Sorry, no Tina Fey or Amy Poehler here, but I did have some adventures this weekend that turned out a few good pics at my photobucket. Links Here:

Leed's Castle & Canterbury

Chinese New Year in London


Saturday we got up at 8:00 (which seemed excruciatingly early at the time)to go meet friends for breakfast before the trip (bus was to leave at 9am) only to discover that the Refectory was not open. Great. So after moping about our certain death without food, the growing number of students sitting in the hallway (I like to pretend we were protesting rather than just being lazy and complaining) the Refectory opened their doors early for us.

So we ran in, grabbed as much as we could carry, and took off for the busses. Unfortunately I don't believe 2 red bulls was really necessary for myself that morning, as the remainder of the day I found I had much more energy than others (which seemed quite annoying to them). Anyhow, after being way too loud and cheery on the bus and not letting anyone sleep, we finally arrived 2 hours later at Leed's Castle.

To get to the castle we had to walk through the duckeries, where lots of ducks, swans, geese, and even peacocks were running around like mad. Of course, the first group decision of the day was to feed the birds Steph's muffin. Which they seemed to like (at least someone got to enjoy it). Somehwere along the way I decided that there was a really cool looking tree, and I wanted my picture taken in it. So while I climed, Becca joined me, and the rest of the group abandoned us. We caught up with them later and took some group pictures in front of the castle (that and the tree picture coming later...after I find out who the heck took them).

Walking through the castle was pretty amazing, after I got over the fact that it had a moat. Just seeing the craftsmanship on the wood beams on the ceiling, or carved into the staircases, and realizing how old everything is, was pretty inspiring.

After we finished mosy-ing through that, we met up on the busses again, and stopped in Canterbury on the way home. I decided that visiting the town was much less painful than reading the 'Tales' (and yes, I did get Mrs. Bond a postcard, just to explain this reasoning to her). We stopped in lots of quaint little shops, and ate at a cute little breakfast cafe. It was nice. Lots more fun pictures including dumpster surfing to come later as well (once again, after I beat someone down for information/pics).

When we got home, we grabbed a bunch of junk food and chocolate from the Refectory and headed up to our rooms to watch a movie. 'Scream' ended up being the flick of choice, which was hilarious (and somehow really scary for Noel, who had never seen it as a kid, when it actually was scary). Although it's somewhat dated (seriously, try finding a killer based on the fact he uses a cell phone these days) it really is a great artifact documenting 90's pop-culture.


Today, Sunday, we went to China-Town for Chinese New Years (it's the year of the Dog), and got lost in the massive crowds. Seriously, it was like a giant mosh pit wherever there happened to be dancing dragons. Unfortunately after we realized the terrible mistake of trying to get close to one to get pictures, we were unable to escape them for the rest of the time. We just gotten away from the mob one time, when suddenly the dragon comes around the corner after us, so tons of people start swarming us again. Then we decide to move further down the street, only to run into TWO MORE dancing dragons. This was the worst part.

Because there were not only one, but two dragons, people were swarming in from both ends of the street, and we were stuck in the middle, we had tried to get out each way, but eventually were literally unable to move at all, so we decided we would just wait (as if we had a choice) smashed up against people, and being pushed from both sides, for the dragons to pass us. Finally they did, and we had a bit of elbow room, so we started dodging our way out, and finally escaped.

Although the smashing and mobs were a bit much, none of us are chlostraphobic, so we lived, and it was worth it. But just a word of advice: For anyone highly annoyed by stupid people in general, avoid Chinese New Year celebrations and crowds in general ;)

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