This morning I got up around 9:30am. I had been woke up around 5am for a moment then at 7am, when I realised I was rather cold. During the night as I slept I must’ve kicked my comforter off my bed, leaving a thin sheet in charge of my warmth. This of course failed and as I woke up sleepilly, I couldn’t understand my coldness, after all comforters keep you warm. I felt around and glanced down to see the whole thing in a heep next to the bed, I grabbed it and put it back on the best I could before going back to sleep. I got up and decided to try to conqure the problem of washing my hair the old way – by bath. The faucet was too close to the wall so I filled it up with some water and just leaned back and laid down in the water. Back in the early years on Sullivan’s Island I’d love to do this, the feel of hair underwater delights me. Back then my hair was long and Mom would get upset because it meant more time brushing out the rat’s nest result, which meant tears and complaining from me some of the time (or maybe more, I don’t remember). But to have that moment of fun often was worth it in my opinion. Anyway, now that my hair is shorter I don’t have to worry about the knots. While in the tub I continually thought about how I could stay in the UK, about my life, and about people. Eventually I shaved and got out, this time the drain here was fine and it cleaned up nicely. I’m not totally sure, but I think I got out all the shampoo.

We were going to a dog agility practice today. It was raining, more like a medium drizzle, this morning and there’s always clouds around. Not all the clouds are dark, there are the usual gray and white ones as well. And just because there is a dark gray one doesn’t mean it’s going to rain on you in particular. But this particular day it was. So we got to the car, loaded up and went on our way. I had told her that I was leaving tomorrow and wanted to go to Straford, not London. First we went to the train station, they said it’d be 52Pounds, about 100$ (if it’s 2$ exchange rate, I think it’s $1.60 but I round it to 2 just so I can get a better feel for the prices). But I was told it was cheaper by coach. We’d check later, by then we had to get to the agility practice today. Driving in back country is a bit intimidating, she’s zooming about, well probably not zooming but in general she knew what she was doing I hope. There are hedges clear above the car on either side and there’s probably only enough room for 1.5 cars on this road, truthfully. In some places you’d definitely say this street should be one way. You just sit there hoping some car isn’t going fast coming toward you because I’m sure it’d be an awful mess of an accident. When a car did come, she saw it and would roughly tap the breaks and swerve to the left [they drive on the left] and keep going. I wonder how many times someone’s lost a side mirror on these roads. Once I saw a hit rabbit on the road, I’d probably never see that in the US.

I just finished talking with Grandmother. Between Dad and she I feel that it would be very rewarding if I stayed longer. But as I am right now, I have no clue about my money status. Well I know I’m not broke, but I’d like to have a better hand hold than that. I think it would be perfect if I could weazel into a job. I saw a few places in lovely Oxford that were looking for workers…if only I could get employed I could more or less confidently stay longer. However that’s definitely not what the UK government wants, I’m sure. It’s so unfair that the countries in the EU have what seems to be free-range employment. In an awesome parallel world I could stay in that hostel for the weekly rate, get a small job and travel a bit on the side. I’d love to eventually get a job working for “Canine Partners for Independence” here in the UK teaching assistance dogs. Either therapy dogs or assistance dogs. But at this point it would be an unbelieveable stroke of luck either way if I could live and survive in the UK. Even if it were only for 2 years. Going back to more realistic terms, Grandmother says Val is here in the UK, London to be exact, for the next few weeks. Tomorrow I’m going to Stradford for a few days (or less depending on how much there’s to see) and then I suppose going to London to stay with Val and sleep on the couch, which is all fine and dandy with me. Maybe Val can give me some insight to the whole UK living thing, maybe some reality and pointers. Truth be told I’m not sure if I could adjust back in the US. I’m so use to this independence now. I’m ready for the next big step and some change of scenery. Where I am now, who I am now, doesn’t think North Carolina can compare. I feel going back to would be a bad influence, make me dull again. The weight of life there, the same people, places and everything would only ruin me again. Something tells me I could do this, that I should do this – or at least try. Maybe I should have a change, maybe this is my big next step and I just failed to recognize it. I feel that if I do go back the weight of everything wouldn’t let me leave again. Maybe I’d become complacent with life as it was and never want to leave. I’d rather stay and not risk going back. Maybe I should. When I get to the internet I’ll do my research, and when I get to London I’ll have Val help perhaps and maybe the embassy or more internet to do more research.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk to bloom.”

Or maybe that’s just still a naive thing to say, along with that whole paragraph. Is this my risk? Maybe I’m in that “I can take on the world/do anything” phase people talk about. But it does sound exciting, doesn’t it? That whole freedom to choose bit excites me.

This morning I woke up around 7:30ish. I spent a bit of time working on these journal entries until we had breakfast around 8:45am. For breakfast we had our cereal with the cranberries and toast with our tea. Today I was going into town, Wells. I was dropped off around 9am and I checked out the cinema. Unfortunately not only were the shows for Harry Potter evening shows, but they were sold out. No Harry Potter for me. From there I walked into town. For some reason they have 8 or so Good Will-like shops. I checked out their books, for some reason I got the idea that I really did want to buy those books. But never found them. I went to the local farmers market and had a chocolate and pecan flapjack, which is like a really sweet and chewy granola bar brownie. They had fish and beef in multiple stands, and other baked goods. I debated buying some crystalized ginger or some rose turkish delight since I have never had either of those – but they were 4Pounds and I didn’t know if I wanted that much, I just wanted to try it. So I didn’t buy it. I walked around some more and looked around at some sights before walking back to the bus station. I grabbed the bus back and arrived as the light mist of rain fell.

