21st birthday and Thanksgiving :)

Well it has certainly been a fun few days!!!!  On the night of my 21st birthday Ciara ran into my room pretty much right at midnight and wished me a happy birthday :) Jen and Jude soon followed suit and we were hanging out until about 1:30 am.  Ciara gave me an advent calendar with a chocolate that said my name on it for Christmas Day! (I’ll probably have to eat it before though). 

I woke up around 9:30 and opened my door.  Much to my surprise, my door was covered with tissue paper and I would not be allowed out of my room! I said “Oh my god” and then I heard Jen and Meghan yell “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!”  They told me I had to run through the tissue paper to get out, but first had to put on the proper attire.  They gave me a huge 21st birthday button and a sash to match!  I ran through the tissue paper and we all had a good laugh :).  They had a card that my entire flat signed and they gave me a bunch of rice pudding!!!! Meghan also bought these delicious raisin scones!! They actually got up at 6:30 to decorate my door and had been waiting in Jen’s room since then, waiting for me to get my lazy butt out of bed.

After class, I went back to my room.  Jen, Meghan and I had planned on going into town to buy food for thanksgiving tomorrow but Jen was still sleeping by the time I got back.  I was talking to Meghan and we were both hungry so she said to come over for a cheese toastie.  As soon as I walked in, she said “Would you like to go to Manchester tonight??? I just found out one of my favorite authors is doing a signing there tonight!”  Me being me, I said “OF COURSE!!! I love impromptu trips!”  So she looked up and called about tickets and we got that all squared away and bought train tickets (10 quid return each!). Then we ate and Jen came over.  Our train was leaving at 4:30 (It was already 2pm) so we didn’t have much time to go into town so we decided instead to finish watching Pride and Prejudice.  

Meghan and I went to the train station (ended up walking from the bus station since we missed the right stop) and got on the train to Manchester.  Meghan was already freaking out and really excited :-) We changed trains in Preston and I got my usual Italian (tomato, mozzarella, and basil) sandwich and hot chocolate! We got on the train from Preston to Manchester and I finished my hot chocolate but there were lots of yummy chocolate bits at the bottom.  Meghan had gotten tea and so I asked for some of her hot water.  Chocolate tea? DELICIOUS!!! I should patent it! Haha.  We did some work on the way there.  

We got off at Deansgate and then realized we had no idea how to get to Waterstones where Brandon Sanderson would be doing a reading and a signing.  So we set off to try and find a map and I found an Alfa Romeo shop.  Yup…they are still ugly as ever! We then found a map and texted Jen to give us directions.  We walked along Deansgate and it was really pretty.  They had Christmas decorations up.  It did feel kind of weird seeing Christmas decorations without any snow or cold (it was about 55). We took pictures along the way and stopped in a Sainsburys to top up our phones and get some chocolate. We ended up walking out of Sainsburys and down the wrong road for about 10 minutes before we turned around and found the right road. 

We found Waterstones and walked up to where the reading and signing would take place.  This is where Meghan began to really freak out! I know I would have been if it had been me going to a JK Rowling or Dan Brown signing.  Brandon Sanderson was a really cool guy and quite funny.  He did a reading from a novella that he is currently working on and then did a Q & A. After that we all queued up and I got one of his stand-alone books signed that I purchased that night. I haven’t read much of it yet, but so far it’s quite a good read! He’s a fantasy writer. Meghan was BUGGING OUT when she met him but did a great job! She was able to form complete and coherent sentences!!!!! I was so proud of her :-P  On our way out, she asked if she could have the one poster board that said Brandon Sanderson signing on it and the nice Waterstones employee let her have it. After that we walked back to the train station, and I’m pretty sure Meghan wanted to skip all the way back.

The train back was fun, we took more random pictures and Meghan was still trying to calm down.  When we got back to Lancaster we walked back to the bus station.  We walked by the Castle and the Abbey.  It was raining pretty good but I still took pictures :) It was so cool! We got back around 11pm.  On the bus back to Uni, we sat on the top deck of a doubler decker at the very front.  There was a mirror there that the bus driver used to keep see if people are coming down to get off or not.  We ended up using this mirror to take lots and lots of pictures. I bet the bus driver was entertained by our antics :-P.

At some point that night on the train back we talked about how I was a super hero and my name is Super Birthday Girl! I only have powers on my birthday.  We had planned on doing a fun photo shoot when we got back but it was WAY too rainy and we were drenched.  We got back to Grizedale and then went out for drinks with Jen, Jude and Greg. I had a Guinness as my first drink as a 21 year-old!  I almost wanted to ask them to ID me just because, but decided against it.  Jude and Greg ended up getting in this argument over something to do with taxes.  I told Meghan that we had to be proper and drink with our pinkies out.  Meghan later left to go to sleep and Greg left to go prep for an interview.  Jen, Jude and I went for a walk and talked about a lot of stuff.  It was a nice birthday :) After that we all headed back to go to sleep.

The next morning, Meghan and I woke up to go into town for some shopping.  We went to New Look and bought some new clothes. Then we went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.  I got turkey breasts and a huge drumstick, potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and a bunch of other supplies.  We headed back to Uni and I started working on dinner.  Jen and Jude helped me with the potatoes and I made a garlic herb crust for some of the turkey.  We ended up having turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, roast vegetables, mashed potatoes, and yams.  Ciara, her friend from London, Jen, Meghan, Shaun, Greg, Jude and I all crowded around the table and enjoyed Thanksgiving together :) I had to make the toast and I didn’t know what to say other than “Thanks for a great term and let’s enjoy the rest of it!” It felt really nice that we all sat down and had dinner together.  We ended up eating and talking for an hour and a half! It was awesome X-D

After dinner, everyone headed out to do work.  Jen, Meghan and I went to the Learning Zone to get some work done and stayed until 12:30.  Today I had my EU seminar and my IPE lecture and Seminar.  Now I’m back in the Learning Zone with my 2 best friends here and writing this instead of working on my essays.  That’s okay though, I had to get this out of my head first! Tomorrow, Jen and I are going to London and I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR TOP GEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T EVEN COMPREHEND THE FACT THAT I’M REALLY GOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meghan told me that I have to take a picture of my face when I’m freaking out.  Haha we can compare freak out faces from when she was at the signing :) We also found out that there is an ice bar in London about 20 minutes from our hotel.  We’re definitely going tomorrow night!!! It should be a great weekend.  But now I have to try and accomplish some work so I can really enjoy it! 

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!!! <3

~Carolyn