For lack of a better title, I'm just going to call this post "December," because I'm going to go over some of the fantastic adventures I went on in the month of... guess it. No, not May, December! (sorry, that was a bad joke.) 
This has been a pretty good month. I mean, half of it was off from school, how could it not be a good month? Actually, I take that back, this has been a FANTASTIC month. 
To start off my wonderful December of 2017, on December 10, Rayna and I took another trip up to the Big Apple. Why? To see a Broadway show of course! It was a fantastic day, if I do say so myself. We got up bright and early (or early for me, a teenager) to travel up, so we'd have plenty of time to walk around New York and get lunch before our 3 o'clock show. We ventured to the Rockefeller Center to see the giant Christmas tree... Which I found to be actually quite ugly. It's not the pretty sort of pine tree, the only thing it really has going for it is its size.  

Then we went to see Kinky Boots. Which, by the way, was fantastic. If you read my last post describing my obsession with musicals, you would know that I already went to see a production of Kinky Boots this year. Yeah. I went to see it twice. Why? Because I love the show, and also the two original leads were back in for a limited run. OF COURSE I had to go and see it. And boy, was the show worth it. Stark Sands and Billy Porter were an absolute wonder. They had the best on-stage chemistry I've ever seen, and an extremely compelling stage presence. Seriously, I couldn't take my eyes away from them, even when they were in the background. Also, their voices... Ah. They have to have been the best performers I've seen yet. I know there's not much time, but if you can get in to see the show before they leave on January 7th, I would HIGHLY recommend it. Seeing those actors is life changing. 

Then on the 16th Serena and I headed to the Talking Teacup (my favorite place), for a long overdue tea date. :) Later that evening my family and I left our house to head to a hotel by the airport. Why? Because we had an early flight the next morning. An early flight to another one of my favorite places-- the tropical paradise also known as Saint Kitts. Getting up early isn't an issue, even for me, when you have a tropical island to look forward to. 
The flight wasn't bad. Even the layover was quick-- barely enough time for Zia and I to get frozen yogurt before we hopped onto another plane in Charleston. Then, finally we landed around 5. Thanks to family friends, instead of going through traditional customs, we went through the Yu Lounge. Meaning that we were picked up in a car, driven to said lounge, and then fed food while our passports were being checked. Seriously, a great beginning to a great trip. 

Just shoutout to those family friends here. They made our trip to Sant Kitts a fantastic one, and also are just great people in general so. Thank you so much! Also thanks to my father for taking us there :). Anyway, that evening we went with our friends to the Salt Plage, which is an outdoor restaurant directly on the water. We would go on to eat at the Salt Plage for several other nights during the trip because of its amazing sunset and quality food. 
Then, the rest of the week was basically a variety of sun time. The for the next two days we went to a private club called the Pavilion and spent the day by the pool. Some unspoken universal law in Saint Kitts seems to be that all pools have to be infinity pools... which is fine by me, haha. 
The Pavilion had to have been my favorite place to go. Because it was a private club (we were able to get in thanks to our friends), it was very calm there, also the staff was extremely friendly and nice. (They even hugged us goodbye when it was our last day!) 

For dinner on our second day we went to the Salt Plage again, but on the the third day we went to the Spice Mill, which had delicious food... though, since it was outdoors and I'm a bug attractor I was quite literally getting swarmed with mosquitoes for a while. (You could see a black cloud of them around my head.) 
Then, on the fourth day instead of going to the Pavilion, we went to the Shipwreck. The Shipwreck is not actually a shipwreck, it's a beach area with a great coral reef and a restaurant called the Shipwreck. There we did several things a. lie in the sun b. swim c. snorkel. It was fun. There were also a ton of cute monkeys running around. (Monkeys are the squirrels of the island. (interesting fact: Saint Kitts has an issue with drunken monkeys aka monkeys who love to steal peoples' drinks and get drunk.)) 