For lunch we had some bread with tuna and cheese. Afterwards she had an appointment to get her hair cut in home. I went back to writing. Once she was finished she asked if I’d like to go to Lytes Cary. It’s an old house, built in the 1700′s and I wasn’t able to take pictures of the inside but I did of the gardens. Basically the usual tapestry, day bed and night bed, beaurou and a few other pieces of furnature. A few interesting portraits though, one of the lady of the house. It made me wish I had a painting of myself as beautiful. Afterwards we went on the river walk where we took Millie with us. It was a nice walk, the first pasture had sheep in it and swallows swooping down into the fields. We then crossed the river/steam and saw what I was told was a flat-coat retriver. The dog had a long nose and a sort of stream line to it. Black long coat and a tongue that was at least 5 inches long. His owner had this plastic thrower that gripped the tennis ball and enabled a small throw to go even farther. Walks only 20 minutes away, or even closer also makes me want to live in the UK. As we were leaving we went back out the same pasture but this time the sheep were closer, I’d never been so close to free range sheep. As I went to take more pictures, particularly one that was very close, my camera died. Oh well. The sheep stomped it’s hoof, even with a sheep dog on a leesh it seemed unafraid where the others had sorta skitted off. Pretty cool sheep. Baaa. It started to drizzle rain a bit just as we made it to the car. Last night’s dinner was chicken, rice, and stirfry with salad. For dessert we had blueberries,strawberries,rasberries? with yoghurt and icecream. Sooo good. I stayed up late reading “Endal”. The story finally introduced the title character, Endal, and it makes me want to become a therapy dog trainer even more.

When I got up the next morning it was around 7am. This is just about the time Millie goes for a walk with a man and poodle down the street. I took a shower during this time, or at least something like one. There are two choices, the odd contraption or the usual tube shower head. I chose the tube shower, but the water didn’t stay warm and instead went cold after a few seconds. Odd. But I made do. Get some shock in the morning. After that I got dressed and sat down for breakfast. We had a grain flakes and grandola with dried cranberries cereal for breakfast. It was very delicious. So I found out I like those cranberries, I’m sure they’ve got added sugar or something in them. I also had OJ as well and tea. After breakfast I got ready to go and I was given information for Bath. Today was Bath. So we drove out to the Park and Ride for Bath and she dropped me off for the day. I grabbed the bus, which was 2.40 pounds and it took me straight into Bath. The part I was dropped off at was under construction, just part of the edge of town. I was at one end of the shopping district. The shopping district was basically where everything was, the Pump Room, the Roman Baths, and the Abbey. I walked to the Pump Room which at this time is a large tea room with a tall ceiling and a chandellier. Though I think at some point it may have also been a dancing room at some point. I went to the gift shop then the crafts shop. I was looking at old coin paper weights and debating buying one. 14 Pounds, so around…28$. Now that I think about it I still liked it, but not enough to buy it. I also looked at a scarf, I think 12$ scarf that matched my green polo I had on perfectly. But then I thought I shouldn’t buy it since who knows how ferverant I’ll be about the whole scarf thing when I get home. It may just be a silly fad for me. Who knows, you know? Later I’d buy a garden god wooden carving that I thought was the face from the Baths – crap. Not what I thought, spent money on something I didn’t want and didn’t feel like I could return it since I’d just bought it, and it was hand made so…yeah. Another stupid buy. Who knows how much stupid stuff I’ve bought collectively that would equal out to a nicer big thing that I passed up. There are so many things I passed up this trip. So many.

So from there I went down the street and followed the direction posts to the Jane Austin Center. I was curious and so I hiked up a bit to see it. Nothing much really, cheesy trinkets with the label on them – journals, books, dvds, quills…The only thing I was slightly interested in were the early editions of the books for sale. I couldn’t afford to spend money and try to get it home in once piece, or that I was such a huge fan that I had to have expensive first editions. It’s too bad though that modern books can’t look as beautiful as the leather bound books of the past. I asked about the Jane Austen “tour”, I bought into it and basically I got a presentation and a walk around the museum. I went to a Good Will like shop and found a cute pair of blue slipper shoes but since I wasn’t totally confident they fit after trying them on 6 times I didn’t buy them. I wish I felt more confident about it, they were so cute after all. From there I walked up to the Circus around about and I had a feeling that wasn’t the Crescent, so I kept walking. I walked up the hill a bit more and found the Royal Crescent. I remembered the movie “The Duchess” and tried to imagine the time period. I sat down on a bench for a break and watched the couples and families enjoying the grass around the Crescent. Yet again I found myself wishing I lived in the UK. I got up and started walking to the gardens, which I never really found but I did find an obelisk for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I remembered how Jack had talked about their relationship.

After that I went back down to the shopping area. I found a covered market and went inside. There were two shops that I absolutely loved. One was a used book shop. I so badly wanted to buy these two books, “Endal” and “Birdsong” but I talked myself out of it again. I stood there for a bit thinking about it, then put them back. Talk about pinching pennies. The next shop was filled with necklaces, old and new. If only I had some color pallots to look at with my clothes I’d probably would’ve had a hayday in there. It was also sort of cramped so I didn’t stay long but I wish we had an awesome shop like that. From there I walked around a bit more and saw a candy shop. I bought a Cadbury egg, which made my day. As I was leaving I saw a man drop a crumpled up paper pound of unknown amount (pink?) and I picked it up and gave it back to him, he was thankful. I later bought some gelato, which was also very good. After enjoying that and wander a bit more I decided it was time to grab the bus back to the Park and Ride.

