American Food, Scary Caves, && Robin Hood!?

This past weekend, Elizabeth, Leah and I went to Nottingham! It's only about a half-hour away, an hour by train [there's a bunch of little stops].. but we wanted to stay the whole weekend because there's tons of stuff to do!

Friday we got there around 4. We met a girl, who's dad was a taxi driver and was coming to pick her up. When he got there, he offered us a ride in his taxi to our hotel... then he gave it to us for free. :) Our hotel was ok.. just another normal British hotel. A bit small.. with the funny showers. Lol. But whatever! After that we walked to the city center, which was like 3 blocks away.. and we found T.G.I. Friday's!! We went there for dinner and I got STEAK!!! MmmmmmMMM!! It was soo good! And it tasted like real steak! :) After that we walked around a little bit, and finally decided we wanted to go see a movie! We saw "Knocked Up"... funny but a little inappropriate. At home it's rated R, but here you only have to be 15 to see it. Someone told us that in England it's no big deal to hear cuss words or see nudity, but they don't let children see violent movies... a bit odd.. ? After the movie we were a bit wore out so we went to the hotel, and hit the sack!

Saturday, we got up and went to the market. They didn't really have any breakfast so we wernt to McDonald's. After that we wanted to go to the castle. We were told it was like $6.. welll!!! They were having a festival there so it was free!!* We love free stuff! We got to see Robin Hood items, and what the castle looked like back in time and etc. There's caves underneath the castle, and we went in those! It was soo cold down there!, and bit scary @ the same time. But it was still really cool! We hung out at the festival all day.. We saw a group of kids doing a photo shoot and doing back-flips and cool flips off the wall and statues. It was really crazzzy! After the festival, we went a took a quick nap. We were a bit tired from being in the sun all day! We went to Hooters that night for dinner. It's the only Hooters in all of the United Kingdom, so we had to go there! It was quite funny, because we were the only girls in the restraunt besides the waitresses. Finally, after like 20 minutes, a lady came in with her family. But they had two bachelor parties, and a birthday party while we were there. And all the boys looked at us funny. I bought a t-shirt for myself and my daddy. They're quite cute! And now we can match!! :)

Sunday, was our lazy day. We slept in, and then went out for lunch.. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed off to the train station. We wanted to catch a early train, to get back and do homework.

This week hasn't been to interesting. It's a short week this week, tomorrow [Wednesday] is our last day of classes.. and then I'm off to Ireland for the weekend! :) [[Auntie -->watch for the next post!! :)]]

Classes are going ok. Nothing to hard yet.. but the semester seems to be flying by! Before I know it, Brad and Barb will be here, and then it's almost time to come home! Crazy how it's flying by!

Off to study now! More on Monday or Tuesday probably!

Pictures down below are from this weekend in Nottingham!

XoXo,

Tiffany

Busy.. Busy.. Busy..

This week has been non-stop busy-ness. Between papers and presentations, homework has been my priority this week. Gggrr! But don't worry, I do live in England.. and there's always time for fun! Thiss week has been a bit stressful, with my computer not working. But don't worry, it's fixed now!! Woo hoo!

Tuesday night was karaoke night. We convinced Derek to dress as a girl and sing "Man, I feel like a women". It was soo funny! Leah, Elizabeth and I sang "That Don't Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain, and then the Spice Girls "If You Wanna" with a bunch of other girls. It was soo much fun! But ooohhh so hott in there!

Wednesday night was Michael Jackson night @ Que Pasa! With an impersonator and everything! Me and the girls were sooo there! Derek came with us too! He had to "protect" us. Our cab driver was crazy.. She was playing "We're the kids of America.." when we got in the cab.. and then started it over again when we got in there. WEEEiiiiRRRddd! Que Pasa was pretty fun! We hung out and danced!! And some black guy tried to hit on me.. Awkward!!

[[the pictures are of Michael Jackson!]]

Tonight, I went to Paul and Sue's for dinner. Paul is awesome! He seems like a really cool guy. And Nathaniel and Sue were nice, again! :) Little Alice was very cute! But little kids normally are. Hailey and I are going to school with Paul one day soon, he teaches older children so i'm excited to see what the difference is. Then we're planning on going to Sue's school too, and she teaches younger children. Verrry excited for that! Yay! We had chicken enchiladas for dinner! They were sooo good! Delicious! I'll put up some picutres of them hopefully next time. I left my camera back @ the manor tonight. :(

Classes are going good so far! I'm loving my women studies class! It's awesome! It's amazing to read about different things women have gone through.. and women in different countries. It's very exciting! Science is still pretty boring.. but nothing horrible. I don't dread going to it or anything. British Studies.. welll.. it's british studies. It's quite funny when they talk about the French though. [[They hate the French.]] Lol.

Me and the girls are going to Nottingham for the weekend! It's only like an hour away but we wanted to get away from the manor for a weekend. And there's tons of stuff to do there.. Like go to Hoooters! I'll post pictures and our adventures when we get back.

