King Arthur, Punting, and Stripper Poles...?

This has been such a good weekend! Friday started out with a fabulous girls night over in the carriage house. We used my skype program to call the pizza place. For 24 pounds, we had 2 pizzas, cheese bread, 2 burgers, onion rings, french fries, and potato wedges. What started as a 7 girl night in, became quite a bit more! It was a lot of fun though. After ordering our food, we decided to watch King Arthur with Clive Owen. Wooo wee, it was a great movie for a girls night. It definitely wasn't a chick flick though considering there was a lot of war between the Knights and the Saxons. However, watching Clive Owen, as well as a number of other fairly attractive men, was definitely a perk. Oh the simple things in life that make a girl happy.... :)

After stuffing our faces and watching the entire movie, everyone kind of dispersed. Jess, Meghan and I went up to Jessica's room and watched some Youtube videos. They were flippin hilarious! We only watched comedians like Jeff Dunham, Mitch Hedberg, and Demetri Martin. But in the middle of the night, regardless of the quality of the joke, it was so funny! Meghan and I decided to go back fairly early though since some of us had to wake up for Cambridge the next morning.

Saturday morning came WAY too early, that's for sure! Jessica showed up at 8 and I had just gotten out of bed. She french braided my hair into pig tails which turned out to be really cute! We hairsprayed it so much, it didn't budge. Shortly after, about 40 of us were on the coach and heading towards Cambridge. We did make a little stop at an American Memorial site. It was the first time I'd been to a memorial site for people that had died during one of the World Wars, and it was so sad. Regardless of the American reputation for being loud and obnoxious, as soon as we arrived, it was completely silent. People walked solemnly through the straight rows of white crosses by themselves or with maybe one other person. Sadness was found in the eyes of each student as they read the names of all the people that had died and had their names on the wall. Scanning each name, I wasn't sure I knew what I was looking for. A familiar name perhaps? Or maybe I was just trying to see how many people from my home state had died for a freedom that I've come to take for granted. Whatever the reason, my heart ached as I read the names. They were cousins, uncles, brothers, friends, sons, and fathers...dying for my freedom. It's hard to really understand the price it takes for the opportunites available for us unless you experience it.

As we boarded the coach, everyone was still silent. It wasn't until we had been on the road for a few minutes that the conversations between everyone picked up. About 10 minutes later, we arrived the the cutest town I had ever been in. When we first got there, Adrienne and Chelsea went to explore while me and Jessica stopped to eat lunch. As soon as we finished, we decided to go punting with Gretchen and Emily. There were so many cute guys working that we were really excited and hoped for a good one! When it was finally our turn, we met our guy, Nick. He wasn't bad, but he definitley wasn't the blonde shaggy haired boy I'd been eyeing since we got there (and been caught staring at...hahah). But he had a british accent, so what the heck? He turned out to be really funny and nice. Two other people we didnt know got in the boat with us. If you don't know what punting is, it's kinda like a Gondala. You get on this kindof narrow and long boat. The guide will stand up on the back, with a really long pole and they stick the pole to the bottom of the river and push us forward. Of course you could do it yourself, but we were all chicken and wanted a little history behind the colleges we would see from the river.

The trip lasted about 45 minutes and it was the most relaxful 45 minutes I'd had in over 2 weeks. The scenary was absolutely GORGEOUS. We laughed and had a good time. We even included Nick in our conversations as well. He made fun of my attempt at a British accent and said it was too proper, hah! But he said I did it all right. Then he gave us his own American accent which sounded very country of course. I've come to realize that all British attempts at an American accent is very country which is very funny. Finally he gave some of us the chance to punt ourselves. I chickened out, but Gretchen and Emily jumped at the chance. One: I didn't want to fall in (which is a very common thing for people who aren't guides to do) and Two: I didn't want to make the two random people in our boat to suffer if I had created some terrible event causing us to flip. When we first got on, it was a little cloudy, but by the end of the ride it was sunny with blue skies. It turned warm and sunny for the rest of the day. It was truly beautiful!

When we were finished punting down the river, we headed out on the town. Our first stop was King's College Chapel. It was beautiful! We got to see the initials of King Henry VIII and Anne Bolyen which was really neat. Unfortunately, we couldn't actually wander about Kings college because people go to school there and it would be disruptive. That was the only place we wanted to see, so we actually payed the entrance fee. The other places we just took pictures of the outside. I ended up buying a Cambridge sweatshirt and a shotglass (I have been growing my collection since I got here. This was my third one!).

That night we decided to go out! It was me, Jessica, Meghan, Sara H, Sarah C, and Rob. The only guy! But it was fun. We got dressed up and went into Grantham to the club Barcode. It was dead at first, so we walked over to the pub called the Goose. It was packed! People kept staring which was a little awkward, but I've come to notice they stare a lot over here. Rob ended up getting a shot paid for by some guy which we found hilarious! Out of 5 girls and one guy, he was the only one to get someone to pay for his drink...and it was by a guy!

We finally went back to barcode and it was crowded, plus it was one pound shots for a few of the liquors. So everyone ran over to the bar for a shot. I tried a thing or two, but don't think I went buck wild or even had a buzz, because I didn't. Everyone knows thats not me and I won't get drunk or anything. But since it's legal....well, I figured Id try a few things last night. There were also poles placed throughout the place and people were dancing all over them. It was sooo funny! Jess and Sara became very good friends with them and there are plenty of pictures to prove it! They showed me you don't even have to be drunk to dance on a pole lol. But anywho. Rob found a girl from school, and, well, lets just say they were busy for the rest of the evening which made things a little awkward for the rest of us. Oh well, part of the club experience I guess.

A little before one we decided to go home. On our way back, we caught some guy doing the naked mile. So yes, i saw some guys pale butt running down the road. It was so funny and our cab driver started laughing saying that he sees it constantly from us Harlaxton students. It took a little while to fall asleep because my feet hurt and there was a ringing in my eyes due to the loud music. Finally I fell asleep but had to wake up early for church this morning. It's been such a long day and i've had to do homework but I haven't been in the mood. I even took a 2 hour nap by accident and I'm still tired! Gah! But I guess I should get back to it, in order to stay here and not get kicked out! Haha, love you guys :)