Pancake Day .. Belated

 England. Is. Awesome. While the celebration before Lent is no Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday has new meaning. In England it's a sort of religious tradition to "clear out the cupboards of everything sweet that will be given up for Lent." So basically people used to make pancakes, put all the good stuff in them, roll them up and eat them. Well, this week has been a little crazy, so my flat decided to wait and celebrate at the end of the week. So tonight, we celebrated Pancake Day..

Some of the toppings included: Lemon and Sugar, strawberries and bananas, nutella, honey, and whipped cream

Cintemplating whether or not to roll it and eat it, or to be lame and use a fork

The pancakes were a lot thinner despite a really thick batter, but I'd say mine turned out pretty well.

Lucy was quite the "pancake flipper" and Hannah was very intrigued by her abilities

Apparently you're not supposed to "load it up"

Hannah's Face

Jess' actually rolled quite nicely

Showing off her skills

What a great invention of a holiday. America - take note, we will be implementing this into society verrrrry soon!

Advice

Well, it's 2:30 a.m. I'm exhausted, but can't sleep. I've tried all of the tricks, but nothing will work, so instead of being productive and doing homework and such, I thought I would write down some of the things I have been thinking about lately as sort of "advice" to future study-abroad-adventureers..

So here goes..

1. Always stay positive. No matter the situation, you are in an awesome new country. You've been given a grand opportunity that most people only dream about. Don't waste time dwelling on being mad or upset. Live it up.
2. Get creative. Tonight, on a whim I made macaroni and cheese. I'm no chef, but I do have to admit I did pretty well with the supplied I had.
3. Bring earplugs. Even if you've never used them or needed them at home, you're in a new environment where the sounds will sometimes drive you crazy. Whether it's birds at 2 a.m for whatever reason or crazy drunk people running around on a Tuesday night, you'll be thankful you have them.
4. Carry a water bottle with you. It will save you so much money when you're traveling or in class. It's a simple thing that you can take (and likely have to hide) in restaurants, or will save you $2-3 multiple times throughout your trip. It's a vice that you will come to appreciate.
5. Money isn't everything. Obviously it's important and no you shouldn't spend it all the first two days you're there. But we all know it comes and goes throughout life. Use it wisely, but take advantage of the opportunity you have in front of you.
6. Pack smart. Hair-dryers and straighteners are likely to blow if you're going somewhere where there is a higher voltage system (even if you brought a converter and adapter). Despite how much clothes you have at home or bring to school, you will want to buy a ton of stuff wherever you're going and won't need a lot of what you think you will before you pack. Take less than you think you will need, because unless you plan on going to Antarctica, they will have stores wherever you're going.
7. Step out of your comfort zone. This has been my hardest part. But even-though it may not seem like it, I really am trying. Even with the food, I've tried shrimp sandwiches and even curry! And believe it or not, I (barely) lived to tell about it.
8. Meet new people. It's not going to be hard since everyone will be new to you, but don't be afraid to strike up a conversation in a cafe. Odds are, they will be super nice and offer up tons of stories or advice on where to and where not to travel to within the area. If not, oh well, nothing gained nothing lost.
9. Go exploring by yourself. Obviously be smart and don't wonder around for hours on cold, rainy nights looking for churches, because that would be dumb ... But don't be afraid to leave everything you know to just walk around and get to know more about your area. You'll be forced to pay attention more so that you don't end up getting lost, hopefully.
10. Stay on top of your school work. Afterall that is "the reason you're there" ...
11. Things change. At home. Abroad. Everything always changes and time goes on. You have to be ready for life to continue without you. Whether good, bad, or really ugly, that's what happens. Don't let it ruin your time away, but just be aware that you can't be in two places at once and people do move on.
12. Above all, enjoy yourself and take advantage of every little thing. You will learn more about the world, other cultures, as well as yourself. This will be a learning opportunity unlike anything you've ever done before.

