"Jack" and Bayla 

We stayed with the President! 

I SAW A COW!!!!!!!!!! 

The windy city all mist-ified. 

Keith is wearing Danglers. Yes. Danglers.  

Lighting Stevie Wonder's birthday cake outside due to fire alarms...  

i love Chicago? by rachel

Spring Break is over in a mere 5 hrs and 45 minutes from now. SAD DAY! Soooo, I had a craaaazy trip with the lovely Concert Choir up north to OH, IL, and KY. First stop was Milford, Ohio.... not too much to mention about that except that our first concert was no Weaverville... for those of you who don't know, Weaverville was the 1st stop on our NC tour two years ago and we SUCKED. It was AWFUL. One choir member *ahem*the mad crapper*ahem* was caught picking his or her nose on stage and eating it. Mmmmm. That didn't happen this time... It was actually one of the best concerts ever.

Saturday, we spent all afternoon wandering Chicago... Keith took us to Giordano's and it gave me hope for Italians... after last semester I was kinda wondering.... hehehe. In any case, we had deep dish Chicago style pizza, and it was sooooo good. We even paid Megan $8 to eat another huge piece. We all got sick watching her but she did it! *side note* a few weeks ago in food service, Keith paid Megan $20 to eat a pickle slice that someone tossed in her coffee and then put in ketchup. Who wouldn't eat it for $20?? It was steaming as she stuck it into her mouth... Mmmmm. *side note over* So, we walked around Chicago, shopped (Keith has too much $, he paid me $5 to be his personal shopper in Armani), got coffee, Kate ran into a friend from high school - apple off the random tree - we had a generally good time. It started to get misty, so you couldn't see the tops of the high rises and they looked awesome. Speaking of looking awesome... we tried on some glasses and hats in one store.... I'll post the pic. Han, would you still be our friend if..... ;)

That night we stayed in Zion, IL. The name of the town ended up being very ironic. I met our house father for that night first... Beki was still getting off of the bus. After introducing myself, the first thing he says to me is, "You don't have a very strong accent for living in Kentucky." I explained to him that I grew up in TN, but I still don't have that strong of an accent for whatever reason. He then said, "Well, that's good. It just means you're smarter than the rest of those southerners." My jaw dropped. THEN, as Beki (who had been sleeping on the bus) walked in, the first thing he said to her was, "Are you sick?" She didn't know what to say. Oh, but I am not done yet!! He then says, "Good thing you are both small, it will be like taking care of puppies!!" WOW. When relating this to reloKate the next afternoon, she told me that her host family had a bumper sticker to top it all. I said to try me. Her bumper sticker said "Real men, not girlie men vote Bush." I topped it. MY host family (aside from all the other bumper stickers relating to Bush) had one that said "John Kerry, Communist Party" with a circle and a line through it over the text. Once again, WOW. When we got to the guy's house, his family seemed normal... I liked them. We were shown our room in their remodeled basement and I was kind of startled by the shadowed man standing in the corner of the room. Yes. It was a cardboard cutout of George W. that stood over our bed and watched us as we slept. Great fun. I won't relate the rest of that stay except to say I had to brush my teeth for an extremely long time to keep from jumping in the conversations with the host dad. Oh, and Beki thinks his son is hot (I agree... underage, but cute). :)

After ZION, we went back to Chicago for a few hours... I walked around the Art Institute with Bayla for a while and saw a ton, but not nearly enough. I was in such shock... Picasso's Guitarist, Van Gogh's The Bedroom, some Jackson Pollock (who my youth minister knows as "Jack" apparently), Seurot, Monet, Manet, Degas, Dali, and soooo much more. It was incredible.

To skip a day or so, we ended up staying in the bagel capital of the world, Mattoon, IL with an awesome host family and a Philippino exchange student who thought I was cutest. *sigh* The host dad sang for us and then the next morning I had the best coffee ever - 2 cups of it! - which my friends regretted due to my caffeine high. Sorry!!

After one last concert in Kate's church, which was tremendous (both the concert and the church) we stayed at her friend John's MANSION. Wow! We used the SAUNA they had IN THEIR HOUSE.... Yeah... it was nice.

Enough of choir tour though.... I spent the rest of break, including Easter, at home con la familia. It was great fun.... I love them so!!

And now that I am back at school *BLAH* I checked my post office box and got a package from Han that included a postcard of Prince William with porn hair and a package of fruit snacks called "Midget Gems." I laughed out loud alone in my apartment. THANKS HANNAH!!!!

