A rainy day to commemorate a month in the UK...

It's official, the 2006-2007 Notters have been here for more than a month. In some respects, it seems like we have been here for longer, but somehow it still seems like we just arrived. Yesterday prooved to be a typical English day. Mark and Aaron went grocery shopping in the early hours of the morning so that Aaron could get to class on time and I could get the beef stew started before I left for class as well. Of course, five minutes after Mark and Aaron left, I realized that I had not put one thing on the list... beef. So, since Mark didn't take his cell with him, I biked to the nearest grocery and picked up 10 pounds (pounds as in money, not weight) worth of steak (they don't believe in any other kind here) and biked to John and Margarets to pick up onions, carrots, potatoes, and several other bunches of fresh produce. On my awkward bike home, I somehow managed to stay upright and arrived safely at our front door. I began the beef stew and got ready for class. Just as I was walking out the door, Mark and Aaron came in the door with all of the groceries. They had been gone for more than three hours. Needless to say, Aaron looked a little harried.

Mary, Aaron and I were all heading to main campus for Islamic Tradition, and it was late enough that we knew a bus wouldn't get us there in time, so we biked. Half-way to Jubilee Campus, it started to sprinkle, so we parked our bikes at Jubilee and decided to take the 'Hopper Bus' from Jubilee to Park (main) Campus. Unfortunately, it was not our day. The bus driver didn't seem to want to go anywhere, so after ten minutes of sitting on the bus, we decide to bike the rest of the way to class since it was about to start. We start out and immediately, it starts to pour. At first it is slightly funny, but soon we were completely drenched. We walk into class as it was starting (perfectly timed so that all of the class could see how ridiculous we looked) and sat through class with steam rising off of our clothes. Aaron stayed for baseball (which we later learned that they practiced sliding in the rain... so he was covered in mud and soaked), and Mary had to go to basketball at Jubilee, so Mary and I rode back towards home in the rain. We were cruising along, excited to be inside and in dry clothes, when Mary crossed a side street. When she was in the middle of the road, I saw a white truck speeding right for her. I yelled. The driver slammed on his breaks. Mary swerved. I played out the worst possible senario in my mind and slammed on my breaks. Mary scraped by and made it to the other side safely. I somehow was so worried about Mary that I forgot I was riding a bike. I ended up halfway on the ground... somehow. I was fine. Mary was fine. So, after seeing her life flash before her and coming out safely, Mary and I rode to Jubilee. She went to her basketball game and I rode the rest of the way home.

After drying off and warming up with a cup of tea, courtesy of Kate, I started cooking again. The beef stew was easy enough, but the pumpkin pie proved to be more difficult than anticipated as the British are too good for canned pumpkin. Emily and I dealt with what we had and cooked two whole pumpkins and made pumpkin pie from scratch, in it's truest sense. Much to our surprise and delight, it turned out very well. After dinner, I stayed in the kitchen to clean up. I also baked some little treats with the left over pie crust and made frosting to go along with. Then, Mary started making the lasagne for tonight, so I helped with that. Then, Kevin started baking. By the end of the night, Mary and I were sitting on the kitchen floor with her computer planning out our Christmas and Spring Holidays. It was exciting to realize just how much we could do in seven weeks of European travel.

We tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but after baking, cooking, doing dishes, and planning our breaks, we decided we should rig up a drying rack in our room as our jeans were still wet after three days of hang drying in our room. After fifteen minutes of climbing on furniture and trying to remember boyscout knots, we had a pretty effective clothes line across our room. Twice. Dad, you would be proud, it is so high that we can walk under it without running into clothes (don't worry i took a picture for you... check your email). Much later we finally stopped talking and went to bed. After a leisurly morning, it is unfortunately time to start the weekly paper.