That's all I have for now, I'm sure there will be more to come, but seing as how I have class in a mere 6 hours, I think I'm going to try and go to bed. Again.

Liverpoooooool

Kind of on a whim, a group of international students decided to organize a random trip to Liverpool. Look at me, being spontaneous! It was kind of fun though, I really didn't know many of the people that I went with, and ended up learning a lot about different people and cultures. Though, when we started the day, it wasn't looking too promising since the rain was coming down so hard that it was flipping everyones umbrellas; but we trudged on over to the train station!

After a bit of confusion, since the direct route from Preston to Liverpool was being worked on, we (okay really the lady working told us what to do, I can't really take credit for this) figured out another route.

The beginning of the City Centre in Liverpool. (Mal -- I thought you would enjoy this, It's our favorite play ;-] !)

Cute little cafe with all kinds of good looking "sweets"

McDonalds. Everyone was totally judging me for taking this picture, but I felt it necessary to keep those of you at home avidly reading my blog (okay, not really..) up to date on EVERY SINGLE THING that's different here. McDonalds apparently serves muffins and donuts for breakfast? Who knew? Also, look at the McFlurry flavors, I asked for an M&M one the other day and the guy looked at me like I had seven heads, now I know why.. 

These are the "YellowDuckMarines"

Conveniently located right by the Beatles .. clever.

I SWEAR THIS IS A LEGITIMATE SIGN. I don't have a clue what it means, obviously there are no zebras in the area and there weren't even speed bumps here, but this sign was on both sides of this pole. I asked Lucy, my flatmate, she lives in Leeds and had never heard of it before.. Interesting..

Yay Study Abroad Pose!

Part of the group, the ones who had never been to the Beatles Story before.
Chris (Missouri) Marissa (Colombia) Me (nowhere near as exciting) Abdul (Pakistan) Stevie (New York) and Heidi (Finland)

This literally made me so mad that I had to complain. They listed the places that the Beatles toured to and it said BUNCH Stadium in St. Louis! I knew you would all be proud...

After we came out of the Beatles Museum, it was SUNNNY!!

Even the alleyways are adorable..

Apparently it's required to have 40 million cops surrounding a non-violent religious protest

So we climbed statues to find out what was going on, eventually finding out nothing .. boo

I was so excited for the "Pink" store, until I realized that we were wandering through the Gay part of Liverpool.
It was, enlightening

The World Museum

47 streets that we had to cross to get to the World Museum which had NO crosswalks anywhere in sight.
Don't worry, we all survived

Photo Op!

Representin' BU!

Chris, my giant friend from Germany

Two things 1. Chris from Missouri (yes, I run around with three different Chris', this is real life) decided to nap in the place where we were going to meet later. and 2. This little boy was adorable, we played with his new dinosaur together. Little kids with British accents literally completes my life.

Gotta have it =]

The classic antiquey-architecture of Liverpool, with the 20th century building, and then Great Western Railway, some sort of port store in the front of it all.
Pretty much sums up everything about Liverpool

The Ocean <3
Reminded me a lot of Pier 39 in San Francisco

Not as glamorous as I was anticipating..

This poor bird was fighting gale-force winds. He would get like a foot forward, and then be thrown back. Quite entertaining.

Marissa and I

This is where the Titanic exhibit was, you know, since Titanic SAILED FROM LIVERPOOL!
How cool right??

The best part of the movie takes place here. (But this is the original model used to build the ships)

Oscar, from Mexico, and I in front of the "Pirate-looking Ship"

I love England

HALEY I FINALLY FOUND FAKE QDOBA! (aka BarBurrito)
Eventhough Oscar (^) refused to eat it because it was "so fake" it literally was the best £5 I've spent the whole time! YUM!

Our travel group at the McDonalds that we used as our main meeting point for the day.

