Dance!

After travelling on the Downs, the group of us tried to go to Falmer Bar to get something to eat because we were all starving (and quite cold), but it was closed so we ended up buying frozen pizzas and garlic bread at the co-op and heating them up in Riley's flat. It was an amazing dinner and I ended up being quite satisfied and full, which is always a good feeling. Anyway, we talked about travel plans a bit, but nothing too concrete; however, we are definitely going on some trips before spring break! I love being so close to mainland Europe! Anyway, then I went back to my flat and Reb came over so we chatted for a while which was awesome and was basically a repeat of sophomore year. Then the two of us Skyped with Lisa for a while and then Reb had to go and Lisa and I officially booked our plane tickets, tour tickets, and hostels for DUBLIN!!!!!! We are 100% officially going the weekend before my birthday (March 4th-8th) because that is a weekend that I do not have Friday classes and what better place to celebrate my birthday than Ireland! It's going to be a three day tour around Northern Ireland (including Belfast, Derry, and the Giant's Causeway), and I could not be more excited! Some other people from Sussex are going who are Lisa's friends (well, one of them) from Old Navy at home...it's a small world after all! Anyway, then I read for a bit, but I was too excited to do anything so I went to sleep pretty quickly. Then Monday morning I woke up, went to class, and learned all about depression. Then I relaxed for a few hours before going to the Glorious Revolution where we learned about the British empire and how it came partially from the Glorious Revolution. Then I went back to my flat, made dinner, and then I went to salsa! I had a ton of fun and even though I hadn't done salsa in a while, I quickly got into the swing of things. I stayed with the beginners this week, but next week I think I'll be ready to move up to the intermediate section (well...we'll see). In the end we danced in partners and ran around the room in a long chain, which was ridiculously fun because it was so strange. We got to go through the tunnel of everyone else (Bizarre Love Triangle much?-CTY reference for the win!) and everyone was just confused and having fun the whole time. The main salsa instructor was great and absolutely insane, which I loved, so I definitely want to go back and try it again! Anyway, then I went back to my room and read for a bit, and then Reb came over again. She got locked out of her flat, so she ended up spending the night at my place (since I have a double to myself as of now), which was even more reminiscent of sophomore year. She woke up earlier than I did because she had a 9 o'clock class, so I just continued sleeping until 12:30...AMAZING! I did absolutely nothing all day (well...except for some reading for class)...I love Tuesdays so much! Then around 5, Anna and I went to a "street" dancing lesson. It was really fun and more like pop than breakdancing/hip-hop (which I was expecting), so I was glad for that. We did a dance to the first part of Tik-Tok by Ke$ha and it was challenging, but really fun (next time I'll have to make sure I don't end up in the front row). Then we met Riley and Gwen at Falmer Bar for dinner where I got a chicken burger, "chips", and a salad for less than 5 pounds...it was awesome! Because it was so inexpensive, Gwen and I then shared a slice of banoffee pie for 2 pounds. To those of you who don't know what "banoffee" is...it is a mixture of banana and coffee. I am not a huge fan of either flavor (well, I love bananas, but banana artificially flavored things, not so much), but I had to try it because apparently it has become a big thing in England. I was surprised by how much I liked it-the two flavors worked very well together and it ended up tasting more like banana and cinnamon instead. When the flavor gets popular in America (which I'm sure it will), I expect all of my lovely readers to try some! Anyway, after dinner we played Jenga (which I lost), Snakes and Ladders (which I tied 3-way for 2nd place because we gave up), and Trivial Pursuit (which I won by default!) which were all really fun, but at this point we were all worn out. We decided that we were going to meet up Wednesday at 2 to plan our trip to Madrid for the last weekend in February (the weekend before Ireland), so I have that to look forward to today! Finally, after almost a month of being here, I'm going to be travelling out of England (of course I love England so much and I'm glad I'm here...but it'll be nice to explore Europe!). Anyway, then last night I read a lot and then went to bed. So far today, the only thing that I have done is go to Kristallnact which was alright, but is the least favorite of my classes. I have some more reading before my seminar, so I'll probably start working on that before going to meet people in the library.