Amanda's Journal

you've got to love school
I think I had forgotten how horrible sitting through classes is. Wow. Tuesdays and Thursdays are definitely going to be rough. I start class at 8:00 and don't finish until 3:15 on those days. Definitely more fun than I can handle.

I have spent all my spare time since I've been back running back and forth between bookstores. I have been to each bookstore at least twice and some more than that. I still don't even have all my books yet!

We had chapter last night. I went home after that and ate Spaghettios and watched Survivor for 2 hours. I can't believe Rich won. Really I can--he was so smart. I read some of the Accounting that we were supposed to have read for today (even though the books didn't come in until late yesterday and only 1 bookstore had them). I didn't get nearly as far as I should have. It is so boring. I can't believe I am majoring in Accounting. What in the world am I thinking?

This 8:00 class is killing me. I try every night to go to bed earlier so I can get up for it, but somehow it just doesn't work. I don't think it matters how early you go to bed. It will kill you anyway.

Even though my classes are incredibly boring, at least I know a bunch of people in them which will make them barable! Claire is in 3 of my classes, Melissa, Matt, Stuart, and Kella are in 1 of my classes and Mailon and Lynn are in a couple too. I was so excited to see the people from the Europe trip!

I guess I'll go now. You can tell NOTHING exciting has happened lately because I am boring myself writing :) At least I have killed 20 of the 30 minutes I had to wait before my next class!! :)

summer's over...
well, tonight is my last night at home for the summer. i can't believe how fast this summer has gone by! i'm going to Auburn tomorrow and staying for good. Mom and Dad are coming with me to help me finish up moving in. I was planning on going up Wednesday, but I ended up having a ton of stuff still to move in and get situated in Auburn and mom has to work Wednesday so I'm going back up tomorrow so she can help me. I can't believe pre-rush starts Thursday. That's bound to be more excitement than I can stand.

I'm really not excited about going back to Auburn. Even though classes don't start quite yet, it is still one step closer to them starting. I've never been so unable to motivate myself. This dumb finance papers for Dr. Pugh is absolutely killing me. I just can't make myself sit down and do it.

I wish I was still at the beach! What a wonderful place. There is something about it that makes you lazy and relaxed no matter what you do. We had such a great time! We went to eat at Hamilton's Thursday night and played Miniature Golf after we ate. Claire, Haley, and I beat Steven and Gabe. I must say that I've improved my putt putt skills greatly these past few weeks :) We went to the beach and threw the frisbee, had a sand fight, and layed out on our floats Friday. That night Steven cooked Tequila Lime Chicken, Steak, and some other chicken and pasta for us. We layed around and watched movies all night. We rode the wave runner to Teddy Tuckers at Bay Point for lunch on Saturday then rode out to shell island and snorkeled all day. It was a lot of fun! The pass was extremely rough and we all has sore hineys when we got back. We went to Schooners that night then met up with Claire and her cousins and went to ride go-carts at the Vortex place. We went to get Dippin Dots after that. We had so much fun while we were there! I love the beach!

We left Sunday morning and came back to Dothan and dropped Haley off then I went with Gabe to Howie's in Enterprise for lunch. We ate so much food and it was sooooo good! Gabe made himself sick by eating so much and we layed around for the rest of the day then came back to Dothan and went to my church. He preached on David and how he handled criticism (2 Samuel). It was a good sermon.

I ran errands with Mom all day today. I had a lot of things to finish up for my room in Auburn. My room is going to be so neat when I get it all finished! I think I have spent all my parents' money this summer. I feel terrible. The phone bill and credit card bill from Europe have been pretty rough.

I guess I better go to bed now. I was going to try to finish my paper, but I would much rather sleep :) Have I mentioned how unmotivated I've become?!

Well, I'm all moved into my duplex in Auburn! We spent alllll day yesterday moving me in, but it is finally done! We started about 9:00 yesterday morning and Dad, Gabe, Mom, and I loaded the UHAUL we rented. Gabe and I took my car while Mom and Dad took the UHAUL. Gabe and I went to the Hardees in Headland and got lunch for everyone and then caught up with Mom and Dad and they pulled over and we gave them their lunch. It flooded on us the whole way to Auburn, and Gabe's contact got stuck in the top of his eyelid and then fell out and he had to pull over and let me get some stuff to moisten it again so he could get it back in his eye, but other than that the trip was pretty uneventful. It had finished raining when we got there. We had to wait on Chris Beck, the owner of the duplex, to bring us my key. He came and we got started unloading.

Got to run. Dad needs computer! I'll finish my story later :)

Yesterday I worked on Claire's Creative Memories book from the trip. It is going to be really neat! It is taking me forever to get all the pictures and stuff together though. Don't know if I'll be finished with it in time for her birthday.

Mom and I went shopping for stuff for my bedroom and bathroom in my duplex. We found some good stuff. I think I am going to have a great room! I'm ready to get it all in there and see how it looks! We are probably going to move my stuff up there Wednesday!

Mom, Dad, and I went to the Old Mill for Dinner last night. It was really good! I haven't been there in forever! We went and rented Notting Hill after we ate. I wanted to see it again after actually seeing Notting Hill in London. It was so neat! There was so much on there that I had really seen! Portabella Road and the market, the coffee shop, the house with the blue door, and even the Ritz in London where we had tea were in the movie!