Then, on our third day we went on a Catamaran, which is a giant boat with like nets on the front which you can sit on. That was fun. The crew was entertaining, and we got to stop at a beach in Nevis for a couple hours. We also stopped at a place to snorkel. It was a good day. It was also quite entertaining because the boat had an open bar... And well, since everyone was on vacation they were all quite hammered by the time we got back to the dock. Seriously, I had probably 5 drinks spilled on me (not the entertaining part). There were people who literally could not walk straight, when we were in the vehicle driving us back from the harbor, we saw a guy who literally fell over and was crawling because he couldn't walk. (That's the entertaining part). The very same guy stepped on me and very nearly fell on top of me on the boat (I was very afraid of him falling on me and kept backing up until I was against the side rope, and then I was very afraid he'd fall and I'd go overboard.) 

Our next and last day ( :( ) was spent at the Pavilion, much to my delight. Then we spent our last night at the Salt Plage. And... the next day we left... Well. That's sad. Oh! Just random side note, the Pavilion had these wonderful outdoor showers supplied with soap, shampoo and conditioner. These showers were private, with really cool stonework but open to the sky. 

As depressing as it was to leave Saint Kitts and return home.. Well, I'm still sad about it, but at least I got to spend Christmas in my own house with my lovely kitties. As per our Christmas tradition we went to go see a movie. Originally we planned to go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but, well, somehow I promised my cousin/best friend Ivan that I wouldn't see it without him so... We went to go see Jumanji instead. ( I partially agreed to go because I've heard good reviews and partially because the title has my name in it ). Surprisingly enough, I actually really enjoyed the movie-- I was laughing the entire time. 
Then I spent the 26th baking away. I think because I was on a baking fast due to having little free time during the school year I just kind of overdid it a little baking on the 26th. I started around noon, took a three hour break between 5-8 and then started up again until about 3 AM. Yes. I was baking until 3 AM. Like I said, I went a little baking crazy. My arms still ache from icing those freaking snowflake cookies. I don't know why I did it-- I hated doing it last year, and yet... Here I was again, icing a hundred sugar and gingerbread cookies. Joy. I also made a cake, key lime pie and french bread. I didn't get around to making more toffee because, well, it was 3 AM, and I still had to pack because we were leaving the next morning so... Yeah I was really done with baking by 3. 
The next morning we left to go and visit our cousins in the Middle of Nowhere, Maryland. Another Christmas tradition is the Christmas Party held at my Aunt Sharon's and Uncle John's. While I'm not exactly good at socializing during family parties, I do enjoy getting to see my cousins. Like I said before, Ivan is one of my best friends and since we live in different states we don't exactly see each other a lot. 
And now we've caught up to me time-wise. Ivan and I did go to see Star Wars today. And eh... I have to say I was disappointed. It was good, but I'm really disappointed with the way Luke was written into the movie, the tone felt odd at times, as well as some really strange dialog. All together not the perfect movie I was expecting, then again, maybe it's just because my expectations were too high, who knows. 
Anyway, it was a great year and thanks for reading! 
Anj 
P.S. If you're interested in seeing more of my very picturesque trip to Saint Kitts, check it out in my Gallery on this site. :) It will have more details along with plenty more pictures. OH ALSO BIG SHOUTOUT TO MY FATHER FOR TAKING FANTASTIC PICTURES WITH HIS PHONE AND BEING OUR PHOTOGRAPHER (and he was getting really sick of it, too. Love you, father!) 