I played on my Ipod, a puzzle game about moving rectangles around the screen so a red one can go out of the exit. I usually got though them rather quickly and sometimes instead of thinking about it I just kept fiddling with the rectangles until it unlocked the path to the exit. I was picked up after about 10 minutes wait and we went home. For dinner that night we had scrambled eggs on toast, salad, then strawberries with yoghurt and after that tea with our cake. After dinner I went to continue writing my journal entries, though I would’ve prefered to get more chapters done in “Endal” because I doubt she’s going to give me that book. Though, I’m hoping to get it another time – maybe for my Ipod. I ended up writing my journal entries until midnight.

When I got off my hostess was waiting for me. She sort of had an ok demenor and it seemed alright. I met her dog, Millie, who was in the back seat when my carry on invaded her space. Once we were all settled into the car wed stopped at the Tesco grocery store on the way home. It was nice to go, I felt more relaxed in the grocery store and even if she wasn’t doing anything except shopping it also felt a bit welcomeing there as well. Even if just a little. The grocery store items had stickers like, “Made in UK” and Organic. There were many types of meat all over the store, and in general the food seemed better and healthier. In the UK there is a system called, “5 a Day”, which lets customers know that that particular item is one of your daily 5 sources of fruit, veggies or fiber. I think this is a fantastic idea. I think I prefer the UK for it’s being smaller therefore more in tune with itself. Or maybe I’m just naieve.

We went down the narrow streets surrounding her little town. This was my first time in a car in a while. On the opposite side of the road with cars coming on the driver’s seat right. On narrow streets. When we got to the house I noticed the lovely little town with a church and the beautiful green hills. When we arrived the wooden gate was open and we stopped short of her little brown garage. The house didn’t look aged like much of the town but rather a white stone. Her garden is very kept and organized, with the whole layout just so. We went into her house, a one story, by the small porch. Once you enter there is a living room to the left and a long hallway to the right. Down the hallway on the right is the bathroom, the toilet closet. Then on the left is her room, then straight is the guest room. Outside her window in the living room (which also houses the dinning room) you could see cows grazing on the other side of the valley. Her kitchen window above the sink has a beautiful view of the back yard as well as the hills across the valley with the cows. She offered the phone so I could call Grandmother to tell her where I was. Grandmother didn’t pick up but I left a message. I didn’t think she’d call back. I was offered a drink, she said she had lemonaide. I thought traditional lemonaide but it turned out to be lemon-soda. I hadn’t had soda since the beginning of the year but I drank it to be nice. Still not going to start drinking it again, it tastes pretty boring.

We had dinner later, which was ___________ with corn and salad. The salad had cucumbers, and was iceburg salad. I had a huge helping of salad that night. After dinner we had tea, with a bit of the orange-carrot cake, a small slice which was nice so it didn’t go quickly and we could enjoy it another night. During dinner she asked about me and what I wanted to do since I had mentioned I graduated. I told her that I wanted to work abroad and then if that did not settle well I wanted to be a dog-therapist. This is a person who uses dogs in therapy, usually in hospital settings to help with coping and stress. Unlike other people who sort of think I’m an odd person [or one man who was particular negative the whole conversation seemed to think it was a useless trade] she had heard of it before, in a book called, “Endal”. It’s about a Naval Officer who gets in a car wreck and the family ends up getting a service dog and how it saved their marriage – since he doesn’t rememeber his family. She handed it to me to borrow and I couldn’t wait to read it. After dinner I helped with the moving the dishes into the kitchen and then we were going to go out to walk Millie. We walked down into town, which is more like a village or large neighborhood it seems.  From there we followed the river up to the church and we walked around the stone building. We had met an elderly fellow who mentioned his wife, it wasn’t until we said our goodbyes that she told me his wife had been dead a few years. We went to the graveyard and looked at some of the gravestones as we passed through, some were really clean but rather old. Either they have great cleaning or they bought new stones. As we walked Millie would go ahead a few steps and then stop, wait for us then go up a few more. I think being a sheep-dog breed she finds it’s something to do, but she always sort of seems like a loaded spring just waiting for a chance to be told she can go bolting down a field. When a car comes she is told, “Down Millie”, and she crouches down to the lowest she can get on the edge of the street. Millie also knows to stop on the porch and wait for everyone to go inside before she does, and also how to sit and shake for a treat.

After the walk I get ready for bed and snuggle down with the “Endal” book. The book is from the point of view of both the husband and wife because he husband lacks a chunk of memories, like knowing his family. It flips from one to the other each chapter. I’m about a quarter the way through but last night I had to write up these journal entries so I’ll have to catch up sometime. I may even just buy it when I get home, maybe download the text for my Ipod or something. Regardless, I went to sleep around midnight.

