London calling

Happy St. Andrew's Day!

Final trip of the semester!  London was lovely.  Tina and I went down Friday afternoon via train.  We were serenaded for the first two hours or so by a group of increasingly wasted 30-somethings, but fortunately they got off at Newcastle, leaving us in peace.  We arrived safely at London King's Cross, and after an unsuccessful attempt to see Platform 9 3/4 (it's actually there now, complete with a luggage cart half-stuck in the wall), made our way onto the famous Underground.  Our hostel was in South Kensington, a really, really nice area of the city, particularly for a hostel - it's home to a bunch of international embassies as well as the Natural History Museum.  We were quite pleased.  So after a short break, we went to Hyde Park, where they were holding a German Christmas market.  It turned out to be quite disappointing - German Christmas markets, according to Tina the German, are supposed to have lots of little stalls selling Christmasy trinkets and stuff, in addition to all the food.  This one was basically a glorified carnival, with lots of ridiculous rides.  The food was good, though.  (Fortunately, Edinburgh has a legitimate version currently on, which I get to go see tonight!)

Saturday was our biggest day.  We started at Tower Bridge (the classic one, that everybody thinks is "London Bridge") and the Tower of London, home to the crown jewels.  We didn't go into the Tower due to price, and we didn't climb the towers of the bridge due to frigidity (it was FUH-REEZING the entire weekend), but we did walk a little way across.  It was kind of funny how, like at the Arc de Triomphe, people just drove over the bridge like yeah, it's an international landmark, nbd.  So then we scurried back to the warm Tube and went to Covent Garden.  Covent Garden has a really great market all the time, and on weekends it's devoted to craftsy stuff.  Yay Christmas presents.  ;)  From there we walked through Trafalgar Square, past Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives), and down to the square where Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster, aka the Houses of Parliament, stand facing each other.  We met up with one of my friends who's in London this semester and has an internship in Parliament.  He let us in with his VIP pass and we got basically the greatest tour of Parliament ever given.  Example: See that secret door behind the statue there?  That leads to the secret Parliament pub.  And now we're going to slip past the guards and check out these back hallways and awesome places that no one else sees.  What up.

From there we did a quick fly-by of Westminster Abbey (closed for the day even though it was only 3:30...??) and Buckingham Palace, and then went to Harrod's to check out the unaffordable splendor.  Home for a nap and out to dinner.  End Day 2.

Side note: a hilarious protest group just passed my window.  All the British students have been diligently protesting for the past month because their tuition has been increased to like £2000 or something.  Sorry, no pity.

Sunday we saw the British Museum, home to all the stuff the British Empire stole off their various colonies and/or everyone else and refuses to give back.  Examples: the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, and basically all the decorations from the Parthenon.  Classy.  It was really interesting.  For the rest of the afternoon and evening we walked along Oxford Street, home to lots of London's high-end stores as well as a really spectacular display of Christmas lights.  We got to see them come on, which was lovely.  Tina, who had to be back earlier than I did, left from there for the train station and I was on my own for the rest of the trip.

Monday was definitely the most exciting day.  Exciting not necessarily being good.  Three words: London Tube Strike.  The Underground services were patchy at best, and way too much of my limited time was spent navigating roundabout ways to get from one place to another.  I would have just taken the awesomely classic double-decker buses; unfortunately London is so (rightfully) proud of its Underground system that it doesn't well promote the workings of its bus system.  Also, so many other people were trying to figure it out at the same time that the website crashed.  Sweet.  I did get to see St. Paul's; unfortunately time limitations meant I then had to choose between the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham and going into Westminster Abbey.  I chose the Changing of the Guard.  Should have gone to Westminster, I know, I know.  But it'll (knock on wood) always be there, and I'm certainly going back to London sometime in the future.  And anyway, it was the Scots Guard that day, and I was feeling a little adopted Scottish pride and wanted to see them.

