No probs

Hello! I'm currently in my second day in Cornwall. I'm staying in St. Austell, and visited the fishing town of Mevagissey today! I'm going to write a bit more about what I've done in the past few days on here a little bit later, but right now I just wanted to make a list to remind me of the things that I still wanted to do while I was in Cornwall.

1. Eat a cornish pasty
2. Stop by the post office
3. Visit the Eden Project
4. Trip to Truro
5. Walk to Charlestown

RyanAir PARTAY

So I'm in the airport at 2:30 in the morning waiting for the RyanAir booth to open up so that I can check in for my morning flight. The Metro terminals open at 6:30, which is when my flight is, so I had to arrive tonight and stay. However, I was unaware of how excellent the Madrid airport terminals are at 2 in the morning.

Right as I walk into the terminal a guy wearing a cardboard box, waving his arms and yelling is being pushed on a cart by one of his friends (I can't tell if they're employees or passengers...). The cardboard box was entirely covering his head...and I didn't see any eye holes, but he must have been seeing out somehow because he was successfully creeping on multiple people. So they leave the terminal, but two minutes later show up again coming from the same direction??? At this point the guy in the box has pretty much ditched his friend and is chasing people through the terminal yelling "DONDE ES MI BARAJAS???" (Barajas is the name of the airport....so I'm kind of confused...).

So that's my exciting airport terminal story.

MADRID!

So Madrid turned out to be super happy despite the problems we ran into at the beginning. I went back to Madrid from Alcala on our second day there and Allison and I explored the Plaza marketplaces and main streets of Madrid. We saw lots of statues of guys on horses as well as a little too much of the moncloa park flasher....but better thoughts! We also ate at TGI Fridays!

My computer is running out of batteries so I'm going to quickly describe Day...3? Yeah. Okay so today Justin, Jenni, Kyle, and I met Allison in Madrid and then Sarah joined us! We thought about seeing Luna Nueva hahahaha...but instead visited a palace of some sort. I can't remember the names of any of the places we went because they're all in Spanish...but we saw some maze gardens, too! And more statues of guys on horses. Then we had a delightful dinner of Mexican food and Jenni, Justin, and Kyle checked into their AWESOME hostel! We ended the night at the Cave bar where Kyle eyed some nearby people's giant daiquiri? martini? drink of some sort? Then I got my stuff back from the hostel and everyone in the hostel lobby gave me a big BYYYYYYYE which was nice : ) Then I came to the airport terminal where I am chilling as I...type.

AH! I also got really good at navigating the Metro! And I even asked for directions and help a couple of times in Spanish during our time here.

Okay I'm sleepy (and it's probably evident from this post) so I'll maybe try to sleep a bit before my plane!

do doo doooo (Maura I hope you read this because that's for you)

P.S. A Lady Gaga/Bon Jovi mash-up is currently in the works.

Alcala de Henares

Our trip to Madrid/Alcala de Henares is getting significantly better! Our plans for the day/rest of the trip:

1. Visit the Universidad de Alcala de Henares--the first established University in the world and the University that Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) attended

2. See Luna Nueva...hehe

3. Take the train to Madrid (if we can figure it out)

4. Make a Lady Gaga/Bon Jovi mash-up

Madrid does not like us...

So Jenni, Justin, Kyle, and I are visiting Allison in Madrid. Unfortunately, Madrid is not a big fan of us...

1. Justin's credit card got nommed by an ATM 5 minutes after getting off the plane.

2. Turns out there's a massive party of some sort in Madrid this weekend? All of the hostels were completely booked until Monday...so we're in a hotel 30 minutes outside of Madrid that we rode a bus and then walked about a mile and a half to get to.

3. Justin's credit card company thinks he's trying to fraud them.

4. Justin broke the guest bed.

Thus ends Day 1 of our 5 week holiday.

Kyle: "You know what would make this even better?? If we didn't sleep tonight!!"

New blog post=avoiding writing a paper

HELLO! I am alive and writing a blog post! This is due to the fact that I should be writing a paper for my Neurobiology supervision and have exhausted all other means of procrastination. However, I haven't really developed the art of blog writing, so instead I think I'm just going to end up writing some short little posts about whatever. I'm pretty lazy even when I'm procrastinating, so instead of me writing ten pages about what I've done thus far, here's a list of things that you should know about England and life in general:

1) They don't have water fountains. You can fill up your water bottle in the sinks...maybe.

2) If they offer cream on the side of a dessert, TAKE IT.

3) The Sainsbury's brand Fruit & Fibre is the cheapest (read: best) cereal in existence.

4) NUTELLA

5) Thus far all of my statements have involved food (slash drink).

6) Textbooks are cheaper! I bought one that I can use for next year as well...

7) Walk on the side of the pole that is not close to the street...

8) Badminton can get INTENSE.

9) For some supervisors, putting in facts from a textbook is getting "a little bit too detailed."

Well, now I've started to feel bad about not working on my paper for a bit, so I'll be back to add more!

IN ENGLAND

Alright, so I'm in England and have had lots of fun! This is just a blog post to let you all know that I'm here and still remember that I do have a blog. I will post an actual post, however, once we have regular internet and I have the determination to write one...as it is we have to walk to the computer lab in another building and by the time I'm there all I really want to do is check my stuff really quickly...but. a post! soon!

Leaving tomorrow!

I'm leaving tomorrow, but I still need to pack!

Less than a week!

Hello friends!

Less than a week before I leave for England! I finally got my visa yesterday, so woo hoo to that. I still have a lot of stuff that I have to do before then, but I'm kind of excited for the preparation stuff.

In this next week I need to (more for my use than anything):

• Finish up research at Jewell
• Visit grandma and grandpa
• Go to the bank to convert some dollars into pounds!
• Get an address book/addresses
• Buy a sketchbook (for an illustrating journal)

I'll probably add more to this list as the week progresses...

Also, I'm honestly not very good at this blogging thing, so don't get too mad at me if my posts aren't all that exciting! They'll probably just include what we've been doing and maybe a few pictures...which is I guess all anybody wants to hear anyway, so that's good! Maybe I'll even scan a few pages of my drawing journal if I get the opportunity.

Preparation

I'm in the process of preparing for my year abroad. My plane leaves on September 28th! Now I'm just waiting to get my visa letter from Cambridge so that I can actually APPLY for my visa...