The Last Two Days!

5/24/13
     As I write this, I'm cooking some pasta. I also bought a pineapple to eat, which I already cut up for dinner. I'm just really excited about the pineapple. Today I have my first tutorial meeting and my first essay due. Obviously since I'm writing this instead of frantically writing my essay, everything is going a lot better than expected. Let's start with some random facts about England.
     1) They don't refrigerate their eggs. The eggs are just in a normal grocery aisle, sitting on the shelf, oblivious to the fact that they are supposed to be in the refrigerated section. 
     2) The water works in mysterious ways. There are two faucets on every sinks. One faucets lets out scalding hot water that could quite possibly burn you at any second. The second faucets lets out icy cold water. How do you wash you hands? In fear.... I guess to be fair, I think you are suppose to plug up the sink, and allow the two temperature waters to mix together in the bottom in order to wash your hands.
     3) Instead of saying "Track Club", the Brits say "Athletics Club." 
And that concludes the random facts of the day. Well, very quickly I'll tell you about my Wednesday and Thursday.  My Wednesday was good! After writing, trying not to fall asleep, and general mental chaos in the library, the highlight of my day was going to a meet with the orienteering club. For orienteering, you are given a map of a forest and a compass. With these tools, you have to locate several points in a particular order. The fastest finisher wins. Its essentially the same as trail running if you get very lost. Here's the tricky part though. While there are trails through the forest, the points you need to locate can be completely off a trail. So really, you have look at the topography of the map and the compass to figure out where the marker is suppose to be in the middle of the woods. It can be extremely difficult. My first point I found in about 10 minutes, though I did run into a tree (I was trying to catch myself from falling down this very steep hill, but I caught myself with a tree to the face.) My second point took me 45 minutes to find, mostly because I couldn't figure out where I was on the map, so I decided to run around randomly until I discovered it. (Eventually, a little old lady competitor helped me. No shame in that. Later I was told the "chicken with your head chopped off" approach of running around randomly is about the worst thing you can do. Good to know.) The third one I never really found, so I just finished. Did I get a time? No. It was quite odd for a race. Maybe it was just because I was so slow, but there wasn't a finish line really nor was anyone keeping time. You just kinda approached the group that had finished, and everyone was like,"nice job, did you have fun?" Honestly though, I wasn't surprised after the "start." The organizer of the race just asked us when we had gathered, "Is everyone ready? Ok, good." Then he waved his hand in the general direction of the forest. "Alright, go head." And that's how the raced started. I was trying to get my sweater off when it happened. Anyways, the club was all really nice. It was also surprisingly male dominated. (8:2 ratio of guys:girls). I got back around 9:30 to my house, ate a couple rolls and some cerel, and called it a night.
    The next day the OSAP group went to Stratford on a bus, and we had a walking tour when we got there about noon. But it was FREEZING! I was wearing my wool coat and I swear it felt like a gusty Michigan winter out there. It just wasn't pleasant at all to be outside, especially with the random downpours. So after the walking tour, a couple of my friends from OSAP (Alex, Mia, Jessica, Frances, and David) went out to a pub and ate a two hour lunch. It was nice and warm. Then we wandered around a bit, and then went to a butterfly garden that Frances wanted to see. We stayed in the gift shop for like an hour as she went in, and then we went back to a pub for drinks. I didn't realize until after that we never did manage to eat any dinner that day. Anyways, after a glass or two of wine (or beer, as some others got), we headed to see a Shakespeare play As You Like It. I thought it was really well done, surprisingly musical, and had a very unexpected hipster vibe. (Like literally, most of the characters dressed like flower children or hipsters). After the play, we took the bus back, and I finally got back to my house around 1am. Long but good day.