Week Five

Hey everyone!

This week has been a slower week. A good week nonetheless. We had a birthday within the group which was exciting! Chase turned 20 on Saturday so we decorated right outside his room and went out to dinner in the city centre. We went to a burger place (quite unexpected since Chase does not eat meat) but it was delicious. I never really saw that part of the city centre before; I've just been by the shopping mall. But there is a whole other section filled with cafes and restaurants, which is good to know for other birthdays (we have two more next week!) and when we have visitors. After dinner, we just hung out at one of the houses right in the Oadby student village. We did pretty much the same thing a few night before that, and again the other night. It has been a relaxing, yet still fun, week and I'm enjoying it completely. We don't have much down time after this weekend so it was nice to have some now and enjoy it. 

Tomorrow we leave for Amsterdam with an organized trip through the school. We will be taking a bus, ferry, and then bus to get there. It will take 13 hours. One way. Sigh. We leave Thursday night and arrive there Friday morning; leave Sunday morning arrive back in Leicester Sunday night. So we have two full days to go around and explore Amsterdam. There is actually a lot to see there... not just drugs! There is a Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank's House (now a museum), Rembrandt's house, and the Heineken Brewery. There are a ton of other museums that I would like to see as well, but museums are really time consuming so I'm not sure how many we'll get to do. I also have a cousin who lives in the Netherlands, close to Amsterdam, so there is a chance I might meet up with her. That would be nice because I can't remember the last time I saw her. 

I don't have a whole lot of time at the moment, so later in the week I will put more pictures on my MobileMe Account but as of right now there's nothing on there. The only pictures I took this week were of us out at the bars and hanging out, so nothing too thrilling anyways. Oh actually I did take one good one! It was this morning while me and Ashley were waiting for the bus. we were just standing around and we saw a chicken across the street. It was kind of just hanging around by the sidewalk and everyone on our side of the street (about 20-25 people) just stopped to see what it was going to do next. You will never guess what it did do next... IT CROSSED THE ROAD! I could not, and still cannot, believe that I saw it. I saw a chicken cross the road. A busy road, if I add. I tried to snap a picture of it as it was crossing (how much of a tourist am I?!?) but I didn't get one until it had already crossed. I took it on my iPod so I'll put it up another time. It was truly a great experience. As Ashley put it, "My childhood makes sense now!"

- Lauren