I got up, took a shower and shaved. To my horror though, the water did not drain. It was horrible, disgusting and embarassing. I closed the shower curtain. Every once in a while I’d go back in once the water drained a bit and make sure the reminents were following the water down the drain. I went back to the living room and quietly went about playing with my Ipod until Jack woke up, which wasn’t long after. Over morning tea and toast we watched the BBC news. He eventually got up and went to the bathroom, I heard the shower curtain move. Cringe. Nothing was said. I could imagine an internal reaction, “Disgusting dirty Yank girl.” One of the times I went back I added more water as more drained out, I also fished out the hair since it was something, anything, I could do. Eventually he asked me what I wanted to do that day. I had no clue. “What is there to do?”, I asked curiously. He offered to go to Windsor Castle. That sounded wonderful. As he looked up the information to take the train  he asked if I’d like to walk 3 miles to Windsor. I said sure, but I didn’t think I’d walked 3 miles in a while though. So we’d do it. We picked our time and left to the train station. After quickly buying our tickets we walked briskly to our platform just as the train left. Jack was a bit upset. It was an hour until the next train. I seriously think during this time I spent with Jack I was missing part of the program. Was it really part of his personality that he felt the need to be doing something every moment? For the past few months I’ve sort of been living on a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of outlook. Relax. I think we went walking somewhere, well we did but I forgot where. We ended up doing some sort of talking bit again, and almost totally lost track of time. We did however catch the next train just fine. I believe we went from Reading to either Henley on Thames or Twyford, where we got off. I don’t recall a town or anything, just that we stroked out into the grasses eventually. I don’t remember, I think we went throught the nice rich neighborhood first. Large driveways behind fences and bushes, but often smallish homes. One house in particular had a large groomed yard with many plants and their own small railroad. Very eccentric. The pathway that lead into the bush was a narrow one edging this person’s yard.

The whole way to Windsor follows the Thames River. It was a really lovely walk. Amazing and delightful, relaxing and gorgous scenery. There was nothing but ground, and one side seemed to be a worn bike path. Jack had mentioned that he more than once biked this way. I really wish I had taken pictures but I hate feeling so touristy. Now I’ll never have pictures of my walk. This is sad. This is another reason why you need to be comfortable with someone you travel with, so you can do silly touristy things like take loads of pictures and not feel bad about it. We walked next to the river and it sort of reminded me of the neighborhoods in Florida next to the fresh water streams when I went to swim with the manatees. Or you know, in Charleston. People had their boats and there were houses near the river as well. We saw a mississippi river boat playing jazz and I thought it was sort of out of place, but Jack liked it. He pointed to a house he wanted and then another he liked as well. I liked the second one better, I said. I think it was a brick one while the other was just white and less traditional looking. There were long willows along the river and I looked to my left and noticed a sign with Toad. “The Wind and the Willows”! While never actually reading the book as a child I had watched the movie and remember the car-crazy Mr. Toad. Apparently this was where the book was written. I also wish I had stopped to get a picture of this as well. After our long walk we arrived in Windsor. We had followed the river right up into the town. Or maybe we had gotten to a train and took that there. Another thing I can’t remember for sure.

We walked up to the Windsor Castle, Jack explaining to me that if the Queen was in a different flag would be flying. We walked around the castle and I noticed a CC-Camera and asked him about it. The UK has loads of cameras everywhere, he said. Talk about Big Brother. We didn’t go into the castle, just around. I saw the statue of Queen Victoria and asked him about her, since he is sort of a history buff of royals. She wasn’t always a stick in the mud, she had had a great love with Prince Albert who died early in her life. And spent the rest of her life in mourning. Sad. We continued to walk around town and Jack said he knew of a place where we could get a great view of the castle. Eventually we found the road to the back entrance road into town. It’s a good long road that shoots straight into the distance where you can see a man on horseback way way far away. Around that road is grounds, with symetrical trees lining the road, and grass. Loads of grass. We walked out a bit and sat down in the grass. We laid down and admired the sky. I think it was me first who started the cloud spotting. I have always wanted to cloud spot with someone. We saw dogs, flamingos, stelletos, can-openers…he said I had a pretty good imagination. Or maybe it was just a nice way of saying I’m still very child-like. Who knows. I was enjoying myself, relaxing more than I have in a long time and thoughly enjoying life. This is what I’ve wanted to do for so long. Just enjoy the sun and grass and sky with someone. Enjoy life. A little red-headed girl was playing and we watched her. Jack said that red-headed boys were usually picked on at school and generally didn’t fair as well as the girls who were seen as more attractive and desireable. At which he said that his last girlfriends were all red-heads. But he also mentioned that they didn’t end well. – Before Jo had said that Jack was bad at choosing girlfriends. We turned our our stomachs and looked out at that horseman in the distance. “Do you want to walk out there?”, he asked. “I’m up for it if you are,” I responded. – So we did. We walked and talked for the whole time, with gaps of quietness as well. At some point marriage came into the conversation. I said I’d have to get a boyfriend first, then all the rest eventually. I couldn’t answer when really, 27? Who knows. Now that college is over I can focus more on self-development personally and less mentally, for a bit. While we walked we spotted a herd of deer. They were really far away but you could still see nice racks on all of them. I really wish I had my zoom camera then. There would’ve been much more beautiful shots.

When we reached the top we sat down and admired the view. You could see London from there as well as Heathrow Airport. We watched the airplanes take off one by one. So relaxing, like watching the grass grow. After continuing our conversation for a bit we walked back down. Both ways I had had a sort of cut, a flap of skin on the pad next to my arch that I had to walk on and it made me flinch when it flapped open. I pulled it off as a pebble in my sandal when asked since less walking wasn’t what I was looking for. Since we were sort of hard for cash we went to McD’s for some icecream. We walked to the bridge and looked out for a few minutes before walking back to the station and grabbing a train. Unfortunately this train soon had a young teen age couple making out in front of us. Awkward city. I tried carrying on conversation to distract myself. Life just wanted to be cruel just then, flaunting love – or at least lust – in front of me.

