Are you Talking to me Officer? Me?

I interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging about my Alaskan vacation (which is coming along slowly) for a story that needed its own blog post. Today, my taken for granted white privilege was challenged. Today, I lived through an experience I never thought I would. Today, I was racially profiled.

Last night, Mother had suggested that Emily and I should drive to the Nationals game today because it would be nicer than riding the hot crowded metro. The drive would be no problem-oh so easy. To be fair, mom did warn us about some of the ways we could be led astray. However, the combination of GoogleMaps confusing directions, Emily’s direction reading, and my inability to follow Emily’s directions caused us to accidentally cross the bridge past Nationals Ball Park and into Berry Farms. Very soon after making this mistake I learned that Berry Farms has the highest homicide rate out of all the Washington DC neighborhoods. Don’t worry, no one was shot while we were there. That wouldn’t have been as funny…

After crossing the bridge I failed at making a quick U-Turn and had to drive through Berry Farms to get back to the main road. As I was pulling onto the main road, mere feet away from making our left turn back to our intended destination I noticed a car behind me that had police lights in the front though it was a civilian vehicle. This car also kept making short police-car noises. I couldn’t think of any reason they would be stopping me (I certainly wasn’t speeding), but I pulled over into a dirt/gravel “parking lot”. Two cops got out of the car that had been following me, while about four other police officers popped out of a nearby parked police car. These officers were not messing around. They were wearing bulletproof vests and my sister noticed that they had their hands on their guns while they approached our car. They asked for my license, registration and proof of insurance. Of course I gave it to them, but I had no idea what they possibly wanted until they started talking.

I don’t remember the exact order of the questions—I was a little flustered—but they were all entertaining. What are you doing in this neighborhood? (We got lost trying to get to the Nationals Stadium). Are you two drunk? (No!) Were you here to buy drugs? (No.) Do you smoke weed? Do you smoke cigarettes? Cigars? (No no no). Are you aware this neighborhood has the highest homicide rate in DC? (I do now). What’s your relation? (We’re sisters). Who’s older? (She is. By eight years.) Why were you driving in this neighborhood? (We just want to get to the stadium. We have the directions in our hand. We can show you the tickets.) You shouldn’t be in this neighborhood (well no duh. I’m not finding this situation particularly enjoyable.) Don’t come back here again. It has the highest murder rate etc. Now turn left at the next light (Oh. You mean the left at the light that I was going to take two seconds before you stopped me. Thanks officers.) *Of course I didn’t say all these things, but I was thinking them.

Also, in the middle of this lovely exchange the police asked if one of us was hurt. We were really confused (we even checked ourselves for wounds) until the officer commented, “is that blood all over the inside of your car,” referring to some stains on the car door on the passenger side of the car. We informed him it wasn’t blood, but we couldn’t tell them what it was. The reason was we didn’t know what the hell it is. While the Corolla was in San Antonio it had gotten a mysterious, splattered stain on the inside door. David probably told me what it was, but I don’t remember.

The whole situation was hilarious to Emily and me. We had just wanted to get to the stadium and had taken one very wrong turn. In the moment, I could not comprehend why the cops were interrogating us. The cops, on the other hand, were completely serious and actually thought we were trying to buy drugs in the neighborhood. When we told them how we had gotten to Berry Farms (we were lost, honest) they did not believe us. Despite the Ball Park being less than a mile away, they thought it was a really flimsy and implausible explanation for why we were there. We had the directions (from home to stadium) in our hands and we still seemed suspicious to them.

However, in hindsight it sort of made sense that the cops stopped us. Why would two white women be driving into a predominantly black neighborhood known for drugs and death? The police could probably also see we choking back laughs the entire time. They thought we might be drunk or high, but we were only smiling b/c I don’t think either of us could believe the questions they were asking us. As Emily said, they got the completely wrong people. I certainly never thought that anything like this would ever EVER happen to me. Who would stop a privileged white woman? They would never suspect me of anything. But I learned that anyone can be racially profiled. Anyone. It all depends on circumstance, context, and horrible twisted bad luck. I don’t begrudge the police their jobs—which is all they were trying to do. Going after buyers instead of sellers is a good idea. But in this situation they profiled the wrong people. My mom brought up a good point relating to the Arizona law. After being targeted because of our race, we could imagine (though we’ll never experience it b/c of the many white privileges we still have) how scary it would have been for someone in the same situation—the cops wrongly stopped them for doing drugs—who didn’t have the papers needed to show the cops because they weren’t a legal citizen. Let’s just say, this experience was great for my sociological education. So much to analyze.

However, I’d like to end this post on a lighter note. I don’t know how accurately I conveyed how hilarious I found/find my very unexpected interaction with some very serious cops, but it still makes me giggle. I also still can’t believe it happened to me. Anyway, after we told my mom and our friend Anne (also at the game) what had happened we all started to joke around about the experience. Since my sister and I were taking such a long time to get to the game, my mom had been tempted to call us to see where we were. She was glad she didn’t, b/c a phone call while being questioned by the cops probably wouldn’t be good. I then informed her it would have been absolutely terrible. My ring tone is a rap song that is exactly the kind of rap song a super white person who might buy drugs would listen to. I can only imagine:

 

“Were you here to buy drugs?”

“No.”

“So you’re really in this neighborhood by accident?”

“Yes of course officer we would never…”

Cream on the inside. Clean on the outside. Cream on the inside. Clean on the outside. Ice, ice cream, Ice cream paint job.

The Gangs All Here

Well I was going to write a longer post about my summer so far, but I haven’t really done much so I’ll mention a few things and then set up the next phase of my summer.

So far this summer, I have been watchingTVdrawingeatingsleepingreadingplayingWiimusiclistening etc. One weekend I went out to dinner with a few friends (the few that are not in Europe at the moment). Tis the summer for Europe apparently, me included, but that comes much later. I so did not want to drive cause I always get lost going to Nora’s house. Cody read my mind and actually offered me a ride before I could ask for one. It was good to see (a fraction) of the old HB group again. We laughed, we walked, we ate, and the only person who was 21 drank. It’s been entertaining to-one by one-see all my friends have their first legal drinks. And did I mention the envy. This year is my golden birthday. 21 on August 21. But it ain’t here yet. I also got to see my good friend Liz again (the migrant from Arlington to Syracuse) as she stayed at our house for a couple of days. Just like me she managed to arrive in Arlington during rushhour traffic on 495. Fail! Her visit was short, but sweet. Yeah we hanged and she went back to NY.

Stuff really took off though on June 13^th. Why is that you ask? It was a day of reunions, which all started with church on Sunday morning. By some freak accident every young person/friend from my church golden years, even the ever-elusive Andrew, was at the St. George’s service. Also Liz had come down to celebrate Jeanne’s (another church friend) birthday. I swear I see Liz more now that she has moved. We “celebrated” after the service at Starbucks, reminiscing, gossiping, and updating each other on our lives. Besides the ghastly, humid, hot day it was a pleasant surprise.

