Well, Hello there Leicester!

It's been over a week since I've done any sort of blog post and this weekend was amazing so I have a few things to fill you in on...

Leicester

This weekend my flatmate, Hannah, invited me, Lucy, and Jess (the flat, minus Rebecca who goes home on the weekend for Football (English version of course)) to come home with her to Leicester. (Just and FYI, you pronounce this "Less-ter" if you're American or "Less-tuh" if you have a posh English accent. But no worries if you didn't do it right the first time, because when I first was unsuccessfully googling "Lester, UK" and found out its really spelled Leicester, I thought it was promounces "Like-ess-ter." Then I just sounded dumb. Hannah soon set me straight!) Anyways, it's about 2.5 hours southeast of Preston and is located in the "Midlands" aka the middle of England. We left at about 6, even though we aimed for 5, on Friday. The ride was awesome. Jess, Lucy, and I jammed out with out "Roadtrip t'shire: 67 style" playlist.

Hannah's house was beautiful to say the least. It was built in the 1740's and I still can't get over the fact that her house is older than my country. Legit. It's got a key that's bigger than my whole hand, a doorbell system that actually uses a bell, but at the same time is very modernized.



This is Hannah's car. It's a Ford Mia
 Jeff make sure to tell Mia that there is a purple car waiting for her in England, named after her!

 Hannah's family was as sweet as they could be. When we first arrived, Hannah's "mum" was sitting in the lounge by the fire with her nan (grandma) and grandad (grandpa). They were having a glass of wine and after we got the full tour of their beautiful house, we got a chance to sit down and talk to all of them. Her grandparents were both in their late-eighties and were as witty as any couple I'd ever met. They live in a house that was built right next door to Hannah's so they're almost always around. Hannah's mum was a very sweet, but strong and independent woman.  Everyone was so welcoming that I honestly felt like I was really at home throughout the whole weekend. I was lucky enough on Sunday morning to be up before everyone else and got to have conversations with both her mum as well as nan and grandad for a few hours. They told me all about golfing and Africa, where they lived for many years, as well getting a card signed by her majesty, the queen, herself for their 62nd (!!!!!!!!!!!!) wedding anniversary a few years ago. Looking back now, that was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend. Just being completely surrounded by lovely people who genuinely English. That's what I came here for.

Food - another one of my favorite parts of the weekend. When we first got there on Friday, we had Spaghetti Bolognese waiting for us. Prepared by Nan, with an assortment of Dutch secrets, it was by far the best spaghetti I've ever had. Seven bottles of wine, one loooong conversation with all of us and her mum, and a white-chocolate "pudding" (aka a cake with custard - YUM!) later, and it was time for bed. When we woke up in the morning, her mum prepared a Proper English breakfast. (How awesome right)

Sausages, Bacon, a poached egg, complete with Baked Beans (yes, everyyyyyone does that here)



 The next day for breakfast, we had Bacon Butties. Basically this was buttered toast with cooked bacon. Some people added ketchup or HP Sauce (a new love that I have, but basically its a little bit different than barbeque sauce). Also, hot-cross buns .. not just a song. They're really yummy and have raisins in them. Sunday, Hannah's mum made us this big dinner to have before we went back. The first course was a salad as far as I can guess. It had lettuce greens on the bottom and then a pastry shell filled with goat cheese and topped with carmelized onions. Basically you put caesar dressing on it and it was really yummy! Then the main course was a stuffed pork wrapped in bacon with roasted potatoes. What a way to end the weekend.

Going Out

 On Saturday during the day the group of us and Hannah's boyfriend Sven went to Leicester to go the the shopping center. We just walked around in the mall, messed around on the Mac's in John Lewis (a department store) and looked around outside around the different shops. We went to a French Cafe for lunch. We had the absolute pleasure of listening to some sort of religious middle-eastern group singing about Allah-knows'what in the middle of the square in verrrrrry interesting non-english voices. I still wonder weather or not they could hear whatever they were saying/"singing." Oh well.

We got back to Cropston and decided to meet up with all of Hannah's friends to get a taxi and head back to Leicester. They were a really fun group of people and we had a really great time out on the town.

Ratcliffe College - aka Hogwarts. Literally. They do school a lot differently here. College is kind of like High School/Junior High Back home. Both Hannah and her boyfriend Sven, as well as almost all of the people we went out with on Saturday went to school here. It was absolutely beautiful.

The Square

Yes, they are put into houses. And havea  housecup. Apparently J.K. Rowlings didn't just make this up...

A Headmaster. Literally, a Headmaster. With a door that says Headmaster on it.

Our real purpose for going to the school was actually so Hannah could play Netball in the Alumni game. It's basically basketball with a hoop without a backboard. They can't dribble or move without the ball and have to stay within their assigned third of the court. Quite interesting actually.

Harry Potter - Obviously, since I've gotten to England my obsession with Harry Potter has increased. Okay, exploded. Everything I see or hear reminds me of something that I've seen in the movies. Maybe it's because of the accents or the location, but it's so much more realistic if you're living it. Within int eh past two weeks, I've read both the first and about 3/4 of the second book. It's my goal to finish them all. Hannah, my flatmate, is also obsessed with Harry Potter so she hasn't been helping the matter of blowing off school works to read. Oh, well.

Walmart - I had my first "grade" on Friday before I left. Their grading is done a lot differently here in that it's based on one or two papers of presentations. And that's it. It puts a lot more emphasis on doing well on those things as opposed to participation or blow-off work like we have in America. Anways, another American and I presented in our sociology class about the effects of Walmart on American society and how that can lead to a poor perception in the eyes of the people around the world. It was actually very interesting, though I am a little biased. But everyone loved it, I think... We gave our 15 minute presentation and then got about 30 minutes of questions afterwards. They were really curious about the fact that Walmart sells guns. Kind of obsessed with that fact actually. They also couldn't believe that the economy of Walmart ranks 19th in the world, just above the economy of Sweden. Fact.I'll know on Friday how we actually did on the report, but I felt pretty good about it.

Vocab - another lesson on the Engish version of English

Pudding - any type of dessert
Borble - round ornament
Motorway - highway/interstate
Dual-Carraigeway - Two lane road going both directions
Fortnight - two weeks
Bear - Hannah's boyfriend
Auger - old-fashioned stove-top/oven
Legend - a really awesome person -- I'm called this quite frequently =]
Sky - TV service provider, like Insight or Comcast

Beautiful England - some other random pictures that I took throughout the weekend

 Another successful and wonderful weekend. A lot of fun time. A lot of fun memories. Most of which I will never forget. I love the girls that I'm staying with and am already worried about having to leave them. Good thing I still have two more months. I can only imagine what the fiuture holds!