Once we got back Jack made pasta for dinner. It was great, some sort of pasta bake. Jack’s roomie had been home and wanted to watch this one movie that evening called, “Little Children”. Two characters from Watchmen were in it, the Night Owl II and Rorschach. Pretty awesome. But I was watching Kate Winslet’s character. A mother who didn’t seem to relate to being a mother nor with her child. As I watched her I wondered if I’d become that way as well. Not fitting in as a mother. Wondering what happened with my life. Living in a daze and being a dull person. I sure hope that it doesn’t happen to me. For a moment it felt like I could become her, and that disturbed me. Positive thing however she did eventually find that her child was the most important thing. ….Well maybe doesn’t suit her problems but I don’t know. Just scary.

That night I slept well. I also think that earlier on Jack was giving me ideas on what else I could do. I sort of felt pressure that I had to do something and I didn’t like that pressure. The next morning the pressure of curiosity made me decide it was time to go. That and my funds. I can’t watch them and spending money is starting to scare me since it shows plus funds and I don’t know anything about it back home. I checked my email and decided I’d take Grandmother up on her offer to stay at a friend’s house in Mills. I bought some Skype credit and tried calling Grandmother but no answer, so I called the woman. Very unnerving calling a stranger to ask if you could stay with them. She said that it was find and so Jack looked up Castle Cary and after watching some tv for a while we went to the grocery store. Jack picked up a few things and I grabbed a carrot and orange cake for my host. We bought some french fries and had them for lunch back at the house. When it was time to go we picked up everything and hauled it to the train station. We said goodbye and I decided not to give a hug since it seemed he felt awkward about it, however this time he made an effort to initate a hug, but it was still awkward. I however love hugs, sometimes I feel as if I could stay in a guy’s arms forever during a hug. But typically guy hugs are just awkward and brisk. After a goodbye I waved and was on my way. I waited for the train at the appropriate platform but when I got on there were no two-seaters left…I went down the car twice and nothing. I ended up putting my stuff up at the end and sitting with someone.

When I left Oxford I had gone out that morning, after getting up early. The night before I had realized that I had seemingly lost my bath supplies. So I went out to retrieve some new ones. Very annoying. I hadn’t thought of weight either. What a bother. I went walking around and went back to the Covered Market and went into a shop with sort of an Indian theme, but they had a range of scarves. I bought a stiff forest green and black one, it was checkered. I saw one on a girl, different color, but it looked nice. I hope the scarves are as nice at home. :/ I sort of want to continue wearing them every so often. The fashion here is quite confusing, it’s so nice and looks great but for me to wrap my head around it is very difficult. Colors that wouldn’t go together are. Like when I buy clothes, I buy the colors I like – but then you’d add a bright pink scarf and it changes a whole outfit. Even if you wouldn’t normally buy a pink scarf. Or have a whole outfit that matches perfectly together, everything to form a perfect outfit. I wonder if all of their outfits are like that, so perfect. Very impressive. I also like the idea of wearing black hose with shorts. Very nice. Anyway I bought a scarf, I don’t know what outfit it’ll go with since I haven’t looked at all my clothes but surely even if the outfit isn’t green, it’ll probably go with a purple one or some other likewise complimentary color. I kept an eye on the time, I had to be back in time for the 10:30 check out at the hostel. I looked around some more and headed back. A few times I thought about buying some books. But they add weight. One of the names for the book was “Birdsong”, which was about an affair and how the war effected this man. Earlier on a previous day I also started reading “Atonement”, which while seriously tempted, I didn’t buy. I have a copy at home and that would just be stupid to re-buy it. So I made my way back to the hostel for checkout.

I gathered my things in the semi-lit room, it was still sort of early. Sometimes while I was there everyone was up by then but people change out every day so you get a different group all the time. The Asians seem to always be the reclusive ones. The Spaniards were always the pains, always seem to do something against the rules. Like smoke pot in the room, or get smashed and come back in around 7am. Luckilly they didn’t seem like the crawl-in-bed-with-you types, or the throw-up-in-the-wastebin types either. In Prague the latter happened. There’s a bed next to the window so they had closed it at night and the room was heated by 10 or so 98degree bodies, and they didn’t smell like soap that’s for sure. Just needed some fresh air to the room. It’s not like it was rancid, just not enough fresh air.

I waited for a few minutes while a pair of traveling girls, with their designer-like hand bags and giant wheeled luggage checked out. While I waited I mentally mapped where the important things were in my luggage, I can loose many things but there were some things I had to keep track of. When it was my turn I just told her that I was checking out and she gave me my 5 Pounds back and I was on my way. The two girls asked to get to the Train Station. Which was were I was going as well. The previous day I had gone there myself to buy a train ticket. They still sort of looked lost as I told them where to go, and that I was going the same way. After a few seconds I just went ahead since they were doddling about. I had plenty of time at the station and was waiting for the train to arrive. I debated buying a cookie but decided it wasn’t money well spent after just having breakfast. I kept an eye on the Arrivals and saw Reading, at 4. So I hauled myself up and over the tracks and then I didn’t see anything on 4′s screen. I asked a nearby offical looking person, who said he was an engineer and had no clue. I went inside and was told that Reading was always at 1, so I hauled my stuff all back over and sat down to wait for the train.

