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When I said I was from Montana, they automatically put me in the “intermediate” group even though I told them I hadn’t ridden a horse for a while. I guess we only had two groups though so it was either you’ve seen a horse before or you had no idea what this strange creature was. My group was the first to actually get on the horses and practice some trotting and cantering and turning and such. Drivers ed: horse edition. I got to ride a horse named “Prince”! He was a beauty for sure and the stable hand said he was her favorite horse. So, for all my girls keeping up on my blog to see if (I mean when ;P ) I meet my husband, rest assured, I found my “Prince” today!! ;)
After everyone was getting pretty comfortable, we threw in the next element. The mallets. The mallets are very similar to crochet sticks but much skinnier and actually much heavier than I expected. The other difference is you are meant to hit the ball with the middle area of the mallet rather than the ends. After we got the swing of things (get it cuz you swing the mallet) we added the little white ball and practiced hitting. One of the boys was describing polo as the great equalizer sport, a sport that men and woman can play alongside each other because it doesn’t matter so much about strength as it does about skill. When you hit the ball, it is all in the momentum of the stick and how you let it fall. You’re not trying to demolish the ball. Apparently it rained all day for the group that went the day before, so we really lucked out in terms of weather! It was very warm and sunshiny (: What helped make it an even better day was that everyone was very nice and friendly. I made friends with a girl and boy named (I kid you not) Lucy and Ed. I seriously felt like I was in Narnia. Well, minus the talking lion and fawns with scarves…
Monday, I also got to do something awesome! There was the “Kent Snow” society’s first “snocial”. So, after I got back from a £5 cocktail + all-you-can-eat Italian buffet in town, I went to check out thee snocial. Got to meet a lot of other snow-lovers and it was good to talk to people who shared my passion for snowboarding (: I’m way bummed because they were telling me all about their big trip to the French Alps but of course it’s in January ): There is another trip to Edinburgh in November that I might try to go to. It’s a dry slope competition so may be super interesting to see! Besides the trips, they do lots of snocials and different events so hopefully I will at least get to go to some of those!
Tuesday too kept the “something awesome” theme. Alex, our GlobaLinks leader/boss/babysitter/pal came to visit us! He met us on campus and then we all went down to town for lunch. I felt kinda hypocritical because I suggested an authentic, local, home-made food place called “Mrs. Jones Kitchen” that I walked by the other day. Being legitimate English food, you’d think I’d get some legitimate English food. What did the American get though? Bacon cheeseburger with “chips” (really French fries) annnd a milkshake. In my defense it was “Kent beef”! It was amazingly delicious so I didn’t feel too bad. After lunch we went across the street to “The Chocolate Café” and got a delightful dessert. It was a splendid little outing and it was good to catch up with Alex! We didn’t really have to say goodbye again though because we will see him again this weekend for our excursion to Stonehenge, Bath, and Cambridge (I know right??! :) )
Marty, my awesome friend Devon’s boyfriend from Ireland (hi, Devon!! Miss you!!) had told me about a band he knew of that was coming through Canterbury Tuesday night. They were doing a meet-and-greet/signing at the HMV, so I popped down there to check them out. I actually really liked their music a lot! Definitely gonna listen to more of them. Even though I had literally just heard of them and didn’t have anything for them to sign, I went through the line anyway and introduced myself. They were really nice guys and in a way I felt like I was at a A Day to Remember signing or something. It was cool (:
After the meet-and-greet, I went to a “posh dinner” night put on by the Kent Christian Union. For only £3, they made you a fancy dinner complete with some nice acoustic guitar in the background (I really have to make friends with guitar players…I’m having withdrawals…). Met some more cool new people and got to have some of the best vanilla ice-cream I’ve ever tasted haha so it was a good night.
To finish the night off, we returned back to campus and stopped by the bar in Ellie and Leah’s building because every Tuesday, they have what’s called “Ruby Tuesday” where they play alternative music. We were hoping for live music, but none this week. It was still a good time. I felt really popular too because I saw a couple kids from my classes and some kids I met from Polo and the snocial who came up and said hi! I’m making friends, Mom! ;)
Today has been a mellow, rainy one. I have caught some form of the infamous “freshers flu” and have been quite stuffed up the past couple days. I was secretly a little happy though because I also have a cough so I was (finally) able to get these delicious smelling cough drops that they have here! They’re “black current” flavor and I will more than likely stock up with some before returning to America.
Yay, well that’s all for now!
Keep calm and social (/snocial ;) ) on!
Cheers!
E