Goodbye Manchester, Hello London

One last view of Manchester from the hotel...

Thanks for having me, Manchester! It's been fun.

I took my last final exam Monday afternoon, after walking several miles to the building. After the exam, I finished packing, had my last dinner with my friends, gave some of my things (like the mini fridge) to Emma, and said final goodbyes before heading over to join my family at their hotel.

The next day we trekked to Piccadilly station and after our train was delayed and then canceled, we changed trains and thankfully made it to London unscathed. Unfortunately we were tired and cranky and moved hotel rooms because the first was smelly, so there wasn't much documentation of the first day. Our hotel is on the river, across from Parliament and Big Ben, and we walked across to find a place for dinner. Day one's dinner was gross though, consisting of two very dense, herby burgers, a ham and cheese sandwich with ham that looked more like Spam, and a grilled cheese that ended up actually being a shredded cheese sandwich with vinegar pickles. Yum....not.

Here's a shot of Parliament and the London Eye from the bridge on the first night.

Day two we headed across the bridge and walked and walked and walked, seeing the awesome sights of London. First stop, after passing by Parliament, was Westminster Abbey, which was spectacular, though unfortunately you can't take pictures inside. But we saw where Kate and William got married!

Amanda and Mum in front of Parliament.

Inside Westminster Abbey, in the cloister, where apparently we could take pictures. Yay!

Westminster Abbey! One big giant indoor cemetery.

Then we walked over to Buckingham Palace! The gate was quite impressive. They need some more gold things or sculptures or something on the building. But maybe that's just me. In any case, it was pretty cool.

Chilling on the fountain in front of the Palace.

The monument in front of Buckingham Palace.

After the Palace we stopped in a little French bakery for a snack, which was lucky because as soon as we got inside it started raining.

Mum got a (delicious!) cannoli and tea.

And the rest of us got cookies. Yum.

The rain let up and we headed over to Harrods, a very famous shopping place, which was surrounded by other famous shopping places, like Burberry, Dolce & Gobanna, and Harvey Nichols. How I wish we could have afforded any of it.

The ginormous Harrods building.

Inside the food halls of Harrods, we found the candy room! Nom nom nom!

I wish I could make a cake like this! So pretty! A security guard came over to me as I was taking this picture, giving me a slight panic attack that I was going to be in trouble, but he just wanted to chat about cake. How nice.

GELATO! YUM YUM YUM!!!! I could have eaten everything in this room.

The escalator room inside Harrods. This place was crazy huge and crazy expensive. Five floors of stuff, from clothes to furniture to children's designer clothes to pet's designer outfits and toys to hats and purses and jewelry and a whole room of perfume. Incredible.

We walked all the way back and enjoyed all the views, like the London Eye.

And Parliament.

We've also been having some major issues with the washing machine, which came with no instructions. Turns out it's broken. The thing is barely large enough for a couple pairs of pants though. Or should I say trousers. Because pants in Britain mean underwear.

Well time to go enjoy some more of London!

'ello

-Amanda

Welcome to Manchester, Daigle family!

Whoa. My family is down the street from me right now! Surreal!

I apologize to anyone - Katie - who is expecting photos of tired looking Daigles decked out in tourist fashion on their first day in the UK. I failed and took no photos. Amanda has some nice ones of Greenland and her first Caffe Nero lemon poppyseed muffin, which I missed because I'm a loser and had to study. In 24 hours, I shall be free. And you bet your toenails I will watch and/or force them to eat and drink something at Caffe Nero with me.

Until then, I cannot stay long, for I must read through my prepared essays and actually try to sleep. Also my computer doesn't hold a charge like it used to, and well, in case you weren't caught up, I have no working outlet in my room right now. Don't play with outlets, kids.

Before I go, I'd also like to mention that my family has shown me how much I have acclimated here without even realizing it. We ate dinner at a pub near their hotel, and one of the workers came over to grab our empty plates. He asked, "Was everything alright with the food?" to which no one responded until I blurted out "yes!" It was confusing because my dad was at the end of the table and I figured he'd answer. As soon as the guy walks away my family goes, "What did he just say??" Takes me back to those first days here in January with my dad, when the two of us had absolutely no idea what anyone was saying to us, thanks to the lovely Northern accent of Manchester and fast talkers. I can now proudly say that I understand the people here. Go me!

Whoops

For the second night in a row, I am an insomniac. Great. I blame the stress of my last stupid final plus the excitement of my family on a plane right now headed my way. It's all too much! Also, I was hungry.

Anyway, my plug adapter, which is on the wall at the foot of my bed, has two little lights on it when it is plugged in. Lucky for me, British outlets have switches to turn each particular outlet on or off. So in an attempt to decrease the amount of light in my room at night, I switch off this outlet and the little lights go to sleep. Well it is now four in the freaking morning so I'm a little out of it and in the pitch dark I jabbed my finger at the lights, aiming for the switch, and apparently hit the reset button or some such thing. (As a side note, I do not recommend jabbing fingers at outlets in general.) And suddenly the hum of my little fridge dies and I realize the whole outlet is dead.

Another important piece of information to understand is that of the four outlets in my room, two have not worked since I got here. And maintenance has never come to help. So I have just killed my remaining pair of outlets. And no amount of violence toward the test or reset buttons have reversed my mistake. In fact, the little sticker on the outlet tells me that if there is a red flag, do not use the outlet. I can't quite tell if the little square below the reset button is red, but it kind of looks reddish. Wonderful.