When the train arrived I grabbed my things and found a seat available to me. It was very exciting to see the country side. I could see the fields and rolling hills of green as well as a few towns passing by. I don’t recall the scenes as much as from Reading to Wells but it was still beautiful. I was really excited to visit Reading, my first friendly homestay in the UK and I couldn’t wait to meet up with my friend Jack. When the train ride ended I wasn’t totally sure where to go, he said city center. So I found doddled for a moment looking at the signs. When I went down the escalator and saw him at the bottom it was so nice to see a friendly face. There was a hug and from then on it was rather awkward here and there. We walked back from the station to the house. It was a 15 minute walk I didn’t mind at all. We walked through town and Jack pointed out things here and there. We walked to his flat which was a part of a group of row houses. His door had a tall and skinny elephant knocker, which he often used to close the door behind us because it lacked a proper door handle on the outside. Inside the flat there was a small hall/foyer where there were a group shoes. Jack’s roommates were all gone except one and his shoes I think took up the majority. Like Matthew, his guy also wore rather nice dress shoes as well as nice slacks and a button up. That afternoon Jack had to wait for the plummer for the bathroom. We watched tv and when they left we waited once more for one other appointment and then left. While this was happening Jack seemed to be ansy, unable to sit still and it seemed he felt he must be doing something but wasn’t. The room I was to stay in was directly to the right, in the middle of the foyer hall. It was sort of a storage room for random things like a bike, books, and a table or two. The bed was very nice and comfy, a blue blanket and I was given three pillows. The nicest sleeping conditions so far on my trip, at least for my bed. Outside of my room you continued down the hall and to the right, next door to mine, was a living room. Nothing was on any of the walls, I find this typical for males (even though there are female roomies). Maybe just students. In the living room there were two couches, a tv and a small table next to the couch. From the living room there was the kitchen then the bathroom followed by the toilet closet. Straight back to back following lengthwise in the shape of the rectangular house. If you backtracked back to the foyer straight ahead was a flight of primary color blue carpeted stairs, very straight up and narrow. This I suppose housed 3 rooms, perhaps. I think Jack, Jo, and the other guy live up there in closet-like rooms. I recall Jack saying the guy lived in the attic, now that I think about it. Which was peculiar since he was rather tall.

When we did leave Jack said he’d show me the town. He sort of beamed when he pointed to The Blade, a new office building, which was this Viking ship bowed blue and white structure sticking out, as if it was slicing it’s way through the town. I must say, as if it weren’t already apparent, that the building was pretty cool. I think Jack’s major, or at least future job hopes was to be a architectural contractor. We continued our tour of the town, walking to the park. We passed the park when it seemed rather busy with other groups and went to see the old church ruins. They were closed off but I was able to see quite a lot of it when we walked around. Apparently the town jail was right next door to it. Oh, and that Vikings and the like used the grounds for camping. Pretty cool, right? From there we went back to the park and sat down. There was a large metal statue of a lion, I never got to see his face since we were sitting on the opposite side of him though. There was also a pavillion where a few teenagers were fooling around. We chatted abit about whatever I could think to ask him. I’ve since forgotten my trick to getting guys to talk by asking them fifty-million small-talk stupid questions. Didn’t seem to work on this particular guy. I also think to myself it’d be nice if some guys would do the same, to show they are interested in getting to know more about me. I think this might’ve happened a little, now that I think about it. Also now that I think about it, it’s usually serious questions. More about that later.

After walking around we went to the shopping mall, all this time Jack was keeping in touch with his roomie about meeting up for dinner. While at the mall we stopped at a shop for a scone with butter cream (I think it was called) and strawberry jelly with some tea. Jack said that this was quite popular to do, and I found I loved it as well. So delicious! So we sit down and you open the container for the butter cream and take a knife to remove the top layer of fat, it’s really really bad for you – the whole snack. But so good. It was creamy with a buttery texture. Originally I was going to have a sandwich thing going on with the huge scone but when I looked over at Jack’s his was in two parts. So since I had emptied out my strawberry jam I began to move one to the other scone half. Jack was watching me, clearly amused for reasons beyond me. I asked him if the amount of butter cream was enough, seeing as he was caking his on. I didn’t know what it was, it looked a lot like butter. Caking on butter was a Grandmother thing, I thought. I smiled, scooped and spread. “This much?” – “Keep going!”, he responded. If it were butter he might get a good laugh out of my reaction, I thought. It was totally worth it, so good! A scone, which had a few rasins and sugar baked into it with a smooth buttery cream and strawberry jam to top it off. – And of course, a milky tea to wash it all down. Tea time with a local, that alone made it even more special for me.

After our delightful adventure with mid-afternoon tea time we met up with his roomie, which was the first time I saw him. Tall, longish straight medium blonde hair and blue eyes…I think. We decided to go for Italian, at Bella Italia. It was dimly lit in a mustard yellow light inside and I recall a painted picture of Italy on the wall at the nice resturant. I had a pasta while Jack had a hamburger. We were trying to eat cheap since it was a more expensive sort of resturant. The roomie  guy however had no worries since his parents are more or less seemingly rich. The Norwedgin guy told me a bit about Jack, such as him having a  large pencil collection. I found this charming and cute that at least I had a small tidbit about him, something personal. It makes things a bit  more closer to people I guess. He seemed to find humor in bringing out more about Jack, and always seemed to have a sort of sly smile about him. As if he too wanted me to be closer to Jack as well. Though most of the conversation was difficult for me to follow since for one they speak in a muffled sort of quickness. The English seem to speak softly and therefore I seem miss things. Forty and Fourteen for example sounded similar to me at one point. After dinner was paid for we walked along the river parallel to the street back to the flat.