I didn't do much at all today. I have been working on Claire's book and trying to get my stuff ready to move all day long. I have to get out of the house and do something tomorrow. This is killing me.

Panama City Beach (7/25/00-7/26/00)
We got to Steven's about 8:30 or 9:00 pm Tuesday night. We hadn't eaten so we picked Steven up and went to Hamilton's. Steven had already eaten there with his mom that night, so he just sat and talked to us while we ate. I was determined not to be completely sick when I left there like I usually am so Gabe and I decided just to split the Captain's Platter so we could still get our cheese stick thing for an appetizer and our key lime pie for dessert. Well, I didn't eat quite as much as I usually do there, but I was still ready to burst when I left. It was wonderful as always and still cost $46 even though Gabe and I split a platter. It was well worth it. Steven and Georgia have been having some problems so we talked about that for most of the meal. After we finished, we went back to Steven's. Steven had pretty much decided to call in sick to work the next day so we sat around for a while before going to bed. Gabe and Steven set my mattress up in the den for me to sleep on. They made the bed and everything it was pretty funny. Steven did end up calling in sick to work the next morning so when he and Gabe got up around 9:30 or 10:00 they came in and woke me up. We went to breakfast and then went to the beach. We stayed out there for a few hours and I layed out while Gabe and Steven threw the frisbee and swam to the sand bar. We went back to Steven's and got a shower then got ready to go home. Steven came with us and we stopped and ate lunch at chic-fil-et out of town. We stopped at a place near cottondale on the way home and I got a watermelon and icecream. We went straight to Fran's when we got home so Gabe could get his hair cut before he played in this golf tournament this weekend. We went back to Gabe's and he went to work out while I stayed at his house with his mom and worked on my paper for Dr. Pugh. Mrs. Betty found out that Howie had been having some heart problems that she was going to get checked out. She also found out that Lynn's sister was about to die. Rusty Deen's mother also died the day before. We had spaghetti and salad when Gabe got home. We stayed over there for a while and Gabe and his dad tried to figure out to do about keeping his truck or getting a new one. I came home then Gabe came over later and we watched the first part of Gone with the Wind. I couldn't believe he watched it with me! He actually suggested it--strange! I never know about him! We watched it and got all fired up about the South losing the war :) He went home about 1:00 after the movie was over.

Pensacola
We finally got to Pensacola about 1:30. We still hadn't eaten and MeMaw had waited on us so we went to the Marina to eat. It was very good! I got crab claws, shrimp, baked potato, and cheese grits! We watched pelicans dive bomb fish in the water and watched them build the bridge. They had a boat in the air with a crane. We finished eating and took MeMaw back by the house. She got stuff to take to granddaddy and then we took her to Dillard's so she could get granddaddy some pajamas. Gabe dropped us off at the door because she had forgotten her handicap sticker. We eventually found some "solid colored" pajamas and went to the hospital to see granddaddy. he had been moved down to his extended living room on the first floor. he really liked the change and was in a pretty good mood. i gave granddaddy the robe we were giving him and i gave memaw the vase i got her in paris. she was really excited about it. Granddaddy still calls gabe "dave." it is funny. memew called me jane the whole day too! we stayed and talked to granddaddy for a while. we were getting up to take him for a walk around the hospital when the occupational therapist came in and talked to granddaddy and did some tests on him. after they did the tests they told him that he was not to get out of bed without one of them to help him because he was so shaky. he did not like this very much and told him that he had been getting up without them and that this was going to be a problem. they told him that he really didn't need to fall and break a hip and just to give them a few days to get him steadier when he walked.

we went to see aunt frances after we left the hospital and dropped memaw off at her house. memaw was pretty tired and didn't want to go with us. aunt frances was moving around the house with her walker pretty well. it is amazing to see her doing so well after all that she went through with her bone cancer. she was as bubbly as ever and we sat and talked to her for a while. sue called and told her she was on her way home so we waited to talk to see her before we left. memaw called to check on us and we eventually left and went back to her house. she was sleeping in her chair when we got there. we went out to the car and i showed her the vase i got in paris with the money she had given me. she seemed really happy to see it. I hugged her and told her I loved her then we headed on our way to Panama City.

