I have been absolute rubbish in keeping my blog updated these past weeks. Im sorry! This will be the last update...I come home tomorrow. It has been such a wonderful life experience here. I can not put it into words. I dont want to say good bye to it all just yet. We had room check out and deep cleaning duties around the castle and i dont think it has fully hit me that im going home in less then 24 hours. It just feels like i will be going on another holiday and returing in a few days or weeks.
I cant guess how the adjustment back is going to go? I guess i dont want to think about it to much. I hope everyone has enjoyed my photos and reading my thoughts...well some of them, about my time in England.
When i leave at 5:00am tomorrow morning i will not be saying good-bye to England forever, I will come back some day! I just have to!!!!

1 week 6 days 23 hours and 52, 51,50 minutes left in England :'(

It is starting to set in folks. Im coming home soon and I'm not ready to say good-bye to my new home. I get sad everytime i think about leaving. I hope all who are reading this know that I miss you and want to see you...but understand how difficult it will be for me to say good-bye to England and more specificly Alnwick. The last two days have been beautiful outside and it has been such a blessing to get outside and walk around the town. It is also coming time to write the final papers, do final portfolio's, and study for a few final tests. And all I want to do is soak up ALNWICK. But dont worry mom and dad, I AM doing my homework. I even go to work on some of it outside as we get free internet access outside by the barbican...but we cant go inside and pick it up. So the nice weather has been good to get things done where I need to internet and what not to assist in the making of a powerpoint or research for a paper.

If you are reading this, could you take a moment and pray for me. Ipon returning to Minnesota I need to figure out a job, save money and just get back into the swing of things back home. This may sound strange but I will experience "culture shock" (not sure what else to call it) when i get home. Having been apart from everyone back home for so long it may be difficult to ease back into eachother's lives. I know you are all excited to hear about my many adventures, and i look forward to showing my pictures and telling my stories. I will warn you though, you will get tired of me talking about England...trust me:)

The photo's are from a night at the Hairy Lemon:) And some of the lambs we saw on our field trip last Friday:) Hopefully i get my camera fixed soon so i can take more photos these last 2 weeks:)

Love you all
Connie

THE BEST HOLIDAY EVER!!!

I recently returned from my final holiday while abroad. During these two weeks I took a 3 day tour through the Isle of Skye in Scotland and went on a seven day cruise through the Mediterranean!

First the Isle of Skye. It was beautiful. Lots of mountains and snow. But the weather really wasnt that bad and the views were worth it. We also saw Loch Ness...but no Nessy:( We had a really funny bus driver who kept us entertained throughout the tour. The hostel we stayed in asked for people to stay in the "caravans" outside...they were trailer homes, but it was cheaper and pretty fun!

After returning for one night in the castle to do laundry, sleep, oh and go out for a bit...we left for the Newcastle Airport Friday afternoon. Waiting in the check out line and looking around it seemed that we had signed ourselves up for a retirement cruise as we were the only ones under the age of 60. Bought a book to read over the holiday and borded the plane for a quick trip down to Palma Majorca where we boarded our cruise ship shortly after 9 pm. At 11 was the send of party where I danced and had a great time with Alexis and Sierra and where we first met the great staff aboard the Thomson Celebration! Saturday was a day at sea. The weather was pretty good...but i kept my coverup on most of the day and in result the tops of my legs were the only part of my to get sun burnt that day. That evening was the captain's dinner. We got dressed up and had an amazing 5 course meal at the posh resturant on board. I enjoyed a shrimp scampy salad thing, ceasar salad, tomato and basil soap, duck and strawberry cheese cake. That night we were entertained by the show team on board with a production of "Africa". It was lovely as were the shows throughout the rest of the week. Most evenings were spent in the Broadway show lounge and then up to the liberties bar for a caborat or disco...LOTS OF CRAZY DANCING!!! :)

Sunday we ported in Tunisia, Africa for a few hours. Getting off the ship we were immediatly bombarded with taxi drivers wanting to take us places. And it wasnt just one or two drivers, no there was a couple dozen! After a short walk about we headed back to the ship where Alexis rode a camel right outside our ship. She was very excited! The rest of the day was spent eatting the endless food from the buffet and sun bathing on the Lido deck. I got a bit more sun that day. In the evening we took in another show and went to bed early because we had a long day in Rome the next day.

Rome was beautiful. We got to walk around, take the metro and see the Coliseum, spanish steps and trevi fountain. We then made the mistake of eatting lunch close to the fountain and paid 8 euros for what turned out the be a microwave meal. The resturant didnt even try and fool us by taking it out of the plastic tray...nope they just put the plastic tray on a plate and served it to us. But Rome redeemed itself with the AMAZING icecream or gilado (sp) as they call it. That same day we met Lucy and Emily and their family. Lucy is 10 and Emily 16. They spent time with us by the pool the rest of the week, sang kareoki, and went to the shows with us the rest of the week. Their parents seemed to appreciate us keeping an eye on little Lucy. But she was a joy to be with, such a character that little girl.

After rome we did wine tasting in Tuscany. It was very beautiful and the wine was the best i had ever had! After Livarno we ported in Mariselle, France. I choose this day to stay on the ship and get a bit of revising done on the homework i had. Lucy spent the day with me on the Lido deck and we actually ended up winning Thomson Celebration mints for winning the true false quiz in the afternoon. Her family being "all inclusive" bought me a few fruit smoothies and pina colada's that afternoon:)

Thursday we ported in Barcilona, Spain. After doing a bit of souviner shopping we found a beach and burnt to a crisp by the Mediterranean Sea. There i got a tattoo too....but it's fake and will be gone before i get home. I got a star on my right hip for those who havnt checked my facebook pictures or talked to me.

Friday we were back in Palma and the weather was not very nice. So it was time for more revison and saying good-bye the the ship. Lucy, when she hugged me, cried a bit. But we plan on sending e-mails and such. FINALLY at 6:40 pm we headed to the airport and headed back to the castle!

Not looking forward to class the next 3 weeks:(