Here are this week's top stories:

GIRL GETS THROWN OUT OF CONVENIENCE STORE
Last Tuesday night after fencing, we headed downtown to an area called the Northern Quarter which I heard was a really neat and hip part of town (even though when I asked one of my house mates about it they said it was for an older crowd and when I asked them to define older they said, "you know, like 20-25 year olds"...glad I'm considered older now). We got off the bus and my friend who I had been fencing with was demanding cheesecake. Not wanting to stop into a restaurant or anything, we directed her to the nearest convenience store. To set up this story, you should know that it was very VERY cold outside and I had my hands in my coat pocket and I couldn't be bothered to take them out for anything. We split up in search for a single piece of cheese cake to appease my hungry friend and finally I spotted a bag of 3 pieces of cheese cake on the bottom shelf of the refrigerated section. I hollered at my friends and pointed at the bagged cheese cake with my foot so that my hands could remain in their cozy state. The psychotic security guard must have mistaken my foot gesture for a kicking motion because he lost absolutely no time informing that I was rude and that I needed to leave immediately. I tried to apologize but he didn't want to hear it, so I went and stood outside until my friends followed me out laughing hysterically. She didn't even buy the cheese cake!

STUDENT FINALLY STARTS RESEARCHING HER MANY PAPERS
I am quickly realizing that I have way less time here than I think I do. The papers are stacking up and I have decided to stop procrastinating and just start them. My sister gave me an encouraging talk and told me to just start researching! So I have. Boom.

FLIGHTS FULL LEAVING MOTHER AND DAUGHTER HEARTBROKEN
Unfortunately my mum will not be able to visit me next week afterall. She was planning on flying stand-by into Manchester, but all the flights have booked up last minute. I am bummed that I won't be able to see her, but that will make seeing everyone at Christmas that much sweeter. I scrambled to fill my week off so that I didn't have to sit here all by my lonesome while everyone else traveled Europe and was able to book a trip to Munich at the end of the week. It's perfect because I will have the beginning of the week to use my reading week to actually catch up academically and then I will head to Germany with a fellow Gator!

NEW COLDPLAY ALBUM
Mylo Xyloto hit stores yesterday and I bought it immediately. I like it more and more everytime I listen to it! This is also good news for the studious side of me because as we all know, Coldplay is the BEST study music.

EDINBURGH NAMED MOST AWESOME CITY IN THE UK
My trip to Edinburgh was incredible! We made use of every minute to soak up this incredibly old city. The city is like a tree stump. The castle is at the heart of the city and it is the oldest. From there Edinburgh spreads out almost in rings, and the further away from the castle you get in any direction, the newer the city is. While we were there we explored the city, visited the old monuments, climbed an ancient volcano, hit a historic pub for dinner and drinks (no, I did not try haggis), went on a ghost tour, slept for the rest of the night, woke up early, had a 2 hour bus tour, saw the Firth of Forth, had lunch where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, visited the castle, and of course went into the gift shops. It was a great trip.

Alnwick Castle

Corrections from last post: I did not read for school on the train ride to Alnwick. That was a bold faced lie. Instead I stared out the window at the beautiful country side and counted sheep. Literally.

It was so nice to get out of Manchester, even just for the day. Not that there's anything wrong with Manchester, but traveling across the country to a teeny tiny little town without loud, obnoxious college students to a place with rolling hills, dairy cows, sheep, and farm land was a much needed break from the drone of the city. The Alnwick Castle in the town of Alnwick, England (pronounced Ah-nick...silly Brits)is home to the Percy family. The Percy family's history in Alnwick dates back to the Middle Ages and the castle itself was first built in 1096!!! The Percy family has been living in it since 1309. I don't think I'd ever seen anything so old... you just don't get stuff like that in the States! However, the most important part of this castle's history happened 10 years ago with the filming of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and then with the Chamber of Secrets. The outside of the castle was used for many of the outdoor scenes including, but not limited to, Hagrid's hut, the forbidden forest, the entrance to Hogwarts, the whomping willow, and Madame Hooch's first flying lesson. Check out my pictures on Facebook to see! All in all, it was a great trip.

Only 72 more shopping days until Christmas!

I'm trying really hard not to get too much into the Christmas spirit too early here, but it's really hard. I haven't gone into any department stores yet, but already I have scene window displays and Christmas cards for sale and advertisements for Christmas markets that are just around the corner. It's not even Halloween yet!! To make matters worse, one of my housemates got me hooked on watching British cooking shows about Christmas foods. Currently I have an entire folder full of bookmarked Christmas recipes of crackin' dishes and fun drinks to make. So family, get ready, because I know I'll be desperate to try some of these out when I get home.

Liverpool was great, even if the weather was miserable. I'm looking forward to going back with my mom during my week off!

Check out where I get to go on Saturday: The Alnwick Castle! It's where they shot a lot of the Harry Potter movies. It's about a 3 hour train ride away, but I'm looking forward to it so I can knock out a lot of the reading I have to do over the weekend. I have most of my textbooks on my Kindle so I don't even have to lug my books around! Mom and Dad, best investment ever.

Yes I like stormy weather from my window

This week started off very well, I finally made it out to church! It was a small church (as they all are here) about 20 minutes down the road by bus. The people were great and the service was nice. I met some cool people who love American college football and get together to watch it just about every week because one the guys and his wife has ESPN America and are able to record the games and watch them the next day. I hope I get to join them one of these days!

The glorious weather of last week has disappeared and no one misses it more than me. I think the weather gods have been trying to ease me into it- it was partly cloudy on Monday and in the 60s, but everyday since then it has gotten a little bit colder and a little bit rainier culminating in the mess that was today. The temperature never got above 50 and it was rainy and stormy and windy with a side of hail.

Lectures have been good so far, aside from being totally unprepared for one of my seminars today. I could've sworn that my Econ of Sport prof said on Tuesday that we wouldn't have any readings for our first seminar, so I didn't even check. I showed up to the seminar this afternoon only to find out that not only was there a reading, but also an assignment. Good thing these British professors are big on giving "unassessed assignments" which means if you don't do them, nothing happens to you, except some moderate embarrassment... which believe me, is enough to make you do the assignment. He split us up into groups to talk about our answers amongst eachother, but I obviously couldn't contribute anything to the discussion. It was a shame too because it was an interesting topic. I have already gone back and done the reading and answered the questions for my own benefit. It has taken a lot of effort to get back into the swing of studying and reading and checking my courses websites for assignments, but now that I have all but one of my textbooks (it should be arriving tomorrow) I am finally remembering how to be a student again.

I will be going to Liverpool on Saturday with some of my housemates. It's only a 20 minute train ride away so we will definitely be able to do it in a day. Also in the works as far as traveling is Edinburgh in a couple weeks, Paris in November and maybe Germany or Italy or Prague in December with my dear friend Kristen who is now in Turkey! The last one depends on how cheap I can find flights though... My mom will be joining me for my week off in November and I can't wait to show her around England!!

Some other exciting news around here is the arrival of our long-awaited Hug Mugs! Those of us smart enough to live in halls with meal plans were promised these coveted mugs when we moved in, but were never given a date to expect their arrival. So tonight, after being beaten up by what could have been an awful day (not doing an assignment, class until 6pm, being late for dinner, getting pelted by hail, and over all being totally drenched) I stumbled into dinner to finally receive this glorious hunk of plastic! Really it's just a mug. I think we get like 10 pence or some other negligible amount off hot beverages on campus... but here it is!

We have hail! Not a great day to be walking to Uni...