This year I made an odd decision to participate in the Spanish Exchange. You may be wondering why I said this choice was a strange one, well, at the time I'd taken about zero spanish classes. I was just going into Spanish 1 when I signed up for this trip. Yeah, interesting choice, I know. The reason I signed up for it is pretty obvious, though. It's a Spanish Exchange! meaning I get to go to Spain and host a student from Spain, sounds pretty fun-- and it's a really unique experience. Not one I wanted to pass up. Therefore I signed up to participate in the Spanish Exchange, despite the fact I knew little more than Hola, Gracias and Adios. 
About a week or two before the Spanish students came to America, I received a rather exciting email from my girl-- Adriana Gallego-Heras. It was the first contact I had with my student and it was fun getting to know her. She's the girl standing directly yo my right in the picture above. 
The students were visiting the week before Christmas break started, so a pretty busy time in the school year. I was nervous, very nervous to meet my girl. What if she didn't like me? Well, that would make one awkward week. Luckily, that did not happen.
To prepare for my Spaniard, I tried to tidy up the house (key word: tried). It helped that our cleaner came that week, but still. Somehow my house doesn't stay clean for very long. Probably has something to do with two very busy teenage girls living in it who are too preoccupied to clean up after themselves, but I'm going to blame it all on the cats. 
After what seemed like an eternity of nervous excitement, the night finally came when the Spaniards were scheduled to arrive. That was the night the nervous excitement reached its peak. It was cold, so we all waited inside MPAC, looking out the window and waiting for the bus to arrive. When it finally did, I couldn't believe what was actually happening. We all went outside as the Spaniards climbed from the bus. Adriana found me and almost immediately ran up and hugged me. A bit of a surprise, I have to say, because one, I didn't actually know her that well or at all, aside from a few emails, and two because I am not a hugger. 
My dad and I helped lug her massive suitcases to the car, and then drove her home. By then it was ten-ish at night, so I knew Adriana must be super jet lagged after being on a plane for eight hours and the six hour time difference, but she didn't seem tired at all. In fact, she seemed energetic and excited to meet with me. A bit of a surprise for me, especially since I still had homework to complete that evening. We talked, took some selfies (typical teenage girls, I know.), and she gave me some gifts. Two books-- both in spanish-- one a romance (since I said on my sheet that I loved to read), and a cook book (because she'd seen my pictures on snapchat). Adriana also brought us a bunch of Spanish candies from their Christmas time celebrations, which were very interesting to try. There was a slight language barrier, but it wasn't too bad. By then I'd had three months of Spanish and got to know a lot of basic vocabulary and Adriana's english was pretty good, so we got the gist of what the other was saying. 
After a while, I finally told Adriana I had homework, so we said goodnight and I went back out to my desk to do my homework. 
The next morning I knocked on her door at seven-ish to get up for school. Interestingly enough, the Spaniards don't eat breakfast. Or at least, my Spaniard did not. Instead, she drank a cup of hot chocolate in the morning. So before I ate my breakfast, I'd mix together some hot chocolate in a travel cup for Adriana. This happened every school morning. 
Then we went to school. It was exciting to show my Spaniard what my normal american life was like, especially since she seemed ten times more excited than I was. It was pretty cute actually, Adriana was amazed by what seemed like the smallest of things to me. 
After school ended, I was surprised to find Adriana and I were invited to go along with the rest of the hosts and their exchange students to Starbucks. I guess beforehand I didn't realize / think that we'd (all the hosts and their students) be hanging out nearly as much as we did. 

