I get knocked down, but I get up again

~Chumbawamba

Sunday was AMAZING! I mean, it was alright.

Sunday I went hiking in the Peak District with a couple friends. Let me start off by saying the peaks here make the mountains back home look huge! But it's still nature, and nature is beautiful, so it was still a breathtaking sight.

We set off from my place at 8AM and arrived in Castleton around 10, I think. It was cold, below freezing, but once we got going we quickly warmed up. We started our walk by walking through town to a small farm. While passing the sheep that were grazing, Andy reminded us that the book stated these sheep are hostile in the winter. So, of course, we started trying to talk to the sheep, whom decided to stop grazing and stare at us.

After walking through a few fields, past a farm, over a small footbridge, over a creek, and up through another field we started to ascend Lose Hill. While looking at the hill I couldn't help but wonder if there was another way up, but regardless, I pressed on and before I knew it I was enjoying this view.

After throwing a rock on top of the beacon, we began walking across the top of the ridge towards Back tor. The path was really slippery, with snow, ice, mud, and the occasional deep puddle that Andy so nicely entertained us with by stepping it in. We got a good laugh out of that, but as we all know, karma sucks!!

So, we continued along the ridge and eventually made it to Back tor. Here we enjoyed another wonderful view. The book said that we were supposed to follow a steep path down from here. As we were beginning out descent from the top of Back tor I fell in the mud. It was a bit funny. Not too messy. Once we made it down Back tor we all turned around to see the path we had just taken. Quite steep!!

After Back tor we continued along the ridge towards Mam tor, apparently the highest peak. Along we way we past some mountain bikers, brave mountain bikers, biking up an icy stone path. It was a very difficult climb to get to top of Back tor, and really really windy and cold at the top. But the views were once again beautiful. I LOVE NATURE!!

Coming down Mam tor I provided more entertainment for the crew by falling again in the mud. This time I thoroughly covered by butt with mud. It was funny, and painful all at once. We headed through some more fields, past some huge sheep, and down into a steep ravine. It was all so amazing! I can't wait until I go hiking with them again!!

All in all, I had a great time and really hope that in the new year I'll be able to spend a little more time exploring this country I'm living in.

For Carrie

This post has nothing to do with England...nothing at all. But after the night I've had, I needed to post something to make people laugh.

Regardless of your political views, this is funny...admit it! It's Nicole Parker (from MadTV) singing the song "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked in the style of Sarah Palin.




And in case you don't know the real song, here it is with Idina Menzel.



Oh! AND! I get to see Wicked on the West End in less than 2 weeks!!!!! (See, I just made it about England!)

I've got a gift and it blew me away

~Angels and Airwaves

I'm a little late posting this, but it's been another one of those weeks here in the UK. Being a full time grad student is a lot different than I expected. I mean, for 3 years I was a full time employee and a part time grad student. I had very little free time to deal with so I just knew what I had to do to get things done. Being a full time grad student leaves me with free time, but not too much. It's tough because I have deadlines for assignments, I have classes to attend, and I have studying to do, but I always seem to push things to the last minute without really doing anything else. I just wonder where all the time goes. But that's not the point of this post...

Saturday was Thanksgiving, well, when we celebrated it. I hosted dinner with several of my friends from class. It consisted of the 3 Americans, the Swedish twins, and 1 Brit. We had a blast! The guys came over early to start with the turkey, since I put them in charge of that. They got really into the whole thing, after a short explanation of what Thanksgiving is really about. Granted I always focus on the fact that you spend it with family, but in a way, these people have become my family here, which made it even more amazing. Anyway, our dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, Stovetop stuffing (thanks mom!), roasted veggies, succotash, cornbread, gravy, pie, and pumpkin cupcakes. It was all absolutely mouthwatering. The guys even decided to make frills for the turkey.

In an effort to make the experience truly authentic of a present day Thanksgiving, we did what anybody else would do, and watched football (American style) during dinner. I managed to find a way to watch NC State beat Miami on Saturday on my laptop. It was great! I spent most of the time trying to explain things to everyone else, like "what are those lines on the field for?" But it was fun watching the game. At the same time, we had the "All Blacks" rugby match on the TV playing. You can really tell the differences between the sports when you watch them side-by-side.

After dinner we all headed out on the town to celebrate the 3 birthdays from my class from the week, mine included. All in all, it was a great day/evening but if I had to do it again, I'd still rather spend Thanksgiving with my family. Although, this one sure was special.