Once we got back Jack and I settled into the living room and he offered to watch a movie. I looked through his set of movies and commented that I had never seen The Shining, so we watched that. Jack also made tea, often. Which I forgot to mention. I usually had tea twice, once with breakfast and once more during the evening or afternoon. This was also the first time I had had milk in my tea, and I found I liked it. The music was what made the movie, and some of the shots as well. It all seemed so simple yet with the music it became extraordinary. However I feel that the movie itself seemed to lack due to being based on a book. I felt the need to have more material to better understand what was going on. But from a film analyst point of view there were many shots that were excellently executed. We split up after watching the movie and I went to sleep. I had a nightmare, I can’t recall what about but before I woke up I remember, “No!No!NO!” – like someone hurting my head. I woke up to the sound of my heart racing. I hadn’t had a nightmare in a while. I laid there awake for a moment remembering how nightmares used to be such a problem. I waited for a bit, maybe a few minutes, since I had a few times in the past just returned to my nightmares if I quickly went to sleep again. But then I had a bit of a problem going back to sleep – I must have eventually drifted off because I woke up the next morning.

Today I got up around 8am and took a shower. I decided I’d go check out the college on my last day. I also went to look for a new camera. They are rather expensive, the cheapest one was 160$, my wallet bleeds. So I bought my camera and went back to charge it. After about 30 minutes, maybe, it was charged. Then I went out and took lots of pictures around the college and town. I walked around for a while and discovered new places. I walked down pathways and alleyways. I love the architecture, it’s something new. I walked all around town but I’m still not sure I saw everything. I then retreated back to the bookstore and then after a while I went back out. I went to the covered market, which was pretty awesome. Smaller than teh one in Budapest but still nice. I went to a cookie shop, I forget the name, [asked] it’s “Ben’s Cookies” and got a chocolate chip and orange cookie. It was a pretty large cookie and thick, with a soft center and tasted fantastic. After that I walked around in there for a bit. There was a few butchers, one with crabs that were the size of two of my fists together, and as thick as well. There were lobsters the size of my fore-arm (finger tip to elbow). As I rounded the end I saw a milkshake shop called, “MooMoo’s” and I asked what were the favorites. After going through a few times I heard, “Cadbury Egg” and perked up. Cadbury Egg Milkshake – am I in heaven? OH YES. I’ll have to try that next easter. XD

From there I walked around some more and then went back towards the street down the road next to my hostel. I took pictures of the houses, with the puke-yellow brick – which still lent a certain charm to the house. I also got a picture of the “Humped Zebra” sign, which is a pair zig-zag white lines ahead. Very amused. I rounded back and then decided to walk along the stream. It wasn’t particularly clear and had a bit of trash but it still was interesting. I saw some boat houses and a tabby cat which was quite affectionate. I then saw some the guys from the hostel. They were playing a word drinking game, they had to say a word in their own langauge and if the others couldn’t say it they’d have to drink. I didn’t drink but joined in. It was fun. XD

Tomorrow I check out and take the train to Reading [red-ing] to meet up with my Milan friends: Jo and Jack. I’m staying with Jack in his extra room for a few nights and he’s going to show me around. I’m REALLY excited. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me. I check out at 10:30, leave via train at 11:00 and arrive at 11:25. He’s supposed to pick me up there and we’re gonna walk to his place. Insane.

Oh, and the people here, I’ve got to talk about that. Everyone dresses so well! I totally have to rethink fashion. There are so many beautiful people here, wow. I think it makes me want to improve my own fashion. I’m going to work on it, for sure.

I forgot to mention my sleeping at the airport last post. I landed in Prague around 11pm and wasn’t going to leave. I found a group of benches and a few people doing the same and tied my stuff together and put and put the bags under the bench, between the two benches and tried to get some sleep. It didn’t work out so well. I got some sleep and then decided to get up around 5am which turned out to be a good idea. It was chilly and the bench was uncomfy but I survived. Now I can say I slept at an airport.

When I reached London I was all citied out. I was tired and decided I wasn’t ready to see another city. So I got online and did some searching and Wikied “Oxford” and the pictures seemed to depict a small town. So I went to the ticket booth and I bought a bus ticket to Oxford. I also wanted to stick around so if I could hang out with Jo or Jack I would be near. 30 mins, not bad. I fell asleep on the bus a few times and when we got to Oxford I wasn’t sure when to get off. I’ve already told the rest of the story.

