Hello!

It has been a while, so I will do my best to catch up. When I last left off, I was telling you that we were going to play beer pong that night at the pub in Jesus College. Megan and I decided to be a team and when it was our turn to play, we were pretty excited. We played a couple boys who had just won, so of course they were confident they were going to beat us..and well...they did. We did give them a run for their money though! After we played, we had to wait around for a while until our next game. We took pictures and watched everyone else play. It was hilarious because the guys got so into it and super competitive. It was just a fun game of beer pong, but they certainly were not messing around! haha. When it was our turn, we ended up playing the same guys...rematch! Well, if any of you have ever seen me play beer pong, you know I am terrible. There are times that I get lucky, but this time...not so much. I made one cup...and Megan made the rest. :) We both ended up getting down to the last cup, so we gave the guys a run for their money. Unfortunately, my beer pong skills could not get us out and we lost. All well, it was a lot of fun! Afterwards, I just went to bed. I haven't been feeling very well lately and I am afraid I have a sinus infection because the cold medicine that I have been taking has not been working very well.

Because it has been so long since I last wrote, I can't remember exactly what I did Wednesday except for class. At around 3pm, we all got dressed up, picked up our packed lunches, and got on a bus for the Kempton Park Horse Races! Horseracing is a big event here, and people get dressed up. A few girls went and bought hats to wear, but I didn't really want to spend my pounds (which are double the dollars) on a hat that I probably wouldn't ever wear again. Anyways, we all got on the buses and rode the 2 hour ride to Kempton. When we got there and walked toward the track, my feet hurt so bad because my shoes were so new. They were flats, so I basically walked on my tippy toes the whole time to avoid the backs from rubbing on my heels. When we got there, we got some drinks and decided to make some bets. The guys were totally into it and were doing some pretty serious betting. I had no idea what I was doing....probably because the only betting on horses that I have ever done was when I was a kid and Mom and Dad would ask me which one I wanted to bet a $1 on. I would usually pick the pink or blue jockey...or the number 7...which now, at age 21, I didn't think would be the smartest choice...especially in pounds. Fortunately, they had a 2 pound Tote Betting system where you pick a horse for each race. I used the race posts that the boys had purchased and made my picks based on which ones were picked to come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place. Basically, the Tote Betting goes like this: If the horse you pick in the 1st race gets in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd...then you are still in. If it doesn't, then your card is worthless...and that keeps going throughout the entire night. The first race was a ton of fun because my first horse, Shatter Resistance, came in 3rd!! I was so excited to still be in the game. So, the next race...I picked Blitzen and cheered him on the entire time. Well....thank you Blitzen....for coming in DEAD LAST and taking my precious 2 pounds and any chances of winning anything else away from me. So, my betting days at Kempton Park were over...but I did enjoy the few beers that I had while watching the rest of the races. Overall, it was a lot of fun to get dressed up, do a little betting, watch the parade of horses and the races. Only a few people came out on top and I think the person that won the most made 80 pounds. On the bus ride home, all I wanted to do was sleep. You knew you were in a bus with 40 Nebraskan's because they all starting singing the fight song...haha. Besides that, the first 15 minutes or so were peaceful, and right as I was about to fall asleep, the bus driver decided to turn the bus into a small club and play the music as loud as you would hear it in such a place. I am not over exaggerating either...it was blasting out of the speakers! I was glad to be home to give my ear drums a break and finally get some real sleep.

On Thursday, our lectures were a bit shorter because all of us were leaving for the extended break to various different places. Right after class, I finished up my packing and headed to the bus station for Dublin, Ireland!! Most of the people on the program went to Ireland. There were a few that went to Paris and some that went to Edinburgh, but the majority were going to Dublin. A bunch of us were on the same RyanAir flight, so that was nice to have people to get around with. We all walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the London Gatwick Airport. When we got there, we got all checked in and as we were walking to the security line, we saw a bunch of Nebraskans that were supposed to be on an earlier flight. They all looked angry and apparently missed their flight. Megan and I were hungry since we skipped lunch and decided to go get a panini, so we met everyone in the area by our gate. It took a while for them to post our gate and then we found out our flight was delayed about 20 minutes. It really wasn't a big deal because we weren't in a hurry to get anywhere and it was only a short amount of time. While we were waiting, Megan and I decided to hit up the duty free shop to purchase some alcohol since we heard that the drinks at the pubs in Dublin could be anywhere from 5-10 Euros. That is WAY to much for me. When our gate number was finally posted, we went through security. They have this new thing, which I was not aware of, where they take your picture when they check you ID and boarding pass. When she said smile, I was really caught off guard! After security, we headed down to our gate where we saw some of the guys from Nebraska. When we went through the security to get into our gate, I noticed the pictures that we took pop up on the screen. When it was my turn, I looked at the screen and busted out laughing. It was probably the worst picture I have ever taken! hahaha My eyes were closed and my mouth was doing this funny thing. Oh, I would love to have that job to sit and look at people's hilarious pictures all day. :) The plane ride only took about an hour and we were barely in the air. I was excited to see Ireland from the air...It is so pretty!