If I think of anything else interesting.... haha, like this post has been interesting.... I'll keep everyone posted. Here goes the second half of the semester....

OH, and CONGRATS to JONAS for getting the Watson!!!! You always get everything you want... sheesh.

And CONGRATS to JODY and ZACK!!! She has quite the rock on her finger....

5 hrs and 15 minutes left......

What happens in Italy stays in Italy...by Hannah

Hey kids! I'm in Rome. Just rolled in today, and slept the afternoon away in a not so bad hostel bed. I'm in an internet laundry mat a block from my hostel at the moment, and "Goodies" is playing very loudly. It's faaaantastic. A quick run down of my trip so far (more in depth stuff will follow once I get back to England and have time!): Kimberly and I left last Friday, the 18th. Spent a day in London, walking around and going to the Globe Theater, then we took the train to Paris. Not a bad trip, except for the stinky Irish boys we sat next to! Spent 3 beautiful days in Paris, and took a sleeper train to Venice and spent 2 nights there. Kim went back to uni on Thursday and I went to Florence for 4 nights, and now I'm here! For 3 nights, then I'm taking a sleeper train to Geneva, staying there for a night, back to Paris for 2, so I can go to Versailles and Normandy, then taking a train back to London.
Have to run, but I miss you guys! Be good. Rach, email me sometime, why don't ya? How was spring break? I love you! I miss you!

Ciao.

Zoie-isms, by Hannah

I was going to make this a game, but I'm thinking better of it. I was gonna make you guess what this meant, but you probably never would...
Zoie says:
"I'm not fussed." This pretty much means "I don't care." If you give her a choice between one thing and another she might say "Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm not fussed." Try it out sometime.

"Oi." Possibly my favorite Zoie-ism. She says this to get your attention, as like "Oi, Hannah, look at this..." Also, you can make her say it on command. Just say "Aussie Aussie Aussie" and she is sworn on her life to say back to you "Oi! Oi! Oi!"

"Hook in!" This means to hook up with someone. Like "oh yeah, I hooked in with him last term..." or "Hook in, Hannah, hook in!" That would be the context I've heard it most in. "Hooking in" constitutes nothing but physical attraction, and usually involves pulling.

"Thongs." Not the underwear, the shoes. She tends to say it in the worst possible moment, like, in a roomful of people "Oi! I can't find my thongs."

"Minging." Pronounced "mingin.'" This isn't technically a Zoie-ism, this is a northern-Brit thing that Zoie is trying to pick up. It means "ugly" or "gross." As in "that chick is really minging." Also, an ugly person can be called "a mingun.'"

"Arvo." Keep in mind the Aussie accent, it sounds like "avo." Short for "afternoon," as in "I'll be arriving around 2 in the arvo."

When it comes from taking a break from homework, there's nothing like a bar in your place of residence. by HANNAH

I just wanted to tell everyone that my head is no longer in danger of exploding. It nearly did yesterday, but I finished my homework, attacked some more, and kept my head intact. Today, however, has not been so profitable. But I have a good start on the rest of my 4000 words that need to be tackled before Paris, and I have more than Paris as a good reason to finish before Thursday night: ST PATRICK'S DAY. County bar has a late license. What a reason to finish writing stuff you don't want to be writing in the first place, eh?
At the moment I'm leaving to go downstairs and have a mid-homework drink with my kitchen compadres who are venturing out to Revolution tonight. I really envy the people who either a) have no work or b) don't need to do it now or c) just don't give a damn. But I am not going out, I'm just going downstairs for a bit. So....
peace!

hold on... just a little... longer ~ by rachel

Soooo I am so totally going to AUSTRIA this summer!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am uber excited... Bregenz here we come. And a humongonongous bonus is that I get to see my HANNAH! YAY! Until then, I am holding on for just a few more days because this Friday begins our Spring Break. While Hannah is backpacking across Europe with her spiffy new backpack *cough*you suck*cough* I will be traveling through Cincinnati, Chicago, and good ol' Murray KY for Concert Choir Tour. I've been to Cinci to see Ryan Adams... and... ok I'll admit it, Hanson... I went to see Hanson. But Hannah and Jonas did too!!! In any case, I've never been to Chicago before. I get to see CLAY while I'm there. That makes me very happy! :) And as for Murray, we may see some Thiles, so that also makes me very happy. Muhahahaha.