Now my outlet is making crazy noises.

OH MY GOSH THE POWER IS BACK! MIRACLE OF MIRACLES! WELCOME BACK FRIDGE! I'm sorry I killed you for a little while there.

But the crazy noises continue. Lauren's outlets used to make these noises. It's extremely annoying.

Oh no. I stopped the noise and killed the power. WHY! I need to stop messing with this before it shocks me. Goodnight.

Seagulls vs. wind

This is a random video from my first trip to Wales several weeks ago. I've tried uploading other videos, specifically one in which Emma smacks around a moth beast (with a magazine) that was chilling outside my room, but it turns out they are too large for posting. But while procrastinating I realized that this one is just right!

So here is, for your entertainment, a video proving that Wales is the windiest place I've ever been. The poor seagulls never had a chance.

Side note: I'm sitting on the bus, and I apologize for the sounds of the bus driver blowing his nose. Gross.

My life is complete!

I just walked into Caffe Nero after buying a sub (I skipped this ritual yesterday, for the sake of change), and super happy worker guy was there (he's a ginger - those are the people with red hair, Mum - so let's call him Ron, you know, like Ron Weasley. With the red hair. Get it? It's clever, right? Stop looking at me like that!) and he saw me, smiled, and asked, "tea?" whilst grabbing a to-go cup and filling it with hot water.

Let the records show that this is merely my third encounter with Ron at Caffe Nero. Then again, I did pay him in nickels the other day, so I'm not surprised he remembers me. Also I'm American. Which means I have a killer accent. Duh. Also Nerita was there the time I paid with nickels (and by nickels I mean 5 pence pieces because the British do not have cool names for each coin), and we chatted about how Lauren was missed and how I was going home soon too. So I'm only assuming she then told Ron all about me and Lauren, the best customers ever, because that's the only logical thing that could have happened.

So by now I've gobbled down the Subway sub and drank the delicious tea and I suppose I'd better start studying. When I get home, I'm not eating Subway for a year. Until then, I'm super lucky because for the next month, Subway is tripling the points you receive on your Subcard. So I am very quickly earning another free sub, which I will enjoy before returning to the US, and waving goodbye to the Subways on every street corner.

In other news, this is what I'm looking at instead of my notes:

It's tough to study while staring out my window at a lovely blue sky. I know there is a curtain, but you can see the blue. And it's just the light that's making my room look like a dark cave. But the weather's been so nice the past couple days. Yesterday I was actually sweating in jeans, and wore a tank top. England has finally decided summer is here, so why am I not yet on summer vacation?!?

Another question: Why does my water bottle instruct me to "consume within 3 days and by date shown" once the bottle is opened? In three days, it will be June 7, 2011. The date shown on the bottle is Nov. 2012. I'm supposed to drink this water within the next 3 days AND by Nov. 2012??? Someone please explain this to me and I'll give you 81 pence in pennies.

If by studying you mean writing a blog post, then yes. I am studying.

Half way through the week! Yippee! If only I could say the same about my studying... In the meantime, here are some random stories that do not involve "revising":

So I just got back from dinner, where Emma and I for some reason started talking about the dangers of the beach. I started telling her the story of Soul Surfer and Bethany Hamilton, and as I'm explaining that she got her arm bitten off by a shark, the table gets quiet, and I suddenly realize Kozue, Moka and Rishika are now staring at me with wide eyes. Many people have already left dinner, leaving all four girls coincidentally sitting across from me like eager little students, which was infinitely amusing. I even moved seamlessly from Soul Surfer to Seven Pounds. You know, where Will Smith kills himself in a bathtub with a jelly fish. Good times.

Last night I watched Britain's Got Talent with Emma, Becky and Ellen, who all sit next to me at dinner and convinced me I had to come watch it with them at "half seven." It was fun watching the British version with actual British girls who were all invested in the show - it was already the semi-finals. Plus Simon Cowell returned for the semi-finals and I got to listen to him judge. I didn't realize until now how much I've missed him from American Idol. Becky was also quizzing me on all these "celebrities," who Ellen would then argue "weren't that famous," but in any case who I didn't know. And after a while of this Becky just exclaimed, "I love talking to you! You're like an alien!" And to think I still feel much less foreign than other international students.

Today was a cloudy day, as usual, though relatively warm. (Yes, I made it outdoors. For Subway! One of the Subway guys totally knows me now. I wish I had more lunch options. But he's old and very cheerful and asked me if I had exams. And wished me luck. Awe.) I'm only bringing this up because it is 7:24 pm and I am looking out my window at a beautiful bright blue sky. Where has this sky been all day??

I also stopped by Caffe Nero to get a tea and another new kid was working. Yesterday the only people working were new! I suspect they have a different summer crew, like at the GC. In any case, I walked in and there was no one at the counter, so the kid working sees me and watches me walk over like he's about to burst with excitement. I barely got to the counter before he's practically leaning over it asking what I want. I was impressed by his new kid or possibly just start of summer enthusiasm. Made it much easier to give him £1.40 in 5 pence pieces. Gotta use up that change somehow, amIright?

I was going to end there, BUT I just discovered that if I press alt3 I can type the £ symbol!!! I finally looked it up, since I've been trying to avoid the extra effort involved in copying and pasting the symbol. New things! Hooray! ¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº!