Basically this last week has consisted of classes, the gym, cooking and outings with Batman. (Yeahh I’ll get to it, just a sec ;P )
Classes! It was a good week with classes because I had to give two presentations this week. My first one was for my Childhood & Adolescence in Literature class- a presentation on The Secret Garden. I got to work with two other girls who were awesome and really nice so it made for a solid group. I suggested we use “Prezi” which I am coming to find out is some strange foreign magic we Americans are spreading to the rest of the world. They hadn’t heard of it and when we went to present, the rest of the class apparently hadn’t either. We got lots of “oohs and ahhs” before we even said anything. Thank you, Dan Case. ;)
I got a very similar reaction when I did my presentation for my Social Problems class. Mine would be the first presentation of the term so I wasn’t quite sure what exactly the teacher was looking for. All I knew was my partner (a girl from Switzerland) and I were supposed to give a 5-7 minute presentation on teenage pregnancy. K, first of all, how is anyone supposed to cover anything about teenage pregnancy in 5-7 minutes?? I convinced my partner to use the magic again so we could keep one central idea and bounce around within it. After our presentation (which was within the time range :P ), I was a little nervous because my seminar leader (I would say professor but I don’t think he is? He’s only a few years older than me so it’s kind of strange but yeah) didn’t say anything at first. He is a hard guy to please during seminar discussions so I mentally prepared myself for the critiques. “I….I don’t know what to say… I… I don’t have anything bad to say.” (<- only say it in a Greek accent) “That was a perfect presentation. Guys, they just gave an ideal presentation. Everyone should strive to give a presentation like that.” (: (: So…needless to say, that kind of made my day. I was “proper chuffed”. (<- new term I learned meaning “very proud”) Feels good to get my presentations out of the way. Now it’s just my essays!
Let’s hit the gym. Carroll, I love you and you’re great buuuut when it comes to your gym… Let’s just say the one at my new school makes yours look a bit like a cardboard box… That being said, figured I’d take advantage of Kent’s while I’m here so I caved and bought a membership. With this membership, I can use the gym whenever I want but also go to any of the classes offered. The ones I have been going to are: “Yogalates”, “Boxercise”, “Ab Attack”, “Zumba”, “LBT (legs, bums, and tums), “Yoga”, and “Stretch, Tone, and Relax”. I really like them! The instructors are all awesome (Devan, the Zumba lady reminds me sooooooo much of you!!) and they make the classes a lot of fun. I guess the party-lit studio helps with that too. Oh, and there’s the fact there’s a disco ball. Yeah, that’s pretty legit. So yes, don’t worry Dad. Following through with your rule: For every pint of ale I have- 45 minutes of running ;P
Cooking! No, that is not a typo. Yes I cooked!!! For those of you who don’t know, associating me with cooking is like associating rubber duckies and lava; they just don’t work. My new friend, Kotryna (the one who “fancies cake” if you’ve seen that video on Facebook ;P) lives in Park Wood- the apartments on campus (with kitchens)!! This past week, the two of us decided we were gonna try this cooking stuff. So, after one of our coffee outings in town, we went to ol’ Tesco and got groceries for the week. Normally I don’t like to brag but because it’s the fact that I actually cooked something without burning it I think that’s good enough to condone bragging rights. AHHHH guys I cooked something and it was actually good!! Kotryna and I discovered this whole cooking thing is kind of addictive! This week we made some delicious salmon, brown rice, and asparagus; quinoa (Yes, Mariah QUINOA!! ;P) with stir fried snow peas, red onion, baby corn, and tofu; and basil pesto pasta with chicken. I mean, not gonna lie, I was definitely proper chuffed with how everything turned out. Kotryna doesn’t normally cook either so we were both very excited about it all. Okay okay, but there is one thing I need to confess… I actually did manage to burn one thing… I know I know, just when I was doing so well! To celebrate our success, we decided we were going to have ice cream (and not just any ice cream- this crazy malted-milk-ball/honey-comb/caramel swirl shenanigans). How can I burn ice cream?? Well… Kotryna was so proud of us she said we needed to have melted chocolate on top. You can guess where this is going. Melted chocolate? Okay throw it in the microwave for a bit. I am so lucky her fire alarm didn’t go off. So much smoke. It was bad. Buuuut our ice cream still tasted crazy delicious on its own ;)
Okaaaaaayyyyyy the moment you girls have all been waiting for! Duna-nuna-nuna-nuna- BATMAN! Mmm yes, okay, well. Christian Bale really meant that he was gonna track down those Chewits! He decided the best way to deliver them would be to first take me on an outing. Soooo he picked me up in his batmobile (aka Audi) and took me ALL OVER THE COUNTRYSIDE. We did a bit of a “coast crawl” traveling from Deal down to Folkestone and back up to Ramsgate. First he took me to “Kearsney Abbey”, which is basically one of theeeee most beautiful places I have ever seen. For you Kalispell folk, think Woodland Park times about 50. This place was absolutely gorgeous. Today, it’s a big open park with the most picturesque autumn trees along a lovely river complete with swans and ducks. The river flows along till it drops off at a little waterfall over the remains of the abbey and ends in a small pool. Hard to paint the picture of this scene exactly, but whatever you are envisioning, just think of Heaven basically ;) I told Christian it was a bad idea to come here first because I really did not want to leave. I honestly could have stayed there all day it was just so pretty and peaceful… But he had more to show me so we continued on.
He actually took me back to the cliffs in Dover but to a side of them I didn’t go last time. We went up to the top and saw the massive harbor and then of course the legendary white cliffs. Unlike the shallow water next to the cliff’s base, we got into some pretty deep conversation right away. We got talking about “favorite things” and when it came to books, our conversation switched entirely. My favorite book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, opened up a huge discussion about the concept of coincidence and fate and timing (If you haven’t read it, definitely put that at the top of your bucketlist. Even before Stonehenge). Turns out Batman only believes in coincidence so, lucky for Gotham that he just happpennnns to be around when they’re in trouble and just happennns to not be blind so he can see them calling for him in the sky. Ha no, I’m not being disrespectful of other people’s beliefs. Just being the very religious person that I am, I had some questions for him and vice-versa. In a way it was a little mmm don’t wanna say awkward cuz it wasn’t, it was just interesting (yay for default words that don’t actually tell the reader anything) to talk religion with someone who A- I just met and B- didn’t believe in any higher power at all. Just a solid conversation.
After our “Deep Talks at the Cliffs with Batman and Elyse”, he decided he still wanted to hang out with me so we went to a beach (not far from where Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (!!) had a house). On the way we passed a house that Justin Timberlake used to own too (but let’s be honest, Ian Fleming? Way cooler). After the beach (which was definitely pretty (and very windy) but I gotta say, Rye still holds the gold), we got some dinner (which Christian made me try the infamous “black pudding” which…yeah…as yucky as it sounds :P). It was getting dark (don’t worry Mom and Dad, I wasn’t out way late, it just gets dark here very early ;P) so we decided that’d have to conclude our sight-seeing. Got back to Canterbury safe and sound and Chewit-stocked.
As for this weekend, it was the first weekend since I got here that I didn’t go on any trips!! It was kinda nice actually to get to do some re-grouping and relaxing. Also- got to go to mass on campus on Sunday! Well, not far from campus. At the Franciscan International Study Center. From the name alone, you can guess this was a pretty significant place for me ;) Homily was good- the priest talked about C.S. Lewis’ “Four Loves” (a book I personally have on my bucketlist). Shout out to Dan Thies and the Carroll choir though…my ears miss you guys. ;)
Soooo yes, was a crazy week!! Thanks so much for reading, I will try to do a better job of keeping up on this! Especially now that I know it’s being featured on the Carroll Student Life page!!! (Insert wide-eyed, red-cheeked emoticon ;P ) On that note, if that page is what brought you here, thanks so much for checking it out!! (: Hope Carroll is doing well!
Keep Calm and Update Your Blog Cuz It’s On the School Website
Cheers!
<3 Elyse