Train chaos continued when I got to King's Cross and discovered that due to snow in Scotland my train had been flat-out cancelled.  OH CRAP.  Fortunately I got on one half an hour later and it wasn't a big issue.  Aaaaand now there's snow here.  It's even a legitimate amount of snow, which is good because if my train had been cancelled due to half an inch I would have been mad.  Nope, it's legit - three inches, minimum.  And it is soooo beautiful.  Seriously.  This is what Christmas is supposed to look like.  I can't even tell you.  And there are Christmas lights everywhere...ohmygoodness.  The downside is that A) it's REALLY COLD and B) they have NO IDEA how to handle it.  There is seriously not a snowplow to be found in the entire city.  There are zero cars on the road and everything is being cancelled.  The airport is closed.  It's kind of hilarious, actually.  We've decided that instead of Scottish Studies today we should have a "How to Deal with Snow" class.  I'll teach it.  The Canadians can back me up.

On the bright side, this brand of cold has taught me the true meaning of the word "layering".  It is not the diehard jeans+tshirt+sweatshirt combination my dad has been promoting to me for the past twenty years.  It is not the recent trend in fashion to wear a couple of shirts on top of each other.  No, no.  Layering actually means, how many different articles of clothing is it physically possible for me to wear simultaneously?  I'm getting really good at it, too.  Today's total was solidly in the double digits.

All right, enough from me.  18 days left!

Love,
Melody

Giving thanks

First of all:
I have found success in a can.

Victory dance.

(What about all that pumpkin puree you crazily made yourself, you ask?  I used that for the pie I made Monday for our small group's Thanksgiving celebration.  I needed reinforcement for Thanksgiving Round Two.)

Happy Thanksgiving!  I actually woke up this morning in a terrible mood, for several reasons.  One: I am seriously jealous of everyone on Facebook with their "Great to be home, bleh bleh bleh" statuses.  Two: In recent news, WashU Res Life has seriously screwed me over for next semester, and, long story short, I'm going to be randomized.  Three: The omnipresence of cuddly British couples is doing a fantastic job lately of rubbing my face in the fact that I'm very, very single.  But you know what?  It's Thanksgiving.  And my life really isn't that hard.  So today I am thankful for, among all God's blessings, these things the most:

1. My wonderful family who loves me and misses me, my home which I want to go home to, and the fact that I will be there in less than a month.

2. A place to live, both now and next semester, that is safe and warm (or cool, as the case may be come May in St. Louis) and, in all reality, a really awesome place for a college student to live.

3. My awesome friends literally all over the world whom I love and am loved by and who make all my days good days.

(Of course, I'm thankful for lots of other things too, including but not limited to an incredible semester in Europe, wool sweaters, the fact that you're still reading my silly little blog, and pumpkin pies.  But those are the big ones.)

Plans for today?  I do unfortunately still have to go to class.  But as soon as that's over our flat jumps into full Thanksgiving preparation mode.  Me, Canada, and Germany are hosting dinner for two other Americans and a Brit, and as of now (2:45 pm) the only thing that's made is the pie.  (And it's not actually done yet.  It's in the oven smelling deleeeeeshous.)  I'm slightly amused by the fact that at the age of 20 I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving.  (As long as I don't turn into Monica from Friends, I'm cool with it.)  It's going to be entirely legit...except for the fact that Lidl is out of turkeys, soooo instead we're having duck.  Yeah that's right.  In addition to the duck (which is going to be a cooking adventure in and of itself), we'll have mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing (contingent upon us figuring out exactly how it is you make stuffing...), sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (found a mini-jar hidden in a dark corner of the grocery store), rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie and brownies.  And then we'll all collapse in a food coma.  Rock it.

Pumpkin pie is out of the oven.  I am le pleased.  Ready for this?

It looks way more beautiful/less awkward in real life.  Really.

So, that's how we do Thanksgiving in foreign countries.  Now you know.

Love,
Melody

IN THE FLESH: Boyce Avenue

K so even though I had to go to the BA concert with a nasty cold last night, it was absolutely amazing.  I didn't even end up having to go by myself - my American flatmate, when I told her I was going, was like, OH I love Boyce Avenue, I was going to go but just never got a ticket.  So she tagged along, and they let her in.  Which was awesome.

It was held in Cabaret Voltaire, one of the many Edinburgh clubs/venues that is down in the depths of the old catacombs under the city.  So it was basically like our own little Boyce Avenue cave.  And I do mean little - we were SO CLOSE to the band, it was incredible.  And we were near the back.  The place wasn't even full.  Unfortunately the people that were there were mostly young teenaged couples.  Which was awkward.  And then the other half was middle-aged couples...which was even more awkward?  Well, whatever.  I felt kind of awesome for being one of the <100 people in Edinburgh cool enough to go to a Boyce Avenue concert.

