Finally warm enough for swimming

Day 63: Thursday

We tried to wake up at a normal time, but slept until noon again. We started working on Christening stuff as soon as we got up, and finally had lunch around 2pm after I was starving. After lunch we went swimming because it was finally warm and sunny. Then we laid out until about 6pm, and I at least got my base tan from Italy back. Afterwards we went into town to the Super-U to buy popcorn and candy, then went to the bar to use the internet, which was pretty quick. Then we had to go home for dinner, and after dinner I packed all my stuff and figured out getting to the train station tomorrow, then we finished Pride and Prejudice, which took about 4 hours.

Who doesn't love Colin Firth?

Day 62: Wednesday

I slept until noon, had tea and pain au chocolat for breakfast, got dressed, then had lunch. Another Frenchie arrive and I failed at bises again. After lunch we went into town to the bar to use the internet. We ordered some teas at the bar, then figured out the internet. Then we walked around a bit more, came back, went up to the lavender fields to take pictures, then came back to go in the pool. It was pretty cold, but still fun. The best part was when Hilary told us to flip over Johann on the floaty thing because he didn’t understand English and wouldn’t see it coming. It was quite funny. Eventually we got too cold and got out and laid in the sun a bit before we got too cold for that too. Then we had dinner, and after we watched Johnny English and the beginning of the BBC Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, then went to bed around 1am.

Dieulefit

Day 61: Tuesday

Got ready to go to the bus, downed some tea, and checked out. We got on the bus to Terminal 5, then we had to wait in line forever to drop our bags because we picked the one line that wasn’t moving. Finally when it was our turn, my bag was 3kgs over, so I took out my shoes, toiletries, and folder, and then it was fine. My backpack was soooo heavy though. After checking in we went through security without any problems, then found a place for our last English Breakfast. It was yummy but not enough beans. After breakfast we still had like an hour before our gate was open, so we just hung around at the restaurant. Finally it was time to head to our gate, and then we sat down and waited for our flight. We even managed to get seats together during check in, and there was no one in the seat next to us. The flight was only about an hour, but pretty turbulent so I couldn’t sleep even though I was very tired. We landed in Lyon around 11am, then found our way to the train into central Lyon for the train station. There, I got my first pain au chocolat. The machines didn’t like our credit cards, so we had to wait in line to buy our tickets, but we couldn’t figure out which one, so we waited in different lines. Mine was much shorter, so I was helped right away. I used my French and asked if I could get tickets for the TER train there, and she said yes and for where, and I told her Montelimar for two people, then she asked how old I was and I could not think of the French word for 20, only the Italian one, so we switched into English. We only had to wait about 45 minutes for the train, and then we found some seats and settled on. We made it to Montelimar about on time, but we had to wait an hour for the bus, so while we waited I bought my ticket to Paris for Friday. The man helping me did not speak English very much, so I got to use my French again. I was able to tell him which train I wanted for where on which day and at which time, and I asked if there were assigned seats. Afer figuring that out, we went to wait for the bus. We weren’t sure which bus it was, so we decided to follow these other people that were talking about Dieulefit. The bus finally came (10 minutes late), and when I tried to bring my bag on she told me it was “Trop gros!” and put it underneath. The ride was about 40 minutes, and we had no idea when we were getting off. Luckily we saw Victoria and Hilary as we pulled in, and the bus driver knew we were getting off there. We got our stuff into the car, and then drove to the house. There’s not enough room for my suitcase in the room, so I just have to leave it downstairs. I’m sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Victoria’s room while Elli is sleeping on a pull out cot there, so it’s definitely cozy! I met all the French family, failed at greeting them with bises, and then had some tea. Before dinner we went out for a drive through downtown Dieulefit, then up to Poet-Laval and walked around. It is a lot like Cinque Terre, only without the ocean and with French and no tourists. For dinner was fish soup that Elli and Victoria didn’t even like, and I couldn’t even stand the smell. I was able to follow most of the dinner conversation between the French family, and I tried to use a little bit of mine. After dinner I was verrrry tired, so I went to bed. 32 hours of no sleep, yaaay.

