I'm Off!

Sorry I haven't posted all week, I've been preparing for my Easter break trip!  We have two weeks off, and during that time I'm meeting up with Helen and her friends who are all studying in Madrid.  We are travelling to:

- Vienna
- Prague
- Budapest

And then I'll spend a week in Madrid with Helen!


This is my first big trip by myself, so it's going to be an adventure. I've printed out little pocket-sized packets of useful phrases in German, Czechian, Hungarian, and Spanish, although hopefully I won't need the Spanish one (hah!).  We'll be staying in hostels, and living on a strict, strict budget.  Luckily Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Austria are all a cheaper than Western standards, so it should be manageable.  They'll definitely be way cheaper than the UK!  Though that's not too hard.

Needless to say, I am SO excited for this. It's going to be a great two weeks filled with beautiful cities, interesting history (taking a class on communism this semester was a good idea), fun nightlife, good times with Helen and her friends, seeing some Eastern European culture, and more!

Picnics Galore

Yesterday was a whopping 12°C, or 52°F for you Americans, so Ariana and I headed to Hyde Park (the one in Leeds, not London- I wish).  We had a great afternoon soaking up the sun, reading, napping, and people watching.  Flocking to the park in warm weather is such a city thing, I love it.  People were having picnics, playing football and tennis, and definitely day drinking.  We are in England after all!

Note the guy with his laptop... in the park

 

Last week me, Annik, and Sophie had our own picnic, but the weather was nowhere near as nice as it was yesterday. However, the food and company were superb!

Outrageous

Before I left the US, I tried to fill a prescription for the entire 5 months I was going to be abroad.  Well, the insurance company would not cover more than 3 months at a time, so I was going to have to get the medicine without insurance.  They were going to charge me close to $100 for a single month.  Naturally I declined. 

I get to the UK and while I was at the doctor's, I asked them to write me a new prescription for the same thing and I was just going to have my international insurance reimburse me for it.  Well, when I got it filled at the pharmacy here, it was FOUR POUNDS.  For three months. 

US: $100 per month without insurance 

UK: $2.50 per month without insurance

(I am not covered by England's health care system at all, normally this would be free for citizens) 

This is just one of the many things that I would like to follow me back to the US.  

Summer Camp and Manchester

A few months ago, I bought tickets to see one of my favorite bands, Summer Camp, in concert.  The concert was in Manchester this weekend and it was awesome!  Unfortunately, the concert coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, and most of my friends were in Dublin for the celebrations.  So I was faced with going down by myself (which would have been fine, just a bit boring), but my friend Max from Australia took pity on me and came down.  The bus to Manchester is only like an hour so we got in on Friday around 17:30 (<< Brit english!) , and had a few hours to kill before the concert.  We got dinner and drinks and hung out until concert time!  The concert was in a tiny little café so it was really cosy (<< More British!) .  The first band was okay, I can’t even remember their name, but Summer Camp was amazing! They put on such a good live show.  Also, hipster shows are the same wherever you are, but British ones just have way more beer.

After a sleepless night in the hostel (seriously, Russians.. if it’s 4 am please whisper), we had a hostel-type breakfast of toast and more toast, and headed out to explore Manchester for the day.  Manchester reminded me a lot of Boston.  It’s much prettier than Leeds and is a bit of a bigger city.  We saw all of the main sights like the Town Hall and churches.  Manchester is home to the oldest bar in England (I think?) and they tried to tear it down one time, but the town got angry, so they moved its location twice.  The English do love their pubs!  We had a big lunch at an Italian restaurant, and then went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Then it was time for the bus back on Saturday.  It was nice to see another city, but we were tired at the end of it from all of the walking. 

The grey sky makes pictures so difficult

 

Since it was St. Paddy’s day, so I ignored my aching feet and we went to a surprise party for another international student here.  It was fun to see the town celebrating!  I also learnt that our three biggest American traditions, pinching for not wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage, and green beer, are simply American.  Why do we make up this stuff? Silly Americans.  

The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction

On our trip to the Lake District, Alice and I visited the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction.  It was so cute and so well done.  Basically there were a bunch of little recreations of stories inside, and then outside was “her” garden.  They figured out which plants were in her stories using the plant’s history and her location and whatnot, resulting in a gorgeous little garden.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and relive our childhoods.

Oh hello!

The Lake District

I had such a good weekend!  Friday night the girls came over for taco night, round 3.  We bought way too much food for the first night, so we keep having more taco nights to get rid of it.  I’m not complaining!  Then we went out on the town.  Leeds clubbing is a lot of fun, and I find it hilarious that regardless of what club we’re in, I hear “Get Low”, “Hot in Herre” and the Fresh Prince theme song each time we’re out. Also “Gold Digger”, they love that one.  

  

Annik's photo, stolen from facebook

Then on Sunday we went to the Lake District!  The Lake District contains the highest peaks, deepest valleys, and the longest lakes in England, according to my guidebook.  It’s a beautiful area focused on agriculture, fishing, and tourism.  We saw Windermere, the main lake.  We left Leeds early and bussed to the district.  On the way we stopped at a family-run farm shop that was perfect.  They had a ton of locally produced cheese, vegetables, and more.  Annik and I stocked up on cheese, crackers, sausage, and some local chutney for our picnic.  And chocolate.  And carrots. 