The opener was Ryan Cabrera...I felt sort of bad for him.  If you're saying to yourself, "Isn't he that guy that was cool like ten years ago?", the answer is yes.  I actually knew one of the songs he played, but he only did like four.  And nobody was that into it.  We were all silently like yeah, whatever, dude, just bring out Boyce Avenue.

And then they DID.  And they were AMAZING.  Nobody was very into them at first either, which was rather mystifying.  But I was screaming (take that, sore throat), and eventually everybody else was convinced too.  I had been wondering beforehand whether they would play just their originals or some of their covers as well...they did it all.  Mostly their own, but also "Teenage Dream", "Dynamite", and "Disturbia".  My absolute favorite was "On My Way" - at the beginning Alejandro was like, "This is dedicated to all the single people in the audience.  Do we have any single people here tonight?" and literally like four of us cheered.  Awesome.  (I told you it was all couples.  Crazy Brits.)  But whatever, it was fantastic.  He went on to say he wrote the song for the girl he's going to spend the rest of his life with, who he hasn't met yet.  AWWWWW SO CUTE.  Pretty sure I almost cried.

And the rest of the concert continued in a similarly awesome fashion.  We got them out for an encore, obviously.  My flatmate and I kind of booked it out of there as soon as it was over to avoid the rush.  Unfortunately this morning I see Facebook murmurings suggesting they came out and met people afterwards, which makes me want to die a little for not having stayed.  But whatever.  I will go to another concert of theirs without hesitation with anyone who wants to go.  Seriously, next time they're within 500 miles of St. Louis I am THERE.

My camera took only awful pictures, unfortunately, given the weird lighting.  And then the batteries died on me halfway through.  But I did manage to get some decent video.  :D  All should be up on Facebook.  Enjoy.

And then my head exploded.

Arrrgh.  My head and I are not friends today.  For one thing, I have been well intellectual [note: "well + adjective" is basically the British version of "super-adjective"] the past two days.  I wrote a 2,500 word essay and did a group presentation.  (The presentation was sincerely awful.  The essay I'm actually sort of proud of.)  And my unexercised brain might be a little tired from all that.  But the kicker is that I have at last succumbed to the disgusting cold that has plagued both my flatmates off and on all semester.  Angst.  I feel gross.

So funny story.  In coming back from Paris, I managed to misplace my student ID card.  It was sincerely worrying since the last place I remembered having it was at the Palais Garnier, and I didn't necessarily remember putting it back in my bag.  I found it yesterday, but not before the following bit of embarrassment occurred.  So I've been into the library twice since I got back, the first time just to study and the second to work on our group presentation.  (Remember you need to swipe your student ID to get into this library.  Lame-o.)  The first time I got a visitor pass and everything was fine.  The second time, though, I didn't really feel like going through that again (it was kind of a complicated process) and we needed to get in to print off our presentation notes.  So we were going in through an entrance off to the side and I was like, oh, it'll be ok, I'll just have one of the other girls swipe me in.  So she did.  But of course the security guard saw us and came over and was like, ain't no way.  Apparently they are not sympathetic at all to that sort of thing.  Long story short, I got kicked out of the library.  Way cool.

Fortunately, even though the slides were on my computer, I had emailed them to one of the others that morning, so they got printed off and we made it to class on time and our presentation went fine.  (And by fine I mean terrible.  But that's beside the point.)  But now I have to go back to print off this essay and even though I have since found my ID card I'm a little nervous.  They'd better not remember me or I'm ska-rewed.

Exciting discovery of the day: next week is our last week of classes!!  WHAAAAT??!!  I am slightly stunned.  I mean, I knew the end was approaching (*cough*onemonthfromtoday*cough*) but I had no idea it was that close.  I'm also a little mad - Germany and I booked our train tickets to London leaving next Friday afternoon not realizing that she has no classes on Friday at all.  And neither of us has any at all the next week.  So we could leave six hours earlier and come back like two days later.  Soooo we're majorly hoping we can get that switched.  Because, come on, it's London.

