Before I left for study abroad everybody was saying how fast this semester would fly by and I just didn't believe them. Well here I am a month later and I don't understand how four weeks could just disappear like they have.
I have had SO much fun and I absolutely love it here. I have met some pretty great people and it I don't even want to think about having to come home in June. Except I will be excited to see my people back home again. They're pretty cool, too, I suppose. (I added that sentence for Chloe and Rach because I know how much they can't handle life without me.)
So now for the updating.
I went to a soccer game. And I loved it. I can't conform to society over here and call it football though. That just feels wrong. But seriously. The game was awesome. I saw Manchester United vs. Cambridge. I bought a tourist scarf. I took lots of pictures. I pretended I understood what was going on the whole time. It's so weird being the person who knows nothing about a sport when I have grown up so involved in sports. So as much as I hate to say it....I think Centralia should have taught us a little bit about soccer growing up. Okay now I'll go back to my Centralia football ways and never blog about soccer again.
I took a long weekend trip to Belgium. HOLY GUACAMOLE THE WAFFLES. Seriously. I don't know that I will ever be able to eat a waffle again because nothing can ever compare. Okay jk I'll eat waffles all the time still because they are delicious. Leslie Knope forever. We arrived in Bruge Thursday night at about midnight. The bus literally dropped us off in a dark parking lot in the middle of nowhere and we had no idea how to get to our hostel. That was fun. Luckily we met a lovely couple who were going to the same hostel and they had data. Thanks again, guys. We spent Friday being tourists and wandering the streets. Had some frites. I can't even call them fries because they are better than fries. They're frites. Drank some beer made by monks. For all of you that have doubted my amazing sense of direction throughout life.....guess who nailed navigation of Bruge?? THAT'S RIGHT. Boss status. Then we caught a train to Brussels. This place was pretty but I probably wouldn't go back. We ate more waffles and frites (with the best sauce in the world by the way) and drank more beer. Took some cool touristy pictures. We tried to go on a pub crawl our first night but that turned into a disaster. People in Brussels really hated our American crew for some reason. We didn't really sleep Sunday night and we flew home Monday morning. Monday was brutal. I made it to class though which is weird because I have more motivation to go to class here than I ever have at home. Sorry, Mizzou.
This past weekend I went to Bath and Stonehenge. This trip was epic. Spent Valentine's Day with some real cool people while exploring the ancient Roman baths. We walked the entire city of Bath. It was awesome. We took a scenic route through some housing areas and then walked through a park. Unfortunately my FitBit was dead so that was a real bummer because it would have been cool to see how far we actually walked that day. Sunday we visited Stonehenge and the child in me was in Heaven. GUYS I WAS AT STONEHENGE. Unreal. Major bucket list item is now checked off. If you don't think that Stonehenge is legendary then I just don't understand you. I may or may not have been a ridiculous kid in a candy shop on the walk up to the amazing formation of rocks.
I've also done a lot of cool things in Manchester, too. Classes are actually really interesting to me because it's cool hearing things from a different perspective. My sociology class likes to ask me about life in small town Missouri. Also nobody here knows where Missouri is. They also don't have a clue what the major Health Science is. Basically I am a total alien here and everybody asks me if I'm going to be a doctor. LOL no. They have so many cool bars here, too. I went to a 1920s themed bar and it was fantastic. I really wished that Gina was there with me because I needed somebody to appreciate how amazing the 20s were with me.
I'm currently in the planning stages for Spring Break. We've got a pretty good trip lined up and we're going to start booking things pretty soon. I think I'm most excited to visit the lovely Emma Gertsen in Denmark. It has been TOO long. :) Oh and I'm pretty pumped to finish the time off with my family in London and Paris. That will be epic.
The most important fact that I can leave you with is that I FINALLY got a pizza last night. Life is good.