Heathrow Terminal 5 Travelodge

Day 60: Monday

I didn’t wake up until around 1pm, then we had breakfast, then packed and got ready to go to the hotel. We had Chinese for dinner, and then got all our stuff in the car and drove to the hotel. Elli and I said goodbye to Bev and Harry, then checked into the hotel without any problems. The hotel room didn’t have any phone, but it did have a bottle opener. And we had to pay 10 pounds each for internet. I showered, and interneted all night. Literally. Neither of us slept. We had to leave at 5:30 for our bus to the airport anyway, so it wasn’t really worth the hour or two of sleep.

Igtham Mote

Day 59: Sunday

We slept in again, then got up around noon for breakfast. It was raining, but we decided to visit Igtham Mote anyway. We put on some wellies because the grounds would be very muddy and wet. Only Elli, Bev, and I went, and we walked around the grounds a little bit before going inside the house. The house had a moat, which was cool! I liked walking around the house and learning random things, but my favorite part, of course, was the library. The house was closing, however, so we had to go back home. We had dinner, then sat around watching the women’s soccer final of USA verses Japan. It was very intense and they went into penalty shoot out to settled the tie, which Japan won. After the game, I went upstairs and got ready for bed.

London with KRISTA!

Day 58: Saturday

We woke up nice and early to be on our train to London in time. We had some breakfast, then were on our way. We were super excited to see Krista! Our train into town was about an hour, then we had to switch to the underground, and by 9:45 we were at Notting Hill Gate tube station. We were so excited to see Krista that our hearts were pounding and we couldn’t breathe. When we got outside, we waited for about 10 seconds until we saw her, and we shouted “KRISTA!” and tackled her. We hugged for at least 5 minutes, making a huge scene. We were so excited! Finally we decided we should probably move or we would never do anything, so we walked toward Portobello Road to the market. We walked around, did a little shopping, but mostly chatted with Krista. I did buy a gift for my brother, and I wanted to buy a billion scarves, as usual. We met Krista’s friends, and then it started to rain unforgivingly, so we had to get out the coats and umbrellas, and my pants got soaked. We walked miserably in the rain because there was nowhere to go inside that wasn’t already too crowded. Finally we made to back to the tube station and went back to Krista’s apartment to briefly change. Then we went with Krista to Regent’s College for lunch where she used her student card to get all three of us lunch for only 16 pounds. I had to eat pasta, but oh well. Then we sat for two hours talking with Krista until the weather outside looked agreeable finally. We walked around Regent’s Park to the rose garden where Krista showed us her favorite roses. They were very pretty! Then it was about time to head to the movie theatre for HARRY POTTTTER!!!!! We had to wait forever for Krista’s friends to show up, and of course as soon as they did the skies opened up and it pissed on us again. It was a miserable walk to the theatre, but we finally made it and got settled in, then I could start being excited. The movie was good, and I cried for the entire last half, except the very end where they looked ridiculous and we laughed. I was satisfied with the movie, and I’m excited to see it in the states again after I read the 7^th book again. The end of Harry Potter….sigh…sad panda. After the movie we went to the pub by Krista’s flat for dinner. I had English Breakfast, which they thought was weird that I wanted breakfast for dinner. After dinner we decided it was time to head back to Bev’s, so we briefly went back to Krista’s flat, then she walked us to the tube station to say goodbye. I will miss my Krista, but I will get to see her soon when we move back to State into OUR apartment! It was such a great day! Elli and I had no problems figuring out the trains back, and we got home around 10pm, and I was very sleepy.