Other realization of the day: I have to go see Stonehenge!!  That was like way up on the list of things I wanted to do while I'm here and I completely forgot about it until an hour ago.  Soooo I don't know if that's even possible or feasible as a day trip?  Probably not from here.  More like from London.  So now that needs to get planned somehow.

The rest of the day will proceed as such: print off essay, not get kicked out of library, turn in essay, buy cold medicine, go back to bed.  Cannot wait.

Love,
Melody

...but who's counting?

Dear St. Louis people,

I will see you approximately 2 months from today.  I miss you like a fool.

Dear Spearfish people,

I will see you 1 month + 2 days from today.  I'm so ready.

Love,
Melody

Mais oui Paris

I honestly don't even know where to begin.  I literally had the time of my life this weekend.  I ate my weight in baguettes and cheese, stood among enough wealth to buy a good-sized nation, made a complete fool of myself in a language I do not speak, and found out firsthand why half the world is in love with Paris.  (The other half just hasn't been there.)  Here, in brief, is how it went down.

Our home: A rented flat, located in a quiet Parisian suburb, complete with full kitchen, bed space for everyone, a hot tub and sauna, TV, couches, treadmill, skylights, bamboo floors, and down bedding.  In an area three times as nice as the best hostel, with lower prices than the cheapest.

The sights: The Eiffel Tower.  Notre Dame.  The Louvre.  Sacre Coeur.  Montmartre (the artist district).  The Moulin Rouge.  The Catacombs.  The Arc de Triomphe.  The Champs d'Elysees.  The Palace of Versailles.  The Eiffel Tower...at night.  The Palais Garnier, the Paris opera house.  Le Marais (the medieval district).

The food: Baguettes.  Croissants (pronounced 'quah-sohn') - plain, chocolate-filled, raisin-studded, almond-flavored.  Cheese, both delicious and rotting-feet-esque.  'Petit cafe creme' = three tablespoons of coffee for 1.50 Euro.  One macaron pistache.  Quiche.  More baguettes.  Occasionally even a fruit or vegetable.

The people: Sometimes sweet, like the owner of the bakery near our flat who smiled at our feeble French attempts and waved at us the next time we passed his shop.  Sometimes awful, like the other bakery owner who got crazy mad at us and was not pacified by the fact that we didn't know how to say sorry in French.  Or that we didn't really know what to be sorry for.  Sometimes awesome, like the guy who put on a puppet show on the subway.  Sometimes creepy beyond comfort.  But always entertaining.

The bad: The Musée d'Orsay, home to the art I really wanted to see, being closed on Mondays.  Never quite understanding the train ticket system.  Staying in the Louvre so long that by the time we finally got out and found lunch we were about to literally eat each other.  Getting caught in a spontaneous typhoon and having our view from Montmartre hill blocked by fog.  Walking through over a mile of catacomb tunnels six stories underground with the bones of six million people stacked neatly on either side (fun fact: I'm claustrophobic about underground tunnels like that).  The hot tub exploding all over our bathroom floor on our last night.  Not being able to see the auditorium of the opera house.  Barely making our flight home.

But really, all these things are totally eclipsed by-

The wonderful: Coming up from the subway station and gasping at the Eiffel Tower right there.  Ditto for Notre Dame, and the Arc d'Triomphe, and the Palais Garnier.  Getting into the Louvre for free.  Being in cathedrals that have borne witness to millions upon millions of prayers.  Watching the sun set over the fountains of Versailles.  Coming up from the subway station and shrieking at the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  Shrieking again when the lights started twinkling.  Perfecting my pronunciation of the sentence, "Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?" Looking in through the window of one of the upper boxes in the opera house and being able to see the ballerinas onstage rehearsing.  Coming home completely and utterly exhausted from such an experience.

Sorry that was all so vague and un-Melody-catastrophe-filled.  (It was a shockingly light trip for such mishaps.  I only got left behind like twice.  My luck must be improving.  And/or karma finally caught up to me.)  I am still mentally exhausted and mellowed out from so much excitement.  Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.  Coming home is coming up, and I couldn't be more excited to see you all.


Love,
Melody

Brief Paris update

I'm on someone else's computer and we're about to get in the hot tub in our rented flat (yeah, life is hard), so I'll make it quick.  Basically Paris is amazing and I just had like the best day of my life.  Soooo get ready to hear about that.  :)

Love,
Melody

Paris, Missouri?