Oops! Gas?!
Well, I'm back from my Florida travels. We left about 10:00 Tuesday morning to go to Pensacola. I went and picked up Gabe then we started on our journey. Oops. Never checked the gas. Neither one of us--Gabe blames it on me because it is my car and I should have told him we had no gas, but I fully believe the driver should look down every once in a while to check the gas while he is driving :) At any rate, let's just say Gabe, Maxi, and I were sitting on the side of I10 at mile marker 58 and we had to use the little call box, *FHP, and $41 to get a little gas. We were riding along I10 going up a hill when Maxi first sputtered. We had just passed an exit so we turned off the AC and Gabe tried to coast as much as he could to try to make it to the next one. We were below E and the light was on. Of course it had to be a good 5 miles to the next exit and there just had to be a bunch of freaking hills. I thought Florida was supposed to be flat?! We passed a State Trooper and a Rest Area, but stubborn Gabe thought we'd still try to make it to the next exit. Maxi sputtered again and we knew it was all over. There was yet another massive hill infront of us. We made it 3/4 of the way up it when she decided she couldn't go any farther. We could see the sign for an exit at the top of the hill. Poor car, I had just gotten her back after her battery died and Dad blew all her fuses trying to jump her off. Poor car has had a rough go. Gabe and I were burning up because we had been riding with the AC off and Gabe didn't want to roll the windows down because of the drag. We had to push her farther off the road after she quit. All the cars on the interstate had to change lanes--how embarrasing. We even had a few honks. That didn't make us happy. We figured they were rubbing in the fact that they had gas and we didn't! We then started walking to the call box. What a strange contraption. We pushed a button for service then shut it but the light didn't come on so we didn't know if we did it right. We ended up sending 4 messages to the Florida Highway Patrol. We waited 20 minutes and I called home and mom and dad told me to dial *FHP from my cell phone. I talked to someone and they told me that B&B was on the way. We waited and waited and waited. It was so hot. A trooper pulled up after about 25 minutes of waiting and checked on B&B to see if they were close. He said if they weren't then I could just ride to the exit and get a tank and gas and leave Gabe with the car. About the time we decided this, the 70 year old man from B&B drove up. I am glad he did-this same day a Dothan police officer was arrested for raping a girl when he was taking her to get gas after she had run out. Scary. You can't trust anyone these days! Gabe helped the guy get gas in my car then I payed him and we were on our merry way to the gas station. We filled her all the way to the top!

Well, it has been another sad depressing day. My PopPaw had his heart catharization and they found out that he had and artery blocked 95% and another one blocked 90%. He is going to have surgery in the morning. I am so glad that they found this because he works out in the sun all the time on his farm and that can't be good on his heart. I am glad they caught it before something bad happened to him.

Daryl Stringfellow also received bad news today. They found out that his tumor was cancerous and that it was fast-growing. They told him that he has less than a year to live. So sad. It is unbelievable how fast their lives have changed. Mom and Dad stayed at the hospital for a while tonight after they found out the bad news. My poor Dad got home from PopPaw's surgery and went straight to the hospital here. He is so tired. It makes me sad to see my parents so upset. This really hits home. It could be anyone. I just hope he doesn't have to suffer long.

Gabe and I are going to Pensacola tomorrow. We are going to take MeMaw out to eat then take her to see Granddaddy in the hospital then go see Aunt Frances. After we finish in Pensacola we are going to stay with Steven at the beach for the night. That will be fun. I think I need to get away for a little bit. We are coming back Wednesday night but I think it will still be good to get away--all this sadness is getting to me! :)

Gabe and I played tennis today. It was so hot! We hit the ball around for a while then I had the bright idea to play a game. I always forget just how competitive he is at everything. He ended up making me ill because he would kill the ball and do all this stuff so I couldn't hit it and I got really frustrated having to chase down a million balls. We ended up taking a water break, but Gabe of course couldn't sit still and he practiced his serves and annoyed me until I came back. We hit a little more then went to Dairy Queen for Gabe to eat before he went to hit baseballs at Northview.

I went home and worked on the AOPi scrapbook. I think I am finally just about caught up with it! I ate Spaghetti with my parents when they got home and here I am. What an exciting day I had :)

Last night I went to IHOP with Gabe, his parents, and Steven. Steven went back to the beach and we went and played miniature golf at Adventureland. I usually hate it, but we had fun. We played against Gabe's parents and they beat us by 4 stroks. They are funny because Gabe and his dad are so competitive. That's enought journal for me tonight. I am sitting in our sunroom and it is spooky with all these windows and it is dark outside and I keep hearing noises :)

I just got back from church. I always realize how much I miss my church when I go back to it! Our new preacher is great! He is real energetic and is very easy to listen to. Today he preached on Psalm 51. It was David's "prayer for personal revival" after he sinned with Bathsheba. The point that stuck with me the most was that any sin will always hurt your relationship with God--not matter how big or small it may be. When you turn this sin over to God it clears the passageway so the joy from being in God's presence fills your life. I really enjoyed Sunday School too. Katherine was there so I got to talk to her for a little while. Nicholas had surgery on his jaw from when he got in that fight our senior year and we are going to try to go see him some time. Church got out a little late so Dad and I didn't have time to go out to eat. He ate a banana sandwich and I ate spaghettios. Mom called a few minutes ago and told us she is on her way home. Suzanne called me and she told me all about our duplex. They have already set everything up so we will have power and cable and stuff when we move in. I talked to Melodi and Chris for a little while on the computer. It is so weird that I haven't seen anyone in so long!

