Tapas, the Alhambra, Big Adventures, Flamenco, Spanish Catholic Mass...I Must Have Been in Spain!

Friday morning, I left Maggie's house around 8:30 AM to make my way to Spain for a weekend adventure in Granada, visiting with my friend Jen from PLU who is studying in Granada for the semester.

The weekend was full of excitement - both good and bad. However, as it is 11:30 PM right now, I will only touch on the highlights at this moment. I will try to provide a more detailed blog entry tomorrow; if it doesn't happen then, it never will, as I'm off to Scotland Wednesday morning!

I flew from London to Malaga, and had to take a bus from the airport to the bus station, and then a bus from Malaga to Granada. People kept speaking to me in Spanish; once I realized they were speaking to ME, I simply said "English?" and they translated. However, I quickly discovered that many people in Spain don't speak very much English. This was surprising to me, as my experience in other European countries is that most people speak English. Spain was like the opposite of America - if they're going to speak a second language, English is likely it. But many people only speak the one language.

I had no problem getting to Granada, but I did run in to a snag upon arrival: I tried to call Jen, but had no luck. She, too, was unable to call me. I blame the Spanish phone system (I say this only because a lady from England staying at my hostel blamed it, haha). I arrived at the bus station having no clue where Jen was, or where to meet. I was preparing to try to find my way to the hostel by myself when I saw her...thank goodness!

Jen walked me to my hostel, and we passed near it three or four times before we eventually found it. It was tucked away on a tiny little cobble-stone street. But we found it, got me checked in, and then we went out for tapas. Tapas are an appetizer that is traditionally served at bars in Spain. In Granada, all tapas are free as a requirement to keep people from getting drunk (or to at least slow the process). We each had one drink, enjoyed our tapas, and then called a night.

Saturday was our grand adventure day. Jen and her friend Ruth introduced me to as much Spanish culture as they could. They took me to the Alhambra, a famous castle in Granada. We went to a museum and walked through a romantic garden. We explored the area all around the Alhambra, and then went back down into the town where we had churritos and chocolate. That's basically deep-fried dough and hot chocolate dipping sauce. Horrible for you, but yummy and a necessary treat while in Spain.

Ruth had to part ways with us at this point, so Jen and I decided to inquire about seeing a flamenco show that evening. We went to the tourist information office, where we learned about a flamenco school that had a show that evening for 7 euros. So we purchased tickets, and then Jen dropped me off at my hostel for two hours while she returned home briefly for supper.

While in the hostel, I met a girl named Rosa who is from Calgary, Canada and is currently studying in Barcelona. She was looking for a flamenco show to go see; some other girls in the hostel were telling her about a show for 13 euros, and so I spoke up that I was going to a show that night for 7 euros. Rosa asked to join us, and I said of course. When Jen came to get me at 8:00 Rosa joined us and we traipsed off to the complete opposite end of the city to see the show.

The flamenco show was great; very dramatic, romantic, passionate, and sexual. I tried taking pictures, but flash was not allowed and so my pictures are all a bit blurry.

After the show, Rosa and I decided to go out for tapas. Jen decided it was best that she head home, so Rosa and I stopped for tapas at a bar near our hostel. We each had a glass of sangria and enjoyed our tapas, and then went back to the hostel where we had one more sangria each from the hostel bar. We sat in the lounge with some other people at the hostel until about 1:00 AM, and then we went to bed.

Sunday morning, Jen and I went to Catholic Mass at the cathedral. This was our sneaky scheme for seeing the cathedral without paying. The service was short (not even an hour long), there wasn't one ounce of music, and I couldn't understand a word that was said. The service was very somber, and I had the distinct feeling that this must be how people in the middle ages had felt at church, listening to services in Latin, which they could not understand. Despite my language barrier, I could easily make out specific parts of the service, such as the sharing of the peace (everyone started kissing each other), the apostle's creed, communion (which was given to us without wine...wafers only), the sermon, the offering (the poor man passing around the basket accidentally dropped it), and the moment for silent reflection (at this point, the pastor sat in his chair and it looked as if he had fallen asleep!).

After church, we went to McDonald's for ice cream, and then I caught the bus back to Malaga and eventually flew back to London.

That's all for tonight's update; you can view my pictures from Spain in album-form here!

What Better Way to Celebrate Shrove Tuesday Than With a 500-year-old Traditional Pancake Race?