No, no.  Paris, France.

It was brought to my attention that I somehow managed to leave out what we're actually doing whilst in Paris.  (No, shopping and chocolate and amazing is not the entire itinerary.  Shocking, I know.)  Sorry.  So, a little delayed, here it is:

- The Eiffel Tower.  Obviously.
- The Louvre.  See above.
- Notre Dame.  I really really want to go to a mass there, but this would require breaking away from the group and the immaculately for Sunday morning.  We'll see how it goes.
- Sacre Coeur and Montmartre.  Really cool cathedral on top of a hill, surrounded by an apparently really cool neighborhood.  Which includes the Moulin Rouge.
- The Catacombs.  I don't care so much about these...so I might skip out since I could go to Mass during the time the rest of the group will be there.
- Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomph.  Photo ops and stuff.
- Versailles.  I hope the Versailles on our itinerary is the real Versailles...there doesn't seem to be sufficient time allotted to getting there?  Further background research might be necessary.
- Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera house.  This is the opera house that Phantom of the Opera was based on!  I'm so excited!  You can expect approximately 200 pictures of this building alone.
- A Paris flea market!  Apparently these are awesome and I want to go to one.  Christmas gifts, sorted.

Um.  I think that's it.  If you know of anything else I should see, do please let me know.

Love,
Melody

I'll turn YOU into a goon

I just looked at the current weather for St. Louis.  This is me shooting you an extremely dirty look for your stupid 70º and sun.  It was so cold here today I kind of whimpered every time I stepped outside.  You'd think that since I'm from South Dakota, I could handle it.  And you're probably right, and I'm probably just being a wimp.  But seriously.  Cold here doesn't mess around.  It goes straight to your insides and makes you never want to leave your flat again.  It's a little bit of a comfort that it's snowing in Spearfish right now and I know that's something that will not happen here.  It did, however, hail today.  Not promising.

I found myself today having to explain to my German flatmate the meaning of the word "goon".  I explained that I'm really the only person I know who uses it in normal conversation, but I still couldn't quite describe it.  Then it occurred to me that it comes from that "Little Bunny Foo Foo" rhyme.  I didn't really feel like singing the song for her, so, like the internet-dependent savvy teenager young adult that I am, I YouTubed it.  And, to the utter delight of all involved, this is what I came up with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84IowoW00w

Watch it.  Please oh please.

Oh yes, my European friend, this is a nostalgic song from my typical American childhood...accompanied by cartoon images of a bunny brutally murdering a couple dozen mice.  Just fantastic.  She was really impressed.

Anyways.  I just made a rather fantastic discovery: our trip to Paris is being headed by a type-A American wondergirl.  She just sent us all a nine-page Word document filled with maps of the Paris metro and bus systems, information on ALL the major things we want to see, a tentative schedule, detailed directions to and from each destination, and key phrases in French.  This is AWESOME!  I'll be honest, it does take the smallest bit of excitement out of it all, but on the bright side it will probably save me from being eaten alive by Paris.  But really, in case I haven't said it, I'm just super excited to have a group to go with.  Mostly because 1) I'm bound to do something ridiculous, and it's just better if there are people you know to openly laugh at you, and 2) I know approximately five French phrases, and only three of them are the least bit helpful.  Okay, and I guess I'm excited for the companionship.  :)  The group is mostly girls, so you know it's going to be SHOPPING and CHOCOLATE and AMAZING.  OHMYGOODNESS I'm excited.

Update: Tina tried to coach me in French pronunciation and I failed.  This should be a really good time.

I've been typing this post disjointedly over the last six hours or so.  In that time I also managed to correctly make my chocolate chip cookies.  After three tries since being in the UK, I have finally assembled all the necessary ingredients.  No incorrect substitutions.  And they rock my world a little bit.  These cookies are definitely my secret plan for world domination.  Don't tell anyone.   (PS Niko, you can be co-dictator with me since you co-discovered them.)

All right.  Six hours later, I have finally managed to assemble a suitable post.  Kthx.  Time to go to bed because I have a 7:30 prayer meeting in the morning.  Rock it.

3 days until Paris.

