It's been a busy week!

Yikes. It has been a long, crazy, busy week!

As far as school, I had two presentations this week - in Terrorism and Conflict Resolution. Both went fine, but I'm glad they are done and over with!

Socially, it's been an insane (and fun) weekend. Yesterday was the lovely Charlotte's day of birth, so we celebrated in style for a good 72 hours. The celebrations started on Thursday night, with dinner and drinks at Mestizo with about fifteen friends. It was a joint celebration, for Char's upcoming birthday, and Paul's birthday which was last weekend.

Travel buddies! Francie, me, Char, and Abbey.

Francie and I.

The birthday girl and I!

On Friday, we hit up the happy hour(s) at Fifty Five, a favorite of the IPP crew. Amazingly, it was my first time there and I really liked it! It was nice and chill, they played good music, and they have a pretty awesome drinks menu. I didn't drink that night, but everyone raves about the cocktails there.

The REAL celebration took place yesterday though! I started the day off with my long run for the week, a nine miler. After that, I headed over to Char's to do a little pre-gaming before heading over to Cargo, a well known club here in London. I'm not normally a club kind of girl at all, but I had a really good time with my friends. The group that went was really fantastic and overall, the night was really amusing and fun.

Char and I; me in my first outfit of the night. I ended up changing. Silliness.

Champagne with the birthday girl!

The girls at the hazy club! Me, Charlotte's friend Amanda, Char, Francie, and Abbey.

Me and a goofy Abbey and Amanda.

My absolute loves, Charlotte and Abbey.

All of the girls: Abbey, me, Char, Francie, and Amanda before we left.

Funny story. We got on the wrong bus leaving from Shoreditch, and didn't realize it until about 45 minutes later (night buses get extremely busy on Saturday nights!) when we saw we were on London Bridge. Oye! So, we had to get off, wait nearly a half hour for the *right* bus, and didn't get home until after 5 a.m.

Here we are waiting for the correct bus! JB, me, and Charlotte.

Once home, us girls decided it was a good idea to sit, chat, and eat crackers for about 45 minutes until 6 a.m. I have no explanation for this. We had an absolute blast dissecting the night and doing reenactments.

I fear that I'm getting attached to my friend's friends that are just in town visiting! I love hanging out with both Francie and Amanda, and they're both only around for limited periods of time. Such a shame.

So that was my week! This week will be consumed with schoolwork and dissertation work, since I have my first official meeting with my dissertation supervisor the week after. Time to get serious!