Today is known by many names; Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, what have you. At any rate, many people are eating pancakes today.

It was brought to our attention yesterday that in London, Shrove Tuesday is celebrated with pancake races throughout the morning. Legend has it that 500 years ago, a woman was making pancakes when she heard the bells for her church ringing. The woman rushed off to church, still carrying her frying pan and flipping the pancake the whole way so as not to burn it. This has led to the tradition of holding pancake races now on Shrove Tuesday. One town here in England has even had a friendly competition for over 50 years now with the town of Liberal, Kansas to see who has the fastest runner (without dropping a pancake).

The first race was during my one and only class this morning, but two races were being held at noon and 12:30, so Sasha, Annie and I planned on heading out to witness the excitement that a pancake was bound to bring.

But first! We popped in to the local STA Travel Office to inquire about trips to Scotland and Ireland. After nearly an hour there, we left with a complete weekend in Ireland planned, for the weekend right before St. Patrick's Day. We're flying to Dublin at 6:00 AM on Friday, taking a guided tour to various famous sights on Saturday, and flying out in the evening on Sunday. Saturday and Sunday we'll be sure to join in with the various St. Patty's Day weekend festivities.

Once we got this sorted out, we ventured out to the opposite end of London in search of the Truman Brewary, in order to witness the pancake races. We were already running late; it was 12:40 when we left, and the races began at 12:30.

Then we got lost.

We walked the wrong way, away from Brick Lane, where the brewery is located. We found ourselves in what is clearly a Muslim part of London. Many of the signs were in Arabic (completely useless to lost English-speaking foreigners), and we even found ourselves walking past the London Mosque.

So I pulled out my handy dandy iPhone and got us back on the right path. Now, you have to understand, we weren't just lost, but it's still ridiculously cold, and today, it has started raining. So we were lost, cold, and soaking wet.

Well, eventually we found our way to the Truman Brewery, and quite a to-do was going on. Food vendors were set up, an art gallery benefiting Haiti was going on, street musicians were playing folk music and - of course - pancakes were being sold. And by pancakes, I really mean crepes, as the English don't appear to differentiate between the two.

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we happily lined up for some yummy crepe/pancakes (I had a ham and cheese one) and then went in to the art exhibit to eat our lunch out of the rain. It didn't take us long to figure out that we had, unfortunately, missed the races. But! One team was still there, and still quite energetic. They were hopping and dancing around in the street with their frying pan (the rules state that you must supply your own frying pan; they will supply the pancakes). We didn't get to witness the race itself, but we did get to watch this team pose and create "action shots", and simply participate in a fun, local tradition.

Heading back to the tube, we got lost once again, this time wandering past a vintage clothing store which caught our fancy. By the time we eventually made our way back to the tube stop (once again aided by my bff the iPhone), we were utterly exhausted. We were ready to go home for the day. All in all, it was a successful, fun day exploring new parts of the city. And now we have an exciting new tradition (which we did not witness!) to bring home with us. I think Trinity could certainly benefit from pancake races in addition to the pancake supper every year.

When London's Not Snowy, It's Dreary

The snow has apparently ceased (at least for the moment), and now we are stuck with cold, wet, and dreary. I dare say it's worse than the Pacific North Wet. We, at least, have green trees and mountains to keep things interesting. Sure, London has really old buildings and amazing architecture (and a few interesting birds), but it all just looks bleak and dreary when everything else is cold, wet, gray, and icky.

Despite a dreary and drizzly weekend, yesterday was Valentine's Day and so I went out to do something special. I gathered up Sasha and Annie (just to confuse you, we have two Annies, both from PLU. If Annie is combined with Sasha, then I do not mean Annie Voorhies from work. So here's the tally: three Hannahs [two from PLU], two Emilys [neither from PLU], two Annies [both from PLU], one Liz [not from PLU], and one Lizzi [from PLU]), and we made our way in to Central London with the intention of riding the London Eye.

Now, here's an absolutely adorable thing about the London Tube system: nearly all of our homestays are north of London, located on the Metropolitan Line, and that line only. We must ride the Metropolitan Line until it intersects with the Jubilee Line (fortunately, these lines intersect three times on our journey) in order to get to Central London. However, there are "planned engineering works taking place" every bloody weekend, and that means that most of the Metropolitan Line is closed down. The end of the line is Wembley Station, and that is our one and only option for transferring over to the Jubilee Line. Heavenforbid some other Tube problem causes one line to close down; then we'd all have to learn the bus system!