After Starbucks, we went to Libby Allen's house because there was not enough room for all of us at Starbucks. There we made some cookie dough (to make Christmas cookies for the Spaniards). Then we went to an ice hockey game. It was only the first day of the Exchange and I was already exhausted... I could tell it was going to be a long week, but I was still looking forward to what was to come. 
From the ice hockey game we went to Panera (there was an argument from the boys to go to Chipotle... but seriously we were not going to take Spaniards to get fake Mexican food. It just didn't seem right). This was where some of my FANTASTIC Spanish vocabulary came to use when I had to explain the menu to Adriana. She got mac and cheese and loved it-- no surprise, Panera's mac n cheese is heavenly. 
After Panera, everyone else was going back to Libby's, but I hadn't realized everyone was going to hang out 24/7, so I'd already made plans to do other things with Adriana. That is, we were going hot tubbing at my friend Camryn's house. It was freezing outside and I thought it would be fun for Adriana. So when everyone else left, Adriana and I waited for my dad to pick us up. By then, I'd developed a pretty bad headache and was absolutely exhausted. Both Adriana and I were falling asleep for a while until my dad came. 
Hot tubbing was really fun. It was cute when we had to go out in the cold to get to the hot tub, Adriana just started yelling Corre! Corre! (Run! Run!). Being from Valencia, she already wasn't used to it being so cold... and she was only in a bikini, so I'm sure she felt even more freezing than Camryn, Serena and me. 
While in the hot tub, and then as we were hanging out after, we all had fun talking to each other. I think Adriana enjoyed talking to Camryn and Serena as much as they did. Of course, we all had to speak slow English using as small a vocabulary as possible, but it was all good. 
The next morning (Saturday) we slept in. (One of my favorite past times). Then I made cinnamon rolls (Adriana had never had any!), and for lunch I took Adriana to BeWell-- a place I meet up with my friends a lot for lunch. Something I'd begun to notice was that Adriana ate almost nothing, which was a little bothersome-- like I was worried she was starving to death because she didn't like any of the food, but as I talked to the other hosts, it turned out that most of the girls didn't eat that much so I assumed it was normal. (I learned later that that was not true when I visited Adriana in Spain... Huh. I still don't really know what was going on there... I just hope she wasn't starving to death.) 
Saturday evening Adriana and I walked over to Serena's house for a cute little Christmas party Serena had put together-- there we decorated cookies, exchanged gifts (Serena was nice enough to get Adriana one as well), and watched a Christmas movie. (Well, kind of, it was the Good Luck Charlie movie.) It was fun, though, I felt bad because the other Spaniards and hosts were all hanging out together, but Adriana said it was fine. She was very willing to just do whatever and didn't get overly upset if we weren't with the group at all times, which I appreciated since I'd already planned out the weekend. 
Then on Sunday I took Adriana shopping, but I didn't just want to take her to the small Willow Grove Mall, so I'd been planning for a while for us to go to King of Prussia mall. Serena came along with us, and it was a great deal of fun. We stopped in Hollister a couple of times because, according to Adriana, it was a lot more cheap here than it is in Spain. 
Before leaving, we stopped in at Coldstone and got ice cream. Though it was cold outside, it was totally worth it. On the way home we also got cheesesteaks-- how could we not? It's classic Philly food. 
After KOP we all went to the Tableaux. I'm not really sure how much of it Adriana understood, but I know she already knew the story, so hopefully she got the gist of it from the scenes. 
The two hardest things about hosting a student were these: constantly being tired and trying to find time to fit in homework. Seriously, I was up very late that night doing homework, because I wanted to do stuff with Adriana // also just didn't want her to be bored. 
Monday we went back to school, and Adriana accompanied me to class again. Then after school I'm pretty sure we just hung out-- oh yeah, we watched The Fault in Our Stars (with Spanish Subtitles). It was cute, we did really just hang out. Then I did homework. I can't really remember if we hung out with the group that evening... I think we did. One reason hosting was so tiring was that we hung out in the group every night until later in the evening, so I'd get to bed later. Something that never seemed to bother Adriana much-- I swear they don't sleep. They just simply survive without it. 
Tuesday all the hosts and their Spaniards went to Philly... except for me. Because I'm weird and even though I absolutely abhor school and working, I didn't want to miss a day of school and be behind on work. Trust me, I had several conversations with people that day who were convinced I was crazy for not going. 
That evening I took Adriana out for sushi (something she wasn't very fond of) and then we went to all hang out at Caroline's house. It was interesting how much drama could go down in one night, and also how LOUD they all could be when together. It was funny, most of the Spaniards were all together, tossing cups around and just all together being pretty lively and energetic, while most of the hosts sat tiredly together on the couch or at the table. 
That evening was pretty stressful because I agreed to take Caitlin Irwin's Spaniard, Sara, for the night as well because Caitlin had to get up early in the morning and then both Adriana and Sara went off to another house when my dad was already on his way to pick me up. So I came home alone and was extremely stressed out (even though someone had agreed to give them a ride back to my house, it was still extremely stressful.) See, hosting was kind of like babysitting. It felt like you had to watch the student at all times-- because you were responsible for them. That was definitely the most stressful night. 
Then Wednesday, I don't really recall much. Then on Thursday I was sad knowing that it was Adriana's last day, but a little relieved as well simply because of how tired I was. We went to see the Art's Night and then there was a goodbye party as Libby's house. I'm not really great with parties, so I just basically hid out in the living room with Caitlin and Caroline for most of it. I wasn't the only host who was absolutely exhausted from the week. 
That evening after we got back to my house, I brought Adriana a gift I'd been accumulating for her, filled with little things like chocolates (which she loves), cookies, eos (they don't have it in Spain) etc. She cried when she hugged me. It was really sweet, and I knew I'd miss her. 
The next morning I got up as usual, knocked on her door and then proceeded to get ready for school. Adriana started crying when she said goodbye to Zia (I would be crying as well. Tears of joy. Sibling joke). Then we lugged all her stuff to the front of school, and said goodbye to everyone. A ton of the Spaniards were crying. It was sweet, but hey we were going to see them again in like three months so... Anyway, when we finally saw them off it was sad, but like I said earlier, a little bit of a relief because I could finally rest. All in all, I did actually enjoy hosting and if I get the opportunity to do it again, I think I'll take it. 
(Pt. 2 will be my trip to Spain) 
Thanks for reading, 
Anj <3

