This weekend... was a little crazy. Warwick Castle was amazing. I spent the day with Jeff, Chuck and Bill, taking so many pictures of the castle where MONTY PYTHON was filmed. I couldn't tell you too much else about the castle because I spent most of the tour part of it talking to Julie and laughing because Bill Sheasgreen would not stop looking at us. I think he thinks we are huge toublemakers. But he always takes pictures of the two of us when we go on walks, so it can't be all bad.

Stratford then, to find the birth and death places of Mr. Shakespeare. Again, a fun time. Julie met up with her beloved Loz, this guy she met at Sussex Arms (suprise! haha) and 2 of his mates. We saw this crazy crazy production of Richard III which I loved... went out to the pub, and then Chuck and Bill got me and Kate to go to the Shell station near our Bed and Breakfast for some late night sandwiches and yazoo (yohoo... but in england! its still just as gross...). By the time we got to Oxford the next day I could care less about Harry Potter. One beer and I was out for the busride home.

London, though, has been pretty fabulous. Fierce, I think is the word. Between Tyra and Dave Lease there is always something to talk about. Tyra, by the way, is our super fierce stuffed tiger named after Ms. Bank of course.

And Peace News! Apparently Andrew Frizicanno worked for them last year, haha. Anyway they have given me a bike to use for the semester, you know, to save the environment... and I get organic lunches, and I've been published online! http://peacenews.info/news/article/403. yeah! haha. i am learning so much about nuclear power and arms trade... and all te other things nonviolent hippies care so much about. Ippy, the editor of the paper, is this crazzzzy woman. I mean, for this demo against trident, britains nuclear weapons system, she plans on bringing a 20 foot missle and 100 other people all dressed up cold war style. she sure was right when she said she was putting together somehting that was "a bit mad." anyway, its right near where we live, so im going to go if i can.

im in class right now and we are watching a West Ham football game. class is such a joke here. my first assignment is due the 27th... actually i have 2 due that day. anyway.. AMSTERDAM this weekend!!! chuck, brandy, artie, and my roomies: dave, emily and julie... can't fucking wait.

we have done so much i dont know where to start.

this weekend? amazing. especially the night we went to ish to watch the football game where julie talked me into taking shots. basically we brought jon and paul home (julies and daves older brittish friends) and i slept in julies bed. sounding familiar? cait rich would understand.

emily and i toured the tate modern museum yesterday. i saw a lot of london this weekend because we spent friday through sunday on walks with bill. this is all you need to know: the romans founded london, it was quite possibly their greatest achievement EVER and there are TWO cities, westminster and londonian. or something. also, two churches: st pauls and westminster abby. basically we took lots of pictures and fell IN LOVE with bill sheesgreen. yup.


drama in the flat: dave lease is the turd burgler. dave and his friend also walked in on julie and a man friend... not a good situation. THEN he told everyone about it the next morning. emily and i can't stand daves suitcases on the floor. and jeff is the baby. we are teaching him how to cook, clean, do laundry and sew this week. he is actually scared to go near the washing machine!! thats all for this week!

i love london. class!

we are FINALLY moved in to our beautiful flat. it is 022 park west, kendal street london, W2 2QG and something like florida vacation home meets atrocious college students. my favorite (or favourite as the brits spell) part is TYRA our live in stuffed (and very fierce) tiger. yes, named after THE tyra because we are living with the wonderful dave lease.

my flat mates are amazing. there is always someone to hang out with and we have also made fast friends with bill, chuck, brandi, evan and artie (yes dj artie k) who are only one tube stop away. life is so exciting and fast.

and filled of guiness and poached eggs. oh, and missing mike berlin. at least he's making a shrine of me.

julie and i have seen: camden market, kensington, south and high street kensington, victoria (funny story...), glouster road area, westminster, notting hill and other areas near there, selhurst (zone four! and uncle luis)and of course, marble arch and the beautiful hyde park. it has been the craziest week of my life.

we have been to so many pubs... julies already made out with three different guys (to my immense jealousy) and dave lease has seen some norway ball piercings and a few tatoos. not to mention they both kissed boys from norway! their first scandanavians. and there is no denying because we have the pictures.

ive had indonesion, lebanese, italian, british, and american food. i have bought 13 postcards and spent over 700 pounds. i feel like a lavish world traveller. so this week? turkey sandwichs and i am limiting my intake of pints.

my favorite night? we went to a sports cafe (huge) where they were playing the american football games. i drank over 8 pints of guiness between the hours of 4 and 2am. AND took the bus back by myself and did fine. not to mention we were nuts watching the games and life couldn't have been more fun.

okay time for my class.

LONDON!!!!

JULIE AND I ARE GOING TO LONDON!!!!
IT IS HERE!!!!!!

I HOPE THEY ARE READY FOR US...

so mike started a blog recently. everytime someone does it i want to too... but im torn. lj just seems like so much less work. i may do one for london though.

im almost done this week. i mean i still have a bunch of papers to write, but honestly, if i sit down and actually do it tomorrow i should be fine. i cant believe i am actually going to make it through.

oh the tickling, well i have bruises because my wonderful boyfriend thinks its funny to tickle people. it makes them laugh... but the thing is, you are really laughing in pain.

we've been watching a lot of intervention this week. you know, the show with all the hard core druggies who really need help... ive seen heroin, coke, pain killers and buliema so far. mike just keeps recording them. what i havent seen much of: brittany and steve. im pretty sure steve is paying my part of the electricity/rent/cable/heat.

oh and this weekend: insanely amazing wedding! derek and i went to rochester to see mollie and cj get married (mollie his cousin). we danced and drank hard. so hard in fact that at the after party, i actually fell over in four inch heels and the next day in the elevator AND at breakfast we had several people comment on "how fun we were to watch dance."

i dont think i can show my face around the zwahlen family for some time.

plus i was still drunk at breakfast and dereks mom totally knew.

we also did dereks family christmas this weekend and his mom got me the nicest earrings. they are black and silver, and well, classic. she said "when i saw them i thought of you." derek later said something similar... "yeah, they are perfect for you, like old lady earrings."

am i an old lady? i mean really! im going to stick with classic.

i am going to miss ithaca, 106 e. state street just a little bit.

but not enough that i cant wait to get the hell out of here.