At any rate, before I ever even made it to Wembley yesterday, I had to get off at Northwick Park in order to meet with Sasha and Annie. As I stepped off the train and on to the platform, I spotted Sasha and Annie waiting for me. Right as I was saying "hi", I heard "SARAH WISE!" and then suddenly I was attacked from the side. Hilary Scarbrough, General Manager of KCCR back at PLU and current international student at the University of Westminster in London happened to be waiting for the exact train that Sasha, Annie and I were planning to board.

It really, truly is a small world after all.

Now, I knew that Hilary was in London, but I hadn't been in touch with her yet (although we planned on getting to it eventually), and here we just happen to run in to each other in a city as large as London. So we four Lutes boarded the train (where we all had to get off at Wembley and transfer over to the Jubilee line) and chatted away about London. Hilary parted at Green Park, and we went our own way at the next stop, Westminster.

We stopped for a bite of lunch at a bagel shop, which boasted "authentic New York deli bagels." Apparently, everything that I like to eat is labeled as "New York style" over here. I must have really American tastes, or something. Anyway, it was tastey and cheap, as far as London prices go. After lunch, we went to buy tickets for the London Eye. Once tickets were purchased, we were instructed to watch the "4D Experience", which is a 5 minute 3D movie about a little girl who can't see the sights in London, so she watches a seagull flying and spots the London Eye. Then your senses get attacked with funky smells, bright lights, bubbles, and water while watching foreign people have a party in the capsules of the London Eye. I don't know, it was a very strange experience. But we did look awful sexy in our giant 3D glasses.

Next, we went to wait in line. Rather, we queued. Susie, my British Novel teacher, says that the Brits love to queue. I believe the ultimate queue is the queue to the London Eye, as the Eye itself takes thirty minutes to go around once. Surprisingly, however, the queue moved rather fast, and within half an hour we were on the London Eye. The London Eye packs in approximately 15 to 20 people in to one 'capsule', and everyone stands there looking out over London as it slooooowly goes around in one circle. Getting on and off is a tad exciting; they don't stop the wheel, so everyone has to kind of rush. It does offer some great views of the city, though, which in turn allow for fun pictures.

By the time we were finished with the London Eye, it was getting to be evening. We headed on over to Picadilly Circus in search of tickets to see The Misanthrope (starring Damian Lewis, AKA Charlie Crews from Life, and Kiera Knightley). That theater was dark, so we went to Cinnabon instead, and then went home. Once home, however, we purchased tickets to see The Misanthrope during it's closing week. We are ridiculously excited, especially as we also plan to leave the day after that for a weekend in Ireland celebrating St. Patrick's Day (hopefully including a trip to the Guiness factory!).

Today it was back to classes, so nothing terribly exciting happened, but I did get an invitation to Spain this weekend, and so Friday morning I will be on my way to Madrid, and then taking the train south towards Granada. I get back to London early on Sunday (at 8:00 AM!), so I might spend the day in York at a Viking celebration.

To see more pictures from London, be sure to check my facebook photo album!

Museums are for Playing Dress Up

Today, I slept in again which was absolutely delightful! After getting up, I texted two of the only people whose numbers I have here in London.

Annie had plans to go out to the Portabello Market, and Hannah had plans to go to the museums in Kensington. I chose to go with Hannah and her roommates, Katie and Whitney, to the museums today. So I hopped on the tube and met the others at their tube stop, and we made our way in to Central London to visit the museums in Kensington.

One note about traveling on the tube in London: during the week, most traveling is done, obviously, during rush hour. And everybody is, needless to say (but I'm going to subject you to reading anyway!), in a rush. So if you are not moving fast, you had better get out of the way, because people will get annoyed and pass you in a huff. Londoners aren't vocally rude like New Yorkers (few people will yell at you to move), but they will give you a nasty, annoyed look as they pass you.

Now, the thing is, this is not the case at all on the weekends. Apparently, on the weekends, nobody is in a hurry at all. The crowds are still massive, but instead of smoothly flowing in a quick rush, it's more of a slow shuffle.

This is what we discovered today, as we were finding our way from the Kensington tube station to the museums.

