York and the Like

Maybe it's me but I feel like at all of the clubs here they start off playing great American dance songs and then slowly work the techno in... it's befuddling. Really. I know that I've mentioned it before, but there's literally a rave every night. Last night, there was a Mardi Gras party, naturally. Today is Fat Tuesday, so you know, you gotta prepare. I honestly don't know how people can take the incessant partying. Maybe I'm just weak, but that crap is just exhausting. Whatever happened to just sitting around and talking perhaps over a simple meal? I went out, though, because it was Monday and I didn't have class until 3 pm today. It's fun to witness the British in their costumes, and they dress up every single night. Lindsay, Genna, and our new buddy, Kelly from Texas, performed "One More Time" by Britney Spears on the karaoke stage. It was a blast. I'm not gonna lie, though, I was feeling it last night. Kelly and I walked back to Tapton together and my body was hurting... haven't felt that way since visiting Kate, Kyle and Jordan in Philly. Any sudden movements would have put me in a bad situation... I blame it on the coupon for a free shot of Southern Comfort. All in all, it was a pretty fun night. I came home and ate a crapload of chocolate cake because I wanted to.

Sunday (I'm working back in time here) was pretty lax. I slept over Lindsay's because it was late and woke up early, so I decided to call my high school buddy, Sara-Jade to meet her for church. We ended up going to this church really close to Tapton, so I was pumped about that. I can roll out of bed on Sunday mornings and roll right into church from now on. The church was good- very family oriented, and more of a moderate contemporary appeal to it. I mean, I go to Elevation, so anything is only moderately contemporary compared to that, but it was good and close, so I'm thinking it will stick. After church, Sara insisted on buying me lunch and then taking it to her house to eat. We went to the grocery store near Tapton, which I also didn't realize existed, and got some baguettes, meat, tomatoes, lettuce, and a delicious raspberry cake roll. We went back to her perfectly English townhome to make lunch and I got to meet her 3 British roommates. Sara prepared me some Cadbury hot chocolate and I was sitting there with 3 other British girls over mugs of piping hot drinks and cake talking and gossiping. It was the first time I truly felt like I was a part of England. It was like a precious tea party that you have with your stuffed animals at 4 and 5 years old, but with real people. After that, I hit up the gym and proceeded to the comedy club that takes place on Sunday nights at Bar One (bar at the Student Union). It was pretty funny, but not the best I've ever seen. Besides the fact that we were sitting on top of each other, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Saturday was York :). I got up pretty early to shower and get my camera ready for a day of fun-filled, snap-happy moments. It was about an hour's bus-ride. They, aka the leaders from the student union who organized the trip, gave us a simple map and a list of local sites to visit, but we were totally free to do all the exploring we wanted. The 6 of us girls began our journey together, naturally, and proceeded into the city walls. Pre-downtown, we saw some really amazing places, such as this mill. I thought this was gorgeous.



Once we were "officially" within the city walls we realized that there was a big international market going on. Tons of great food and nifty gifties to be had. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. I could have spent 3 hours lingering at all of the booths- we probably spent a good hour and a half doing just that too. My favorite was the Italian desserts, even though I didn't get any of them, lol. I really wanted to, but instead, I continued to stare in hopes that free food would fall into my mouth.

Looks fabulous, I know.

The candy mountain booth was positively amazing as well. I got some fudge, but the fudge was better at a hidden fudge shop that Alex and I found later in the day. Basically, we spent the better part of the morning toward the local Saturday festivities. We walked along random side streets and peered into various shops to get post cards and stuff and take cute pics. Then, we started to get really hungry, so Genna, Lindsay, Chelsea, and Mon-Mon decided to go get burgers, while Alex and I decided we wanted a taste of Germany. I got a German sausage burger, which was pretty friggin good. But, due to the fact that Alex and I suffer from a horrible cell phone plan, we couldn't call or text anyone to let them know where we were at, so we were waiting for them to contact us. Thus, we explored on our own. This is where the real journey started. We wandered around trying to find the Viking Festival, which is the whole reason we went to York this weekend. On our way to the park to take part in more Viking festivities, I almost hit a pack of them...

Freaking Hilarious. They were totally serious too and wouldn't move off the path. This was literally how close they were to me. I snapped the picture than jumped to the side of the road.

We ended up walking along the city walls for a little while before finally finding the park. We got a crapload of pictures here and it was my favorite part of York I think. Here are some pretty photos of the park:

Gotta say, this is my favorite picture of us so far, Alex.

We then followed the park walls around to the waterway beyond and followed that down to the other side of the city where we stumbled upon the Great Wall of York. I'm not sure what the real name is, but that's what I called it anyway.

We took some pics off of the wall and then headed back down towards the Yorkminster Abbey, which was gorgeous, but we didn't feel like paying to get inside plus we're going to see the Westminster Abbey this weekend.

By this time, our feet were hurting and so we decided to find a café and rest awhile. Alex got vegetable soup that was quite creamy and had very little veggies, and I got a hot chocolate and a biscuit thing, of course. It turned out to be a crappy café, but at least we got to rest for a few moments. Then, being Alex and Lindsay, we decided to do our part in stabilizing the economy by browsing through the stores lining the streets. I ended up buying a nice dress and a cute flannel shirt for 24 lbs., so I was quite pleased. After that, the sun started setting and it was getting pretty chilly in good ol' Yorkshire, so we began to lose some steam. We shopped around for a little while longer than headed back to the bus, which took half an hour to get there. Alex and I napped from our exhaustion, and then got Nibbles pizza... our favorite. Lindsay, Alex and I went to meet up with some peeps, aka Kohan and Eric and a few others, at Bar One for drinks and socializing. We moved on to Players from there which is a bar off-campus with no cover charge. Little did I know that I would be witnessing phenomenal break dancers and be standing in awe of perfectly sculpted men. I couldn't dance, which was a first. I was stunned motionless. Joe would have loved it. The bar closed at 12:30, so Alex, the homies, and the other people we were with proceeded to a club called Embrace, but Lindsay and I had had enough, so we walked back to her room. Good times.

I think you're up to date now. More to come... London on Friday!!! Cheers and buenas noches!