Directly after that I accompanied my mom to pick up Emily. That would be my sister Emily, the (former) inhabitant of Africa. June 13^th was the day Emily returned from her latest several year stint working in Tanzania. Home for now, to work the Washington DC side of global health. Next, Emily’s BFF Mike came to the house for a little while b/c he had to leave for New York the next day. This meant going out for ice cream at the ice cream shop Toby’s formerly known as Scoops Beauregard. Mmm cinnamon ice cream. Mike said goodbye and Emily managed to stay up till 8:30pm despite horrible jet lag. Next to join the reunion, that evening, was brother David. And with his arrival the Churchman were reunited for the first non-Christmas time since 2004. It only lasted for a week, as David had to leave the 19^th to be the director at Shrine Mont’s Music and Drama Camp. Bow Down! Sorry, just channeling my MAD year.

The next day Mom and I attended the Grinnell in Washington picnic. I awkwardly (but not as awkwardly as I could have!) made small chat with unfamiliar current Grinnellians until I spotted ELYSE! She bounded over from the people she came with and we spent the rest of the picnic together catching up and talking. And did I mention the eating. The hosts backed out of providing cooked food, so I was FORCED to eat only desserts. I was just ecstatic to see someone I knew from Grinnell, and not only that, but a friend. Woot!

But that’s enough about friends and family. Lets get to the really important part…baseball. If you’ve been paying any attention to DC sports recently, or baseball in general, you have no doubt heard of the potential-laden new pitcher for the Nationals. Stephen Strasburg. The man with the 100mph fastball. I was mucho lucky to get to attend the much-hyped Nats game for Strasburg’s major league debut. I went with both parents, as well as a woman, even taller than me, who had never seen a game before. It’s been said before by all who were there that his first game was amazing (and Strasburg is well worth the hype) Not just because of his arm and skill, but because of the excited atmosphere that filled the stadium that fateful night. The night they ran out of room on the strikeout counter. As one Twitter user (though I read this in the newspaper as I refuse to become a real Tweeter) so accurately and hilariously stated- “Strasburg’s curveball just punched physics in the eye and stole its girlfriend.” I’ve never felt any real loyalty to the Nats before and I don’t know if I would call myself a reformed Nationals fan now, but I am definitely a Stephen Strasburg fan. Now, if the rest of the Nationals would give him some offense to work with. Where is the law that says all Washington DC teams have to suck? I also went to another Strasburg Nationals home game with the entire family on Friday the 18^th. It was the first Nationals game we all saw together and although the Nats lost AGAIN, Strasburg rocked it AGAIN, and we all (The Churchmans!) were there having a good time. The night ended with fireworks. Literally.

So that stuff happened and then it was time for my family vacation to Alaska (sans David). I woke up around 4am on because our flight was scheduled for 7am. Fun. We made it to the airport in good time. We went to the air Alaska booth, but they sent us to American Airlines for our first flight to O’hare because I simply cannot escape flying on American although it always sucks in some way. This day it sucked by only letting us print out some of our necessary boarding passes. We did not panic or yell however like the woman/jerk in front of us. I will never understand why people think yelling at service people will make the travel process go faster. I know not everyone can laugh it off like I can at this point, but come on, basic human decency. Anywho, our problem was resolved and we headed to security. While we were in line the security people kept telling the other travelers that this was not the security line for Delta flights. Sister Emily and I started joking around saying things like “Wait, but what about Delta flights?” or “Yes, but I’m going on a Delta flight.” Ha ha ha. Then the woman directly in front of us, sort of murmured she was in the wrong line and walked away. Oops. Yay foot in mouth! Before we knew it we were in Chicago.

The Chicago to Alaska plane ride was good. I actually had Internet for a good hour in-air, which I treasured b/c I knew that I would not be getting any type of internet on our upcoming cruise. I also actually helped “solve” a crossword with my sister and mom because of a crazy random fact I learned from The Question in the Justice League Unlimited cartoons. “The plastic at the end of shoe laces are called ringlets. Their true purpose is sinister.” !!! When we arrived at Anchorage I got the strangest sense of déjà vu because the airport was very similar to the one I arrived in last summer in Montana. Also, for the whole car ride to our hotel all the scenery looked exactly like Montana. Even the city around our hotel reminded me of a city in Montana. Therefore, I have discovered they are the same place. Your secret is out Alaska!

We decided we should wonder around the town of Anchorage instead of falling asleep immediately, which my body was screaming to do for reasons mentioned soon. We first stopped for a snack in a little square. Emily stumbled upon a little, amazing ice cream cart. There was local ice cream bars, hand dipped in hard chocolate shell. A very nice surprise. The weather was beautiful too and all the locals were outside in their tee shirts and shorts, despite it being Alaska. Next, we walked to an overlook where you could see salmon swimming upstream. In one section of the water dozens of people were fishing. Ten feet away from the fishers swam almost all the salmon, beyond where the fishers were legally allowed to roam. Next was dinner, probably my eighth meal of the day because of the time changes and jet lag. We went to a nice pub, though we discovered far nicer restaurants mere feet away after we had already eaten.

I should mention, because it was so important for the rest of our trip, the Alaskan sun. So, we had woken up at 4am in Arlington Virginia. It was now late afternoon in Alaska and there was a four-hour time difference. Therefore, we had been awake for a very long time and were much jetlagged. To make that experience ten times more “enjoyable” and confusing we were traveling on the summer solstice! The longest day of the year. Did I mention that during the solstice in Alaska, the sun is up for more than 21 hours. When we walked out of dinner the sun was almost in the middle of the sky. It was truly the longest day of the year. Oof. When I finally went to bed at 10pm to rest up for our upcoming cruise, the sun was still shining.

To be continued…

Finals Week and Farewells

WARNING. MEGAPOST. BUCKLE IN.

These are my highlights of finals week and the following weekend. Maybe highlights isn't the best word, they aren't all happy rays of sunshine. Here are the noteworthy moments of my finals week.

Monday May 17th. I had finally started t0 buckle down (in Perri's room) and write a paper for my sociological theory class at 7pm on Sunday evening. I left Perri's room at 5:20am. At 9:30am I presented on said paper. If anything, this semester has taught me that procrastination is bad and I should stop doing it. So next semester I'll try to work on procrastinating less (I've never said that before). The presentation went ok considering, however, I flubbed up at a very unfortunately point. I was describing the importance of sequencing in speech and conversation. At that exact point I couldn't order my words or thoughts correctly and had to start over about three times. Hallo irony! Later Perri suggested the class may have thought I did it on purpose. Leah responded; "they probably didn't think you did it on purpose, but they probably thought it was funny." So, Monday morning I also watched the rest of my theory class do their presentations-for about four hours-on two hours of sleep. There was one presentation I quite enjoyed; two boys presented on the images of femininity in She-Hulk comic books and did a pretty damn good job. Monday evening the dining hall was closed and there was a barbecue held outside. A good portion of the school spent their dinner hour sitting on the grass, which my lengthy legs make very difficult, while also listening to music. Of course-because it had to happen- "Party in the USA" came on at one point. Once again dancing occurred. No matter what the situation "Party" will always be danced to, at this point it's just common sense.