Yesterday was a crazy day. It started when my dad called from work and told me that Daryl Stringfellow had been taken to the hospital and they thought he had a stroke. Jeff came into work for dad and he came by the house and took my car to the hospital. As it turned out, Daryl actually had a brain tumor. It is really sad because he is my parents age and he probably doesn't have long to live. This could have been anyone. It just shows that you never know what your future holds... he had no clue anything was even wrong until he lost use of his left hand and his face started to droop on one side. So sad. I called my mom in Pensacola to tell her and she told me that Granddaddy is not responding to the medicine they are giving him. This was supposedly the only medicine that could cure the bacterial infection he has. She said they were going to check him again to see what they could do. MeMaw is having to do some kind of treatment to get ready for her next round of chemotherapy. PopPaw's heart catharization is in the morning in Opelika and dad is going to that and I think Gabe and I are going to Pensacola for the day to see MeMaw and Grandaddy. When dad got ready to leave the hospital, my car would not crank. He had left the lights on, but it had only been a few hours so we think the battery was pretty weak. I was going to work out with Gabe, but I instead dropped Gabe off at Gold's and drove his truck to my dad at the Medical Center. He tried to jump it off and got it started, but something messed up and my alarm system ended up thinking that we were trying to steal my car so it wouldn't give it enough gas to drive it off. It started to rain and my dad has his Sunday school social to go to so we had to leave my car there. I dropped my dad off at the house so he could get his truck then I went and picked Gabe up from Gold's. We changed then went to eat at Mama Rosa's! I had forgotten how much I love that place :) Gabe made fun of me once again because I at all of my salad and everyone of my breadsticks. I have never eaten all that as many times as I have gone there. I really think Europe screwed me up :) After we ate, we met Steven and Georgia at Dakota. We sat there and talked to them for a while then went to find a movie to watch. It is sad that there is nothing else to do in this town besides watching movies! We ended up seeing Loser. What a worthless movie. It was terrible. Gabe and I tried and tried to come up with something good about it but couldn't do it. It had no action, no drama, no real comedy, it wasn't scary, and it didn't even make you feel warm and fuzzy with the relationship they had. It was pretty terrible. After the movie we came home and talked to dad for a few minutes then Gabe left and I went to bed.

7/21/00
Well, I have been nothing but a bum today! It is already 1:30 and I still have on my pjs :) I woke up at about 9:30 and have been cleaning my room and working on the AOPi scrapbook ever since. I will be so happy when I finally can move around in my room! I have so much stuff in there that no matter how hard I try to clean it up and organize stuff to go back to Auburn it is still a complete mess. I give up :) Gabe is golfing this morning and he will be back sometime around 2:00 and we will probably do something so hopefully I'll get out of the house finally :)

Yesterday I had a chiropractor appointment and he popped my hip back in place and did something to my neck. It felt so good! I came back home and worked on my room decorations for next year with my mom and then went to eat lunch with Gabe and Steven. Mom went to Pensacola to check on MeMaw and Granddaddy. Things are not going well at all with them. The doctor told Mom the other day that neither one of them has very long to live. It makes me so sad. MeMaw's cancer has gotten worse and she is going to have to start chemotherapy again and Grandaddy is still in the hospital with that bacterial infection. I am going to go down there next week and visit them. I know I really need to go down there and help them but it is so hard to stay for long because it is really hard seeing them suffer like that. It seems like they are never happy and it kills me! We also found out that PopPaw is going to have a heart catharization Monday. I never even knew anything was wrong with him. We still don't know much about it, but his heart must really be giving him trouble to have to have this done so soon. It is pretty hard having 3 grandparents this sick at one time. I hope MomMaw's health holds up. I think that is enough depressing information for one journal entry...

Gabe, Steven, and I went to the Italian Express for lunch. It was so good! I don't know what they do to their sandwiches but they are so good! Gabe wanted to go running or do some kind of physical activity after we ate. We all decided to go play tennis. We came by my house so I could change and get my racket then we went to Gabe's. Steven went home to get his racket. Gabe of course couldn't find his racket so we went to WalMart and bought one then went to the tennis courts and met Steven. They have built new courts at Westgate and they are so nice! They have clay courts and they are beautiful! The 3 of us hit the ball around for about an hour then Gabe had to go to Northview to hit baseballs with some guys. Steven and I stayed out there and played a game. I beat him! We didn't keep score the right way, but I beat him 10-5! We statyed out there until 6:30 then I went home to get a shower. We decided to go eat at Mexican Connection because I missed it so much and haven't eaten there in forever! It was good, but not as good as it used to be back in the days :) It was so strange not seeing anyone we knew there-we used to know most of people there everytime we went. After we ate we decided to see if there were any movies we wanted to see. Gabe and I saw the Patriot the night before. It was very very good-it was 3 hours long and I stayed awake the whole time AND payed attention the whole time! Gabe was so proud of me :) I can't believe they are showing it in England though. It really makes the British look bad! We say Claire and Matt in the parking lot at the movies and we ended up going to Baskin Robbins with them instead of to a movie. I got a Strawberry Blast and we sat there a while and talked. We ended up coming back to my house and Claire and Matt looked at my pictures from the trip, Steven went to sleep in my chair, and I finished showing Gabe my pictures from the trip (we had to split them into 2 nights because he got bored the night before :) and we played cards. We played double solitare. Claire and Matt left and Steven woke up. We played Uno and watched a movie. They went home and I went to bed about 2:00am.

Well, I haven't done very well keeping up with my journal. I really wish I would have written some while I was in London and Paris because I think I've already forgotten a lot of things that happened! I have the worst memory ever! I think I'll just write stuff when I think about it so my journal entries will probably be pretty random.