Knoll Park

Day 57: Friday

I woke up around 10, but we didn’t get out of bed until around 2. Bev made us omlettes for lunch, then we went for a walk around Knoll Park. There were deer everywhere on the golf course, and we got pretty close to some of them. After the walk we went down to the pub for dinner, and I had a pint of cider and a really delicious chicken curry with naan. We sat and talked at dinner for quite a long time, then went home, and I interneted until bed.

On to Sevenoaks

Day 56: Thursday

Woke up, toast for breakfast, then began packing everything back up and cleaning our room. By the time we finished we had just enough time to take one last walk to the heath to say goodbye, then we went into town for fish and chips. Obviously I didn’t have any fish, but I did have a delicious jacket potato with baked beans. After lunch it was time for Elli and I to catch our bus, so we said goodbye to granny and granddad and thanked them for all their kindness, and we were on our way. We made it to Poole and transferred to our bus to London without any problems. I was excited to find the bus was equipped with wifi, so I was able to entertain myself on the internet for two hours of the bus ride until my computer battery died. The wifi was spotty and slow, though, but at least I was able to talk to both Jordan and Mike. Finally, we arrived at Victoria station in London where we had to transfer to our other bus. We had to wait for about an hour, however, so I read some Thomas Paine. We got on our other bus to Tumbridge Wells, which did not have wifi, and looked out the window as we drove through London. We got to see the eye, Big Ben, and Parliament, and we snapped a quick photo. The rest of the time we were driving through the jank part of London commenting on how, if we were with Accent, that’s where they would house us. We ran into a lot of traffic, of course, but finally we arrived where Elli’s godmother, Bev, was waiting to pick us up. Bev and her son Harry drove us to their house in Sevenoaks where we got settled in, had some tea, and dinner. We chatted for quite a while about various things, then retired to the bedroom where Elli and I caught up on the internet and showered. I didn’t make it to bed until about 2am, so I had to watch all the annoying status updates about Harry Potter because everyone in America going out to see it.

Wimborne

Day 55: Wednesday

Same morning routine. Around 11 we finally figured out our plans for the day, packed our lunches, and head into town. We went to use the computers, but they were full, so we ran some errands buying stamps and random things we needed. We went back to the library and the computers were still full, but we had to print our tickets for the bus tomorrow, so we waited about a half hour. All of the sudden all of the computers opened up at once, and we were able to use them for the full half hour without feeling bad about people waiting. Gosh I can’t wait to get back to internet tomorrow. After I felt satisfied with my internet usage and my half hour was up, we decided it was time to head to the bus to go to Wimborne. We were hungry already by the time we got there, so we sat on a patch of grass in front of the minster and ate our packed lunches, sandwiches and salad as usual. Then we wandered around inside the minster for a bit until we discovered it had a chained library, so we had to check it out. We felt like we were in Harry Potter going to the restricted section as we wound up a spiral staircase into a library with super old books chained to the wall. One of the keepers told us a bit about the history of the library and chaining books, and of course she was interested in why two American girls were in their library and even interested. We immediately found the Works of Machiavelli, which she found surprising that we got so excited over, and we explained that we are political theory students who had just come from Italy where we were studying Machiavelli. She also told us that their copy of Raleigh’s History of the World had gotten a hole burnt through it by a candle and has since been repaired. It was disappointing that we couldn’t look through the books, but we were able to touch them. By this time, another lady came up to replace the other one, who informed her “These girls are students of political theory. They pounced on the Machiavelli.” We then had a talk with the other woman as well about the books and the history. When she asked about where we were from, she replied that she like Minnesota because Garrison Keiller, Bob Dylan, Prince, and F. Scott Fitzgerald were from there. I was quite surprised that she knew so much about it! After spending much longer than any normal sane person would in the chained library, we went back down the staircase and made our way toward the Wimborne model town. It is literally a model town of what it looked like in the 50s, and it was very cool. We tromped around it acting like little children and playing around with all the buildings and shops, then went inside and played with the trains, which were, of course, Thomas the Tank Engine. Then we wandered around the gift shop and got some tea before we headed out. We wandered around the town of Wimborne a bit more, found a candy shop and bought some sweets, grumbled at an Italian Restaurant as we walked by but amused ourselves by looking at the menu, and then it was time to catch the bus back to Broadstone. We decided to take the long walk home since we knew we needed to walk a little bit to be hungry enough for dinner, which was English breakfast, so we walked along a trail on the other side of the roundabout and came out somewhere in the neighborhood, and we just wandered until Elli knew where we were and we made it home just in time for dinner. I was so full, as usual, but it was so good. Dessert was plumb pie with custard again. After dinner we did the dishes and then set out for another walk to walk off the food baby we got from dinner. We walked back along the same trail we were on before, but kept going two miles all the way to Upton Country Park. We saw lots of English people out walking their dogs and getting exercise. We sat by the country house for a couple minutes before we decided to turn back and head home along the same path. It was about a four mile walk by the end of it, and I felt sufficiently exercised. We had some milk and talked with granny and granddad a bit when we got home, then did the usual without internet before bed. Tomorrow we leave Broadstone and go to London where we will have the internet back finally! But only for a couple days before we go to Dieulefit where the only internet will be from the café. I can’t believe I only have a week and a half left!