Tuesday: As you may have noticed I spent almost the whole last post mourning the loss of my seniors. I went on and on about how upset I am to only have a limited amount of time to interact with the group. Since I was so concerned, I decided to completely forget about the last "baking tuesday". I was basically in my room twiddling my thumbs at 10:45pm when I suddenly remembered. I ran over to find Sara, Elyse and Jessica leaving the kitchen. They asked me why I wasn't there and what I was doing. Forgot and nothing I replied. I don't think I can explain how angry at myself I was. I didn't remember because it was finals week and things were different, and Perri didn't remind me, so failure. Fortunately the problem of missing the last Baking Tuesday was sort of rectified on Thursday. But first...

Wednesday, my Animal Behavior group met (we had done an experiment where we made two different species of ants fight each other) and desperately tried to make our ant data mean something. We failed. However, we managed to put a spin on our results and get our presentation all set up for...

Thursday morning was my last real academic task for the semester (besides completing and turning in my lab notebook for Friday). I presented with my Animal Behavior group on our ant project. It went way to long and was possibly more complicated than it needed to be, but for once I felt sort of happy with my presentation performance. Thursday evening I got to make up for missing Baking tuesday with a Baking Thursday (or as I thought of it, Baking Tuesday on a Thursday). I did a little work on my notebook until I was made aware that I could just cut and paste/tape from my science papers into the book. As a result, for the rest of the time I played a flash-game with the rest of the table-meaning we all played it in our own computers. Isn't socializing in the modern world great? The game's name is Bubble Spinner and it was evil. Meaning I was bad at it. Also to perfectly finish the evening we were blessed by being introduced to one more of Sara's Harry Potter fan fictions. This time, between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. I got to read it because no one else wanted to. Unfortunately, I don't know how to use a British accent, but I think I did an ok job, I even-kind of-sort of left my giggling to a minimum. Also there was yummy apple crisp. I'll miss you baking Tuesday!

Friday. The last day of finals. It was luckily finals free, but eventful, annoying and fun. In the morning I worked my first dish line shift. You know the iconic episode of I Love Lucy when Lucy has to work at a bakery or something and there is an assembly line that goes way to fast and things get all backed up and fall everywhere and hilarity ensues. Yeah it was kind of like that. There were only two of us for most of the three hours, because no one wants to work on Friday afternoon. I was also stuck with the possessed sprayer that would randomly stay on by itself shooting water very heavily onto the dishes and spraying everywhere. I had to work in a puddle. When it was over, (at about 2pm) I finished my lab notebook quickly. Like a mature college student I cut pieces out of my science papers with scissors and taped them into my notebook, then rushed it down to Jackie Brown's office. Around 3pm I raced to the mecca of finals week: Block Party. A Grinnell tradition, but my first one. It is basically a huge party on High Street near off campus apartments and townies' living quarters. I surprisingly found the group pretty quickly, considering the crowds. We sat down for about 2 hours in one place. I was also made aware of the most tooly toolest tool I have ever seen. He is the quintessential pretentious philosophy major. He has an ugly beard, smokes cigarettes, reads philosophy books outside alone around campus, philosophizes to himself and skulked around Block party. I'm still washing the pretentious off me. The entire group and then some went to The Depot for dinner at 6pm. Very interesting conversation happened.

I don't know what the context was, but Perri asked if the term "bear" could be applied to straight men as well. We informed her, that "No, all bears are gay." Someone overheard and only took out "All bears are gay?" from the conversation. "How do they reproduce?" "Bigfoot makes them procreate. That bigot." Several lunches ago Ben had used his movie announcer voice to create a tagline that makes no sense and along the lines of: "In a world where foxes and people coexist. Something new is forming..." After our Depot dinner we refined the tagline/life goal: "In a world where foxes and people coexists. All bears are gay. And bigfoot rules the forest." That about sums up the group in a nut shell.

I should mention we walked to and from the depot. After dinner we also walked to the magical wonderful Dairy Barn. We had to stop for a moment before leaving campus to wait for our friend Olga to come join us. We sat on these sort of old fashion looking stairs at Mirrors Cottage. Stephanie took pictures of us sitting on the steps, posing like we were in one of those really old family photos that look brownish. We distributed ourselves on different steps, and looked completely serious into a random point in the background. Fun! Then, we somehow regressed into playing with each other's hair. I also earned another nickname. Apparently, Perri had referred to me as her "bigger half" at Block Party before I had gotten there. On the steps, after once again being teased by Elyse for being mean (obviously all in good fun-I hope), we decided Perri could be referred to as "my nicer half". Olga arrived, and we trekked to the "barn". We got our ice creams, and shakes, and slushies, and sundaes and sat down at a smallish round table, once again displaying our great talent for fitting an infinite amount of people at any round table. Tableville forever! More nonsensical but interesting conversation continued.

We walked back to campus and all crammed into Elyse's room and watched random YouTube music videos on her big screen. First was Justin Bieber, the popular, very young, white, singer, who we all find immensely disturbing in too many ways. In one video he tries to court a girl who looks like she's about thirty, in another he makes his black friends dance (I'm not kidding) and in yet another he has to sing this line with Sean Kingston: "One, two, three, four, catch a black girl by her toe." So many things wrong with Bieber. We then moved to a very weird "We Built Sioux city on Rock & Roll" video (which is Zach's home town-the video has been referred to as "the death of the internet"), and Miley Cyrus (of course) and Taylor Swift (gag me) and some more risky (or riskay in one case) videos. We finally decided to be actually active and played the fun paper, pictionary, telephone game (referred to in a much earlier post). I was super tired by this point, so I was not in top form with my drawing, but I did my best.

When the game was over I had a fun exchange with the group. The group has nicknames for almost all the second years that live with them on Younker Second. The two I am most aware of are "PreGame" and "Sausages" (named for his love of cooking sausages). Unfortunately, PreGame does not seem long for Grinnell. I don't think I ever saw him sober all year. Anyway, sausages passed by the kitchen while we were playing our game. Elyse lamented "that may be the last time we see Sausages." I put on my pouty sad face and Elyse comforted me with "don't worry you'll see him again next year." I laughed and corrected her, "I don't care if I see him again! I care about not seeing you again." And with that we were one night closer to their graduation.

Saturday. I worked in the afternoon and nothing interesting happened-at all. For dinner, Perri and I went to the Grinnell Steakhouse with Ginny, her friend Kelsey, and Ginny's mom who treated us. Her mom was super nice and bonded with Perri over the fact that both of them had moved during their youth. I cooked an excellently rare (but safe) fillet mignon. mmm. For post-dinner entertainment Perri and I met up with the group to see the senior talent show. While we were waiting for the show to start-on those infamously uncomfortable bleechers in Harris-we were forced to listen to really horrible smooth jazz. Though I guess the really d horrible is a little redundant what with the smooth jazz. Sara and I felt like we should be seducing someone or something. The show itself was pretty great. There really weren't any dud acts in the bunch. The first act gave me a little bit of a fright, b/c it first seemed to just be two people whistling. But they had a whole hillbilly act going and did funny plays on popular songs like "Bad Romance Novel," "I wish that I had Jesse's Tackle-box," and "Party in the UPS! Store." Very fitting. There was also excellent juggling, singing, and dancing. After the show the juggler put on a little encore fire juggling demonstration outside which made Stephanie's mom very nervous. Walking back to our dorm (meaning Perri's so same thing) Perri and I found out that we had more nicknames we weren't aware of. Apparently Sara often thinks of us as Perrigail, or Pabby. After all we are one person. I also forget to mention that during bowling the previous Saturday I got another nickname I never saw coming: Abigail Churchmang. I could explain it, but I'll just leave the mystery.

