It has to be a circle of hell, There is just no other explanation.

Sorry that there is no update on my trips to Nottingham or Paris. I have been really busy (and really lazy) and haven't bothered to write an update so here it is:

Nottingham was fun. Its one of those touristy places like the worlds biggest ball of yarn. Its a place a few die hard people travel to but the town in no way relies on tourism. The Robin Hood stuff was only mediocre. The Castle's wall and gardens were much cooler than the Castle itself. The town was cute. It was a little dingy but it felt almost like being back in Hummelstown. We walked through a residential area there and got kind lost. We finally made it back to the main road and started to go find the dude's shop so I could visit it and get some birthday presents.

This was the start of the most miserable 2 hours on the trip. It would have been ok if we had remembered to bring specific directions or an address with us for the Games Workshop store. Sadly we didn't bring anything but a few maps from google that were basically useless, but instead we got lost we got REALLY lost. We wandered around for almost an hour and a half with no luck. Finally we doubled back and found a PC World store (kind of like a Best Buy). We got on one of the trial computers and looked up directions to the place. It turns out that the shop is over a bridge that we considered going over but decided halfway that we wanted to go a different way.

So, we finally found it. We went inside and it was really cool. There was a room full of display cases with all of the miniatures that they use for photos on their website. They had several "life sized" statues of some models that I took pictures with. The place was actually pretty busy with shoppers and people playing at the gaming tables. The guys in the shop were really nice. Rachel and I spent way too much money that night but I got some cool miniatures and a book on painting them. They even ordered some special resin miniatures for me and are shipping them home to my house for free! It was a really cool experience. I just need to remember a directions or something next time.

I'm not going to say much about Paris. It was a great trip but spending too much time on it would be tedious. The important things to note are:

1.Crepes are delicious. One of the best snack foods I have ever bought from a vendor.
2.When going, take someone who can speak French. You feel very out of place without a translator.
3.French make good food no matter what it is. I had the most deliciously cooked, medium rare steak and I don't eat steak rare.
4.When planning to walk around a lot for three straight days, you need to bring walking shoes. I learned this the hard way.
5.Paris is beautiful from about eye level up. You don't want to look to close to the ground because the sidewalk is basically a sewer.
6.French Farmer's markets are probably the coolest thing ever. I love food =)

There is a lot more to it but I'm starting to get lazy with writing. If you want to know more check out Rachel's blog entry on Paris.

Rachel and I did not have any grand adventures this weekend. There were to fascinating trips to far away, exotic lands. We did, however, go and visit Lord's Cricket Grounds on Friday. It is the creme de la creme of Cricket grounds. It was awesome. Too bad the other kids in our program that went along were the complete opposite of awesome. One kid was taking a picture somewhere that he shouldn't have been and when he got caught, he tried to blame it on Rachel! I almost decked the cocky little bastard.

Yesterday though was even better. We spent the day wandering around two of the open air markets here in London. The first one was a food market that smelled like food heaven. We got a bottle of apple strawberry juice from one vendor that presses their own juice. Rachel and I tried a sample of a really weird juice that had apple and beetroot in it. Rachel didn't like it but I didn't think it was so bad. We got really good looking cheese cake that was tasty but turned out to be very mediocre. I also bought a nice chunk of rib eye steak for dinner. We also bought fresh bacon at the market and we had steak with potatoes fried up with onion and bacon and topped with cheese. It was just delicious.

As for the other market, well..... We are pretty sure we have found one of the circles of Hell. It was like someone took every music fad and subculture, stuck them in a blender, drank them and then threw them up within an area of about 2 sq miles. There was an entire store/stand devoted to black leather, platform, goth boots. We saw more hookahs and drug T-shirts there than I have seen in my entire life. Most of the people there looked like they had spent too much of their time drinking, smoking, doing drugs and partying. It was just insane. We did find a really cool stand where Rachel bought me a cool little hand bound leather notebook. I am losing my memory in my old age and needed somewhere to write things down. I was using my planner but I lost it. Now I have this notebook which is far cooler. The other highlight of the market was that we found a guy selling the biggest doughnuts I have ever seen and we bought some. It was like a small cake but I enjoyed it all the same.

Oh, the last interesting thing is that our vocabulary is starting to turn British. When we were at the food market, Rachel said I referred to a candy store as a sweet shop. I also almost thanked the butcher with a whole hearted "cheers" when i was given my steak. Also, Rachel cannot naturally spell centre the American way anymore. So, even if we don't have a British accent when we come home, we are sure to trouble everyone with our British vocabulary.

Well that's all for now,

Cheers =)

Snow, Trips, Crotch Slides, Feeling Better, and Other News

So it is about 4:00 am on Feb. 2nd here in London and I just got finished watching the Super Bowl and it was well worth the trouble staying up tonight. The game was a nail biter but I enjoyed almost every minute. The halftime show is probably the best set I've seen at the Super Bowl in years. I think everyone watching will agree that we didn't need to see a close up view of Bruce's crotch. I feel really bad for the camera guy. I'm sure he did nothing to deserve a power-sliding crotch to the face.

I do however wish I was back in Pittsburgh to at least see the crazy rioters this evening even if I didn't actually go out with them. This is the second Super Bowl victory that I have missed in Pittsburgh. Maybe I will just have to hope for one next year.

It is currently snowing here in London which is beautiful. According to everyone we have talked to, the people here in London don't cope well with snow. Supposedly the city basically shuts down when it snows so we might have a snow day tomorrow. This is, however, the first real taste of winter I have had since I got here. Its a nice change since the normal weather has tricked me into thinking its spring/fall. Overall, the weather has been quite nice I am looking forward to spring time here in London.

Rachel and I have officially booked our mid-term break trip which is very exciting. We started last night with booking our flights and finished this morning with booking our hostels. We are spending 4 nights in Munich. One of those days is a trip down to see Rachel's favorite castle, Schloss Neuschwanstein. Then, we are flying back to London. We will spend the night here so we can change out clothes, recharge, etc. After we fly out that next day we are spend 4, hopefully, beautiful nights in Rome. The only downside of the whole trip is the really, really early flight back home on March 8th. It is something I am not looking forward to.

So, you may be wondering why I haven't posted anything for over a week. For the past week or so I have been suffering from either a funny form of depression or I have been physically ill. Physically I am feeling much, much better. I think I was having trouble adjusting to the difference in food or I had a small stomach bug. Either way I am feeling a lot better. As for my mental health, I am feeling better. I think a combination of stress and a sense of being alienated here was the cause of my discomfort. I told people freshman year of college that I had no real interest studying abroad, and it was the truth. I wasn't really interested in leaving the familiar comforts of the US, and, now that I am here, it has been a little bit difficult to adjust. I am, however, starting to work my way through it.

Hopefully, my stress level will drop a little since I have officially applied for an internship for over the summer. It took me over a week to create a respectable looking resume and cover letter. Tonight, I finished all of that and sent it out with the job application to my perspective employer. Now all I can do is cross my fingers and get to work on getting the paperwork I need from CS department at school.

Finally there is one more piece of business that has not been worked out yet. In a week and two days, it is my birthday, and after over six months of contemplating I still do not have a good idea for what to do for my birthday. I have been debating between going on a day trip, seeing a musical or play, and a bunch of other stuff. To make matters a little more difficult, the day of my birthday is a free day. I do not have a single class or obligation that day which means I have to try and fill a whole day with indecision. Grr.... If you have any ideas, please let me know. Also, I downloaded Skype so if anyone is interested in chatting with me online, let me know.

Right, I think that about sums it up for now. If I have forgotten anything I will make sure to try to put it up soon. Until then, Cheers!