York York York

This week I did not have my internship at Cameron House. Because the students at Cameron House attend school year round, every 3-4 weeks they have a week off also known as “holiday.” During this time many of the students and teachers travel places with their families. One of my students was traveling to Switzerland, while one teacher was headed to Jordan. It was nice to have a break in order to get caught up on homework, cleaning, laundry, etc. however, time off really made me appreciate my internship and the opportunities it has to offer. I also had Tuesday off. Because I used Monday to get caught up on things, I used Tuesday to experience London by myself, walk around the park, and just relax. Tuesday also happened to be Valentine’s Day! Although I was unable to spend it with my family or boyfriend I was not forgotten. On Monday I received a huge care package from my family! It was full of all of my favorite things such as granola bars, chocolate, cookies, and GUM! Pretty sure I am set on gum for the rest of the semester and if I finish it, which might happen, I have a problem. They also included cards and a beautiful Valentine charm for my bracelet with pearl hearts.

On Tuesday I received the prettiest bouquet of white roses and chocolates from my boyfriend Jack. I’m stilling trying to figure out how he pulled it off, since my chocolates were from Marks and Spencer’s (a local grocery store in London), but he’s not talking and neither are my sneaky roommates. Nonetheless he is the absolute best and I can’t wait for him to visit in March! Tuesday night the girls, Abby, Lucy, Lindsey, Tess, Kirsten, and I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day by going to the cinemas. We went to see the vow staring Channing Tatum and Rachael Mc Adams. It was very good and the perfect movie for Valentine’s Day. We all cried, including me, which came to a surprise since my favorite types of movies are action, suspense, and of course scary.

Wednesday I received yet another package! This time from my Grandma and Grandpa Horstmann. Of course it was filled with lots of Gum and an adorable Valentine’s Day card. My Grandparents have talked about visiting towards the end of the semester and I really hope they do! My Grandpa is originally from Germany and moved to America when he was a young boy. If they do plan on coming we would definitely travel to Germany to visit our family. I would love more than anything to have that experience. For Art class on Wednesday we traveled to the Wallace collection. It has been my favorite gallery thus far. I learned that it was originally a house owned by a wealthy family who began collecting paintings early on and soon the collections grew and grew. The collection is comprised of mainly French and Dutch work. The gallery is also very unique from the others we have visited as it is a closed collection, meaning no work can be added or taken away from the collection. I really enjoyed the paintings, bright colorful rooms, and cozy atmosphere. It was more relaxed and comforting than the enormous museums we had previously visited. My favorite part of the Wallace collection was the armor collection. The collection featured hundred of knights’ armor, weapons, shields, guns, and more. Looking through the collection really made me miss my brothers. They absolutely love that kind of stuff! It reminded me of the show Deadliest Warrior. This show features ancient warriors and their weapons. The show compares and contrasts the pros and cons to each warrior and their weapon in order to figure out who would win a battle if they were to go head to head.

This weekend we decided to team up with the boys and head to York and Scarborough. I am almost certain that we are the very first students in the history of Central’s Study Abroad Program to travel to York and Scarborough, but I am so glad we did! Although our trip started off a little stressful, it worked itself out and we had a blast and I can honestly say this was my favorite trip! To begin when booking our tickets the three boys took the last three seats on the 8 o clock train… no big deal right? Tess, Lindsey, and I got three tickets for the 8:30 train. We woke up early and left with the boys since we still needed to print off our tickets, get cash, etc. We arrived at the train station and had everything ready and printed off by 7:30. We saw the boys off and had plenty of time to sit, read, and hangout before our train arrived. We checked our tickets they said 8:30, but when we went to check the board could only find a 8:40, so we went with the board. As time got closer Lindsey went to look at the board and could not find out train anywhere. She came back and confirmed with us the exact time. We told her 8:30; we looked at each other, looked at the clock… 8:29, looked at each other grabbed our stuff and ran! We reach our gate were we actually had the privilege of watching our train pull away… Worst feeling ever. So we went to the information and explained our situation. I felt sick to my stomach and totally embarrassed that we missed our train when we were there a full hour in advance. I don’t know what happened, but God was definitely on our side that day, as the man at information handed us 3 new tickets free of charge for the next train which was leaving in ten minutes. We were so thankful and overcome with emotions that we sprinted to our gate only to find that it was the wrong gate. By the time we got to the right one we were just in time to again watch our train pull away. I was almost ready to give up and just go back to Vandon when we decide we had spent way too much money and effort to call it quits, so we went back to information explained our situation and once again were granted with three new tickets free of charge and this time we made the train!! I don’t think I have ever experience such a rollercoaster of emotions in my entire life. First so excited, then sad, then excited, then sad, and finally excited and off to York for the Viking festival!

Before arriving in York us girls made an executive decision not to tell the boys about any of this else we would never hear the end of it! When we arrived in York we met up with the boys and attended the strong man Viking festival which was quite the experience to say the least! This is similar to a strong man competition. There were approximately 10-12 Viking warriors who competed in several events. The warriors were awarded a certain amount of points based on how well they completed each task. There was also a Viking King and Queen who stood as the official judges. The first even we saw was similar to “build the mountain” there were three large logs at one end. The Vikings were instructed to run each log to the other end without dropping it. The Viking to get all three logs to the other side in the fastest time wins. We also saw combat which was interesting. Each Viking got to select their weapon of choice and then they “fought” one another and earned points through certain moves. Of course the weapons were dull and they weren’t really trying to “kill” one another, but it still was fun to watch!  They had a few other challenges that we missed, but in the end the biggest Viking named Jorfen or something similar to that won the whole competition. After the strong man competition we had time to kill before the big boat burning festival! So we walked around York, went to a few shops, and even got to dress up like Vikings (which was my favorite part!) Although I am not a huge of snakes, because I was the only girl to dress up I had to be the Viking Snake Charmer, which I suppose I was okay with J We got a bunch of neat photos that I will be sure to post! After dressing up we decided to try and find the boat burning festival! Long story short, we literally traveled all over York in search of this place for a total of two hours and it was pretty cold to say the least. Finally after asking numerous people we came across a couple who also happened to be attending so we followed them. It was freezing during the festival so I did not get many pictures of the actual burning because I could not bring myself to take my gloves off or even reach into my purse to grab my camera, but they boys got some pretty good ones! I think I spent the majority of my money that evening on hot chocolate just trying to stay warm. After the festival we had to catch a train to Scarborough. Because of the festival there were no rooms available in York. However, this time we found the train station and successfully made the train the first time! When we arrived in Scarborough the search began once again. We had reservations to stay at a Bed and Breakfast that we spent at least an hour looking for. Finally we found it, after figuring out we circled the town twice and walked right by it at least once, but I am so glad we did find it because it was adorable! We were greeted by an old man and his family and their house was beautiful! They showed us to our rooms and told us that they would make us breakfast in the morning! The rooms were adorable as well and themed too! I guess we grabbed the wrong key because the boys ended up staying in the purple floral room, while we got the yellow sailboat room. However, it didn’t matter as they both were very pleasant. In the morning we were served a full English breakfast, which was 100 times better than the fried toast we got at the YMCA the weekend before. We spent the day tour the city of Scarborough which was gorgeous! We went to the beach and saw the ocean! This is the first time I have even been to the ocean wearing boots and gloves, but it was still awesome and made me want warm weather that much more! We also went up into the hills and visited the castles of Scarborough we took lots of amazing pictures that I cannot wait to share! We took a bus followed by a train and got home around 11:30. Although we were only away for the weekend with all the cold weather, trains, and walking it was exhausting and I was ready for bed! Can’t wait to see what next week brings as the fun continues!