Sunday was super superduper frickin muggy. Saturday midmorning Perri graciously helped me take my two heavy bins down to storage. It killed our hands and I may have almost killed Perri when I "accidentally" dropped my side of the bin. Sunday afternoon Perri and I shared the role of Dysfuncto. I somehow almost broke the waffle maker before work. I managed to flip it into the waffle batter, splattering it all over the counter and myself. It only got worse. During work it was just Perrigail doing custodial and we kind of fell apart. First, I accidentally got a rug stuck in the zamboni temporarily. I literally said out loud to myself, "No one saw that." I looked to my right and Perri was staring straight at me. Later Perri was trying to take down chairs with her eyes closed. One, that's a bad idea. Two, it was hilarious because... she lifted off a chair that had a napkin holder (w/salt and pepper shakers) on it and they (the salt, napkins and holder) flew everywhere. I literally doubled over laughing. I also got more sassy as the shift went on. I refused to do napkins because I didn't want to and I wanted to leave the shift as soon as possible. Perri thinks I hurt Derek (our supervisor's) feelings. It probably didn't help I implied he and Perri weren't my friend. NOT TRUE. I also accidentally admitted to enjoying shooting things up right in front of a Grinnell security guard. Oops. One of the reasons I hated work was b/c I was missing a picnic. Everyone (mostly) from the group and their family was having a barbecue outside of Younker. I loved watching the seniors interact with their families. I now see where they get some of themselves from. Perri and I caught the picnic half-way through luckily. Good times. For dinner Perrigail went out with Stephanie's mom for Mexican. Steph and her mom are like the same person interests and hobby wise. They're adorable. Pabby ordered fried ice cream for dessert, but it was awful. It was like they put corn flakes on vanilla ice cream and then decided to skip out on the frying part. Ah well. And thus marked my last night at Grinnell for quite a while.

Monday morning was graduation. I decided I probably wasn't going to cry, but I was very sad anyway. Perri and I got there much later than we should have. It was packed and there was nowhere else left to sit. However, heaven was shining on us because after fifteen minutes of standing two chairs magically appeared before us. Also shining on us was the bright, hot, muggy sun. Ew. It was over 90 degrees. While Perrigail got lucky and got to sit in shade, the graduates were not so lucky. I heard from them later that it was unbearably hot, but by some miracle no one fainted. The ceremony was way too long which was normal. I still enjoyed the very random facts at the end of ceremony announced by RKO including: "today is also Victoria Day in Canada because it is Queen Victoria's birthday". Wow, ya learn something new everyday. However, before I knew it my friends were graduated. I basically sprinted to the picnic because I was starving. Pabby met up with Elyse in line and ate on the grass and heat and sun with Elyse's family and Jessica, but no one else was to be found. I was almost afraid I wasn't going to get to say goodbye before I left. Luckily, we found out that everyone else was eating inside Noyce in the air conditioning. Smart. Everyone held up pretty well, even when we had to stand around for about five minutes so parents could take pictures. However, once Allegria teared up it was all over. Falling like dominos, half of the group started crying. I and others were immune, but it was touching and I think we all felt the sentiment. Jessica and I had to head out to caravan out of Grinnell, so we said our goodbyes. Good bye all! Thank you for a wonderful year and I will cherish our memories together; which can mostly be handily found on this here blog.

Before I finally let you stop reading, just some quick notes about my road trip.

After saying goodbye, I finished packing my car and left with Jessica to begin caravanning. We had decided to drive in separate cars, but together until we split off at Pittsburg.

Because my I-pod radio converter was not working in my car I had to be creative with my music. I became a sort of personal DJ for myself, mixing my CDs and whatever radio happened to be in reach. After about 3 hours of driving, and little sleep the previous night, I was feeling really tired which is not a good mix with driving over 60. Then heaven sent me a little gift in the form of an awesome Rap Radio station that seems to be local to Chicago. However, it played well into Indiana, so I couldn’t complain. Well actually I did complain when it finally cut out. But, then I moved onto the BBC news radio station. You can’t fit me into a box-literally or figuratively! I then moved to the most vial radio show I could possibly imagine. It was so conservative that I wanted to scream at the host. Actually, I did scream at the host-whose name was Lars Larson-really? which was kind of fun. As one radio listener put it “After listening to your show I know why you fight for your right to own a gun." Next, I listened to a mix cd Ashleigh gave me awhile ago that had music that ranged from old American blues to modern British electro-pop. It was just mellow enough to be soothing, but lively enough to keep me from swerving off the highway from exhaustion. Jessica only made it Toledo Ohio for that day. We were starved and ate at "Steak and Shake." Then we rented a room for the night at my favorite rode side hotel, the Holiday Inn. Thus prompting the Chingy song to play in my mind for the rest of the night.

The next day, I split off from Jessica at the exit for Pittsburg and I got to drive for another 5 hours, meanwhile bleeding money at the millions of toll booths. I managed to make it to Northern Virginia right in time for rushhour traffic on I-495. Since I was having so much fun moving slower than molasses I decided to accidentally miss the exit for I-66 E and then for 1-50E. Then I missed about a billion turns. Yay. But now I’m home and…

BRING ON THE SUMMER!

Call of the Wild/Why did I have to Befriend Seniors?

Thursday, May 13, I went with Perri to her volunteer shift at the Grinnell Animal Shelter, as I occasionally do, to help take care of the kitties. About two weeks before, when I was at the shelter I saw two kittens that were kept in a separate room from the other cats because they were new arrivals and had to be quarantined. They're both white and look sort of like twins, and when I walked into the room they looked very very creepy. I was reminded of the twins in The Shining. "Come pet us. Come pet us forever."

Well, I saw the same two cats this past time, looking a lot bigger, and they had joined with the rest of the cats. This time the creepiness in my heart was replaced by love. One of the siblings is the sweetest kitty. She's playful and soft (I love the texture of her fur) and so lovely especially since she didn't take a chomp out of my arm like some of the other cats. I wanted to take her home. Her amazingness was only dampened by her name. I turned to Perri and asked what the cat's name was, and said "If it's name is Snowball, I'm going to hurt somebody." Sure enough-Snowball is her name. Really? Who can seriously at this point, non-ironically name a white cat Snowball? If I were to make her mine I would have to rectify that situation. I never have liked white cats before, but now I'm reconsidering. My dog plan for when I'm older is to raise a black great dane puppy, I think it would be cool to a have a white cat with a black dog. They would even match Henry!