We hopped on the bus and arrived at Windermere.  We hiked up a mountain hill and enjoyed the SUN and beautiful scenery while munching on our goodies.  Seriously, the views were amazing.

Hi puppy!

Next up was Bowness-on-Windermere.  It’s a cute little town on the banks of the river, hence the name.  The town is also home to Beatrix Potter!  Alice and I relived some childhood memories in the World of Beatrix Potter exhibit.  After playing around with Peter Rabbit for a bit, we met up with everyone else and went on a boat ride!  We went up the lake and soaked up more sun and scenery. 

Don't let their coats fool you, I was down to my short sleeves.  It was warm!

After the boat ride it was time to head back to Leeds.  I had such a great time with Annik, Sophie, and Alice (my flatmate).  The food for the day was fantastic, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the tour was a lot of fun.  I would have liked to do more hiking, but the rest of the group was not feeling it.  Honestly, who wears a dress when you know we’re climbing a mountain?  Also, it would have been fun to rent a little canoe and explore the lake, but at £18 for a boat plus £6 a person, it was definitely a tourist trap.  And since the name of the tour is called “Don’t be a Tourist”, then that would not have worked with the theme. 

Life Lately

This week two of my five classes were cancelled.  Which means that I had Tuesday and Wednesday completely free in addition to my rather empty schedule (not complaining).  In an effort to not spend a lot of money (shopping, going out to eat), I've been spending time in the flat.  This has led to a lot of deep cleaning with the adorable vacuum cleaner, or hoover as they say here, and small decorating.  First up, some cute flowers I picked up for 75p since they were leftovers.  I love having these in my room!  They smell great and make me smile.  Then I made a heart garland with the paper the flowers came in.  While I enjoy these, clearly I need to get out of the flat.  

Yes, that's my vacuum cleaner

This afternoon my flatmate Petteri and I went to the Leeds Art Gallery.  Well no one told us we couldn't take pictures inside (and there were NO signs), so we wandered and took pictures until we were rudely told pictures were not allowed at all.  Oh well!  I got a few, so that's what matters.  The museum was nice, but pretty small.  There was an exhibit by Gary Hume, who is one of England's most established modern artists.  His work was pretty interesting, as well as the surrealist room.

There is a circus in town that I want to try to go to, but we'll see how it works out.  I'm slightly afraid of circuses after Phantom of the Opera and Water for Elephants.  Also, with this whole blogging thing, I'm running out of things to talk about!  Anything you guys want to hear about?  Feedback?  Let me know!

Scenes from the Weekend

This weekend was filled with quite moments and then a large chunk of socializing.  On Friday, Annik, Sophie, and I went down to the river to explore.  We found a really nice pub and spent the afternoon talking, eating nachos, and sipping beer.   The salsa was more like ketchup, but the Blue Moon was nice!

On Saturday I met up with Sophie and we walked around the city centre, and then prepared for our afternoon.  The sun was out for a bit, making the rain-soaked streets quite nice.  I got to send some snail mail and obsess over the spring flowers here. 

Later in the day we met up with a bunch of the internationals who organized a pub crawl, or the Otley Run.  It's a Leeds tradition and even has its own wikipedia page, here.  Basically, we dress up in costumes and go to 20ish pubs.  You're supposed to get a drink at each one, however girls get half pints.  I didn't participate as fully as some did, but we had a good time! Our theme was "funky afro".  I ditched mine fairly quickly.  

This is the only picture I have of us in our afros and it's blurry :(

Today was spent watching a ton of Parks and Recreation and laundry.  I'm in the process of booking everything in Manchester for the Summer Camp concert (yay!) and booking flights for spring break (YAY!).  It's going to be a fun couple of weeks.  

Tapas

Last night I went with a few girls to a spanish tapas restaurant.  One found an amazing deal online, so we took advantage of it.  £10 was still a lot, but for the amount of food we got, it was great. The restaurant itself was really fun and well decorated.  It's nice to be at an actual restaurant instead of a seedy fish and chips place!  Sophie and I ordered the sangria, yum.  

Then the food arrived.  This picture shows like 4 of my 6 dishes.  They were:

- Albóndigas (meatballs)

- Croquetas de Pollo (chicken nugget type balls that were my absolute favorite)

- Tortilla Española (Spanish omelette)

- Paella del Día (Chicken and prawn paella)

- Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes)

- Spanish ciabatta garlic bread

Pretty presentation!

Aftermath

The walk home was refreshing, and it's starting to get a bit warmer, so I enjoyed it.  Leeds is so pretty at night.  

Today has been a quite pleasant one so far.  I had class at 9, then did some school work.  Then I met up with a girl from Albuquerque who's at Leeds Uni this semester.  It was sunny and warm today, so I wore a bright yellow dress (Clara) to embrace it.  The English look so weird when it is sunny!  They still wear heavy black and grey, so I stood out like a bright beaming ray of sunshine ;)   We had yummy tea and sweets and just enjoyed being outside and talking about green chili.  Next up, group project (boo) and dinner with the flatmates!  

Miss you guys and want to hear from you!