Laundry... at least it's free

Exciting day today!

We woke up around 10:15 after staying up (accidentally) until 02:00 AM again. This is getting ridiculous. There has not been one single night that we haven't stayed up until 02:00, and every single night we have no idea what time it is until we look and hurriedly hop in bed so as to get a bit of sleep. Last night we watched Notting Hill because Katy had never seen it and I want to go there quite badly. It was good, although I never get too excited to watch it because Jill and I made that mistake a few years ago when we watched it and the night ended in disappointment. We both remembered the movie being much better than it was. This time it was pretty good, though! Maybe it helped that I could imagine where Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts were wandering.

Anyway, we had a baguette for breakfast and headed to Atlantic House (the main school building) for the Chelsea Football Club stadium tour. After a brief ride on the tube, we arrived and man, was it big! I suppose all stadiums are. We got to see the visiting team's changing room which, they informed us, is "two-star." When we got to Chelsea's "five star" room, the difference was obvious. Chelsea had one room for wardrobe-like lockers, one room for the bathroom, one room for massage tables, one room for tactics/strategies, and one room for showers. The visiting team's room was just that: a room. The "lockers" were little cubbies under benches around the room against the walls. The strategy board was strategically placed behind the door. The (two--compared to Chelsea's five) massage tables were in the center of the room, and the showers and bathroom was in a separate attached room. We got to see the press room and interview rooms as well. Nothing too exciting. The field was gorgeous though. I guess I don't know soccer much, but it looked really nice. They take football VERY seriously around here!

On the way back to the room, Katy, Emily, Bess, and I stopped for baguette sandwiches (I got a really yummy ham and cheddar) and hot chocolate. We parted ways when Katy and I stopped in Whole Foods, the grocery store. We quickly stuffed our food in our mouths outside the store and we ventured inside. It was a bit confusing as it was two levels, but we sort of got it figured out in the end. It might take a few trips to get it down! Downstairs was where we found most everything. We had two criteria for our food: 1) must be on sale or cheap, and 2) must be non-refrigerated. It was a bit difficult finding fruit, but we ended up with basic apples and bananas. We bought pretzels, rice cakes, bread, and...... NUTELLA! We are SO excited for lunch tomorrow! Our program meal plan gives us breakfast and dinner on weekdays only so we bought a few things to munch on for lunch. My plan is to mostly just have fruit and bread (or rice cakes) with Nutella or peanut butter (we found it!) so it won't be too costly. I just munched on the tail end of the baguette we had for breakfast with Nutella--hey, I had to make sure it wasn't spoiled, right?!

After that excellent endeavor, I had a major milestone: I WENT FOR A RUN! I haven't been able to run since the week before Thanksgiving and now that I know what I was doing wrong, I decided to give it another go! It was a very short run--only about 4-5 songs--but I did it! I cannot even explain how wonderful it felt. I felt more like myself--active and free. My knee started to bother me after a bit so I stopped, but I'm planning to try again on Tuesday. I'm hoping it'll go well!

When I got back, we headed to a little Italian place nearby for dinner. I ordered the Napoli penne with a glass of white wine! It was wonderful.

I must say, however, that the biggest adventure of the day was probably laundry (which I really should go get...). I went down to the laundry room with my clothes and detergent right after dinner. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked but I mean, it couldn't be much different here. In the end, it wasn't, but it took a very long time to get there! I tried (unsuccessfully) to open the washer for 15 minutes until I finally gave up. It would not budge!! I finally dragged Katy down there with me and we pushed a button on the other washer (someone's clothes were in there so I hadn't touched it before) and it opened!! After trying that on my t0-be washer, we found that it didn't work. I wasn't going crazy. After some intense pushing and pulling (and laughing) we just took out the other person's laundry and used that one. Wish me luck with the dryer!!

Classes start tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have something exciting to write about.

:)

Jackie