Friday, I met the less adorable side of non-human organisms. I was eating dinner in the dining hall with a fraction of the group (Zach and Janna were out of town, and others were at a poli-sci picnic). We were having a conversation when, abruptly, Jessica said "that's weird". I looked over to where her eyes were focused, on the floor next to our table, and saw THE FRICKEN LARGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN that wasn't a tarantula. Just chilling out on the dining hall floor. The girls (not to be sexist or anything) all walked/jumped away from the table/spider and succeeded in making a spectacle of ourselves in front of the whole dining hall. The other tables understood though because THEY COULD SEE THE SPIDER FROM 30 ft AWAY! Ben, the strong and able man of the group saved us defenseless ladies, captured the spider and released it into the wild so it could go eat a bird or cow or something. The table next to us applauded. Later at dinner Ben, feeling something on his leg said "another spider" although said extra spider was not present. Very funny. Well actually it was kind of funny because once again all the girls scooted out from the table pretty quickly. And that was when we decided dinner should be over. Seriously why would a spider in Iowa need to be so big?

Saturday at lunch, my senior friends were talking about their after school plans. First, Sara talked about attending a poli-sci major picnic the other day with Elyse, and desperately trying to fight the urge to lie to professors who asked about her plans. Sara doesn't know yet what she is going to do, so she made up an elaborate lie, basically that she would be working as an Adjacent Lab Research Assistant for JBI. The problem with the lie was that she would be caught if any follow up questions at all were asked. At lunch, Sara tried to figure out what she would have told people JBI stands for. Unfortunately, the only words she could think to replace JB were Juvenile Boys. So, Juvenile Boys Incorporated or International; which sounds an awful lot like some sort of child slavery ring. Or if she went the international root, an organization that distributes "children workers" across the world. "Well, I'm going to be a research assistant for JBI. Yeah, I'm going to be working against social justice." Ben decided he wanted to be a bear when he grew up, but he couldn't decide which kind. The whole group started making suggestions (grizzly, polar etc.) which led to this comedically brilliant exchange.

Leah: If you're going to grow up to be an animal, then you should aim higher. Like a dinosaur.

Elyse: God Leah, that's crazy. Dinosaurs are extinct. (*turns to Ben*) You should be a grizzly bear.

Saturday night was a big bag of mixed emotions. For dinner, I once again accompanied the group to the wonderful Chinese Buffet in Newton. And once again I ate way too much. What always does me in are these fried balls of dough covered in sugar. I have not tasted anything better in my life and no matter how full I am after I eat them, I always come back for more. The best fortune this time went to both Elyse and Stephanie: "You will encounter some kind of alien sometime in your near future." I'll leave up to you what kind of alien they were referring to.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I WAS MADE AWARE THAT THE "ALIEN" FORTUNE COOKIE DID NOT BELONG TO ELYSE, BUT TO JESSICA. SINCEREST APOLOGIES TO ALL THOSE AFFECTED.

After dinner, I once again accompanied the group to the bowling alley/karaoke bar in Newton. Alas, this time there was no karaoke. As we started to bowl, the guy in charge of the karaoke machine came up to us and basically said he would get to go home if we said we didn't want to sing; he apparently recognized the group from their previous karaoke shenanigans. We allowed him to leave, but not before he witnessed some of our craziness. Around the first frame of bowling, Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" came onto the radio. Now, before I came to Grinnell the mere sound of someone saying Cyrus's name would send me into shivers of disgust. But, the group has changed me. Don't get me wrong, I still generally disapprove of the Cyrus, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for "Party in the USA". Hey, it's a good song. A little while ago Sara, Elyse, and Jessica made up a dance for "PitUSA". When it came on in the alley we all danced along. Yep, people were staring, including karaoke man. Take that for not letting us sing! Sara called it a perfect senior moment because for so much of her school career she has taken joy in embarrassing herself and others. This was the part of the night where that nagging thought first started creeping into my mind: they won't be here next semester.

The emotions really started flowing during the last game, once again due to music. For the last frame of bowling (and my last frame ever bowling with the group) Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" came on. This song always makes me think of high school. One, because they would play it at every major formal dance at HB, and also because Ashleigh and Cody have a tradition of singing and acting along to the song. Whenever I hear it now, I become very sentimental for a simpler time with my high school friends. Of course as time has gone, I've found new ways to be friends with them and keep in touch, but you can never completely go back to how it was in HS. I thought it was really appropriate and symbolic to hear "Rhapsody" during my last official outing with the group. It got me really thinking about next semester-never being with the whole group again-and how I'll have to once again reconfigure my relationships. Not to mention I'll be a senior, and all the anxiety and emotions that come with the realization you'll finally be pushed into the real world and your life will change (not to sound too melodramatic). Of course, as we were leaving the bowling alley for the last time, the alley started playing "All Star" by Smash Mouth as we left. A song from my elementary school days. Really world? A song from my childhood, my teen years, and my College years (still in progress). Really?

By the end of the night it completely hit me. I am so happy that I found such a great group of friends (and I mean that for any of you who might be reading). I set out to find new friends during Perri's semester abroad, and I succeeded. I even found friends that consistently make me laugh and brighten up my day. They're great, except for the whole them not being here next year. Why seniors? Why did they have to be seniors? It won't be same without them next semester. Yes, I'm being sentimental, but watching them graduate will definitely be bittersweet.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go off and cry now.

Just your average weekend

The past three weekends have actually been pretty eventful. All of them fun, but in their own way. And of course mixed in with some of the fun is misery, but such is life. Buckle in, this is a longish one (sorry Jessica).

Weekend One (April 23rd & 24th)

I had quite a cultural weekend, mostly spent sitting on really uncomfortable bleachers for hours at a time. On Friday night, Perri, our friend Ginny and I went to Mexican restaurant (out of three in the tiny town of Grinnell). Later on Perri and I went to the ISO Cultural Show, which was filled with dances, music, and singing from different countries and cultures. It started off with a fashion of show of clothes from a wide range of countries. To add to the show's 'wow factor' they manipulatively had little adorable children wear some of the outfits. The show was fun and I generally like watching dance, but gosh, it lasted longer than Avatar. ISO does not know how to budget its time well. I was also a little miffed because I was really looking forward to hearing Grinnell College's acapella group, the G-Tones, singing Don't Stop me Now by Queen. Perri and I stayed for the whole time to here it and then, of course, the person who normally sings lead was sick and so they substituted in a song I had no interest in gah! To complete our cultural evening, Perri and I watched an episode of Supernatural that featured Gods from different religions, including Norse Gods like Odin and Hindu Gods like the eternally bad ass Kali. When I returned to my dorm I discovered that ISO had spilled into my dorm. I had to fall asleep to the sounds of very drunk people practically yelling outside my door. It was not the last time I had to deal with drunk people this weekend.

Saturday evening, Perri and I attended one of Grinnell's annual events, Titular Head, a student film festival. The films are generally pretty short, or else they get booed, and are generally humorous, though occasionally pretty vulgar and sometimes disturbing. The people in charge also have to show any film that is submitted. I had heard that people usually yell, cheer and boo at Tithead pretty loudly, but I was not aware that most people come very drunk as well. I should have guessed though because dinner at the dining hall was insane. People were having fake dance/slap fights and forming human pyramids. We saw one guy on his phone trying to become the bottom of one pyramid. Ben joked about what the guy's phone conversation must be like: "Oh sorry, I can't talk anymore, I'm joining a human pyramid."