I am so so glad I am back in the USA! (even though it is 104 today!) My bed has been so wonderful! I haven't done much but sleep since I've been back... I slept from 6pm to 10pm then got up then went back to sleep at 1am and slept until 10am this morning. Surely I have caught up with my sleep by now. I am tired of feeling droggy. Mom, Dad, and Gabe are wondering if I ate anything while I was gone. My mom cooked vegetables last night and I ate more than I've ever eaten before. It was so good and I couldn't quit eating! They all thought I would surely explode... I think I almost did... after lunch I had to lay down for a while. I was still full at supper time so I figured it was ok to eat that much at lunch since I didn't eat supper... I had the same problem at breakfast though--I had 2 bowls of cereal, 2 pieces of toast, a banana, and I was still looking for more to eat. This has got to end. I will be as big as a house if I keep this up.

Since nothing has happened since I've gotten back since I've been sleeping the whole time I guess I'll write about our fun-filled day of traveling home. We got to the airport in Paris (several hours before our flight) and they told us our flight was suspended. You should have heard the whining and complaining. It is almost comical how much some of the girls on our trip can complain and get worked up about stuff. Anyway, we ended up getting on a flight to London, but it was later leaving so we got to London and didn't have much time before our next flight was to take off... so we thought. We got to London and went through all the detectors and check ins then sat at our gate. We were never called to board the plane then they came over the loud speaker and told us there was a mechanical problem and that they didn't know how long it would take to fix it so we couldn't go anywhere in case it was easy to fix. We sat there and waited. It was now lunch time and everyone was starving. We still sat there. They came back over the loud speaker and told us that it was a complicated problem and that it would be a while before they could fix it. Unbelievable. We had to clear out of the gate so that they could use it for another flight. We went to Burger King and ate then went shopping--shopping with my backpack, carry-on, and purse to carry... not much fun! 4 hours later we were called to board the plane. When I checked in in Paris, the lady asked me if I would want a window or aisle seat instead of a middle seat. I of course said yes, but I didn't know that she was moving me far away from the rest of our group. Oh well. I got a window seat by gosh! Unfortunately, my window seat was beside a stinky Swedish guy with NO personality. I swear I think he hated me. It was an exciting trip let me tell you. Lionel Richie and I had a grand time though. I listened to the cd 3 times until I couldn't handle it anymore. I slept for a while and watched American Beauty. Interesting and sick movie. At least it passed the time. We had the weirdest food on the plane this time. We had to pick between Salmon and Lamb for supper and who knows what was in the sandwiches they served us for a snack. 8 1/2 hours later we landed and after dragging my luggage around then having to send it to another part of the airport just to go pick up again, i got to see my mom, dad, and gabe! It was pretty funny. Jona's parents had signs and balloons and they gave them to my parents and to Claire's after they were finished with them. Pretty funny. My mom was holding a sign that said welcome home jona and gabe was holding 2 balloons. he was thrilled :) you would think after riding the tube and metro at least 3000 times i would have no trouble with the subway in the airport. Well, that thing took off and i wasn't holding on to anything and i went flying, grabbed gabe, who also wasn't holding on to anything and brought him with me. we ended up at the back of the train and we stepped on and fell into everyone. it was quite funny. We finally got my luggage and went to eat at Cracker Barrel. It was so good. I ate every bit of my food. They wouldn't let me sleep on the way home so I struggled to stay awake--we listened to Lionel so it wasn't too hard :) We got home about midnight and I went straight to bed! It was so wonderful sleeping in my bed!

4th of July from England...
What a way to celebrate Independance Day! What are we doing in England with a bunch of Brits surrounding us anyway?! A couple of our professors, Graham Winch and Tony Curtis, said they celebrate the 4th here too--they celebrate getting rid of us! haha! must be why they fought so hard to keep us, huh?! Anyway, I got up this morning at 7:45 and got a shower then headed downstairs to enjoy my daily 2 bowls of cereal. I got lucky today--there were 2 boxes of Frosties left! I ate then went back upstairs to get ready for our project presentation. We all dressed up and wore our suits for the big event. How exciting. We had a few last-minute adjustments to make to our paper and power point presentation, so we met a little early to finish these. The presentations started at 9:30. We were the second group to go. I knew it was going to be rough after the questions the professors asked the first group. There were 5 teachers in there and 3 were grading us. Dr. Curtis, Dr. Winch, and Dr. Butler were grading us and Dr. Page and Dr. Pugh were there watching (Dr. Pugh left after only a few minutes though). We gave our presentation (using powerpoint, 3 posters, and some notes) and then braced ourselves for the questoins to come. The very first question killed us. They asked us how many people are in the UK and how many are in our target market (middle to upper class younger men and women). What?? I don't know how many people in the US fit into that category, much less the dang UK! We got by somehow and Dr. Butler was a butt the whole time (he was a pain to everyone though). Dr. Curtis said he really liked our idea (toilet air freshener, pine scented, that squirts when the toilet is flushed). I am just glad it is over!

We finished our take-home test for Dr. Pugh last night as well as our homework for him. It took us forever, but we got it turned in this morning. Now, we just have to worry about this test we have this afternoon. This has got to end! I coud do all this schoolwork in the good 'ole USA! I am hoping and praying that when we get to London and Paris something gives. It has to! I can't deal with all this ridiculous work anymore. I thought we went through that horrible week in Auburn so that our time in Europe would not be so bad. Wrong. We leave this place tomorrow monrng and I sure hope things get a lot better or I cam coming back to America to my momma, daddy, and boyfriend! I miss America! We just had a break and I checked my email. My mom wrote me from Wedowee! She told me about the butter beans and corn they are getting. I would die for a plate of home cooking right now! yummmmmm! I haven't been full since I've been here! I need some home cooking!