Corfe Castle

Day 54: Tuesday

After the usual morning routine, we packed our lunches and head out to the bus stop to go to Corfe Castle. We took the bus to Poole, then hopped on the bus to the castle. The ride was about 45 minutes, and we drove through adorable English towns and countryside. When we made it to the castle, we took the trail for the short walk up through the village to the castle. It is a ruined castle and no longer intact, but it is nevertheless cool to explore. We walked around the castle for a couple hours, took pictures, and finally decided to sit down and eat our lunch like proper English people. The castle had more children than I would prefer, and they were all the very energetic, running, screaming type of children. One little boy tried to eat a rock! I laughed forever about it. Still laughing. After our sufficient lunch, we wandered back down into the village. We checked out the church, then decided to go into a pub. When we finished we went to the sweet shop to get candy and postcards. The bus was going to come in about 20 minutes, and we didn’t really want to wait another whole hour for it, so we went back down the path to the bus stop to go home. The bus was about 10 minutes late, but we made it on. I slept on the way to Poole, and we had perfect timing to catch the bus to Broadstone because we didn’t have to wait at all. When we arrived home, granny was making dinner, and we had some tea, and shortly after dinner was served. The dumplings were absolutely delicious! I am always so stuffed after dinner, but dessert is always too delicious, and I have found I’m a big fan of custard. Dessert tonight was plumb pie with custard. After dinner, Elli and I showered and went back to work on our proposals. We have both decided that the course was virtually nonexistent, and the prompt is stupid and has nothing to do with what we actually learned. I would much rather write about art history and the things that Rocky told us in relation to the Florentine Histories instead of it related to the EU. I guess I’ll just have to see what Petrie says about my proposal. We have also been playing a lot of card games on our computer due to the lack of internet. I’m getting quite good at hearts! Only one more full day until we move again, and we plan on going to Wimborne tomorrow. I have been feverishly working away at trying to catch up on my blog and remember everything that happened during the two weeks I didn’t have a computer.