Today I woke up a few times, I think my room has 14 people in it? or at least that many beds, probably 10 people in there, and I usually only see around 4 people at a time. I’m already really tired but I’ll try to write things. Zzz. Ok so today I woke up a few times, I didn’t know what time it was (it could’ve been 4am for all I knew) and for a split second I was like, ‘Where am I? Oh yeah, Oxford, UK – in a coed room in a hostel Zzz.’ When you wake up to bare-chested guys below you and realize that it’s you that’s creaking your bed you have to pause a moment to figure out what’s going on. I’ve met a girl, Erin, who’s from Georgia and she’s shared her food with me so I think that constitues a friend. Anyway for breakfast I had toast with Nutella on it with some fruit juice, provided by the hostel on the pool table. Music is always playing here in the lounge. There’s a yellow bird of some sort, sorta like a parakeet by the name of Petey. There’s a small bar and sofas and picnic tables everything various colors of peach, blue, aqua, mud, yellow and a few other colors. Anyway I found out that I got my ipod to work by running down the battery. Now if I could just find a charger for my camera I’ll be back up and running. Because I’m dying to take pictures. Might just buy a small camera.

I went out today, down I want to say George Street. I went to an antique market and checked out the things. There were coins and toys that reminded me of Dad’s metal toys. I also saw Beatles memorabilia as well as other antiques. A few older men were talking about the war in the middle east, about how it historically ever a good idea. I wish I could’ve listened in longer but I didn’t want to pry. From there I left and went to the bookstore. I was overwhelmed with everything again. Life just gets overwhelming sometimes. I left that bookstore and went to another, and then left that and went to “Lush”, a natural bath and body works if I may. I bought a few things after spending quite a long time there. I got a headache after a while. But I also got to talk to a lot of the girls there and that was fun. Apparently Lush is produced in the UK. So that was cool. After that I went to a stand and decided to try out a pastie. It’s sort of like a pot pie to go. Good comfort food. Yay.

After a bit I walked around and then headed back to the hostel. I also went out after a nap again when the sun was going down, around 8 or 9pm. The English love stone, and brick. But mainly stone. I now love stone too. Very nice. Chimneys, they have a lot of them. One chimney with six little chimneys. Line flats with chimneys popping out, very beautiful. Rows of flats, makes an artistic picture that’s dying to be taken. I walked by the Oxford Press, It appeared one story. I saw a Randolph hotel, resisted the urge to walk in and ask about the history of the hotel. Oh I also went into “Alice’s Shop” and bought a mug that says “Drink Me”. I love it. Though I was disapointed by some of the newer art for the books, ugly. I like the old art better.

When I got back this evening after the sun I had some mint tea in hand waiting for it to cool. I popped into the kitchen to see what was up and Erin was in there, she offered me a carrot. Carrot for dinner. Since I said it was dinner she offered a PBJ and I offered to have only a half and she offered a freshly baked bread. Awesome bread. So that was my dinner. And here I am. I’ll probably go to bed soon, as I am rather tired for reasons beyond  my understanding.

I forget if I wrote about the Louvre or not. I did go. I went to go see the Italian paintings but I also saw the scupltures as well. I saw some of my favorites as well as found some new ones I found I liked. After that stayed in and then the next day I went shopping. I felt I needed relief from sightseeing but I ended up missing out on the Effiel Tower. I however did get some great shirts and I got to walk a lot which allowed me to think. My last night I walked to The Lion’s Pub  and met some people there at the CS Meeting.  Matthew eventually came after missing his original train and we chatted and our group ended up playing the trivia game which was also pretty fun. After that I walked back to the hostel and packed.

Skipping Prague, since not much happened except some feelings of missing the group a little. I flew to London and found internet and decided I didn’t want to start in London and wanted to leave the city. So I decided I’d go to Oxford. I asked for directions and grabbed a bus and when I arrived I asked where the nearest hostel I could find was. I was directed to “Backpackers” and they had space so that’s were I am now. I’ve met an italian, spaniard, american and a canadian in my room. Tonight I’m just chilling since I’m so tired but tomorrow I’ll go take a look around. I hear there’s a really good big bookstore around this college town. I really like it here so far!

Ok really long story. I got to the airport and had to pay a fee for 40Euro for not checking in online before I got to the airport – 4 hrs before departure.So I was like, “Ok, fine.” [I'm PMSing, but living] but then the flight itself (after waiting the 4 hrs) was at least 3 hrs late, pushed back the loading time 4 times and switched to “gate closed” at least twice. And overall left us all in the dark with no rep near the gate (and once we were at the gate we couldn’t leave since there was a passport police gate) Now for a flight so keen to fee me for not checking in on time I sure hope they treat the rest of their services with the same strictness. Nope, instead they drop us off in Lille – 2 hrs away from our destination at around 1am in the morning in a dead city. They offer buses free that depart an hour later that drop us off somewhere in Paris in the dead of the night. I’m no where near where I’m supposed to be and far from my directions to the CS host, so I decide to follow a couple to a hotel. On our way we have to hike up a hill as the sun rises and as we find out we have gone the wrong way we spot police to ask. – Then realize they are there, with an ambulance, and a crowd and I look to the ground and a person and there’s blood. One person has a shirt in hand with blood blotches. We decide to grab a cab. We get to the hotel and they want 140Euro for two nights, I say thanks and look into my book for hostels. I hail a cab and go to one where I have to wait 30 mins until 8am when check in occurs to even know if there is space. Eventually they say yes, I pay – but then I can’t get IN to my shared room until 2pm. So I’ve been sleeping on one of the wooden benches in the lobby. I also wasn’t allowed to have breakfast there. After 2hrs of sleep I decided I’d get out and things are looking brighter, at least outside. I’m at McDonald’s (free wi-fi and not too far – and the reception couldn’t tell me where the nearest bakery is except the mini-mart down the street). So that’s what happened.