Home At Last

I'm sitting in my room. A place I was aching to get out of a few months ago, but now I'm extremely glad to be back. Crazy how things change.
This blog will be about my crazy time getting home, and then the next one will be continuing on about my trips I haven't written anything about. Either way, you will get the info.
The last day in Venice, we had to check out of our "hotel" at 9:30 in the morning. We didn't leave for the airport until 4pm. It was -4 outside, or at least it felt like it. I'll write about the actual day in my Italy blog. The point of that is. . . it was freezing, and we were outside for hours. We finally got all of our belongings and made our way to the airport. Our flight was at 7 something or other, but it kept getting pushed back. We finally made it out of Italy at 9:50 I believe. We landed at Gatwick and got our things, and took a bus to Heathrow and arrived a little after midnight. The sad part, because we thought we were the group that was late, is the fact that the other group still hadn't landed. We found out not much later that the other group was stuck at a different terminal. Heathrow is HUGE - you have to take shuttles to other terminals sometimes. And the shuttles weren't working at such a late hour. So spending time with Steph and Mary was out.
Time went by, and I didn't sleep at all. I got online, talked to a lot of people and just tried to spend time with my friends before I had to leave.
Finally, Steph and Mary arrived at our terminal at 6ish. We only had enough time to talk for about fifteen minutes before we had to say our goodbyes. Tears and hugs, it was a difficult thing to do. Then Elenya was next, following Mary and Steph. And I was sitting by myself. Which made me cry even more.
Finally at 7am, with no sleep for almost 24 hours, I had to go check in. My flight was at 10:05. Luckily, I decided to check in three hours early, and went with Danielle and Jeff, because when I got to the terminal (which took fifteen minutes itself, with two suitcases, a backpack, and a duffel bag. My shoulders are permanently crooked) the lady said they did not have a confirmation number for me. Because Virgin Atlantic switched me over to United when they had to change my arrival flight into the UK, they didn't provide a confirmation number. So I had to basically run to another terminal (luckily my stuff was able to stay with Danielle and Jeff) to get a confirmation number from Virgin. I was mad and in tears, mostly because I wanted to go home and also because I hadn't slept for 24 hours. At first the lady at Virgin Atlantic had no idea what I was talking about, and the fear of me having to stay in the UK longer than I should made me irritated. Finally she gave me a number, and I raced back to my own terminal, just to have to wait in line for 40 minutes. Finally they called Chicago flight to the front, and I got the same lady, and she took my confirmation code. Then... she said my seat was suspended. I wanted to cry again. But she got that figured out. (This all had taken about two hours). Oh, not to mention before I got back in line I got my stuff from Danielle and Jeff, and there was this HUGE line for another airline blocking my only way to get around so I could get in line with my numerous amount of belongings. I was tired and sweating, and I pushed my way through. Luckily, both of my suitcases were underweight, and they allowed me to take both a backpack and a duffel bag as carryons.
I then took about fifteen minutes to walk to my gate. I was so exhausted I couldn't stand it. I made it right before they started boarding, and I sat down next to Danielle and just began crying and laughing. One of those like exhausted, relief, angry, and hilarious emotions.
I boarded the plane first, and sat next to a South African ( I saw the front of his passport) and tried to sleep the entire time. I didn't. I watched an episode of The Office, and the tail ends of a few movies. I listened to music. And the biggest mistake I made was eat the food (again).
I got to O'Hare and went through all the steps, really unsure of what I was doing because this was the first time I truly flew by myself. Luckily I didn't go through any type of claims for customs. I got my baggage, and walked out. I didn't see my parents, but the first person I saw was D.J. Apparently I wasn't supposed to see him, he was supposed to surprise me, and I ended up surprising him. Then my parents came over, we hugged, and they took my bags. We got to our car later on, drove home. We stopped at Olive Garden in Kokomo, but my stomach was bothering me and I wasn't too hungry (which was a shame). Raced home, I showered and got ready, and headed to Kaylynn's wedding reception. I felt kinda sick the entire time, but not too bad.
Then the next day I was siiiiiick. Sadly it was Christmas for my Mom's side, and I think I had food poisoning. I couldn't eat anything at all, and I just felt awful all day. I had woken up at 7:30 that morning too. And then that night I went to bed at 7:30, and the next morning I woke up at 5:30.
Now I've seen some friends, I've gotten back on a normal sleep schedule (I forced myself to stay up and forced myself to sleep in to where it was normal again), I've played my Beatles Rockband, and I have gotten a haircut (with color, and both were desperately needed.)
I start at Ball State in a few weeks, with my major as English Education. I finally feel like this is what I'm supposed to do.
So really, my trip back was awful, hectic, tiring, but so great because I was coming home to my family and friends, and my BED. I even think Sami missed me a little bit.
I'm so happy to be home.
Expect another post soon.
Love,
Erynn

Promises Like Pie Crust.