Badbury Rings

Day 53: Monday

We tried to wake up early today, but we were surprisingly tired, so we didn’t get up until around 9:30am. Then we had toast for breakfast again and decided what to do for the rest of the day. We walked to the high street to use the internet at the libraries, but there was a line, so we walked around Broadstone to try to find postcards. We passed some people standing at the end of their driveway and they had a kitty, so I stopped to pet him. His name was George and they told me “he’s a big softy, that one.” Eventually we returned to the library and only had to wait a short while before a computer opened up. With only a half hour, I was franticly trying to fit everything in. I went through my notifications, and not much happened, and I read through my messages. I had just enough time to finish everything, and then I got off because people were waiting. It was just enough time to tease me but not allow me to be satisfied. Afterwards we grabbed a sausage roll and headed home where we helped make lunch. We had cheese sandwiches again and pate sandwiches with salad and yogurt. After lunch we wrote a couple postcards and got ready to head to Badbury rings. I had heard about them many times from Elli, so I was excited to finally see them. They date to pre-Roman times, and now it’s basically a ring of hills around some woods where a town used to be. They built the hills as a defense against their town to wear the enemy out climbing up and down all of the hills. Even thousands of years later, it would still be exhausting to run up and down them, so I was impressed. We walked around the rings twice, wandered through the middle, and took lots of pictures. The bugs were horrible though. After about an hour we went back home. I was exhausted and took a nap while Elli ran up to the post office. When I woke up it was time for dinner, which was essentially the same as yesterday, only with marrow. It was so much food and I struggled to get through it. Dessert was delicious, but I was too full to fully enjoy it. And then I was given more. I thought I was going to explode. After dinner I wrote a little bit of my proposal, which is an interesting endeavor without the internet. Then we watched a tv show about some detectives which was pretty funny, and planned out going to Corfe Castle tomorrow. I’m trying to finish my draft of my paper so I can work on revising it over the next couple days before I have to turn it in next time I have internet. Only two more days in Broadstone, and it’s on to London where I get to see KRISTAAAAA!!!

The Beach, English Style

Day 52: Sunday

We woke up early for church, had toast and tea for breakfast, and head out around 9. The church was small and the congregation was mostly old people, except a couple children and a 16-year old boy. The service was dedicated to the Republic of South Sudan since it’s its one year anniversary. After church we went to look at the chickens they have, and I decided chickens are a little cute. After we got home we had some tea while Elli showed her grandparents pictures from Rome. They were a bit overwhelmed, so we spared trying to show them the rest of our trip, and we began making lunch. We had cheese sandwiches and egg sandwiches, salad, apple, grapes, and yogurt. Afterward Elli and I decided to go out to the beach to see the sea, so we figured out the buses and were on our way. The contrast from my beach gear from two weeks ago to now is a perfect epitomization of the difference between Italy and England. To go to Cinque Terre, I brought sunscreen, a towel, a dress, and my bikini. To go to the Channel, I wore jeans, a cardigan, a sweatshirt, and a scarf. We got to ride on the top of a double-decker bus! The best part was when we would hit trees and it would make a loud noise on the top. Finally we arrived at the beach, and it wasn’t too windy and the sun was shining a little bit. There were ominous rain clouds in the other direction, but thankfully we never got rained on. We walked down to the water, rolled up our pants to stand in the sea, and took pictures. Then we just wandered down the beach for about an hour. I picked up some shells to bring home along the way, and we got ice cream when we decided to turn around. It had a kit kat in the middle, it was amazing! My feet were starting to hurt from walking in the sand and my muscles were getting sore by the time we made it back to the bus stop, and I was also so exhausted that I took a little nap sitting down waiting for the bus, which was a double decker again. We had a half hour wait in Poole for the bus to Broadstone, so we went to a grocery store and got some chips, but they kicked us out as they were closing. The bus was supposed to arrive within 10 minutes, however, it was 25 minutes late. As soon as the bus arrived it was evident as to why it was so late. The bus driver was excruciatingly slow and took forever to get everyone on, and a bunch of people only had big bills and he couldn’t make change. Finally we were on our way, and when the bus dropped us off we walked as fast as we could because we were late for dinner and thought granny and granddad would be worried. Dinner was roast chicken, carrots, beans, bacon, and potatoes. I ate through my veggies so I could enjoy the rest of my meal, only to be given more veggies. Oh well, I was full. And the potatoes were delicious. Dessert was loganberries. After dinner I showered and then we sat down to watch the Kite Runner together. It is impossible not to get emotional during that movie, and I choked up a couple times. After the movie I was tired and very ready for bed. We plan on going to the library in the morning to use the internet, but other than that I don’t know what our plans are.