Things here have been as normal as possible. I guess. Whatever normal is. Ooooh, I went bowling with Ryan, Jaime, Jonas, and Deborah on Thursday. I wore my new Purple-Goodwill-Prince-Party-Like-Its-1999 shirt. Wow. In the first game (of maaaaany) I beat everyone but Ryan. I BEAT JONAS! HA! Granted, my score was 96 so he was just playing bad, but still!! After that, Jaime and I had a competition to see who could lose worst. Jaime won for the most part. I thought I was bad....

Jesse ate with me in Food Service Friday night. Actually, he threw a cookie wrapper at me and then ate with me. Goober. He followed me back to the dorm after a not so lovely meal of cheeseburgers and fries. It was then that he looked down at his hot jeans and said (and I quote) "I need to go to the laundry, I have cafe on my pants." MmmmHmmmm.

And Hannah's new name is Bib.

the straw star

Camping in Italy by Hannah

It's been way too long since I updated! Mostly because I haven't been doing any exciting travelling. I've been sticking around Lancaster for the past few weeks trying to get all of my essays written before I leave on my great European Adventure on Friday. This time next week I'll be in France!!! It doesn't seem real, at all. My friend Kimberly from Florida and I will be travelling together for a week, and we're going to Paris for 3 days and Venice for 3 days. We booked our hostels a few minutes ago and got uber excited. But get this--since this is Easter Holiday and a lot of Uni kids are travelling, it's hard to find open hostels and if you can they're really expensive ones. Kim and I found a place in Venice for $18 a night, and it turns out it's a campground where they provide tents and bedding!!!!!! You can only imagine my utter joy. Kim wasn't so into it, but I talked her into it when we found out we could get a cabin type thing with beds and a bathroom for the same price. So, we're staying at a campground in Italy.

So, this week. Last Friday we went to the Sugarhouse and it was the Beach party. So, of course, we all got dressed up beach style, thinking that these scandalous British chicks would always out-do us with the amount of clothing they could get away with wearing, but we were mistaken. Basically we international students made fools of ourselves in front of a good reprensentating population of the student body. But we still had fun, oh did we have fun. Zoie won the limbo contest! But I did lose my shoe. Here's what happened: I kept losing my friends, so I left the boy and went to find them. But then I couldn't, and I went back to get the boy, and he was missing too. Then I went back to the main dance floor, and I was attacked by a bunch of Brits who wanted to dance (probably due to the lack of clothing I was wearing). One second I was fine, and the next, I got kissed on the cheek, someone stepped on my flip flop, and I turned around to get it and it was GONE. In the back pocket of some guy, disappearing through the crowd. This was traumatizing. When I finally found one of my friends I was distraught. She says that I was freaking out, having lost my friends, my shoe and the boy all at once. While I did end up finding my friends and the boy, I lost my shoe for good, and to be quite honest, something in me died.

Just kidding.

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering. I needed it. Monday we went out to Manchester, because it was Zoie's birthday in Aussie time. It was quite an experience. Let me just say that if you have a drunk person on a long coach ride you should sit as far as possible away from the nasty smelly toilet. The end.

Thursday was Comic Relief for Red Nose Day, which was Friday. We went down to the County bar before going to the Lounge to celebrate Zoie's birthday some more. Josh was selling himself for 20p a pop, and we couldn't miss out on that. And the bar boy (Dr Wristband, for those acqainted with him through my lingo) got his legs waxed for charity. I think I am no longer interested in Dr Wristband. He just HAD to take it there! Then we made our way to the Lounge (there are pictures on the other website) where we danced and sweated, because it is ungodly how hot it gets there.

Last night Jackie, Kerri, Zoie, Ben and I went to the Sugarhouse for the last time this term, and it was less exciting than usual. Maybe we were just tired, or maybe the music sucked...yeah, the music sucked. But it was still fun. We went to Wetherspoon's before and that's always great fun. And Ben made a star out of straws. That's talent, kids. But then he almost killed us on the way home in his little Brit car. Little Brit car full of tired girls + Ben driving + Roundabouts = bad.

So this morning I woke up to SUNlight coming in my window, popped in the Notorious BIG cd so courteously loaned to me, and got to work. Unfortunately my motivation didn't last beyond 100o words, so I have to get back to work right now. I probably won't update again before leaving for France so and I'll try from the hostels, but...peace!

Picture blog by Hannah

Hey kids, I just set up another site just to post pictures on, because I have a bunch I want to post and I don't want to put them all on here. So go here to see more pictures, or to the link on our profile since I just put it under this sign in name. I'll be adding them all day and then as I take them...since I have a new camera on the way...thanks family!