Gabe called me this morning at 9:00 am. It was 3:00 am in Dothan. He had been playing Super Mario Cart with Bo! He was sleepy and he sounded a little cuddly too :) Haha! He was even a little romantic again... He said, "You better get your little behind home soon!" He is such a smooth talker! I melt at his feet when he feeds me his lines :) It was so good to talk to him this morning! He and his family are going to the Bowdoin's to celebrate the 4th. Must be nice to be able to celebrate! I swear I've never felt so patriotic about the 4th of July before! Hopefully these dang presentations will be over soon. It is already 1:00 and Dr. Pugh has now informed us that we are meeting with him at 3:00 to go over our take home test before the other test. We haven't even eaten yet, much less studied. When are we supposed to pack? or get ready for the banquet tonight? I really can't stand that fat man!

7/2/00 (Sunday) KFC and Birds
After an exciting day of working on our projects, Claire and I decided to go eat supper at the KFC. We were starving and wanted familiar food. We found out where one was and started walking. It started raining on us. (you know you are having a great day... we should have turned around and gone home then...) The KFC was much farther than we thought, but we eventually got there. I couldn't believe my eyes. They do not have mashed potatoes OR biscuits at the KFC here--the two things I love the most about KFC! I got a meal deal--3 pieces of chicken and a chicken finger with fries (they actually called them fries!) and a Zup minues the ice. (?3.99) Nothing like luke-warm Zup! The food was pretty good. We decided to go to the McDonald's down the road for another "Crunchy" McFlurry. Now that we know what it is, we kind of like it! Bad decision. There were 2 men walking out the McDonald's door, so I politely paused to wait for them and when I did, Mr. Bird from above decided to relieve himself. Yes, he relieved himself right in my hair. I thought Claire had hit the back of my head when we walked in. She was behinkd me and when I turned around she paused...then started dying laughing. I knew something had hit my head so I reached back to see what it was--not thinking of this possiblilty. I got a handful. Thanks Claire! She was laughing so hard she couldn't even tell me what had happened so I stuck my dang hand in it! We found the bathroom that was right beside us and visited it together (it was a 1-person bathroom). I washed my hand and dumped my head into the sink. Claire, being the wonderful friend that she is, assisted me in getting it out of my hair. It took a while and when we finally came out of the bathroom, 2 guys standing in line looked at us kind of funny. We got our McFlurry and walked home. I got in the shower immediately and washed my hair twice. We then spent the rest of the evening doing Finance HW that we had no clue how to do because Dr. Pugh is such a horrible teacher!

7/2/00 (Sunday)
We tried and tried to find out about churches (and times of services) in Plymouth, but found out nothing. Nothing except that church is not a part of the culture here. It is so sad and they say it is getting worse. This really makes me realize how lucky I am to live in America. It is so hard for me to understand this culture where church is not a part of their life at all. Sunday is just another day to them. Nothing special at all. You wonder how they survive without any spiritual infulence in their life. I am so lucky that my parents brought me up in church. These people have no hope. Where do they turn when they need God? I'm sure they get let down by people all the time--who do they turn to? I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have Christ beside me all the time--He is always there for me when noone else is. Maybe, hopefully, these people have a private relationship with Crhist, I don't know. All I know is how terrible sad it is to ask several people about church and them not even know if there are any around, much less what time a service would be.

We did not go on the tripo to the Saltram House today because we had to work on our project. We did go to the Elizabethan House here in Plymouth though. It was a house built in 1580 and is supposedly where some of the Pilgrims stayed the night before they boarded the Mayflower. It was neat, but there wasn't a whole lot to it. Our group worked on our project all day long.

Superwinch and Project...
This morning we had to meet half of our group in front of the Business Building at 9:00 am to go on a company visit to Superwinch. Gabe called me this morning at 3:45 am and I think I did something to my alarm clock then because it didn't go off this morning! Fortunately, I heard a door slam (all the doors in our dorm slam when you shut them!) and woke up! I was still able to get a shower, eat, and get ready on time! We had a bus to take us to Superwinch. It was about a 30 minute drive there and it was very pretty. The land here so green! It is beautiful! That is about the only exciting thing that happened this morning unless you count looking at winches as exciting... which i DON'T! The CEO of Superwinch talked to us for 2 hours. It was a little interesting at first, but it got boring quickly! He rambled on and on and on. Then we got to go on a tour of the factory. Boy was that ever exciting! We had to wear protective eye glasses--we were CUTE! We walked around the factory for a while and looked at a bunch of machines.

This stupid man is out of his mind. Dr. Pugh just came into this room and gave us part of a take home test that is due tomorrow, (along with our presentation that we have been working on for 2 and 1/2 weeks for marketing) and he also decided that he would tell us that we would have a multiple choice test tomorrow too! Study when???? He is such a TERRIBLE teacher that we don't even know what we have been doing in class and now he is going to give us a test on it and not even give us 1 days notice? I hate him!!! He is the absolute worst teacher I have ever had in my life! He thinks he can just come in here and tell us all this?? everyone in here is about to cry. i can't believe him. and we are paying for his freaking trip. this is fair. ahhhhhhhhh. this is the second time he has done this to us since he has gotten here. he comes here like he is cool and changes our schedule that we have been counting on since we got here. we were supposed to have a free day tomorrow afteroon after our presentations. we are supposed to be finished packing by our banquet tomorrow night at 6:30. now we have a test at 4:00. i really see this happening.