Liverpool was a ton of fun and a very enlightening experience. The accents were soooo much thinker in Liverpool, so that was definitely an experience... Trying to get back to Preston was also a  pretty difficult part of the day because of the train situation, and of course we were sent on a completely different route which was "faster" but made us walk from one station to another through a town that nobody had ever heard of before. Thankfully, we eventually found it and made our train, it was only a little dark and creepy .. thank goodness for big groups!

Cheers!

Day Trip to York

I have to be honest, the only "historical" thing that I knew about York when I went on this trip was the New York was named after it. But literally, that's it. And while I still couldn't tell you a whole lot, it was kind of cool to see so much history in one place at one time.

England is just beautiful. These next couple pictures are from the ride to York. It snowed last week (everywhere throughout England, except for Preston. Literally, even in the South!) so it was even more of a gorgeous two-hour ride.

This is the beginning of York. To the left the little tower-thing is the wall that has been up since the Romans invaded the city.



Diagon Alley anyone???



Some sort of memorial to York Minster.





£8 to get in the door??? At a church? Seriously??

This is right in the middle as you walk in and is the pipes for the organ

It's hard to tell here, but the stained glass is in little squares that are all different bible stories and verses.
I thought that was pretty cool.

This is where I wish I knew more about English history. They had all kinds of "really important" people buried along the walls of the cathedrals, but I had never heard of any of them .. whoops!

It's a dresser. And it ws huuuge! You can kind of see in the background, but that was the crypt.

 I was kind of sad that you couldn't take pictures in the crypt, because that's where all of the cool stuff was. They had all kinds of chalices from like the 1600's and different rosaries used by different saints. Saints were buried down there. And I do have to admit, as creepy as it is, the coolest part was this thing called "Doomstone."  They found it in a park in York and it was originally from the 1100's and was said to be the mouth into hell. Creepy, but cool, right??

The next two pictures (including this one ^) are where all of the important (rich and clergy) people sit during mass

Reserved for Cleveland.
(Rose and Mike -- I'm pretty sure they didn't mean a priest or bishop, I'm positive they meant you guys..)

This is the view from the very back (and is where the public sits during mass, the seats aren't cushioned and you don't get missal books. Nice.) You can see the organ pipes in the middle and just beyond that is where the altar is.

 Next, we went to the Railway Museum where it was Wizardinng Week. So, basically every child under about 10 was dressed to the nines in Harry Potter apparel and was on a leash (literally).

This was adorable, Dumbledore and Lucius "levitated" this little guy for his picture

You know, just chillin' with Dumbledore..

And the Hogwarts Express..

Wannabees..

Off to the Town Centre

Lunch consisted of a Prawn (big shrimp) Cucumber, spinach and some sort of sauce-sandwich. And it was good too!

Random mini-castle in the middle of the city .. Apparently it had a really good view of the city, but was £4 to get in.. So we climbed all of those stairs (which made me feel like I was right back at home at Bellarmine) to look at the outside of the mini castle.

Vikings. In the middle of the city. Apparently they had something to do with the history here..

Just fighting with vikings..

The group we ran around with from the day. The two on the left are from Nigeria, three girls in the middle are from America (obviously), Chris is from Germany, Brianna is from New York, and the guy on the right is from Saudi Arabia

The York Dungeons

Basically this is where I learned most of the history of the city. It was kind of like a Haunted House where they took you around into different rooms and told stories about different kinds of torture and stuff (appealing, right?) But one of the rooms we were in, for whatever reason I was in the corner, next to a door that I didn't know was there .. and then when the next tour-guide guy threw it open, he basically scared the living daylights out of me and somehow I ended up on the floor while the rest of the group was laughing hysterically. It was awesome (Yes, sarcasm, it hasn't left, don't worry)

Then we finished the day at this Starbucks. Kind of a fancy little thing..

The day was a lot of fun. We were there for about 7 hours and despite knowing absolutely nothing about York, I think we did and saw a lot. Not a whole lot else to update you all on, but I'll keep you posted if I do think of anything!

Cheers,

      Katie