I'm alive, I swear!

I've been extremely busy for the past week, which is good but tiring. I'll give a brief recap of what I've been up to for the past seven days or so...

Well, Monday and Tuesday of last week I was pretty sick. I thought that I had just lost my voice due to my amazing birthday celebrations, but alas - I was actually ill. I went to the doctor on Monday and got started on antibiotics, and Tuesday was mainly spent in bed resting.

By Wednesday, I was feeling a lot better. Good thing, because Kellen and I did a full day tour of Windsor, Oxford, and Stonehenge. We had a great time - lots of cool things to see, and the bus rides and our tour guide were pretty amusing. It was a long day (from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.), but we really enjoyed most of the things we did. We both thought Windsor Castle and Stonehenge were extremely worthwhile, but the hour and a half bus ride to Oxford (from Stonehenge), and then the two hour bus ride back to London didn't really seem worth the hour that we actually spent in Oxford. Sure, the town is neat, and the architecture is stunning...but we both felt a little underwhelmed with it. Anyways, when we got back into town, we headed over to Covent Garden simply because Kel hadn't really seen it at all on her trip. We ended up eating dinner at Wagamama (shocking, I know, but hey - when your guest wants something, you listen!) and then came back home to relax.

On Thursday, we played super tourists and went to the Tower of London, Borough Market, and St. Paul's Cathedral. I actually never went to the Tower or St. Paul's last year, so I was really excited to go to both. They both have such an amazing history...it really makes you stop and think about how young our country truly is. It was so strange to see etchings in the walls at the Tower, done by prisoners from the 1400s and earlier. History truly is a fascinating subject, especially in a country like this.

Kel's trip eventually had to come to an end, and she left very early Friday morning to catch her flight back to Chicago. All in all, I think it was a great trip - I hope she feels the same way! I look forward to her coming back in the not so distant future, along with the rest of my family.

Friday night was our second official IPAS event - pub golf. The girls and I, clad in our argyle knee socks, shorts, and polos, went out and took charge of the event. I think it turned out very nice, and the people that went had a lot of fun. We had a manageable number of people, which is definitely a plus when you're moving from bar to bar nine times throughout the night!

Saturday was Thanksgiving in London! Charlotte, Katelyn, Abbey and I all met up in the afternoon to go food shopping, then we headed back to Abbey's to cook our amazing feast. We had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean salad, brown sugar glazed carrots, salad, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, portobello caps, tons of wine, and (most importantly) three types of dessert: pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and pecan honey bars. So delicious! Most importantly, we were able to introduce a holiday that is very important to us as Americans, to our friends of different nationalities - including English, French, and our not so distant neighbor, the Canadian (clearly, we didn't introduce Thanksgiving to him, but you get the idea...). :)

Yesterday was mainly spent catching up on sleep. My body has been craving so much of it lately...I think due to me being sick. I finally rallied in the afternoon and went to see the new Harry Potter film with Charlotte and her brother in Islington. Amazing! I definitely was not disappointed. After the movie, we went to Wagamama (yep, third time in two weeks - say something) and stuffed ourselves silly. I love Charlotte. I'm not quite sure why that last sentence was necessary, but...it was. So there.

Today has been a productive day - I went to class, cleaned my room completely, organized all of my schoolwork, printed off my articles for the week, searched for flights home for Christmas, and did some reading. Now it's time to work on an essay that is due next week, run to grab some food, and then do a little reading for enjoyment (the Economist and InStyle UK). Take care, all.