Miss you all!

XoXo,

Tiffany

The pictures below are just randoms!

Heather, Laura, And I ******** Leah and I****** Jimmy & I ********Me & Leah**** Elizabeth & I**** Derek & I

Wanna Joust?

Hello!

Friday night the girls and I had another movie night! Elizabeth and I have both been sick the past couple days and we didn't feel like going out anywhere. Earlier that day, the three of us went shopping for a little bit, and then just hung out the rest of the night.

Saturday, we got up bright and early! We were headed to Lincoln for the jousting tournament! Our train left @ 8:05 a.m. and we were getting our taxi for 7:30 since we had never been to the train station. The train station was.. interesting. Some British man yelled @ me and Leah. We were ordering some hot chocalte, and he was a bit impatient because his train was coming. Well, he was like, "Oh come on now! Why couldn't you guys have ordered together? Seriously!".. Well it was very early and I wasn't in the mood.. so I coped an attitude and sarcastically back "sorry.." and gave him a look like I really didn't care. After all, it was my fault he didn't get there earlier. Lol. But that was really the only bad thing that happenend.. And it wasn't even bad. Just made me laugh. The train was interesting! I've never been on a train before! Quite fast! It took about an hour to get to Lincoln. We had to walk a huuuuge hill to get to the Castle where the jousting was located. Well, come to find out the tournament didn't even start until 2:00 p.m. and we thought it started @ 9:30 a.m. Haha. So we got there a weee bit early. We walked around the castle a little bit, and went to the sections we didn't get to go to while we were there with school. Then we went a layed in the grass and took a nap. :) It was quite nice. After that the jousting started!! There was the Sir Richard, the Knight from Lincoln [the local "hero"].. Sir Fredric [he was the "drunk" knight.. and my favorite!!]... Sir Philip of Normandy ["The French Man"].. and then of course the Black Knight!... Sir Richard of Lincoln won! Lol. Go figure right? But it was still awesome to watch! I loved it!

After that me and the girls went to a pub for dinner, and then got back on the train and headed back to school! I went to bed.. exhausted from my day.. Lol.

Today, I didn't do much. It was a lazy day!!

More soon! Miss you all!

*Tiffany

*Meet-My-Family*

Last night was meet-a-family night! I don't have any pictures with my family, the whole family wasn't there. But I'll put up picutres of them soon!

My meet-a-family is Paul and Sue Hiorns, their son Nathaniel, and daughter, Alice. [[Paul and Alice weren't at the dinner]] Nathaniel is 10, almost 11. And Alice is 4. Paul and Sue are both teachers. Paul teachs older children, like our high school, and Sue teaches 6-7 yr. old. I believe Nathaniel said he was in year 5 or 6.. And Alice just started school last week! They were very nice from what it seemed like. They've been doing it for 10 years.. off-and-on between having children. Sue said we can come over anytime and we might go see some plays or go to the pool with them. Nathaniel said there's a huge slide that we have to go on! Lol. It's going to be very exciting having a "little brother".. never had one before. And Alice is 4! Sue said that she likes ballet! Yay! :) A girl from Evansville, Hailey, and I share the family. One night before we leave, we're going to cook dinner for them.. something very American. [[any ideas then let us know!]] We're going over there next Thursday to meet Paul and Alice. I'll try to get some pictures then.. The picture below is Hailey and I before Sue and Nathaniel got there!

This is me, Leah and Elizabeth! And Derek and I.

*Just an update!

Hello! Just wanted to drop a quick update for you guys here! I received the piece of paper with my meet-a-family's name on it. But we don't meet them until this Wednesday. I'm very excited for that! One of the girls, Hailey, who lives down the hall, has the same family. That's kind of exciting! But I'm very excited about that!

This week hasn't been to much excitement. Friday we had a field trip to Lincoln. We went to the Lincoln Cathedral and to the Lincoln castle. It was beautiful. The castle was once used as a prison, and about 38 people were hanged where we were standing.. quite awkward! Also, in the cathedral they buried important people inside the church. I felt very bad stepping on their graves! Hopefully, they don't get too mad @ me.. ;)

Friday night, us girls had a movie night. We watched about three movies, and ordered pizza. It was so much fun! :)

On Saturday, Leah, Elizabeth and I went shopping! I bought a couple books! Yay! And I bought a really cute like dress/shirt thing. I bought some leggings so I could wear it as a dress. I've never worn leggings before [[except when I was younger.. just ask my mom :)]], so it was a bit weird them @ first. Then after that we went to a pub for a little bit, just hung out and talked to some British boys. It was so funny, they kept telling us they liked our accents. And we talked about sports.. and where the cool places were to go here. They were really nice

guys..

Today, did nothing really except homework. Have to remember that I'm here for school too! (Right, dad?)