Welcome to Broadstone

Day 51: Saturday

Woke up for English breakfast, minus the sausage, then we had to finish packing and getting everything together to be out of the house by 11. I tried to quickly finish Pride and Prejudice, but I still had about 30 pages left. Oh well, it’s not like I don’t know how it ends. We somehow got all of our American sized luggage into the English sized cars and pulled away from our English cottage right on time at 11. We had time before the ferry, so we went back to the Osborne house to walk around the walled garden and have some tea. We had to wait in line for the ferry for about an hour, and the ferry was also about an hour, but I just sat and listened to Taylor Swift and read Thomas Paine. Then Elli’s parents dropped us off at the National Express station, made sure we got our tickets for Poole, and said goodbye. Elli and I both wanted McDonald’s but didn’t want to drag all of our stuff, so I ran down to get us food and came back with just enough time for us to stuff our faces before our bus arrived. The bus ride was only about an hour and the English countryside was beautiful. Then we waited for a short time for our bus to Broadstone, and then another short bus ride and we were there. I met Elli’s grandparents as they loaded the car with our huge suitcases, and then we walked to their house because we wouldn’t fit in the car, and Elli wanted to show me around. We walked through downtown Broadstone, and then through the woods in her granny’s neighborhood. When we arrived, we got settled and I got a tour, and we sat around talking a bit until dinner was ready. I survived my first dinner of steamed cabbage and shepherd’s pie, which had cooked carrots in them, and I ate ALL of it. And we also had delicious dessert, then we showered and settled in some more, then we head out for a walk through the heath. It was beautiful! It reminded me of English movies where people wander through the country side, and I literally felt like Elizabeth Bennett out for a country walk. We watched the sunset and there were other people out walking their dogs, and finally we wandered until we found the neighborhood roads, but Elli got lost and didn’t know where we were, so we turned around and went back through the heath and by the time we got back it was dark. It was decided that we are going to church in the morning...my favorite. I have a feeling I’ll be going to bed early tonight since it’s only 10:30 and I’m already tired and there’s no facebook to keep me up until 2am.

Last Day in Isle of Wight

Day 50: Friday

Last full day on the Isle of Wight because tomorrow we move to Poole to Elli’s grandparent’s where internet usage will be sparse because I’ll have to go to the library for it. I slept in until about 11am, read Pride and Prejudice for a bit, went downstairs for tea, and Elli was figuring out our travel plans for getting to Poole and to London and to France. I looked up hostels in Paris, but didn’t find anything promising. Finally we decided to go up to the co-op to get mayo so we could make egg sandwiches for breakfast/lunch. When we got back, we made the sandwiches and ate while we watched a bit of the Tour de France. I found out I’m going to be in Paris during the finish! I also found a hostel that I liked, and accidentally booked it for 5 nights instead of 3, but oh well, I can always change it. Then Elli and I decided to walk to Newport to get postcards. It is a short walk along adorable very English roads, and we wandered around the town for a while until we found a little candy shop that had some postcards. Then we wandered around Newport for a while, and it was very English and very adorable. We decided to go into a card shop and spent a lot of time looking at funny cards, and I bought one for my parents’ anniversary because it says “mum and dad” on it. We also found a grocery store called Iceland, so we went in just for shits and giggles. Then we finally decided to walk back toward Carisbrooke, but we stopped to have a look at Carisbrooke church and wander around the graveyard before we made it home. We sat around the house for a while before dinner, which was potatoes and burgers and leftover cauliflower cheese. After dinner I went down to the Eight Bells pub with Elli and her parents and I had a Strongbow cider. Then we finished packing and I talked to Jordan, Mike, and Krista on facebook until 3 in the morning. Finally I decided I needed to go to bed because I had to get up in 4-5 hours.