I send out sincere apologies for my lack of updating. This semester has been hectic and intense, and when I sit down, I usually am working on schoolwork or talking with friends to catch up from not talking with them for a week.
I'm in Italy now, the final trip of the semester. Finals were rough but most went well. I have hundreds of stories to tell, and I promise (this time) they will be told. I just have to wait until I get back into the comforts of my own home, during Christmas Break when I can sit down and have the time to write. I have pictures, videos, all sorts of things to tell all of you. I'm sorry it's after the fact, but that way I can look back and see it for what it truly was. You all will get the whole picture, within the next two weeks. It'll be information overload, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
Tomorrow we are heading to The Vatican and the Colosseum.

I love you all, and thank you for your support and good wishes!

Love,
Erynn

Oh, Stratford.

[outside his home, I'm pretty sure]
I suppose it's time for the blog for Stratford-upon-Avon. Home of Shakespeare. Which was September 26th.
It definitely won't be as long as Edinburgh. A lot of that is due to the fact that Stratford was only a day trip.
We got there and just kind of wandered around. We paid for the opportunity to see three different places, and we saw the museum kind of place that also went to Shakespeare's home. I also saw inside his daughter's home. We didn't get the chance to see where he was buried because someone was getting married in the church. Lame. People and their weddings ruining our touristic desires. We also saw cute swans and ducks at the little river, where we proceeded to throw breaded items and watch them fight over it, and chomp it awkwardly. I didn't buy any souvenirs, but that's fine with me. I have a lot of Shakespeare on my kindle. Good enough for me.
We also got to see As You Like It by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was good, but there were parts I had no idea what they were saying, and there were also a couple of times that I found myself nodding off. Just out of exhaustion, not so much that they were boring.
So overall. Not bad. Just not as exciting as other trips. But it was still pretty neat to be where Shakespeare had grown up, etc. Mmm.