XoXo,

Tiffany

*Ceilidh and London

Hello! This post is going to be fairly long since i haven't written on here in awhile. First off, we started classes last Monday. And I LOVE my classes! Especially my Women's Studies class.. Environmental Science and British Studies are both fairly interesting. And my teachers all seem really nice and helpful. Thank goodness! The only not so fun part is I have to wake up for 830 am classes each day.. But i'm done by Noon so we can deal with it! :)

The picture is me on the stairs in one of the secret passageways. Very dirrty!! And lots of spiders!! -->YUCK!!<--

I went back into town last week and walked around with Elizabeth and Hailey [[Elizabeth's roomate]]. We went to the McDonald's! It was rather funny. They had donuts, covered with cadbury choc., and they had carrot sticks as well. The chicken nuggets tasted a bit different, but it was a lot better then some of the food I eat @ school! So it was a nice little treat.. We also went to Claire's that day. I saw buttons all over the place saying comments such as "Caution Hen Party" and "Hen Party On Patrol". I wanted to know what it meant, so I asked the cashier. She said, "The Bride-to-be wears it.. it's for her night." So it's a bachlerette party! I learned something new everyday! :) Next I went for a walk around the little village right next to Harlaxton. I got a bit lost... I tried to go to the church but somehow ended up in the back by the cemetery. I found some horses on the way.. however they were not nice horses at all! I did however find a jeep! An American jeep with military stickers from Cherry Point! I used to live there, so I'm tempted to go knock on the door and be nosey. Lol.

The pictures with the dog and the little green man are pictures from my little walk. The little green man is the thing that flashes when you walk across the street. And the dog picutre.. well i just liked that they call then leads. :)

On Thursday night, we had Ceilidh, which is Irish and Scotish dancing. It was quite fun! Very hot and fast, but still extremely fun. We learned tons of different dances and tons of people were there! So I got to dance with everyone! After that, just hung out with everyone.. Nothing too exciting! The picutres are of me dancing, and then me and Leah when we were taking a break.

Friday we went to London!! It was amazing! We wope up quite early.. Had to be on the buses @ 9 am. It was not fun! I slept on the bus ride to London, which after a half hour stop for lunch was like a 3 hour bus trip. So I got to catch up on some my sleep! We made it to London around 12:30 and then took a bus tour around the city before check-in time. The hotels here are ridiculous! Well.. the one we stay at was. All the beds were twin/single beds.. there was NO alarm clock, and NO pens either! There wasn't a Bible either.. which was weird. Ooohh! And we supposedly were supposed to get a continental breakfast, well let me tell you.. Continental doesn't mean continental like at home. Here it means cereal + bread. That's it! I was very dissapointed.. I eat more for breakfast @ school then I did @ the hotel. Sadness. Ok but back to my story.. We checked in and then Leah and I did our own walking tour of London. We walked basically the whole city! We walked to the British Musuem, the National Portrait Galley, Parliament, West Minster, the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, #10 Downing Lane (the Prime Minister lives here). We walked from one side of London, to the other side, and then back to our hotel. We didn't get lost once either! It was a bit confusing, the road names are on sides of buildings, so they're a bit hard to find. But once we found out what street we were on, we were awesome! The musuem was amazing! I could spend a whole day there if I had the time. West Minster was closed when we went, but I want to go inside there before I leave. The Prime Minister's house was pretty cool, there's police outside and a baracade so you can't walk by it. But it was still really cool.. Buckingham Palace was awesome! The guards weren't outside though so I couldn't tell them any jokes, they were on the inside fence. Made me sad.. but maybe next time! After that, Leah and I went out for dinner and headed for our rooms!

Saturday! We got up.. had our lame continental breakfast.. then Elizabeth, Leah, and I went to the London Zoo. I haven't been to a zoo in ages! And it was fun because my dad has been to the same zoo! The animals were pretty cool.. We did notice though that English people like to put vinagear on their french fries.. weiiird! After the zoo, and our legs killing us!, we decided to hop on the underground and head back to the hotel. We took ourselves a little nap. After that Leah and I met up with Derek, a boy from Harlaxton that we knew, and went to dinner with him. Dinner was hilarious! We went to McDonald's.. and we weren't sure if they gave free refillls or not. Derek asked and the lady looked at him like he was crazy. She had no clue what he was talking about! That was our hilarious moment of the night! We also went to Big Ben and Buckingham Palace at night to take night photos. After that, we went to a pub with him for a little bit, then we headed our seperate ways.

Sunday now! Again.. woke up to the lame continental breakfast. After that we headed out early. We spent the day at Hamptom Court Palace, where King Henry VIII lived. The palace was gorgeous! On the river next to the palace the town was having a duck race! It was really cool to see that.. we went and sat down there and watched the little rubber ducks float down the river. I guess the town reached some sort of record with all the ducks that they had. After that we headed back to school.. it was a long and tiring weekend so it was nice to be back "home" finally. On the way back it rained, the first rain since I've been here!

Nothing very exciting is happening here this week. On Friday we have a field trip for my British studies class, and tonight we found out who are meet-a-family was! We don't get to meet them until next week though. So I'm very excited about that!

Miss you all!

XoXo,

Tiffany