Later, at Tit Head, Perri and I ended up seated next to a very annoying drunk pair that could yell louder than should be possible. The best video of the night was a clay-mation film about Zombie's attacking Grinnell and the ever watchful Stephen Briscoe and our fearless President RKO fighting them off. The worst... Well, first some background. Several weeks ago a first year student made a very stupid stupid mistake. Darwin the first year thought it would be a good idea to try to jump onto a moving train. Unfortunately, the train didn't like that plan so it bucked him off, severely injuring his leg in the process. There was talk of amputation, but luckily it didn't come to that. I must admit my sympathy for Darwin was very small. I think the first thing I learned, ever, was not to jump on moving trains. But, he decided to make another (well two more) mistakes during Tit Head. Like many first years, Darwin didn't really understand the concept of Grinnell's Film Festival: films should be short, sweet and funny. Instead he decided to make an eight minute video about his experience tying his existence to God's greater creations. Of course I have nothing against Christianity, but dude, know your audience. He also unpleasantly showed us said leg that has twists in it legs should not have. Later Darwin had another video of bloopers that were not funny...at all. I may be taking out some aggression on Darwin because of another misfortune of the night. I attended Tit-Head to see a video my friends submitted...and they failed to show it. Apparently the powers that be had forgotten to add it to the Festival playlist. Ah well.

Weekend Two (May 1st)

Every year Perri, Aki, and when she was here (Emily), and I attend the fall/winter market in Des Moines, which is held in a mall. But this year I went to my first spring out door famers market in Des Moines with Jessica, Elyse, Sara, Ben, and Leah. New friends-new tradition, well if they weren't graduating in two weeks. I admit when Jessica said we must leave at 7:30 in the morning I was skeptical that we would really need that much time in the market, after all the winter market takes up two floors in a pretty tiny mall. However, the spring market was quite impressive, spanning about five blocks in several directions. There was food (bread, fruit, meat etc), soaps, food stands, and arts and crafts...and food. The event was a mixed success for me as I accomplished one goal and completely failed at another. I did succeed in stuffing my face with food from various food stands. I started off with a nice breakfast peanut butter & chocolate cupcake (the 2nd best pb&c cupcake of my life), then a couple crab ragoons from a chinese stand, some of Ben's baguette, and a couple bites of samosa from an Indian stand. I massively failed in buying the food items requested by Perri. Hey, it's harder than it sounds. When you go to a market that spans many blocks, you don't want to buy from the first bread, or jam, or cheese stand you see because then you have to carry around your spoils the entire time. But then its time to go home and you find you've waited too long and missed all the best stands and completely failed your friend. That was probably more detail than you cared to read, but it's all about strategy. Alas, I only came home with a bag of kettle corn and probably the worst loaf of bread from the entire market.

When we got back to Grinnell it was time for fun! Well, actually it was time to immediately fall asleep on my bed because I woke up at fricken 6am. But then it was literally time for a day of fun. In honor of the retirement of our fearless leader RKO, Grinnell College organized a sort of fun fair on Mac field. Complete with petting zoo! American Gladiator-esque games! A (evil) bouncy slide! Live out door entertainment! And more! First, Perri, Ginny, and went to the petting zoo, which was surprisingly not disappointing. (Sara had feared that the very over-hyped and promised day of fun would consist of a single goat and maybe a sheep). There was two lamas, ducks! (which I succeeded in touching! My personal goal for the petting zoo), big bunnies, goats (including a very nibbley one) and a funny chicken with a big puff on its head. Next, I reconnected with the group and watched my senior friends pair off and challenge each other on various bouncy surfaces. First, they took part in a contest that involved going into a bouncy castle, wearing unnaturally huge padded boxing gloves, and trying to knock each other down. It looked like fun, but also a lot of work, so I abstained from this challenge. However, the highlight of watching came from seeing Jessica and Ben fight each other. The were the only two people who managed to argue with their words instead of fighting with their fists. Jessica could not remain standing on the bouncy surface and Ben was mad she would not fight back. Jessica and Ben bicker a lot. The next challenge, involved two people standing on two platforms, holding long sticks with padded "puffs" on either side, and trying to knock each other off their platform (best out of three wins). After watching my friends compete in this challenge I finally got into the joining and fighting spirit. I couldn't convince Perri to get into the mood, so I was paired against Sara. It was hilarious. I knocked down Sara once, but she won overall. As the fight went on Sara and I got progressively more exhausted (from a mix of hitting each other and laughing so hard). The second round Sara kept hitting me relentlessly in the same place over and over again, wearing me down, while I tried to push her legs. Sara's center of gravity is amazing. In the last round, Sara was trying to push my legs out from under me, but she was so tired she couldn't push very hard and I was so tired I could barely hit her at all. As a result we ended in a hilarious stalemate until Sara finally won. After that, since I was finally in the fun festival mood I decided to go on the very tall blowup bouncy slide. There was a little board of warnings about the slide that included "cuts and abrasions may occur" and "You will have fun!" I joked about the ridiculous set of symptoms with Sara, but I really should have been reading the warnings carefully. Because I was going very fast down the slide, I absentmindedly put my elbow down by my side-I guess to slow myself. I failed at the slowing, but I succeeded in scraping/rug-burning off a layer of skin on my elbow. Let's just say that quickly took me out of the fun mood. I called my day of fun, a day, and nursed my wound (which ended up taking a ridiculously long amount of time to heal).

Before I had gone on the slide Perri and I had this little exchange (a nice little foreshadowing, though Perri thinks I'm overreacting).

Perri: You're never too old to have fun.

Me: You're never to young to die.

Weekend Three (May 7-9)

The week leading up to this past weekend was my pseudo-hell week. I only say pseudo because this week is what Grinnellians call hellweek (the week before finals). However, for me, hell came early. I had one long research paper due on Thursday and a Bio lab write up on Friday. I don't know if I actually got bad grades, but I'm disappointed in how I handled these assignments. My time management was none so good. I'm going to take this as a learning experience and try not to make the same mistakes next semester. In addition to the heavy work load I became sick...again! I have been sick and off since my London trip. Therefore, I smartly went to the doctors office in town and was prescribed antibiotics...useless useless antibiotics. It was one of my worst colds. Just image me as a faucet. The sickenss would not have been as bad (who am I kidding it was really annoying) if it had not also coincided with my Community Chorus concert. Or I guess I should say it coincided with the three 2.5 hour long rehearsals I had to attend for the concert on Thursday, Friday night and Saturday morning. However, in between the misery of congestion and fatigue was spring waltz!