Osborne House

Day 49: Thursday

Today I actually woke up early because we were going to the famous Osborne house, the home of Queen Victoria after the death of her husband, Prince Albert. It is a very English thing to do, to wander around a country house, then go to the tearoom for lunch. The house was impressive and had a lot of cool pieces of history, most particularly a family tree which showed how basically every monarchy in Europe stemmed from Victoria’s family. Then Elli and her mother left because Elli had a horseback riding appointment, and me, Nick, Victoria, and Charles wandered around the grounds for a little bit longer, then drove home. Tea and hanging around until dinner, which Elli made and I attempted to help. I grated an entire block of cheese! We had cauliflower cheese, which was pretty good for it being mushy veggies. We had some champagne with dinner! After dinner, we decided to try to fix my computer, and since I’ve been insisting all along that it’s only the battery, we tried plugging it in into Elli’s charger, and lo and behold….computer resurrection! I was so happy to have a function computer again. YAAAAAY!!!! After much rejoicing in the return of my computer, it was time for bed.

Carisbrooke Castle

Day 48: Wednesday

Slept in again, then toast and tea for breakfast. Since the rain seemed to be holding off, we decided to walk up to Carisbrooke Castle to explore. It was my first real castle, but it wasn’t intact anymore, so it was more like wandering around the ruins of Rome or Pompeii. I loved the view of the English countryside from the wall and the keep, and we got a demonstration of how the donkey lifted the water out of the well, which was pretty entertaining. After sufficiently exploring the castle, we headed home for lunch, which was sandwiches. After lunched we watched a little of the Tour de France, then headed out to the Needles.  It was very windy but the cliffs were very beautiful and very awesome. Afterwards, we went home and had pasta (groooooowl) for dinner. After spending 6 weeks eating nothing but, I feel as though I will never want to eat pasta or pizza or even gelato ever again. After dinner we finished Lost in Austen, then bed.

English Life

Day 47: Tuesday

I woke up surprisingly early, but I didn’t actually get up until around noon. It was nice to finally be able to relax and sleep. When we finally did get up, it was time for English breakfast! Finally! Beans and toast and eggs, so delicious! Nomnomnom. After breakfast it began to rain, so we hung out in the cottage the rest of the day. Gladly, we had internet. The Bell family taught me how to dip things in my tea, but I dropped my first digestive in :( For dinner we went down to the pub, and I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans, but it was way too big for me to finish. After dinner we went for a walk around Carisbrooke, and they showed me a ford, which to me seemed to be just a flooded road that cards drive over. After the walk, we started Lost in Austen, then it was time for bed.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (and Ferries)