Love,
Erynn

Finally. . .Edinburgh

I finally have the time [well, not really, I should be reading for British Studies] and the desire to write. I promise I will be fully caught up soon.
Edinburgh, Scotland was the 18th-20th of September. I can't believe it's almost been a month. The coach ride was a good six hours to get there, but I didn't mind. [Considering it takes 4 1/2 hours to get to Evansville from Alexandria. . .and that's in the same state.] I was sitting next to Mary and we enjoyed having our ipods and a good view. The valleys and hills were BEAUTIFUL! Green and rolling, sheep everywhere [because honestly, who doesn't love sheep?] cute little cottages sprinkled here and there. It was just really neat to see.
We got to our hostel, which was pretty nice, and put all our stuff away. I roomed with Mary, so not much was different. We decided to have a nice look around. I had to get batteries for my camera, and we also stopped and had something to eat. The food was awesome. We mostly just walked around, shopped [a lot], and had a pretty relaxing evening. That's one thing I enjoyed most about Edinburgh. . .we just enjoyed our surroundings. It wasn't this mad rush to get everywhere and see everything, we just walked around with our typical "ooh's and ahh's" and a few of "look at that's" snap snap of the cameras, and we ventured on. It wasn't stressful. We did end up taking a nap, because we were all pretty tired. But we had to get up and head back through town for our Ghost Walk. On the way we got some hot chocolate and saw [I want to say he was Polish] pyro guy doing all these fascinating tricks with fired batons. Like burning his feet and throwing them around all fanciful like. We stopped and watched him for awhile before continuing on to our ghost walk.
I wish I would have taken a picture of this guy because he definitely looked the part. He was really funny, though, which made the tour really comfortable. We went to the church and began there, and he told us about torture methods in Scotland back in the ye olde days, how to tell if someone was a witch, and what the punishment was if they were. Regardless, you were dead. And so was your family. We walked down an extremely narrow road and a little bit through town to get to Greyfriar's Cemetery. He told us about Greyfriar's Bobby, which is a really famous dog because when his master died he would sneak into the cemetery and sleep next to his grave every night before the dog died. So the town adopted the little fella and he was even given keys to the town. This meant that this dog had the right to vote in Scotland before women could. I find this oddly humorous.
We began the tour on the "goody" side, where the people buried there were generally of the good sort. We learned about Scottish documents and how the Declaration of Independence is somewhat based off one of their independence documents. We also got to see the room where J.K. Rowling sat and wrote Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. [Because everything is always about Harry Potter.] It made sense though because from that room you can look over and see an intricate looking highschool named "Harriet's."... so it makes some sense. We continue on and get around to the "baddie" side. He told us that the cemetery [which is on a hill] used to be a valley. We were basically standing on a mass hill of bodies, and that's why it was higher up than the surrounding areas. That was kinda creepy/interesting. Part of me wonders if I should really be fascinated by that. But the reason was Edinburgh closed off it's walls because it feared it would be overthrown by the nasty English. So the sewage was horrible, living conditions were unfathomable, and the plague hit hard. It was voted Europe's [2nd? 1st?] nastiest city. There had to have been only around 150 gravestones in the entire cemetery, but over 150,000 bodies. Or a number like that. I'm sorry I can't give more accurate information, this is what I get for waiting a month later to blog.
Then. The entire reason for going on the tour. We wanted to meet the Mackenzie poltergeist. I think his name is George, so let's just go with that it sounds like a pretty okay name. George Mackenzie was the ward at the prison in Greyfriar's Cemetery. He would sign all the death warrants and penalties and was basically a [bad word inserted here]. He just killed a lot of people because it was easier than letting them live. You have to pay for people to live. So when he died, I guess the fear and emotions that were attached to him stayed. Fear built up over the years and hence: poltergeist. He hangs out in a certain part of the cemetery, and the town actually had to close it off to the public because the attacks were getting too frequent and inexplicable. So the day that the town locked off the part of the cemetery, the touring company bought the keys and are the only people allowed in. Our tour guide had to lock the door behind us and everything. We get inside the mausoleum where he supposedly lurks, and the tour guide goes on about him and everything. Supposedly people walk out of there with scratches and bruises, or people that really attract the poltergeist (I believe it's called an inductor) pass out cold within seconds of getting near one. I, personally, received no marks, and I did not pass out. So the poltergeist must have moved on to someone much more suitable. I wish it was scarier than it was, but it was pretty neat and informative. There was a guy who jumped out and screamed, causing us that adrenaline rush, but I knew that it was going to happen because I have anxiety attacks, so I had to tell him, that way it didn't trigger anything.
After the ghost walk, we went back to the hotel and watched a Disney movie (tradition for traveling together), but I fell asleep during it. Which was sad for me because it was "The Great Mouse Detective" and it has been YEARS since I've seen this. But it was okay. We woke up and had breakfast. Then... the forever famous feat... we climbed [cue inspirational music]...Arthur's Seat.So, of course, we [being myself, Mary, Stephanie, Elenya, Rebecca and Sara] look at this giant mountain and immediately get excited. This was going to be epic. We walk to the extinct volcano, which turns out to be a shorter walk than everyone let on, and see a sign that distinctly says "Please stick to the path and do not climb the steep areas." Do we listen? Absolutely not. We climb the steep path, with only bunny holes as our footing. I was absolutely terrified. And exhilarated. And planning my funeral in my head. Stephanie walked behind me, bless her. It didn't help that I wasn't wearing the right prescription of contacts so my depth perception was kind of off. But we made it up. And we had our moment of glory, and continued to laugh at our boldness and somewhat stupidity of taking such a risk. Was it worth it? Absolutely. However, we had another 3 hours of climbing, because that took only around 15 to 20 minutes. It felt like an hour.
So we continued our trip. It was exhausting, dirty, and terrifying at times. But the feeling that I had when I finally reached the top was worth it. I had done something so incredible, something I never thought I would do in a million years. I never imagined I would have the capability or the opportunity to do that. And it happened. I allowed myself the well deserved feeling of accomplishment. Oh, and we made ourselves immortal by carving our names on the side of the mountain. [See shutterfly for all my pictures].The clouds were close, and it was crazy because we looked over and saw this lake and a boat, but it didn't look like a lake. It looked like the boat was either floating through the clouds, or it WAS a cloud. In either case it was a pretty neat sight. We ate a little bit on top of the mountain/volcano/really tall formation of rock and trees. But the food was deemed unsatisfactory, and because we began our trek at 9ish, and it became afternoon, we decided to make our way down the mountain/volcano/mass of rock. However, the thought of going back down the way we made it up was terrifying. There were some parts that had NOTHING to hold onto, and the lack of traction made it difficult. So going down would basically be signing our own death certificate. So we walked around until we found a sufficient alternative. And alas, there was green grassy paths that lead a peaceful way down. And we laid on the most soft wonderful grass I had ever felt in my entire life. I just wanted to lay there for the rest of my life. But we eventually continued on and made it down the rest of the way, seeing beautiful sights the entire way down.
We ended up eating at a pub, which was pretty good. The rest of the day was still more relaxing, just walking around, shopping, doing the normal things. We got to see the castle on the outside, because there was something going on inside when we got there. We made our journey to take a picture of Greyfriar's Bobby, since we didn't get to the day before. Mostly it was just a carefree, enjoyable weekend. I think Scotland has been my favorite trip so far. But Liverpool is coming up soon, so I'll have to get back with you all about that.
The next day we went to Hadrian's Wall and Durham. Nothing spectacular worth writing about. Except we did see a sheep rubbing itself up against the wall, must have been some itch. That was cute. And these two little boys were dressed as Roman soldiers and playing around on the wall, trying to keep out the "emenies".
So I give Scotland an A+. This week is going to be crazy, but I need to still post Stratford, Ireland, and now Oxford/Bath/Stonehenge. I'll try to get Stratford up tomorrow, and try to get all my pictures up on shutterfly. But this week D.J. graduates boot camp (yay!), I leave for Liverpool on Thursday, and we have a full day of British studies on Wednesday. I'm going to be terribly busy.
But I love you all, I miss you all so much!
Love,
Erynn

