A Routine, a Roadtrip, and a Day for love.

Hi all!

Within the last week or so I have fallen into a routine that I am starting to get very comfortable with. I am still loving all of my room mates and I would say that I have now officially become "part of the group". I no longer feel like an outsider, and am really starting to feel like I am at home in Nottingham. My friends and I do almost everything together. We have three meals a day together, go to the gym together, go shopping together, and then go out (or stay in) at night together!! Its crazy how close you can get with a group of people within such a short amount of time...We had a Valentines Day formal meal on Thursday where the guys wore tuxedos and the girls wore nice dresses. My camera suddenly died so unfortunately, I couldn't document the event!! Either way, we had a great three course meal, and then decided to have a ping pong tournament (still dressed in our formal gear) in which I won 4 straight games in a row!! Who knew I was good at ping pong after a couple of glasses of chardonnay? Not me!

I went back to the Wilson's this weekend because I managed to score a ride from someone who was going there anyway, which saved me a lot of time and money that I would have spent on a train or bus. Most of the Wilson family are away skiing in Austria for the week, but it was really nice to spent time with Leah and Morigan. I went to the Alma on Friday night with Nicky Clay and her boyfriend and we played the pub quiz and came 5th out of 6 groups...oh well!! Valentines Day was a strange one this year because Phil and I weren't together. Leah and I decided to be each others unofficial Valentines so we exchanged cards and little gifts (haha!) I went out clubbing with Leah and a few of her friends at night which was fun, yet I felt slightly out of place within the single crowd. We had tea at Gran Lorraines on Sunday night and then it was back to Nottingham for me...

I didn't get ANY work done this weekend so now that I am back, I am in major catch up mode (yet am stalling to write this blog...) I have uploaded a photo of myself, Eleanor, and Judy before we went on a club crawl last Monday!

Anyways, must get back to work now!
Hope you are all well. Missing you all as usual! xoxo

New Addition: I have added a couple of pics from the Valentines Formal that I stole from my friend Joe.

Taking the Good with the Bad

Hello All,

Wow, so as usual A LOT has happened within the last few days. The first thing I want to blog about probably relates to something that many of you already know about. My cat Patrick has been struggling with diabetes over the past couple of months and has especially struggled with it during the last few weeks. My parents brought him into the Vet's on Saturday expecting to take him home with a cure, and instead were advised to put him down...sooner rather than later. He wasn't able to recover and could potentially not last the weekend. So...Patrick was put down. I went out on Saturday night with Nicola Clay, an old friend of mine from childhood so my family didn't want to ruin my evening with the bad news of Patrick. So the next day when I went on to skype with my parents, the news hit me like a rock. It all happened so suddenly! I loved Patrick more than life itself so I had a major low point when I heard that news. I wish I had been there to say goodbye and to support my family during such a sad time. Our pets are part of our family (they make the cover of our Christmas card more than I do) so it feels very strange to have him gone. He was a great cat, and will be very hard to replace...

Anyways, now moving onto the good! I have been keeping myself very busy in order to take my mind off the obvious. On Monday I started my classes (finally!) and immediately found them to be different than at UBC. A lot of their learning is based on independent study which is difficult coming from a highly structured program at home. Because of the fact that the faculty of English is one of the most pretigious on campus, I have found the students to be slightly pretentious in their attitudes. I have been lucky to make a friend in each class but have felt a general feeling of "I am a scholar and therefore I am better than everyone" kind of vibe. To be fair, everyone has been very kind to me (because I am "in" the English crew) yet look down on the other faculties...very weird!! But on the other hand, all of the students in my classes are, indeed, very smart. Some of the things that come out of their minds are astonishing!! It is slightly intimidating but I look forward to the challenge.

On Monday night I had my first gospel choir rehearsal! My friend Judy and I signed up together so it was nice to go along with some else, instead of alone. I really enjoyed the rehearsal and had a great time singing my heart out without a care in the world!! Tuesday I had more class to attend, and then went to a Cheese fondue night with my room mates. To be honest, it was a bit of a let down. Their was a good turn out of people, but they promised wine with the cheese and their was none!!!! Because we were meeting our other friends later on in the evening, we had some time to kill (and were NOT enjoying the cheese party) so decided to do a mini bar crawl around Nottingham city. We ended up at a new club called Marketbar which was really fun!

I had a 9am class this morning which was unfortunate after a 3am bedtime but hey, you only live once! This afternoon I went into Nottingham city with my room mates Richard and Eleanor to check out the amazing shopping that their is in this city!! It was great!!
Thats all I really have to report for now...will update again in the next couple of days...must get some work done in the mean time!
Also, I have attached a very cute pic of Patrick, a pic from our mini bar crawl last night as well as a pic of the Trent building, where I have all my English classes.
Missing you all :)