Saturday evening I had dinner with Perri and the group at a Russian department function: A Russian coffee house, complete with Russian food and Russian songs (which some of my friends helped sing). It was very pleasant and the food was delicious. It would have been more pleasant, however, without massive the tissue use and one side of my face being completely clogged. . After the food and song, we all got prettied up for waltz. Just as last semester was my first winter waltz, this semester was my first spring waltz (and my last waltz with the group *Sigh!*). Spring waltz is held in Darby Gym, which can be prettied up very nicely when it wants to be. There was even a punch fountain! Also, to enter waltz people had to walk down a long set of stairs. I imagined a fancy announcer announcing each couple coming down the stairs. (ex-"Here enters Brittney Snow accompanied by the son of the Hathworths etc etc). The fanciness of the evening was only diminished by the immature exchange between me and Leah, performed with tiny colored stones that were decorating the table. I was making stone pyramids and Leah started doing it too, so I made some sort of sarcastic comment about her copying me. A little later I looked at Leah's side of the table and saw she had written something with the stone. "Abby rocks?" Nope "ABBY SUCKS". I responded with "LEAH SMELLS". She rejoined with "ABBY IS A BUTT". She also included an illustration. Then Zach very pleasantly turned it into "ABBY IS A BUTTERFLY" and the illustration didn't even have to change! I danced, I laughed, I had fun. It was a good night, minus the sneezing and sniffling. To end my weekend I had my community chorus concert of Schubert's Mass in E Major on Sunday afternoon. I refused not to sing after all the rehearsing, so I decided to destroy my voice instead. It was a good concert though, I didn't have to sit down once!

And there ends my super triweekend blog post. I swear one day I will complete an entire post without complaining at all! I might even not complain in the next one if I stop getting sick, stop having lots of work to do, and the weather gets nicer and...Ok you might have to wait on the post-sans-complaining. Oh well.

Falling down the rabbit hole...Hey London its been a while

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Why have I not posted sooner about my trip to London that happened over three weeks ago? Because I got lost in the crazy Grinnell time warp that sucks all concept of the weeks passing etc. I can only take the recent volcano keeping people trapped in England (like my good friend Liz) as punishment for my lack of blogage about my London experience. I apologize. And now that's out of the way, let me try to remember all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that occupied my second lovely week of Spring Breakage.

Friday (that's Friday March 26th), I arrived at Euston station and met Liz, fresh from her day of internshipping. We went straight to her home-stay, located pretty close to the East Finchley tube station, and I got to meet Liz's good friend/flat mate, Clara?-Ellen. Remember how I said my first day in Manchester Ashleigh took me to McDonalds? Well my first night in London Liz and C-E decided they wanted Pizza Hut. I don't even like Pizza Hut in the US, oh well. We had a quiet night in, as I was exhausted from my strenuous first class train ride.

Saturday, we went to Portobello Market, a clothing/food/jewelry/antiques market that lasts for blocks and blocks. To find it all we had to do was follow the string of tourists. After some shopping with our eyes, we stopped for a quick cupcake at one of London's many specialty cupcake stores, only to see infinitely better crepes ten feet later (darn). And of course it started raining, which would have been fine if not for the 500 umbrellas that kept hitting me in the head: it's not like I'm hard to see! We worked our way from the market to a Chocolate Festival! It wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting walking chocolate bars or anything, but more than just stands selling chocolate. We did see a demonstration on how to make chocolate, but watching someone melt chocolate is not really as fun as it sounds. Eating chocolate was fun! I had a kabob of fruit covered in high quality chocolate sauce, a Bailey's chocolate truffel and a chocolate lolli-pop. However, I was majorly disappointed that we couldn't find the chocolate sculptures, which is really what I was imagining in a CF. Choclatier sculptures are insane! Damn that tricky, hidden festival hall!

Sunday, I was still relatively healthy. Just saying. I tagged along with Liz's school group for a (sunny!) day trip to Oxford. After taking the train from London, we ate in a giraffe themed cafe

for brunch. This made me happy since my spirit animal is a baby giraffe. Post-brunch there was a little bit of shopping with Liz before meeting back up with the group for a tour with a nice, purply dressed older British woman. She was charming, but I was a little disappointed by the tour because I don't really care about the history of Oxford University. However, the tour did afford me the time to take lots of pictures of statues-which is one of my favorite travel activities-so I could recap them later in hopefully humorous jest (see Facebook if you're interested). I must say I quite enjoyed Oxford. The train ride back Liz and I did something very ill advised-sat across from each other. It was like two people on stilts trying to fit in an elevator. Tuckered out after our day of sight seeing and walking we chilled watching British television at night, like we did many of our nights there because...

On Monday morning I woke up a little less healthier than I was the day before, but only with a slight cough. Late-morning, Liz humored me by taking me to three different comic book stores. The first's selection was too small, the second was too much like Barnes and Noble, but the third was just right! Monday was not the last Forbidden Planet saw of me! Next, Liz and I bought cheap tickets for the hit musical Billy Elliot for that evening. To pass the time before the show started we went to a nice pub. We both ate pub food while Liz read her econ book and I read Wolverine. Billy Elliot was great! The dancing... was... amazing. For those who don't know, BE is about a little boy who learns ballet and does it so well. Did I mention the dancing

was amazing! There is a particularly effective scene where young Billy is dancing with the older version of himself in beautiful unison, to Swan Lake, with fog sweeping across the stage (and there's my attempt at being poetic). Truthfully much of the music was forgettable, but the dancing. Mwah! I've always enjoyed (and secretly hated) watching really talented super young people. The production we saw has three Billys they use in rotation, so as not to wear out the poor kids. I'm glad with the Billy we got though, because of his history. Our actor had only taken a hip-hop dance class prior to being hired and was scouted for the part of Billy at a variety show. They gave him the role with the condition that he would spend two years learning ballet. Two years to prepare for the role. Talk about dedication, and boy did it pay off.

Tuesday morning, my sickness was worse. Therefore, I decided to spend a relaxing day sleeping in bed and working on getting better so I could really enjoy the rest of my trip. Just kidding! I decided to walk in the pouring rain without an umbrella through a very non-touristy part of London. Ok, I didn't plan on walking in the pouring rain, as I hadn't heard any newscasts about a biblical flood predicted for that day. Silly me. Liz's (not for) tourist's book had recommended a neighborhood in East London for cheap shopping and good restaurants. I think it might have hyped it up a little too much. It was nice not being around tourists, but it wasn't the nicest neighborhood. Liz's book had also recommended the Fat Cat pub for good pizza and cocktails.

Except the pub didn't actually sell pizza. Oops. My soaking wet clothes also put a little bit of a damper on everything (no pun intended). Despite the weather, I continued my preplanned route through Victoria Gardens to the nearest tube station. My day was slightly redeemed by finding a pond with mucho ducks, geese, and swans! I cannot stress how much I like waterfowl, especially up close. I showed some of my trip pictures to my friends last baking Tuesday and they commented on the hundred or so pictures of ducks. Tuesday evening, after my harrowing journey, I met back up with Liz at her flat. We took a bus to a movie theatre in West Finchley and saw I Love You, Phillip Morris. I laughed and coughed my whole way through the movie.

