Hey guys,

I apologize that it took me so long to update since my last post! I either don't have time to update or I am too tired at the end of the day!!

I got to watch the excitement at Lambeau Field on my laptop (Thanks again for this slingbox again Uncle Steve!). Boy was it nice to be in my toasty warm bed and it looked FREEZING at Lambeau!!! Everyone was in big winter jackets, winter accessories, heaters on the field, and it looked really windy too :) As amazing as staying warm felt, I wish I could be watching this event at Lambeau with the 70,000 other people! (FYI...the high temp in Toledo on Tuesday was about 62 degrees...when was the last time it reached the double digits in Green Bay?!?!) To my fellow PPS associates....I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN HELPING YOU GUYS!!! I hope you had to wear your red vests!!!!!

This blog might be a long one so I apologize! 

Let's see....Where do I begin?!?!? I believe the last time I blogged was before I left for London. This past weekend was Girl's Weekend! We went to London and the boys went to Morocco (only Jake and Taylor went because Derek had the flu and couldn't go). I met Brit, Jake, and Taylor at Enebro for tapas on Thursday before the girls left for the Madrid airport. The bus left at 10:00 from Toledo headed to Madrid. We got to the bus station in Madrid at about 10:50...then it was time for the wonderful Madrid metro ride of about 45 minutes. It was about 12:30am Friday morning when we reached the airport. We thought that we would be able to go through security and spend the night in the terminal, but of course it wouldn't be an adventure if everything went as planned. We were told that we need to wait for the Ryan Air counter to open at 4am......Let's just say I wasn't prepared to sleep on the floor of the airport. The cold tile floor and screaming spanish girls next to us didn't allow me to get much sleep. After about a half hour I went and sat in the café and read my Cosmo magazine! Once 4am rolled around, the two other girls had at least 3 hours of sleep on me, I just wanted to get through security and sleep! I slept about an hour more in the terminal before we boarded the plane. 

When we got to London it was FREEZING and super windy. There was a bus waiting to take us to the city where our hotel was (Paddington). I found it quite interesting that the bus driver was driving on the opposite side of the road and the car! It was pretty funny to see!! Between the airport and the hotel, it looked a lot like southern Wisconsin and Illinois. Just a lot of green farm fields and grass. When we reached Paddington, it reminded me more of Chicago (without the skyscrapers) than it did London. Our hotel was about a mile walk from where the bus dropped us off. We went to see if they would let us check in early and drop our things off in the room before we began the adventure!!! They did let us check in early so that was nice!! (It was probably because when I booked the room it asked for a prefix and my options were Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Dr.....so of course I selected Dr.!!! Dr. Brooke Sanborn has a nice ring to it don't you think?!?!? I'm just glad no one got seriously injured and they actually thought I was a real doctor! Although I have watched enough Grey's Anatomy to take care of just about anytime!)

After we set our things down in the TINY hotel room, we went to get our metro tickets and head to the British Museum. This was a museum like all the others....Lots of old artifacts, paintings of Jesus in every pose possible, sculptures missing heads, etc. etc etc. I'm not really the type to walk around a museum and look at EVERY LITTLE THING....The most exciting part was the mummies or ancient Egypt! I have some pretty cool pictures of some really mummies and bodies from 3185798123748091 years ago :)

After the museum we went back and got ready for dinner and the ballet! I took a little nap while the other girls got ready. It was one of the best naps I have ever taken!!! We went to none other than PIZZA HUT for dinner!!! Large Meat Feast Pizza with cheese bites for the crust....AMAZING! It still didn't taste like American Pizza Hut that's for sure, but it was still amazing! Now comes my favorite part of the whole trip!!! THE BALLET!!! Thank goodness there was a really nice gentleman on the Metro that showed us where the theatre was or we would have been lost! People in London are much nicer than people in Spain! The ballet was amazing!!! The other two girls I was with fell asleep so they probably didn't like it as much as I did! It was about 11 o'clock when the ballet was over and the last thing I wanted to do was walk a mile and half from the metro station to our hotel. So after much bickering amongst the three of us...I finally convinced everyone to take a taxi!! My feet were sore, it was late, and London doesn't have much in the way of lighted streets.....taking a taxi was definitely the safest and most convenient option! I hit the pillow and died that night. It was the best night's sleep I have had since I have been here!

