asked there, and they pointed us back the way we came. So we retraced our steps almost all the way back to the Metro station, where we stopped in another cafe and asked again.

The head waiter guy in this cafe promptly produced a business card with a map on the back for Hotel Metro. Then one of the waitresses took us outside to point out some landmarks and give us very specific directions (in Italian). One of the customers came over and translated for us and, finally knowing where to go, we set off again. This time we actually found the hotel! It was only a block or two away from the Metro stop in the other direction. But the hotel was walled and gated and locked. We found an intercom and they let us in and we finally checked in around midnight.

Our room was on the ground floor, and you entered from the parking lot/courtyard thing, so the door opened directly to the outside. Two beds, a bathroom with a shower, not too bad for the price. Plus free breakfast. Of course the bathroom smelled a little like a sewer and the beds were the hardest slabs of foam you ever sat on and people smoked outside our door... but hey, it was a place to sleep.

I didn't sleep too well that first night - jet lag, and sickness, and an unfamiliar bed, you know. Apparantly Lisa didn't either because when our alarm went off at nine, we sort of just looked at eachother and went back to sleep for another couple of hours, skipping breakfast. When I woke up I had yet another cold sore, bigger than the first two combined : ( That's why my smiles look a little pained in the few pictures I'm in - it's because they ARE.

When we left the hotel, Rome positively took my breath away.



Sunny, warm, clear blue skies... and there is sooo much green in the city, it looks like it's just bursting with life. That first day Lisa and I decided to check out the Vatican, so we hopped on the Metro. Our route took us right through Termini station which looked suspiciously not-closed-for-renovations...



It's a hilly city.



No, I wasn't standing in the street. I'm on a sidewalk.



You can sort of see a neat dome behing the trees...

Before we got to Vatican City, we stopped for lunch in a little pizzaria and split a Margherita Pizza and some brucietta... man was it good. The tomatoes on the brucietta were soooo fresh, and the skin was just lightly salted... who knew salt could do so much. The pizza was also truly excellent, on par with the Pizzaria Roma pizza in Brasov.



Here we are in Vatican city! This is a courtyard with a huge gold ball in it.



And here is a pine cone.

Ok, so the thing about the Vatican (and this is especially true of the Vatican Museum) is that they don't put plaques or identifying tags on anything, so you don't know what most of the really cool stuff you're looking at IS unless you hire a tour guide, which Lisa and I did not do.



Architecture is amazing.



Big kitty! From Egypt!



A view from a window in the Vatican Museum



This is an enormous bowl. I do not know what it was used for but this sucker is BIG.




The guy's name was Meh. That's awesome.



The greenery was really just overwhelming. This window opened onto the grounds of the Vatican. The Pope's got some nice views. Of course, he wasn't in at this time, he was, in fact, in America : P



More views from the windows... I really was in a museum I swear, but I've never been in a museum with so many open windows... the stuff inside was cool too I guess, but we were really there to see the Sistine Chapel, which culminates the loooooooooong walk through the museum, and where you are not allowed to take pictures.

The Sistine Chapel was gorgeous though. Paintings cover absolutely every surface except the floor. You could sit in there for hours and still find things to look at. Of course it was very crowded. No pictures aloud, and talking must be kept to a whisper. They have a guard whose job it is to go SHHHHHH! when the voices get too loud. Reminded me of my gradeschool cafeteria
: P Anyway, there is even more museum to go through after the Sistine Chapel, but Lisa and I were pretty museumed out by the time we got there, so we exited instead.




More view! I love the way the streets turn in the city, and the way the city has many hilly levels, and of course, all the freaking trees!



Dome!

Right so the Vatican took up most of the day. We took the Metro to the Colleseum, where Lisa called Steph and Megan, her marching band friends who are studying abroad in Rome, to see if they wanted to meet, and we planned to get together around seven. So we had a few hours to walk to the place where we'd meet up.



So we looked at the freaking Coliseum!



This thing is ENORMOUS. We decided to save it for the next day when we'd have more time.



Pretty green Rome.



Oh yeah, so like how there are trees everywhere, there are also ruins everywhere! Just sort of nestled in amongst the buildings. You never know when you'll turn a corner and find some monument or ancient building.



Hilly cities are pretty.



The ruins down there are, I think, part of the area where the Forum is.

On the way to meet Megan and Steph, we stopped to get gelato. I had strawberry and banana, and it was seriously like eating fruit... it was delicious ^.^ We got a little lost once or twice, turned around in the curvy streets of Rome, but eventually we found our way to the bus stop where we'd be meeting them. There was a bookstore there, so we went in there and explored and I got to buy an Italian copy of Peter Pan ^.^

Then we met up with Megan and Steph, and they took us to see the Pantheon.



Which is freaking GIANT.



