Actually, Thanksgiving was in October.

What have I been up to this week? After getting back from Rome had a quality weekend with the housemates: went out, went to the market/Starbucks and even managed to squeeze in a bit of homework! On Monday night, there was a college trip into Manchester for a night out and two really exciting things happened:

1. The takeaway guy made me poutine. I asked him to put gravy on my cheesy chips and he did it -         success!
2. I met a celebrity! This only half counts because I actually have no idea who he is...when we walked into the club my friend Becca went "OMG is that Ricky Hatton?" and she and my friend Ben started freaking out. True Story. For a picture of us with Ricky Hatton (who is a boxer by the way), see my facebook. 

Since then I have still been busy plugging away at my schoolwork! Tonight, since it is American thanksgiving, our college put on a thanksgiving dinner, so that was pretty nice (even if Thanksgiving was well over a month ago). But British version of pumpkin pie was a huge let down...guess i'll have to wait until I come home for the real stuff! And it was a bit annoying having people wish me a happy thanksgiving all day - don't they know i'm Canadian? ;) 

Lastly - exactly one month until Christmas eve today, crazy how time flies!

Cheers!

Alexis

La Vita E Bella

Now that I am back and refreshed from my trip, I figure that it's time for a blog post :) 

I went with two Canadian friends - Allysa (who also goes to Western) and Danielle. On Saturday we left Lancaster and took the train to Manchester to spend the day there, we wandered around and did a bit of shopping. But we couldn't buy too much because RyanAir only allows a carry-on (aren't you impressed that I managed to fit 5 days of stuff into one carry-on?!). I had heard legends that there was a Tim Hortons in the Manchester airport so we also went to search for that....it was there but definitely a disappointment - only self-serve coffee and a few stale donuts; no wonder everyone in England wonders why we think that Tim Hortons is so great! At the hotel that night we asked to have a cot in our room and when we got back there was a crib set up in there! In England cot refers to a crib apparently, although I'm not sure why the front desk would have thought that 3 students without a baby would want a crib!

The next day we had to wake up at 3:30 to get ready and go back to the airport to catch our 6:00 flight to Rome! After we checked into the hostel we went for some lunch and had the most amazing pasta ever! Then we walked around Rome, and thanks to my excellent navigational skills seen the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and had amazing pizza for supper; then wandered around some more, had some gelato and headed back to the hostel (hey - we woke up at 3:30, we were tired!). 

The next morning we got up early and took the city bus (which is free in Rome) to the Vatican and spent the morning wandering around the Vatican Museums. Then we wandered back to the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain and of course had some more food and went to the amazing gelato spot by the Trevi Fountain that I found on my last trip to Rome :). That night we went out to the bar attached to our hostel and met lots of other international students. 

Tuesday we woke up early and hopped on the train to Pompeii (if you're keeping track, we used plane, train, cab, city bus, shuttle bus, and subway while in Rome - like I said, I'm a great navigator!). It's about a 4 hour journey, most of which we slept through, and once we got there we went to explore the ruined city. For those of you who don't know the story about Pompeii, it got buried in ash in 79 A.D. and everything - people, buildings and all - got perfectly preserved by the ash until they excavated it. The city there is easily one of the coolest things that I've ever seen - even the paint is still on a lot of the buildings! The casts of the people who died are there too - they're really cool and detailed. The city is huge though, after around 5 hours of walking we only still had time to skim through it! Then we went for our last Italian meal (more pasta and gelato of course!) and headed back, packed, had a drink at the hostel and got ready to head home! Pompeii was definitely the coolest part :)

Now I have to spend the rest of my Reading Week actually reading and writing... 

Ciao, 

Alexis

Off to Italy!

Since I'm trying to avoid the temptation to go out with my house mates tonight (can't be too tired for the train tomorrow!) I thought I'd post one more time before my trip. As of today, I am officially on reading week - you've got to love England, after 5 weeks of class they figure that I already need a break :) Strangely, only English Literature students get reading week here too - we're just an under-appreciated discipline everywhere else I guess!

You will all be so proud of me as well - I'm notoriously bad for over-packing, but managed to fit all of my stuff for my 5 day trip into a carry-on bag - and with extra room for shopping!

It's armistice day here today as well (akin to Canadian Remembrance Day) which means 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 instead of the usual one at 11:11 - little cultural difference! It's also Corduroy Day because today's date (11/11/11) looks most like Corduroy. When they told me that, I thought they were just making it up, but it is apparently a legitimate thing, given that three different people and a lecturer told me that.

We've also been studying insane amounts of Jane Austen in my classes this past week which is amazing! And I have plans to go to the Keats-Shelley Museum while in Rome - I'd better get extra credit in my British Romanticism class!

I'd better go and have one last drink with the house before my trip....

Ciao!
Alexis

Change of Plans

So, as those of you who have spoken to me in the last few days know, my trip to Amsterdam was cancelled at the last minute :(
But fear not, as I have just booked tickets for 4 days in Rome instead :)

Also, yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day (more commonly known as 'Bonfire Night') so we went and watched the fireworks show in town for that :)

Hope you are all well!

Ciao,
Alexis

Toga!

Yesterday we had a Toga party for my friend Will's birthday (see facebook for pictures - also, I did all of the girl's togas, so feel free to compliment what a great job I did!). It was definitely a ton of fun! Halloween weekend was also a blast - I'm lucky to live in such a great house and to have made such a great group of friends. It's crazy to think that i've been here for just over a month now - it feels like i've been here forever and also like i've been here for no time at all! This Saturday is bonfire night which I am really excited for - it'll be the first traditional British thing I've done! I'm also busy getting ready for my upcoming trip to Amsterdam and trying to keep on top of my readings like a typical student. Thanks to everyone who's been sending me mail as well - I promise that return letters are on their way!

Cheers,
Alexis