So, after making it out of the massive crowd, we arrived on the street where a woman was directing everyone to enter a specific entrance of the Natural History Museum, informing us that we could avoid queues by entering on that side. So we entered on that side, gave up our bags for a bag check (apparently the Brits are much happier to take your word for it that "no, I don't have any sharp objects" than Americans are), and then were free to explore the massive Natural History Museum.

The entrance to the Natural History Museum was incredibly cool, with a giant red earth-thing that took you in to the "red zone" (which is about the earth). Unfortunately, the rest of the museum was a bit of a disappointment. It felt a lot like things that we had learned in 3rd grade. It appeared to be geared towards kids, but I don't know of any kid who wants to do that much reading in a museum.

So we gave up on that museum and went to the Victoria and Albert museum where we wound up spending the remainder of the day. We viewed paintings, tapestries, silver, stained glass, and theater costumes. We played dress up in both theater costumes (real ones!) and mid-19th century fashions. Finally, as the museum was preparing to close, we left and made our way back to the tube station.

My final bit of advice to anyone staying in London is don't order pizza from Dominos, no matter how cold it is outside. I ordered a pizza from a Dominos that is located a ten-minute walk from the house, and it took an hour and a half (and three calls from the delivery guy) before my pizza arrived. But arrive it did, and I finally had my dinner (plus some left-overs for lunch!).

Tomorrow, the plan is a trip on the London Eye in honor of Valentine's Day!

A Lazy Day In

We get a good chunk of our Fridays free, and so I took my free day today as an opportunity to sleep in and be lazy, as to get over the little bit of jet-lag that I have left. I woke up at 6:00 AM, which I thought was really quite obnoxious. But I slept a bit more and didn't really get up until around 10:00. Then I moved my laptop over to the bed, grabbed my newly-acquired copy of Jane Eyre, and opened up iTunes and began reading for class.

I've run in to a bit of a snag regarding my internship, but as I am on strict orders from Martin, the AHA coordinator, not to think about this mess for 48 hours, I won't go in to detail right now. I'll update once a conclusion has been reached.

However, I will say that I may be either rearranging my class schedule or adding an extra class. Either way, I am now going to take 19th and 20th century British novel. We're reading Jane Eyre, Great Expectation, Mrs. Dalloway, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and The Buddha of Suburbia. There weren't enough copies of Jane Eyre, so I was sent out to find my own copy of Jane Eyre last night, and AHA will reimburse me for my purchase. We get to keep all of the books that the school supplies for us.

Speaking of classes, I have been to each of my classes now. We have been to the British Museum twice now, once for Britian Today to learn about early British history, and once for the art history class, to look at the Greek statues from The Parthenon. I've seen all of this stuff before, when I went last year, but it was still very fascinating to see it again. Last year, I saw the Parthenon sculptures before we went to Greece. This time around, I had a new perspective, as I have now been to the Parthenon itself.

Once classes were finished up and I had been given the task of getting a copy of Jane Eyre, my novel teacher told me that I could find bookstores at Russel Square or Charing Cross. I intended to take the tube to Charing Cross, but as it was rush hour and the tube was ridiculously packed, I decided to get off at Holborn and transfer over to the Picadilly Line, which goes by Russel Square, instead of getting off at Tottingham Court Road and transferring to the Northern Line. I also know Russel Square better, as that's right where the hotel I stayed in last year is located.

I wandered over to the shopping centre, with absolutely no idea if there was a bookstore in the area or not. I didn't see any, so I pulled out my iPhone (such a convenient tool in my pocket!) and searched for bookstores. Turned out, there was a little used bookstore called Skoob Books located behind the Waitrose grocery store that I was standing outside of.

Unsure if I could cut through the grocery store, I walked around the building along the street. I entered Skoob Books, and literally was standing at the top of a stairwell. I stood there for a moment thinking "now what?" and then headed down the stairs, which was really all that I could do. A few flights later, I found myself in your standard used book shop: very little room for anything but, well, books. I found what appeared to be the only copy of Jane Eyre in the shop and made my purchase, then headed home on a ridiculously packed tube.

Today, after spending a few hours in bed being lazy, I went downstairs and fixed myself breakfast, which I ate while watching Frasier and Will and Grace. After that, I came right back up to bed, my laptop (Rufus), and Jane Eyre. Around 1:00 I decided that it wouldn't hurt to go do something, so I got dressed and went out for lunch and some shopping.