Day 46: Monday

I spent my 4th of July in transit between Florence and the Isle of Wight. We woke up around 7:30am, packed our remaining stuff up, ate breakfast, and got the apartment ready. We realized around 8:20 that our train was leaving in 20 minutes, so we rushed out the door with our garbage. We didn’t know what to do with our trash, so we just left it on the street, figuring someone would pick it up if it was sitting outside Gucci. We rushed to the train but luckily we made it, Florence being so small and the station so close. My suitcase and the cobblestone roads, however, are not friends. We made it to Rome just fine, then discovered there was a train to the airport, so we decided to do that instead of Taxi. It was only 10:30, and the airport train left at 10:52, but we discovered that it was the longest  walk ever to the train, and we barely made it on. And of course there was no room for our bags. When we arrived at the airport, we split up to check into our flights since Elli flew Alitalia and I flew BA, then we met up again to go through security since our gates were right next to each other. We got some food on the other side of security, and I suffered through eating my last shitty Italian sandwich. Then it was time to split up, so Elli went to her gate and I went to mine, and I didn’t have to wait long to board. There was a huge group of really obnoxious American kids on my flight, and I was greatly annoyed. I was able to fall asleep on the plane though. When I arrived in Heathrow, I was supposed to make my way to the bus station and wait for the bus to Southampton where I would meet up with Elli. I had a bit of trouble through customs, however, because I didn’t know the address of where I was going, and the UK government seemed to have a problem with that. The customs lady thought it was suspicious that Elli and I were arriving on different flights from the same place, so I had to spend 20 minutes explaining the entire situation, and finally she let me through. I found my bus station, then realized I was an hour early because my clock hadn’t been adjusted to the time zone yet, so I went inside for a Krispy Kreme because it was the only place I could find and I was hungry. Finally it was time to board the coach, and I was relieved to find Elli on it. The bus ride started off a bit exciting with Elli and I waving at all the truck drivers going by us and making friends. Then it settled down and we both started coughing horribly, but we had run out of water, so everyone kept giving us nasty looks. Oh well. We arrived in Southampton to find that the shuttle to the ferry did not exist, so we decided to walk. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way and were served by the cutest and adorablest little English man ever. The McDonald’s was right next to a TGI Friday’s, and it killed me so much to be so close to boneless wings without being able to eat them. After our fill of food, we began to make our way to the pier, having no clue where we were going and with our huge bags. We did manage to find it, however, but we bought tickets for the wrong ferry. We were confused for a short time before we found the correct place, then bought tickets again. We waited for the ferry, then it was a short 25 minute ride to the Isle of Wight where Elli’s parents greeted us and took us to the cottage. After a 15-hour travel day, I was very glad to finally arrive. It was the cutest little thatched-roof cottage ever, with a cute little garden and our room was in the attic. Elli’s parents served us tea, and we sat around a bit before showering and going to bed.  I got to read a little of Pride and Prejudice before bed in the attic of the cottage. It was just too perfect.    

Last Day in Florence

Day 45: Sunday

Elli made English breakfast again, which was delicious. After breakfast I started packing up all my shit (again) and cleaning the apartment. Kari and I went out to run some last minute errands, which for the life of me I can’t remember. Then I know we ate my last box of mac and cheese, but after that I can’t remember what I did for the day. I do know that Elli, Kari, and I jammed one last time while we made dinner, then Mike joined us to go to our favorite gelateria with the cute man, but it was closed, so we went to the other one by piazza republica. Then we went over to the Old Stove, of course, and later Alex joined us, and the final five had one last get together before the send off. Then we had to say goodbye to Kari L When we got home, we had to face cleaning the entire apartment, which we accomplished quite quickly. Glad of that being over, I went over to the boys’ to say goodbye to Mike and Alex, then I went to bed, ready to face the day of travel ahead of me the next day.

Pisa

Day 43: Friday

Pisa with Elli, Brandon, Joe, and Dylan. It was nice to be back to hanging out with the gang like we had in Rome. It was about an hour to Pisa, and when we arrived we walked all the way across town to the Duomo, where we found that, in fact, the tower is very much leaning. We spent a good long time taking a lot of silly ridiculous touristy photos, and then decided we would like to go inside the Duomo. It was pretty standard inside, but they were playing music and it was beautiful, so we stood for a while listening. The boys also went inside the bapistry, but Elli and I didn’t because we didn’t want to pay. Finally we made our way back to the train station, grabbing ice cream on the way, and Elli and I decided we didn’t want to deal with the headache of going to Carrara and trying to figure out how to see the mountains. We thought we wouldn’t have enough time since we had to be back by 7 for our end of trip party, which we deemed it safe to call “academic wrap up.” Joe, Dylan, and Brandon, however, went on to Carrara. After a freezing ride home, we made it back in time to eat dinner and shower before it was time to go across the hall to the boys’ where the party was supposed to be. No one was there yet, except the people who live there, but we started hanging out anyway. People started showing up shortly. Petrie showed up but apologized for his wife not being there since there was some trouble back home with their daughter. The party was fun, and everyone went around conversing with everyone else about random things, and sadly we eventually all had to sy our goodbyes. I can't wait to hangout with everyone again when we get back to the EL. It's an absolute must!