Getting Settled + Lakes

 Getting Settled + Lakes

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    This week was a typical week at the study center, classes haven't really been that challenging yet but I expect the difficulty to ramp-up now that everyone should be a little more accustomed to the college life. The weather is starting to get colder and I need to either be wearing a sweater or pants if I'm going outside. The study center took a trip up to the lakes district from Friday to Sunday which was a lot of fun, and involved multiple hikes, cheap pints, and some rain. As I'm writing this bit we are on the charter bus back to London and I am worn out. I thought the hikes we were going on would be no problem being that three months ago I was summiting some of the mountains in the rockies, but I was humbled quickly. One of the hikes in lakes was over twice the increase in elevation than the highest one I did in Montana. We stayed at a nice hostel in Ambleside along Lake Windmere, I had a great view of the water from my top bunk. The in-house bar had some of the cheaper drinks on draught that I've seen while being in England which only elevated the experience of enjoying a Dortmunder lager along the lake. Enough of the rambling, however, I'm sure you're reading this wondering when the weekly recap is coming. I won't keep you waiting any longer, enjoy.

September 9- There was a cold going around the study center and I caught it right before falling asleep on Sunday. This was probably the worst sleep I've had since being here. Lots of coughing and a hoarse throat made getting and staying asleep pretty tough. Eventually I woke up without an alarm around 4:30 and knew that there was no point in trying to get back to bed. I put on a sweater and my glasses and decided to get some laundry done before everyone else woke up. I don't know how you have the independence to move an ocean away as an eighteen year old, but don't know how to load a washing machine without breaking it, because it's been twelve days and two washing machines are already broken. Anyways, after I secured my washing machine I went to the nearest Pret A Manger around six to grab a coffee and walk around the neighborhood while my clothes were washing. Once my timer went off I came back, switched my clothes to the dryer, and went off again for another coffee and stroll.

After everyone else was up I went down to the lobby to collect my flat's "weekly" breakfast bag which I think has a very misleading name. Adding "weekly" to 'breakfast bag" makes it sound like the bag should have enough food for breakfast for the whole week, but it doesn't. If everyone in my flat were to exclusively eat breakfast from the food in that bag it would only last one meal. According to my notes for class today it can be summed up as unremarkable. After class ended for the day I spent an hour working on my online economics course before meeting up with Nate at the YMCA. We're all hooked on the steam room there so we used that after lifting before heading back and getting cleaned up. I play some UNO spinoff game with Nate, his flatmate, and her friend for a while before Brandon and Hudson came back from a play. Brandon, Nate, and I went to get McDonald's and afterwards I went to sleep.

September 10- Some super loud sound in the courtyard woke up everybody in the room in an instant around 7:30 this morning, and I have no idea what created it. I didn't let that bother me though because I slept for several more hours until 11 when I got up to start rehearsing a speech for my public speaking class. In public speaking I gave a short talk about how I got my name and what it means and then got critiqued on it. I think I did okay for the first time and considering my negligible public speaking experience. After class, I went straight to Sainsbury's to buy some tortilla chips because several days prior I bought avocados, but they weren't ripe yet. I enjoyed my chips and guac while hanging out at Nate, Brandon, and Hudson's flat which we've dubbed the "frat". We all were bored standing around so we went on a short walk to explore a little more of the area. I was really tired so I went back and ate dinner before going to bed around 8:30. I wanted to watch the debate, but figured my sleep was more valuable than listening to the toxic rhetoric of politics at three in the morning.

September 11- I've gotten into the routine of walking to the nearest Pret to get my morning coffee since none of my flatmates drink coffee and I can't drink a whole pot by myself. I really like that part of my day when the sun is barely up and the cold air bites at my face and I have a hot cup of coffee to warm me up. Class was fun today because for 19th Century Europe we went on a mini excursion to the Wallace Collection that had a curation of Rococo era paintings that were from the time of the first French Revolution. After class I got ahead of work before the trip to the lakes district for about an hour. I got bored of doing work as my productivity slowed so I decided to go for a walk. I ended up walking through Trafalgar Square and walked along the South Bank that was lined with various food and beer trucks. I got a coffee before boarding a train back towards the study center. After everyone else got out of class I went to play basketball with Cole, Aidan, Hudson, Hayden, Brandon, and Nate for a good ninety minutes at the Y. There's a pizza place nearby with cheap pizza, so we tried that out for dinner and I thought it was good for the price. I hung out at the frat for the rest of the night. Time flew by quickly and before I knew it, it was three in the morning and I needed to go to sleep.

September 12- Not much of anything happened today because of the anticipation of the lakes trip tomorrow. I got up around 11:30. I had a lunch workshop to go to about staying healthy, and if it weren't for that I probably would've slept longer. I grabbed two more pairs of jeans from Primark because of the colder weather I'd experience in the northern country. I worked out and hung out with some friends for the rest of the day and called it an early night.

September 13- I got up at four because I had to do laundry before we left for lakes around seven. I got McDonald's for breakfast and loaded up on the bus. We stopped at an oasis about halfway through the trip (3 hours) to get food/ use bathroom and have a break. Arrived at the hostel in Ambleside around 2:30. There were some Roman ruins nearby that everyone looked at while we waited for the check-in time. There was a great fish & chips shop right by the hostel, so we ate that in preparation for an easy hike, or so we were told. fifty minutes later we had climbed nearly 1,500 feet and were looking out over the entire lake. after taking a number of pictures we went back down towards the hostel and had a celebratory pint. Some kids rode up on their bike and the obscenities they were saying made me wonder if this is what kids who never got spanked turn out like. We walked about a mile into town to check out the local pubs and had a fantastic time. We got back to the hostel around 11:30 and I went to bed around 12.

September 14- I woke up around 6:45 and went to the in house cafe to have a couple cups of coffee and do some more work on my next speech. The breakfast the hostel provided was pretty good and afterwards the whole study center got ready to go on a long hike to Grasmere through the Rydal Caves. Rydal Caves were cool and provided a stunning view of the area. I ate atop a hill with Hudson, Hayden, and Brandon while the rest of the guys climbed another couple hundred feet to an even better vantage point. Everyone then walked to Grasmere and explored that little village for two hours. In that time we stopped at a pub to hang out and watch a little soccer, and got ice cream. We took a bus six miles back to the hostel and jumped into the lake before getting cleaned up. We watched the football game where we got embarrassed by an inferior opponent again, until the ceiling started leaking in the lobby and we left to another room. We went back to the pub around 8 and enjoyed ourselves, the drink of the night was Stowford Press cider. Many schooners were scored. We got back to the hostel around 11:30 and I climbed into my top bunk and fell asleep around 12.

September 15- The last day of our Lakes trip. We had a boat tour around lake Windmere before loading back up on the bus for the long ride home. traffic made the trip back longer than expected and including the 45 minute break at the oasis it was about a 7.5 hour ride back to London. I got a sandwich and wrap from Tesco for dinner and went to sleep.