Love,
Melody

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Yesterday - as you may actually know, given the strangely large number of American Facebook statuses about it, but I definitely would not have had I not actually been here - was Guy Fawkes Day.  Also known as Bonfire Night, it commemorates the day in 1605 when a group of Catholics led by a dude named (surprisingly) Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament, killing the king, in order to put a Catholic on the throne instead.  The plot was foiled, Guy Fawkes was tortured and killed, and now once a year all good British children burn effigies of Guy and/or the Pope (I kid you not) on top of giant bonfires.  And they set off fireworks.  So in honor of this blatantly anti-Catholic bit of British tradition, our flat climbed Calton hill to watch these fireworks.  To be honest, I didn't expect much of them, because, you know, we're American, we're like the master of fireworks with the Fourth and everything...um, wrong.  They were pretty fabulous.  And then once the main show was done there were dozens of fireworks popping up from all over the city.  It was a really beautiful view of Edinburgh as well, especially because it was at night.  And then we went to Starbucks and sat and talked.

This morning I went to St. Andrews with the American guy from my small group, Andrew, and an older man he met at church who had volunteered to take him sightseeing around Scotland.  So we spent the morning driving at leisure up the coast, stopping to see Edinburgh from across the Firth of Forth as the mist rose.  He treated us to lunch at the Anstruther Fish Bar, home to 'Scotland's Best Fish and Chips'.  They were, in fact, really, really good.  Following that we continued up to St. Andrews, where he gave us a quick overview of the town and then sat down with his book, leaving Andrew and me to explore.  It was incredibly historical, so we spent several hours going into free museums, gaping at incredibly old St. Andrews University buildings, and wandering through cathedral ruins.  We also checked out the beach where they filmed the Chariots of Fire scene and I picked up some seashells from the North Sea.  It was really quite a fun day.

Also this week: I tried Marmite for the first time!  It's the British version of Vegemite, that weird Australian thing that no one understands.  It. is. NASTY.  Ugggghhhh.  I took one bite and gagged.  Apparently it's 'yeast extract'...oh my gosh.  So disgusting.  It's just incredibly salty and...ew.  Nope.

ALSO this week: I finally baked a pumpkin!  I didn't get to do it with the jack-o-lanterns; it was too warm in our kitchen and by November 1st they had completely molded over on the inside.  So I got another one, baked half of it, and made the other half into pumpkin soup.  The soup turned out really incredibly well, actually.  I thought it was delicious.  Tina even said it was better than her mum's.  I was so proud.  :)

Paris next weekend!!  OHMYGOODNESS!!!

Love,
Melody

Even non-surprise parties can be surprising

Yesterday was a wonderful day!  I was really surprised by it.  I just kind of chilled all day, went shopping, sat in one of the incredible cathedrals for a little while and prayed over this year...and it was good.  Then for dinner, Tina (my German flatmate) had promised to make these incredible meatballs that she's made before and I'm in love with (which is really saying something, given how often I eat meat of my own volition), so she did and they were awesome.  And then a few other girls came over around 8:30 to just hang out, and one of the Wash U girls brought some blow-your-mind-amazing toffee fudge crumble something bars, and we had Oreos (I thought they didn't exist here but they DO)...and somebody else brought a birthday cake!  And they even lit candles and sang.  :)  So we sat and ate sugar and talked nonstop until 1:30.  It was kind of like a slumber party but better.  So yes, it was a good birthday.  :)

Me, the twenty-something...

It's my birthday.  :)

I tried to get up early and take myself out to coffee/breakfast before my 9:00 class.  I was up on time; the coffee shops weren't.  Incredible, right??  It was 8:30 am and nothing was open.  Finally on my fourth try, I found one that was open and so had a mocha and the best banana bread of my life while speed-walking to class.  I could taste the sugar to the point of it being almost - almost - crunchy between my teeth.  So delicious.  Planned celebration: informal get-together tonight, high tea (!!) with the flatmates sometime possibly this weekend, and Boyce Avenue concert in two weeks.  The fun does not stop.  :)

Also: I have a plane ticket to Paris and a train ticket to London!!  AAAAARRRRGGGHH EXCITEMENT!!!  Also I was invited on a day trip to St. Andrews on Saturday.  I don't really know what's there...except for the university that Prince William went to, which is, um, awesome.  Plus there must be other cool things.  I'm just generally excited for life right now.

All kinds of crazy love,
Melody