I stopped for lunch at the Whistle Stop next to the tube station. There wasn't much left, so I had a sausage on a roll with butter and ketchup. I wasn't brave enough to try "brown sauce", because I don't know what "brown" tastes like. It was a tasty little sandwich, though. Then I caught the tube and headed in to Harrow, which is two stops down the line. I went in to the little shopping center and wandered around for a bit, where I purchased a few items and treated myself to a scoop of Baskin and Robbins (which wasn't quite as good as it is at home).

Now I'm back in, still reading Jane Eyre (we're supposed to have chapter twenty read by Monday, and I also have to read the entirety of Twelfth Night and the first chapter of my art history book). That's been my absolutely exhilarating start to the weekend! No plans yet for tomorrow, but I may wander in to Central London tomorrow. Picadilly Circus could be fun.

At some point this weekend, I need to write up an article for The Mast back home, too. Any suggestions on a topic would be welcome.

Update: London's Pride is a 'Tourist Drink', Dr. Jeckyl is Pronounced Jeekyl, and Why Walk ON Water When You Can Walk UNDER IT

Yesterday was orientation, and so for the first time everyone got to meet each other. There's a total of 29 of us, only three of which are male. Majority of the students involved are English majors, the rest of us vary between theater, art, and other miscellaneous areas. We met the AHA staff and got tours of the building where classes are held (the building, by the way, was built in the 1720s, and the "new" part of the building is from the Victorian era).

We went on a brief walking tour of the surrounding area near the AHA building, and then split up. My group chose to go get cell phones from Orange, one of two official iPhone providers in the UK. I'm frustrated that I payed for unlimited internet, and it is not working yet. Looks like I need to contact Orange.

After a long day of walking around and sitting and listening to people talk and all that jazz, a handful of us went out to a pub in Harrow called The Castle to help Cody (one of our three boys) celebrate his 21st birthday. While there, we made friends with a local named Marcus who informed our group that nobody drinks the London's Pride beer, as half the group was drinking it (I, however, don't like ambers at all, so I chose to drink the HSB, which was much better than the London's Pride). Marcus also introduced us to Chris, who was much closer to our age and happened to be an employee of the pub. Chris chatted up Cody quite a bit and made fun of our American accents. Coincidentally, Cody is not in fact American, but is the one and only Canadian in the group (he's in the program because he goes to school at UPS in Tacoma).

We didn't stay at the pub too terribly late, which I was relieved for, as I was half asleep. Luckily, Amber and I had gotten a ride to the pub from Leslie, and she also picked us up. I didn't have to walk and bother with the tube while in my sleepy and slightly-intoxicated stupor (trust me, the lack of sleep was doing me much more harm than my one beer was).

Once I got home, I was in bed and asleep in no time, and luckily I slept soundly all night long until my alarm went off at 6:50 AM this morning, preparing me for day two of AHA orientation.

Today, Amber and I (along with half of the other students) arrived late to school. We have all had our first official encounter with the Dreaded London Tube Problems. There were signal problems which were causing delays and cancellations on several lines left and right. The train Amber and I were going to catch got canceled, so we had to wait for the second train. By the time we reached our second transfer, three other girls (Annie, Ruby, and Kate) had met up with us. So all five of us arrived 15 minutes late this morning; we were not the last group of students to arrive due to the Tube mess. Unfortunately, many of us take the Metropolitan Line in to Central London, and we don't have any other tube option. So if the tube is down, we have to either learn the buses (which Martin, the AHA coordinator prefers in the first place) or we have to call a cab.

The morning started off with presentations from the teachers regarding their classes. Most teachers were trying to encourage students to take their class...except the woman who teaches Shakespeare the Dramatist...she evidently felt like there were too many students interested in her class and she was clearly trying to dissuade a few people. We have to make our final class decisions and register by Monday. Side note: the woman who teaches 18th and 19th British Novel informed us today that Dr. Jeckyl is pronounced Jeeckyl. It sounded downright wrong, actually.

After the teacher presentations, we had lunch (pizza from Dominoes...and apprently Dominoes here in London does not have the "new recipe" yet), and then we went out for a trip to Greenwich.