See those people sitting on the steps? They are normal sized. The building is just HUMONGOUS.



This is Lisa and I in front of the Spanish Steps, which are just COVERED in flowers



This is a picture of the Spanish Steps without the nighttime filter turned on...



Then I remembered I had a nighttime filter, and here you see a veritable waterfall of flora...

Then Lisa, Steph, Megan, and I went for dinner at a little cafe where the head waiter was super nice. It was awesome going to eat and walking around Rome with Steph and Megan. They are both really friendly, full of cool information, and can speak Italian!

So at this Italian restaurant, I got gnocchi. It was SO good. It was just delicious.... yummm Italian food...

Next we went to go see Trevi Fountain, which is apparantly a famous fountain in Rome. Go figure : P



It's an allegory of the sea!

The fountain was beautiful all lit up at night. Lisa has some pictures of all of us in front of it that I intend to steal as soon as she posts them.

We wandered back to Megan and Steph's hotel then. They are in Italy through a St. Mary's program. They are staying in a four star hotel... jealousy!

They put us on the right bus to get back to Termini where we would take the Metro back to our hotel. Travel went without a hitch and, thoroughly exhausted, Lisa and I went to bed.



Oh, here is our hotel, by the by. This is the next morning after we've totally torn apart the beds...



It's a rather white room.



Here's the bathroom. Yeah, that's a shower nozzle just sort of hanging out in the middle of nowhere... no, there's no shower curtain, or even an indentation or raised area in the floor for the shower. The shower pretty much is the whole bathroom... instead of being a bathroom with a shower in it, it's a shower that happens to have a sink and a toilet in it...

This day we actually did drag ourselves out of bed and went to breakfast, which was tasty scones and yogurt for me, although there were many more options as well. Oh, and juice of some sort... possibly banana. Depends on what Anana is in English : P

After breakfast we checked out and set forth once more, this time with our luggage on our backs. The plan for the day: Coliseum, then plane.



Another beautiful day in Rome. Man that Coliseum is big. It is possible to go into the Coliseum, but the line was stretched practically around the Coliseum itself... the same goes for the forum, and we decided we simply did not have enough time left in Rome to spend it standing in lines.



That's me in front of the Coliseum! Way in front : P



Giant arch! No, I don't know any more than that. Just that Romans built things BIG.



The ever-present greenery

Lisa and I wandered up a steep path called Via Sacra. It is a cobblestoned road, walled on both sides. Through occasional openings in the wall you can catch glimpses of the Forum and Palantine, among other things, in it. The path culminates in the stations of the cross, and finally, a small church with enormous, beautiful paintings in it that is, nevertheless, completely untended. I didn't take pictures of those because it feels odd taking pictures of holy things... but I got lots of scenery!

Professor Ponder has the following to say about the Via Sacra: It is the oldest road in Rome. It used to go through the Forum and Palantine (but now it's blocked off from that way) and it was the road on which triumphant generals would march and display the spoils of war. It was, she says, literally the heart of the city.... good to know.



Ruins!



There are more ruins through these trees, I promise.



Bits of walls. Behind the trees.



Arches.



An old wall that is, nevertheless, not quite a ruin because I think there's a rectory on the other side of it that is still in use.



Saints standing on a roof. Good job guys!



Some architecture with columns! again, beyond the tree...



More architecture!



Columns in the lower left, dome in the upper right, who knows what between...



Just... Rome, you know?



This is the exit of the Coliseum. I tried to get a shot of the inside, but dude... people.



I stood at the bottom of the Coliseum and looked up... it's tall.



More of the Coliseum



Four large stone tablet outside the Coliseum. They are not grave markers... I don't know what they are...



Rome! Trees! A building!



Some columns, a beautiful blue sky...



A half ruined dome and those same columns...

Lisa and I got some lunch. I had a pizzanini - basically a pizza folded in half and put in a panini press. As we sat and ate, some legionaires wandered by and performed their military drills and sheild formations, which was random, but pretty cool. they were completely surrounded by a wall of people though so I didn't see too much of it.

After we ate, we took the Metro back to Termini and wandered around looking for our bus. We found it and went back to the airport and caught our plane. We landed back in chilly England and caught our busses back to London and Colchester, respectively. On the way back to Colchester it started to pour. Seriously. On the stop just before University, our driver left. I don't know if it was time for a shift change or what, but me and one other kid were sitting on the bus waiting for a driver for about a half an hour, which was annoying.

When I finally, FINALLY got back to the room, I took a shower, ate dinner, and just sat down. It was lovely.

Today I didn't want to wake up for lecture, and as it turns out, I shouldn't have. It was cancelled, as we found out after showing up. So I went back to the room and had a wonderful nap, finally waking up around 2 in the afternoon and proceeding to do nothing.

Tomorrow, the goal is to get out and go grocery shopping!

The end!