Anyway, after we finished our wonderful morning visit, we came back to the business building (it was 1:00 by this time) and claire and i went back to hobb's chocolate and coffee shop for a ham and cheese baguette! (we have to ask for no flora or mayo though :) it is so good! the owner knows us now--he is really nice. we then went to marks & spencers and to tesco (grocery store). we got a few snacks for our trip on the bus. i really like their kitkats and milky ways! yummm!! Claire likes their appletise (carbonated apple juice).

we then came back and have been working on our project all day. we are closed to finished FINALLY. just when you think you can breathe again fat pugh comes along with his crap. i really can't stand him.

6/30/00 (Friday)
This morning I went ot eat breafast at 8:15. Claire's alarm didn't go off, so I went down without her and got her cereal and oj for her. Yesterday, Stuart ate the last 2 boxes of Frosties so we didn't have any and we had to eat corn flakes. Well, this morning, I got there before him and I got the last 2 boxes for Claire and I! :) As always, we ended up being a little late to our class. It is beyond boring! Who knows what he is talking about! I am glad that I made a 90 on our first test (even though it only counts 10% of our final grade) so I don't have to panic about my final greade in here. I got lucky because it was a very tricky test and a lot of people did not do well on it. On a positive note, because the weather is so much cooler here, Dr. Pugh doesn't sweat as much!! However, he was already sweating through his shirt this morning at breakfast, but it still wasn't as bad as it was in Auburn. We had class from 9:30-12:00 then the punk made us come back again from 1:15-2:30. We have so much to do! We needed the afternoon to work on our project! During our lunch break, I checked my email and I got to talk to mom! It was 7:00 am there and she was getting ready for work. We didn't get to talk for long though. I asked her to check on how much money I had left in my checking account. Money is disappearing quickly here! I have already gotten ?30, ?60, ?100 out of the ATM! ?100 was $150! This exchange rate stuff stinks!

More from 6/29/00 (Thursday)
We worked on our paper and poster until about 8:00 then Claire and I went to find something to eat because everyone else had gone to Pizza Hut (we have already been there twice and didn't think we could handle it again just yet! :) We decided to try the the places on a street near the Business Building where we hadn't been yet. The first restaurant we came to looked good (we read the menu outside), but there were only 2 scary guys inside the whole restaurant so we decided to keep looking. We walked down the street and saw a sign that said something about "American chicken." We were starving, so we decided to give it a try. I got 2 pieces of chicken, chips (fries), and water and Claire got Chicken Nuggets. It was a rinky dink place and we had to wait for them to cook the chicken. We saw a funny drawing/painting on the wall. It was a bunch of chickens holding up a red blanket at a cow and it said "at least we aren't mad!" We thought it was pretty funny because it was making fun of the mad cow disease that went around here recently. While we waited at the counter, Claire and I talked to each other. When the guy brought us our chicken, he asked us where were were from because he couldn't figure out our accent. (he wan't an English native himself though!) He said we sounded like we were from Spain or somethere because of the the way we talked to each other (maybe we spoke really fast?!) but when we talked to him our accent seemed different. I haven't really thought about other people thinking WE had accents! Weird! We got our food and took it back to the dorm to eat. It was pretty good, but it didn't fill me up (too many chips! It isn't humanly possible to eat all the chips they give you!) and it gave me indigestin too! :) The guys were on the balcony downstairs so we talked to them and told them we would meet them at the Blackfriars restaurant after we changed and finished eating. We called Jona and talked them into going with us. We all got ready and called 2 cabs to come pick us up and take us to the restaurant. Claire, Jona, Kala, Kella, Abby, Lauren, and I got to Blackfriars just as they were finishing eating (our whole group went except for Dana and Melissa). We sat there for a while then got another cab to Destiny's. We stopped by an ATM for Matt and Jimmy before we went to Destiny's then got our ticket to go in (?3.50). It was a lot different than Millenium. It had a lot better decorations andthe people seemed to dress a little better (maybe?!). There was definitely still an abundance of PDA (must be common around here, but is still DISGUSTING!) They had 70's Disco music and had people dressed up dancing on the stage. We went and started dancing. It was a lot of fun! I missed Gabe so much! He would have had so much fun dancing! It was funny because they would teach everybody goofy little dances to do to some of the songs. I was beside some girl with HUGE block heels on and she stepped on my toes at least 4 times and took half of my toenail with her one of the times. It hurt so bad! It is definitely nice to have the guys there taking care of us because an older man (with a wedding ring on!) wearing a black turtleneck (gross!) was on the dance floor and was staring at us forever. He then came up to me and said something like "this isn't a come on..." then he asked me if i was related to someone. I couldn't hear him because the music was so loud. I would have freaked out if we didn't have the guys with us. He was so creepy! It is also good to have the guys with us because it makes the British guys think we might have our boyfriends with us. One guy came up to me and asked me if I had a boyfriend, "his friend wanted to know" (how funny is that?!) I of course said yes and moved and went and danced near some of our guys. Jona had a guy keep asking her if she had a boyfriend too. It is so funny because it is SO hard to understand them because of their accents and because it is so loud in there! Everyone around here refers to the U.S. as "America." It is weird because I have never really said "I'm from America." I always have to correct myself when I saw that I am from Alabama! We stayed at Destiny's until 1:30-1:45 am then Claire, Nicole, Matt, and I got a cab and went back to the dorm. I was so tired and I slept so good! I went to bed with my ears still ringing from the loud music and when I woke up the next morning they were still ringing!