Saturday was filled with a bunch of sight seeing and picture opportunities. We woke up and went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It was really cool to watch! I taped most of it so I will show you guys when I get home!!! There was a police officer named Tony who was the funniest guy I have ever met!!! He would fit right in with the jokes from the BCSD (Brown County Sheriff's Dept.) that's for sure! He reminded me exactly of my dad! I got a picture with him of course!

After that we just walked around to take pictures of the famous sights...Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, House of Parliament, the London Eye, and the London Bridge. I really wanted to tour the Westminster Abbey because that is where all of the royalty get married. Prince William and Kate are getting married there in April. I thought it would be nice to see the inside and say I was there....The other two girls didn't want to spend the money to take a tour so that bursted my bubble! In the evening we went back to take pictures of all the building at night, when they were all lit up. I will definitely upload pictures on to my computer this weekend! I only have a day trip planned with the school on Friday so I will get them up this weekend some time!!!


Sunday morning I was up at 4am (Grandpa can you believe that....4am!!! Who knew there was a 4am?!?!) Katie wanted to catch the bus an hour earlier than the one we were scheduled for. So we were standing out at the bus stop in the mist and wind waiting for the 5 o'clock bus to come....Well it came and there were 4 empty seats on it. On the tickets we had it said we are allowed to take buses an hour before and after our scheduled time. Our ticket was scheduled for 6 o'clock. So I asked the bus driver if there were 3 extra seats on the bus. He walked on and said there were 4. One guy missed his 4:30am bus so he got one of the seats. Then I see the guy watching this group of Spanish girls to see if they were getting on his bus or a different one. I finally asked him if we could get on and take the 3 empty seats and what does he tell me.....NO.....For anyone who knows me well enough....that word really doesn't fit into my vocabulary very well! I said, "EXCUSE ME. There are 3 completely empty seats on this bus. No one is here to take them. My ticket says I can get on this bus if there are available seats." Then he proceeds to tell me that the rules have just changed and he can decided who gets on the bus or not......Well that also didn't sit well with me :) I proceeded to tell him that this new "rule" of his was not printed on the ticket so it didn't matter what he said. He told me that he was not going to argue with me at 5 in the morning and got in his bus and left......LET'S JUST SAY I WAS THE MOST ANGRY PERSON IN ALL OF WESTERN EUROPE. I know the ONLY reason he didn't let us on that bus was because we were Americans. The guy who missed his bus had an accent of some sort and of course the Spanish girls weren't from America......I have never been more offended in my life!!! I really do miss America!

School has been school! I had my second week of my internship on Tuesday. I was in the Methadone clinic and laboratory. I helped fill everyone's prescriptions of Methadone and give it to them when they came in. In the lab I was taught how to test everyone's urine for different drugs like cocaine, marijuana, heroine, prescription drugs, and alcohol. It was really interesting. I really liked working in the lab. Once again my lunch break consisted of inhaling the second hand smoke of 5 cigarettes. NOTE: ANYONE READING THIS WHO SMOKES SHOULD DEFINITELY CONSIDER QUITTING!!! Breathing that smoke in is the worst thing ever! Everything smells and it makes me soooooooo sick! 

Last night I was invited to a movie with my intercambio and her two kids. We went and saw the Disney movie Tangled! It was in Spanish, but I could understand everything!!! It was a really cute movie!! In the past week, I was also begin that English teaching job tonight. I am pretty excited about that! It gets me out of the house and adds a little extra cash in my pocket!!


I better get going to school now. ANOTHER field trip today! I have no idea where we are going, but I'm sure it will be interesting! I will definitely get my pictures put up online this weekend! I will put them on Facebook and on a website named Flickr (I think....). I will let everyone know when and where I put them up!!!


I hope everyone has a GREAT day. I miss you guys all VERY VERY much!!! Again, sorry for taking so long to write since my last post!! I will try and get better at that!


I love everyone LOOOOOOTS and I miss you guys TOOOOONS!!!
babababababab
B


P.S. I would like to say hi to Miss Carli! I hear she reads my blog every day :) Hi Cars! I hope your play and school are really going well!!!


P.S.S. I haven't had any crazy/gross/random food in a while!!! It feels good going to the dinner table knowing exactly what I am eating and knowing it will taste good!!! I still wish I could cook some AMERICAN food for them (some hamburgers, brats (not blood sausage!), frozen pizza, and heart attack french fries!!! The fries they have here don't have any salt on them....What's the point of french fries without the salt?!?!?)


P.S.S.S. I didn't read through this post so sorry for the errors again :)