Well, nearly. I am officially registered for classes. Yay! one override to go.

This weekend. The craziest Friday night in a looooonnng time. Nalgene of Vodka. Shots at Andrews with Mike, Annie, Cait, Julie, Derek, Liz, and Bowie. next stop: Kristen C's house. Free box wine and beer. it was a drunken frenzy.

Saturday I got up and went to Junas, wrote my name on a piece of paper (after eating an avomato melt) and then decided I was too hung over for life and went back to bed till around 5. After some cookie baking and pasta draining, Mike, Derek Julie and I made it to Chelseas. I was still to hung over to drink, but the food was good, the porn was bad and the company was great. Overall, a splendid evening.

Sunday all I can remember is that Mike made us dinner. We watched movies all day. I think.

This week is going by SO slow. I had so much to do and argh! After today though, I am done with classes for this semester. Yes YES YESSSSSS.

This weekend I am going to Derek's family Christmas thing and a wedding. I got myu hair curler in the mail :)

Julie and I curled our hair this week AND had a makeup before her beer pong party last night. Girly roomies in London! On really ugly bikes, of course.

so next week is the last week of classes. well that hit me in the face.

anyway, i have been spending lots of time getting work done since ive been back. this weekend was a little fun. i headed up to nates place one of the nights and saw jordan and dave, jeremy and jake. jake is graduating in may, but the good news i got was that jeremy is 120 hudson next year! which is... 5 numbers away from mine! 3 if you are only counting evens.

yeah, so brittany julie and i signed a lease this week for an apartment... 126 hudson, apartment two. im really excited. especially because we have a bathroom with feet! yes! oh and mike, derek, steve and andrew are on prospect and we share a driveway and parking lot. talk about amazing. now if we could only find three nice people to live under us... holla.

julies opening is tonight! it will be fun. i can tell. i really dont want to go to class today, but i think ive missed like 4-5 classes already. chelsea isnt going. boo.

oh and lauren casper is up this weekend. talk about freshmen year.

i still miss the east tower.

so these past few weeks have been so crazy. i cant really even remember all of it.

thanksgiving break was okay. the weekend was fun, because derek and i got to see the new james bond film with troy and his friend. Then all the bad stuff happened. mom hasnt been doing well these past few years, and ever since the stroke, of course everything just got rougher. she had a massive heart attack tuesday night and passed away wednesday night at 9pm. in a way, i am just glad i was home and got to spend a full day with her. on tuesday, i got dereks beef stroganoff recipe out and cooked it up with mom. as usual, she added her own twists and turns, and it was fun.

i spent all night and the next day in the hospital, and she went peacefully that night. i miss her already.

the funeral was beautiful. olivia and i both read eulogies, which was nice. derek came up which made everything a little bit easier. we drank a lot of mimosas. jon, sean, mia, mike, jason, and a bunch of people came...

everyone has been so nice. i came home to flowers today. i love my friends.

Duty weekend: lame. Although I did get a ton of work done the week after because of a very gracious Julie M. Chung. What a girl.

This past weekend: SUPER lame. I had a million reasons to go out, but sitting around and watching the rain fall seemed a much better option. Friday Derek and I were working on the same sudoku, when I finished way ahead of him, he ripped mine up. I proceeded to take 2 tequilla shots and then a nap. YUP. A nap on a Friday night. We proceeded not to mover from the uncomfortable futon and drank a bottle of wine.

Saturday was even lamer. Derek and I fell asleep watching the Lord of the Rings.

Sunday though, was fun and very drunken. We made blueberry muffins in the AM and gave one to Annie. We went to see a movie, "War Games," starring a very young Matthew Brodrick. Then Morgan (from Australia trip) invited us to this Thanksgiving extravaganza, so we got all dressed up and packed a couple bottles of Six Mile Creek Reisling. Jenessa, Austra, Maria, Jeff and some crazy kids from Cornell and a few other Ithacans were there. Ans the food was AMAZING.

Actually last night Mike and I made Derek make dinner, so I had anotehr great dinner. Though I definitely burned myself making twice-baked-potatoes. The stuffed mushrooms and mesquite chicken were also amazing. Eventually everyone went to bed, but Mike had just started a bottle of wine. Having finished a 40, we were the only two drunkards, so we stayed up and watched this crazy Shakespeare show that I cant remember the name of. It is by acorn media? Anyway it was the first season and Rachel Montgomery and some REALLY HOTT GUY is in it. That's all Mike talked about.

So I am getting really excited about London. This kid just came into my work and asked me all these questions about London and Australia (he got into both programs and can't decide). OOOOOO I can't wait. Julie and I are deifnitley living with Emily -- who might have already found a place? Craziness.

so we started at 3 as usual. this fireball stuff is really crazy.

i stopped by eriks later in the evening and then eventually made it to julies place where i proceeded to sit on her lap. beer pong was a lot of fun and i got pretty drunk. jon and i won a roundand i feel like i won with someone else. i do remember chinese food though, and the crazy cat, and cookies and everclear shots...

in was a long trip home. and for some reason we watched the lord of the rings and proceeded to fall asleep on the futon. sketchy.

so its my first weekend on duty this semester. ummmm yeah.