We rode a double-decker bus and were instructed by Martin to sit on the top level (which everyone probably wanted to do anyway). Then we walked a ways to the Thames, where we got on a clipper which took us to Greenwich. At Greenwich, Martin explained the architecture a bit, as well as what we were looking at. Then we marched up a very steep hill in order to see the Meridian line. Everyone took pictures standing in two different hemispheres.

Once we were done, we popped in to a little dome-type building, walked down a billion and one steps, and then proceeded to walk along a foot-tunnel under the River Thames. By the time we eventually arrived on the opposite end (reaching the top via elevator, as opposed to stairs THANK GOD), it had gone from being a nice, sunny day to hailing. Yuck. But we weren't there for long, as we continued on our merry way to the train, where we headed back towards our various destinations.

I tagged along with a few other girls, Hannah (we have three Hannah's in the group, this is the one and only non-PLU Hannah), Liz (not to be confused with Lizzie in the group), Annie (non-PLU Annie), and two other girls who's names I have yet to learn. We decided to head over to Harrow so that some of the girls could look for school supplies. Then we each went our separate ways, three different directions on the Metropolitan Line (it's a very confusing line, as it doesn't only travel north and south, but it splits and forks. You have to make sure you're on the correct train for the correct direction or who knows where you will wind up).

Now it's 8:30 PM and I'm having a quiet night by myself, attempting to sort out my cell phone and keeping myself awake until 10:00, when I plan to go to bed. Tomorrow, I meet with the internship people.

London Calling

Well, I arrived in London just about 24 hours ago.

The week leading up to my departure, I went to AT&T with my parents and got a new iPhone. I'm super excited for my toy, as it allows me to make Skype calls anywhere for free without using phone minutes (or pay for international calls). It also has an interactive Tube map, and it allows me to find stores, pubs, cafes, whatever. Oh, and there's no shortage of Starbucks, so I have a Starbucks ap to tell me where the nearest one is. It's awesome!

As I was packing on Thursday, I realized I had no idea where my camera was. I'm fairly certain it's not actually LOST, but I didn't really have the time to thoroughly look for it. The camera is 6 or 7 years old now, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to buy a new, cheaper but better camera. So I bought a pretty red Nikon point and click, which I have not yet used once on this trip. So now I have two new toys to play with!

Annie and I met at the airport bright and early Saturday morning (which feels like yesterday to me, even though it's been nearly two days). Our families waited for us to get through security before departing. It was definitely nice having somebody to travel with. The flights were pretty uneventful, except the flight from Chicago to London hit quite a bit of turbulence, and so we were never fed breakfast as it was unsafe to wheel carts down the aisles.

When I arrived at Heathrow, I couldn't find Maggie. So I went to wait at the meeting point, as I was instructed to do if we missed each other. I got a call on the loudspeaker telling me to come to the information desk. Turned out, Maggie and her friend Leslie had gone to the wrong terminal and had to drive around to come get me. It took half an hour, but they got me without anymore problems.

Leslie lives down the street from Maggie, and she is also hosting a student. Her student is Amber, an art major from Ashland. Amber and I did some Twilight bashing and then we wandered around locally looking for a Starbucks that Leslie and Maggie told us existed but we never found. We settled instead on Costa Coffee, where we had not-very-chocolate hot chocolates. It was after this incident that I decided a Starbucks ap was a must-have on my phone.

This morning, we have orientation at AHA, so Amber's going to come get me around 8:30 and then we're going to take the tube to school. Maybe I'll make Amber pose for a picture on the way, and then I can post her picture on my blog.

Anyway, not long after my excursion with Amber, Maggie's daughter and ex-husband came over. Eleanor is Maggie's daughter, and she just had her birthday last week. The four of us had dinner, which was nice, and we mostly just chatted about the differences between English and American cuisine. (Apparently, the Brits think that our pancake eating habits are strange. They eat pancakes as a dessert, without maple syrup or bacon, and their pancakes are really thin, like crepes or Swedish pancakes)

It was a nice dinner, and Eleanor and her dad are both very friendly. Eleanor has told me she's going to show me around London proper while I'm here.

I kept myself up until 7:00 PM, and then decided it was okay to go to bed. I was up for a grand total of 36 and a half hours. Yuck!

Hopefully I'll be getting a SIM card and a pay-as-you-go plan with a cellphone company (probably Virgin Mobile, but maybe Orange) soon, and then Pete (my iPhone) won't have to rely on wifi so much.

That's all for this update, I'm sure plenty more will happen today.