A real blog post.

As most of my blogs have been about trips, I figured it's about time that I write about my daily life here and the happenings of my life. Maybe I shouldn't be so formal writing in a blog. Maybe for once, I should just write. I used to do that every day, but here, I can't find myself writing with I really feel about things. So here is completely uncensored writings from me.

Harlaxton is beautiful. There is no denying the overwhelming view around me and throughout most of the manor. But this is where the thought of "beauty dies out" comes to play. I've gotten used to the beauty around me, and have found myself looking deeper. I find myself becoming disappointed with my trip here. And I don't want that at all. I want to be completely happy and feel blessed to even be here, but I find myself losing sight of that. And how wrong is that?
Mostly I'm just tired. I'm tired of being secluded here. I am here to travel and to learn, and mostly I just feel held back from the opportunities that are surrounding me. I go to classes throughout the day, and usually bog myself down with meetings that aren't as enjoyable as they really should be, or just feel obligated to attend. The food here disappears as soon as it's eaten. I look forward to meals because my stomach growls constantly throughout the day, but once I take a bite or walk away from the refectory, I immediately regret my decision to eat. It's gone within a second and I'm hungry again. I long for Olive Garden, and as horrible as that sounds, I am trying to be honest.
I find myself hiding a lot of my feelings again out of fear for myself. Guarding myself up again. I try to talk to those closest to me but I can hear their frustration through the internet. Memories of high school surround me here, and the worst part is - you cannot escape. In high school, I just had to drive home and lock myself in my room to relieve it all. I can't do that here. I have to endure it. And although it is probably teaching me some needed social skills and ways to adapt to my surroundings, I wish it wouldn't have happened while I was supposed to be having a trip of a lifetime.
I do not understand the need to get drunk every night. I do not understand the desire to swagger around unknowingly and say things I do not mean. I do not understand the constant wish to have more and more parties and drink more and more alcohol, and not understand what's going on around me. To miss the essential cultural experience and the fun you can have by sitting on the couch watching a Disney movie, or just talking and getting to know people. But it seems like here, that's all everyone seems to want to do. I shouldn't have to walk out to the staircase and have the smell of booze hit me so hard that I almost fall over from my hand covering my nose so fast and with such intensity. It gets old. Sure, I go out with my friends from time to time. I'll have a Guinness and talk and laugh. But I don't UNDERSTAND the need to get totally trashed every night. Being loud at all hours, hearing the complaints from the staff and other students. And feeling embarrassed that I chose to come this semester - apparently the worst class of students to come through here.
Stupid situations reaching to a boiling point. Feeling as if I'm not intelligent enough to be a part of a simple discussion. I never thought I would feel that stupid. Honestly, it's in the past for me, but the overlapping awkwardness and problems it caused with my friends bothered me. It's just I didn't come here for this. I came here to travel, to learn, to make friends, to make memories, to see Europe, to dream, to take the ambition that I have had to see London (and all my other ambitions to learn and to grow) for my entire life and make it come true. I came here to have an experience that I truly doubt I will ever have again. But I can't seem to ever quite get there. There's that roadblock, that something that is standing in my way. I didn't get to see London like I wanted to. I wanted to see The Tower of London, I wanted to see Westminster Abbey, and do it all the right way. Instead I chose to keep my mouth shut and follow the crowd. That's my own fault. I should have just gone off by myself and did the things I wanted to do. Instead, I choose to try to make everyone happy instead of taking this opportunity to please myself. I wanted friends more than I wanted to see what I've always wanted to see. So I spread myself thin and keep my mouth shut. I smile and nod and follow. Since when have I ever been a follower? And the friends I have here aren't the type of friends to take any advantage of me whatsoever. They would have taken my requests into consideration. But I don't know how it got so out of control. I don't know how these past two weeks have been almost intolerable for me. I don't know how I was so immersed in life here, unbelievably happy, missing home but not homesick.... to the complete opposite.
And the thing is - it's not the traveling. It's the manor. I can probably go back and forth and say I'm happy either way. Because even though there's all this inner turmoil that's happening with me right now, the real core of it all is that I am. Happy. I'd rather be here than anywhere else right now. I loved Edinburgh, I had so much fun (that's the next blog to be) and it gave me such life and happiness that I cannot explain. There are just as many goods as there are bads. I honestly believe I am letting the high school mentality get the best of me. I think I feel different than a lot of the people here (by no means better whatsoever) and I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I fit in. I have the best group of friends I could ever ask for here, I was extremely blessed to find these girls. But as a solo - how do I fit in? But at the same time, should it really matter? Should I really be loading myself with such a question when I'm going to be leaving so soon? These questions from my childhood and young adult life come rushing back to me, but didn't I come here to get away from that? To be whoever I wanted to be? To not be the same "afraid to be myself, no one ever accepts me" Erynn that I always thought I only could be? I have to get it in my mind that I am worth it. This is why all of this is getting to me. Part of me feels as if I deserve it. I have done nothing wrong but it all follows me, and with 140 American students in one building, eating, sleeping, living, studying and working together - you are bound to get a little overwhelmed. I guess I've been blaming everything on myself. I wasn't good enough - so of course these things would happen to me. I wasn't good enough for this person, so of course there grows problems within my friends. But I did nothing wrong.
I am in charge of my own happiness. I'm tired of feelng helpless here. I have to take charge over my own life here, or there will be nothing left. Of course it's difficult at times when we are treated like middle school students, but I am almost 20 years old. I know who I am, and what I want. And I'm done not allowing myself to get there. This has been my own fault. I've held myself back. I need to take these opportunities into my own hands. Being here alone (without anyone from home I mean) to help me when situations like this arise - was a problem for me at first. I have to figure this out on my own. And it's about time that I went back to my roots, to my writing, to figure myself out. I needed this blog more than I needed anyone to read it.