McDonald's Story (6/28/00)
Claire and I worked on our projects until about 8:00. We were starving and wanted something good to eat for supper. We walked toward the City Centre. EVERYTHING closes in this town by 6:00--even most restaurants! We walked around FOREVER and finally came to the decision to just go to McDonald's to eat. We were desperate! We figured at least we would know what we were going to get to eat this time! Wrong! We walked in and I started to order... I always get the same thing at McDonald's, the Grilled Chicken sandwich meal with ketchup only. I didn't think that was anything spectacular... The woman acted like I was speaking a different language when i said "grilled!" I should have know though... they don't have ANYTHING healthy in this country! She kept making these funny noises like she was learning how to speak or something! I said it several times and she ended up just punching something in the register and claire said, "Grilled... meaning NOT FRIED" Finally the girl understood and said that they did not have anything like that. I just got the Chicken Nuggett meal with a Sprite. SPRITE. That is all that was in my cup! No ice at all! It was kind of funny watching her take an empty cup and fill it to the top with nothing but sprite in it and put a top on it! What a strange place! :) Claire ordered a cheeseburger to keep things simple because we were frustrating the poor girl obviously! I wanted a McFlurry so after we finished we went back up to the counter. She looked worried when she saw us coming to the counter. It was funny! Let me tell you, I didn't recognize a single candy bar that they had to choose from! Claire asked her if "Smarties" had chocolate in the center and she nodded her head. I asked her what "Cruhchy" was. She just looked at me with a dumb look on her face. I tried to explain more. I asked what was in the middle of it. She paused again then said "honeycomb!" She looked so proud of herself! It was hilarious! I ended up trying it and it really was nothing like honeycomb! What an experience!

Finance, Plymouth Gin, Project...
We had Finance today with Dr. Pugh. Just as it was in Auburn, class was boring, boring, boring and very frustrating. We didn't do a thing but listen to him talk and didn't learn anything at all. He also went over into our lunch break which is very frustrating!

After class we had an hour for a lunch break before our company visit to the Plymouth Gin. Claire and I tried to eat downstairs first, but they only had WEIRD combinations so we decided to take a trip to Alldays and buy some more lunch meat and make our own sandwiches. We got more pitta breat, ham, and twix bars and went back to the dorm to eat. They were such good sandwichesj--and a lot cheaper than eating out! We ALWAYS end up eating a sandwich for lunch anyway, so it worked out good. We finished eating and went down to meet our group to walk to the gin.

The gin is in the Barbican and the building it is in has been around since 1425. It was a really interesting visit (at least the history part of it). They explained the way they bottle/package their gin and what each symbol means. They focus of the brand imaging through their unique history. There is a picture of the Mayflower on the bottle and a Monk on the back label that shows through the front. They were really neat bottles. I got a tiny one as a souvenier (?2.50)They had the 7 ingredients out that we had to smell then we had to taste it to see they way you taste each ingredient. I found out really quick that IT TASTES NASTY! I definitely will never be a gin drinker :)

After our visit, we walked back towards our dorm and decided to go to Hobb's Chocolate and Coffee shop because everyone had said how wonderful their deserts were. I got a piece of lemon merrangue pie, Lauren got carrot cake, and Claire got Hot Chocolate Deluxe (it had chocolate chips, lots of marshmallows, and whip cream!) My pie was definitely different! The top of the merrangue was hard and sweet. The actual merrangue was sugary (you could taste the sugar particles and crunch them) and the bottom was really too "lemony" for me, but it was good. I'll have to go back and try either the hot chocolate or some other desert! They looked wonderful!

We came back to the dorm and changed clothes so that we could be comfortable for a fun day of working on the 'ole project. The fun never endes I tell you! I have gotten most of my part of the paper finished and I am glad! We still have a lot more work to do though! I need to go finish some of it so I can go out tonight! We are probably either going to go to Destiny, a dance club, or back to Millenium again!

More from 6/28/00
I forgot to add something to my last entry that happened at Mount Edgcumb! We were walking around the gardens outside the house and an old woman fell off the edge of a hill and rolled all the way down it. It was so scary! I heard her screaming/moaning and looked over to her and saw the whole thing. I was running over to help her when I saw her hit the bottom. She didn't move until we got over there. I ran as fast as I could to her and I got to her before anyone else did. I honestly thought she was dead. I thought she might have had a stroke or something. I didn't know what to say, but I had to hear her say something to know if she was alive or not. I asked her if she was ok and she took a second then told me that she was and that her husband was nearby in another garden and that her arm was hurting her badly (the one she landed on). Melissa ran to get him and he came over to her and helped her. She got up and moved her hand--it was not broken thank goodness, but it still hurt her. It was so scary!

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