Wednesday, I was death. Funny enough, walking through the cold and rain improperly attired the previous day had not been the best thing for my health. Apparently, the previous night I had scared the bejesus out of Liz's host mother with my loud coughing. In the morning she offered to take me the doctor if I got worse and gave me some cold medicine to soothe the angry beast inside me. Nice lady. Refusing to be completely held down by my sickness, I set out for my second to last full day in London. Sad. Deciding to take it easy, I took the tube to the Covent Garden area. After having a light breakfast and overhearing very interesting conversations in a small cafe in one of London's gayborhoods, I went back to the comic book shop Forbidden Planet. I wanted to wallow in my geekiness and, my new addiction Dark Wolverine, one more time without feeling guilty for making Liz wait in this habitat quite unnatural to her. It was so wonderful. I happened upon a wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch. Mm, spaghetti with white wine sauce and a cold class of smooth, Belgium, almost like candy Leffe Blonde. Next, I walked to the heart of touristy London-Trafalgar square and took a nice stroll through the National

Gallery. I then walked to the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey area, taking many pictures along the way, which I'll call artistic instead of touristy out of principle and because they were mostly of statues, sculptures and architecture. Wednesday evening, I went out with Liz and Clara-Ellen to an Irish pub because one of their study abroad mates was celebrating her birthday. The pub was super crowded because, why else? there was a football game on that night. It was easy to tell who all the locals were rooting for by listening to the waves of cheering and booing filling the pub. It was a pleasant night.

Thursday morning I woke up very tempted to stay in bed all day and rest up for my plane ride the next day. Except, the shining sun and blue sky, all too rare in London, were too tempting to pass up. Of course by the time I walked out of the house the sky was grey and it was drizzling, but whatevs. I went back to tourist central because...well because I wanted to buy a McFlurry DON'T JUDGE I wanted a Cadbury Creme egg McFlurry that you can't buy in the US. I also won a free apple pie out of the deal. Yes, a very healthy lunch. It also gave me the chance to take more pictures, on the opposite side of the

street from the day before. For my last act as a London tourist, I went over the bridge to the London Sea Life Aquarium. I must admit, after the whole Steve Erwin thing my opinion of sting rays had gone down quite a bit, but the aquarium revived their majesty in my eyes. In a room with a big, shallow, open tank of sting rays I had a nice conversation with one of the aquarium workers. First, I witnessed the worker desperately try to keep visitors from petting the sting rays. I also noticed the s.r. kept coming to the surface of the water. I asked her if flash pictures would bother them-it does-and she explained why her job is difficult. Visitors used to be able to touch the s.r. in the tanks and many don't know it isn't allowed anymore because touching apparently stresses out the rays and makes them die sooner. I then asked her why the s.r. come up to the surface. Her answer: "Oh, because they want to be pet". In another room there was a tank with

a tunnel so you could be completely surrounded fish. It was awesome to see ginormous sting rays fly right above your head. What was not so awesome was the horribly overhyped shark walkway. I was expecting to be surrounded by terrifying menacing sharks swim right next, above and below me. Instead it was a short walk way with like two 5x2 ft glass squares on the ground and three sharks. Oo, scary. Afterwards, I sadly walked to Waterloo station, all too aware my time in London was almost at an end.

Friday afternoon Liz took me to Heathrow Airport, on my last tube ride. Stupidly, I had not considered that it was the Friday of Easter weekend, so I was unprepared for the crowds. I got to my flight on time though. Sort of. I took a little too long getting lunch, so when I started walking toward my gate a screen said that the gate was closing. Now, I imagined the last person (besides me) boarding the plane and the closing of the gate door in mere moments. Gates closing actaully means half the flight hasn't boarded yet. Oh those English. Before I knew it I was landing in Chicago and then back at Grinnell, where I am now, and have been for quite awhile as you know.

There. Sorry it took me so long. I tried to remember all that I could. Despite the fair amount of complaining I did above (hey, wading through snark is part of reading my blog) I did have a great spring break. I could have done without the hacking up of a lung, and a little more sun, but what are you going to do?

Soon after getting back to Grinnell someone commented on how pale I was. I thought for a moment and then I realized why. I love you London. So long... For now.

Manchester? I hardly know 'er.

On Sunday, Ashleigh met me at Picadilly station in Manchester with her flat mate Joy and took me to...McDonalds. Very English right? Back at their flat I met Ashleigh's other flat mate {redacted}. As you can probably tell {redacted} is French. But that doesn't really do him justice. {Redacted}is very very French. Sarcastic, aloof and edgy. I was pretty exhausted after my four hours of sleep while traveling so we took it easy and watched Twilight before I passed out.

And now, I present my week in Manchester-the highlights.

Monday, I went to a choir practice at the Catholic church Ashleigh regularly sings at. Ashleigh had given me a crash course in reading gregorian chant, so I only got semi lost and confused. Before choir, I got to hear {redacted}'s very intelligent take on Glen Beck. He was much more eloquent than I could ever be in explaining why Beck is a manipulative psychopath. And Americans listen to him. *shiver*

Tuesday, Ashleigh took me shopping at a funky Picadilly mall in the hopes that I would find something to wear for our nighttime activities. We didn't succeed, but we did find the most delicious milkshakes ever created. Not to mention, the most unhealthy milkshakes ever.

Tuesday night I was introduced to the night life of Manchester by Ashleigh and several of her fencing group friends. Ashleigh and I left Canal Street earlier than everyone else, so we missed quite an event. The next morning Ashleigh found out through Facebook that two of the boys we were with had been mugged after we left. One boy was hit in the head and the other happily gave up his wallet in exchange for his safety. No one was seriously hurt, but I'm sure glad I missed that.

Wednesday was a lazy day with pancakes, watching the god awful, but entertaining due to its snark-worthiness, Twilight New Moon movie. At night Ashleigh let me tag along to her fencing team dinner at a curry restaurant. Finding a good deal wasn't hard seeing how the streets around Ashleigh's house hare literally lined with Indian restaurants. I sat near Ashleigh and her very tall swiss friend, Greg. From now on Ashleigh shall be referred to as Mango thanks to Mango's, Greg's and my love for the restaurant's mango sauce.

Thursday was my last full day in Manchester. In the morning I started to sense one of my greatest fears for the trip coming true. My throat started to feel a little sore. It was nothing serious, but it's important for the rest of my trip posting (ominous enough for you?) Mango took me shopping at Picadilly, but this time we went to Primark. Primark is a mammoth of a store that is much like Target, except they have even more stylish fashions and lots and lots of colors. Mango succeeded in diversifying my wardrobe considerably. Thanks Mom! The weather on Tuesday was crazy, starting out quite sunny and devolving into gusting winds and hard rain which Mango and I had to trudge through to go see her friend Griffin. Ah Griffin. Griffin is a character. He's from the American South and is kind of one of the heirs, or beneficiaries of {redacted} cigarettes i.e. he's rich. He's a lot of fun though and Mango had to bid him farewell Thursday night b/c he's taking time off from Manchester U. He's also a plane aficionado and was delighted to hear that I flew to London in a Boeing 777. Mango and I ended the night eating home cooked chicken, sipping red wine, and watching British television with Charles. It was a nice end to a good time in Manchester.

Friday, Mango took me to the wonderful milk shake place one more time, helped me pick out an awesome snake necklace (made of metal and ribbon, not snakes), and then took me to the train station. She bid me farewell and I climbed into my first class coach for the ride to London and the next phase of my trip.