So anyone who decided to read this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to read the innerworkings of my mind while I try to figure my feelings out. I do promise that I am happy here. I love it here, and I will continue to love it here. But my emotions were beginning to get the best of me. And now I can try to look at things with a fresh new perspective for myself. I can't allow anything to get in the way anymore.
Any insight would be helpful, but don't feel obligated. I'm taking control now. It just proves to me that leaping across the ocean to a new place is harder than I thought. The wide-eyed awe has faded, and the reality of life has hit me again. And I didn't know how to handle it over here. But now I have a way. Or the beginnings of it at least. I can continue on now.

Love,
Erynn

Lincoln/Cambridge

So a week and a half later...
I'm the worst procrastinator.
But I figured before I would write a blog over Edinburgh, I should probably catch everyone up on our trip to Lincoln and Cambridge.
Lincoln (September 11th)
Lincoln was beautiful. We get there and the group I was in had free time to begin with which was kind of a bust because we had no idea what we were doing. So we just kind of walked around and waited for our tours to begin. We went on a tour of the castle, which was really neat. We learned the importance of Lincoln and the impact it had on England. We talked a lot about The Magna Carta. Our tour guide enjoyed going into extreme detail. We learned a lot more interesting tidbits but I don't really remember them right now. This is why I shouldn't wait a week and a half to write a blog. The cathedral was beautiful. We learned about St. Hughs (there were actually two of them. I like the story about the boy better. Partially because that's the one I remember the most). So I will tell you that story. There was a little boy that went down into the Jewish district and basically just died there. They blamed the Jews. They buried him in the cathedral and people started to believe that he could grant miracles. It kind of led to antisemitism as well. We saw The Dean's Eye and the Bishop's Eye. Which are just windows. Then we saw Roman ruins. That was pretty neat. We learned how influential the Romans were to Lincoln, building roads, bringing in religion and aqueducts and defensive structures. Like walls. And more walls. And perhaps another wall. But it was a really neat trip.
Cambridge
First, we went to the American Cemetery. It was really neat. Maureen and I walked around and talked about a bunch of different stuff because that's what we do.
Then came Cambridge.
I loved Cambridge. It was just a bustling college town full of history but also interestingly modern. I bought a t-shirt. I had the best food I've had so far in Europe there. Saw Kings College, kind of went around Trinity College (that Henry VIII opened instead of his original plan to tear it all down) got lost but ended up being on the walking tour the entire time, had an amazing bite of Maureen's cake. Got attacked by the people who kept trying to fill up their quota for punting. (Punting is kind of like a gondola ride but not romantic, there's more people in the boat, and the platform that the...punters?...stand on is flat). I thought I broke my camera and about threw myself in the canal. But Maureen fixed it. It was just a beautiful day, and walking around with no real agenda. It was just an overall happy day.

I'll have all the pictures up on my shutterfly. So you should check them out. And perhaps a comment or two, I want to hear how you guys are doing.
Love,
Erynn.

London

Hello all :)

Well it's been a century and a half since I've written anything. A big reason for that is because I've been extremely busy. If I'm not in class, I'm at a meeting or out doing something. But I promised I would write and update so here it is!
Last weekend we went to good ol' London. It definitely was...a trip. The coach ride was long and excruciating. We stopped to eat lunch and there began the realization that food is better in America. We stayed at the Royal National Hotel. It was..okay. We set out in our rather large group, and we ended up getting separated but all was well. It ended up being just Briana, Colin and I walking around. We got tickets for Wicked, saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster, Parliament, and other places on our extremely long walk. And we learned a lot about the Underground (aka tube, aka subway) because we were constantly using it.
Wicked was amazing of course. They sped a lot of things up which I didn't really enjoy, but other than that it was good.
We got back to the room and just talked until we fell asleep. It was a stressful but a great day in London. I loved seeing (some) of the places I've wanted to see since I was five. I felt/feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be able to see those places. There are still quite a few more places I want to see, so we are planning a trip back!
The next day it was Mary, Maureen, Stephanie, Elenya, Heather and I. We went to Camden Market and I got a dress! We took way too long to get to the British Museum, and we were exhausted afterwards. Oh, before everything we went to Buckingham Palace to see Changing of the Guards but it didn't happen. So I didn't get to talk to a guard or take a picture with him or anything. Sad. But anyways, we went to Fleet Street, but I don't think we saw the right place for Sweeney so we will have to go back. And when we asked for directions, this lady was like "you don't want to go there...you want to go here." and was just being rude. So we got somewhat directions from someone else. We also saw St. Paul's Cathedral (even though it was nighttime) and Big Ben and Parliament at night....it was beautiful. Then Maureen and I said goodbye to the group (her camera had broken earlier that day...) and we headed back to the hotel. We decided to go out to a pub at Covent Gardens with Briana and Colin. We got in for free! It was such a cool experience because there was this long line and this guy was like "Would you like to get in for free?" And there was no catch... we got to go through the side like some VIP people in front of this long line. I have no idea why he chose us, but I didn't ask questions! It was a lot of fun! But we had to walk all the way back to Russel Square (Where our hotel was) because the tube stations were closed. That was an experience in itself!
The next day was Hampton Court Palace. The palace of Henry VIII. It was...amazing. I love Henry VIII and Anne Boelyn so that was fantastic. I only have a few pictures and videos from there so I'll try to upload that sometime soon. I don't know why I have a youtube account because they don't let me upload my videos. So I'm trying it on here.
Overall, London was a fantastic experience but it was quite a struggle. My feet hurt...we kept getting lost...
Oh. Wait.
Biggest story.
My camera was STOLEN. Which is why I stole other people's photos and have mostly just videos. I had to buy another one.
It was just sitting there, minding its own business... in the middle of a large group of us girls... and all of a sudden....POOF!
It was gone.
I cried. I hated my life at that point. But I figured because I was in London, I couldn't let it get me down.
I'm going to try to get my pictures up on shutterfly. I slept all day today because I've been so tired and so busy. I will try to write a blog about Lincoln and Cambridge soon.
(I might someday sit down and edit this post...and make it more elaborate... but I'm so tired and it took me a few hours to make this video that I'd like to get off of my computer. So I'll tell you all if I do!)


Love,Erynn.