So our 8th Grade Play is this week! Are you coming? You should! It's going to be.. interesting haha. Our play is Beauty and The Beast. The showings are 7:30 PM at Heilman Hall (IDK how to spell it) Tuesday (March 3rd) and Thursday (March 5th). I'm excited to get this play over with. I was always so excited to do the play and it was fun at first. But then it got boring, around the time when we were done all the props a month before the play and had to work on something even though there was nothing else to do. Then it got really really boring last week. Like I almost prefer school over having all day play. 
As I predicted pre all day play it would be fun on Monday. And by Tuesday we would be totally done with it. Like seriously, the play is so boring now because we've rehearsed it like, three million times. But it'll be different because we have an audience. Okay, so here's the casting, I hope I remember everyone.... 
Nikos Casto as the Beast 
Joshua Engelke (IDK how to spell your last name SORRY JOSH) as the Prince 
Caroline O'Hagan as Madame Rondeau (the mom) 
Emma Reuter as Isabelle (Beauty's sister) 
Faith Tracey as Marguerite (Beauty's Sister) 
Serena Boyesen as Stella (Beauty's Sister) 
Lance Casto as Greedo (Isabelle's husband) 
Zachary Lambertus as Graspo (Marguerite's husband) 
Kevin Buss as the Clock and Grungyo (Stella's hubby) 
Coleman was going to be Grungyo but he left the school -_-
Fiona Hogan as Princess Macy (the beachy princess)  
Anji Cooper (aka Me) as Princess Avide (the flirty princess) 
Ursula Friesen as Princess Garnett (the quiet Princess) 
Weston Trautmen as the Old Beggar (the guy who casts the curse) 
Layne Trautmen as Louis (the servant) 
Winston Roth as the chair 
Maurice as the hat rack 
Michael Loeb as the rug
Hannah King as the painting 
Ryan Needle as the magic mirror
George Divincent (how do you spell your last name? Sorry George) as Brutus (the dog) 
Atticus Boatman as the Rose Guardian 
Camryn Buss as Beauty 
Dara Rogers as Helen (the Housekeeper) 
Krista Debow as Princess Richelle (the other princess) 
Tenzin Wade as Wolf #1
Matt Tygensen as Wolf #2 
Yates Pendleton as Wolf #3
Andrew Carr as the Captain 
Colin O'Hara as Lt. Fort
And I think that's all, sorry if I forgot you! 
Anyway, I can say pretty much every line from the play word for word- does that show how many times we've rehearsed it? 
Aside from the play looming up, SPRING BREAK IS THE WEEK RIGHT AFTER. So I've been trying to loose some weight for it and have bee going to G-Fit as many times a week as possible. I actually almost forgot about G-Fit yesterday when I woke up so I had to get ready REALLY fast. I'm so excited to be going down to St. Kits, it's in the Caribbean, if you didn't know. Also, if you haven't read my last posts, I'm going down to St. Kits in a private jet with my family, some family friends, Fiona and Zia's friend, Sammy. It's going to be so much fun minus the part where we can't use our phones with service unless there's Wi-Fi. I really hope there's Wi-Fi in St. Kits. Also Fi and I are going to try and vlog daily and take a bajillion pictures maybe some vlogs will go up on YouTube and pictures on my blog. 
If you didn't know, when I set plans, I like them to be in stone. When Fiona sets plans? They're in Jello at best. She changes her mind a lot and I find it annoying to an extreme. We were all excited to go shopping this weekend for spring break but on the day she decides oh, yeah, I don't wanna go. UGH! I forced her to anyway, bwahaha. But then she was in a bad mood about it. So I gave her the silent treatment until she stopped being so miserable. She did end up buying a lot of stuff though. 
I actually only bought two things three, if you count top and bottom. I got a bikini set from Aerie and shorts from American Eagle. AND THAT WAS ALMOST ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Talk about over priced. I did go to Starbucks though. 
So apparently I'm way behind on the news and just this week I found out about the 'Secret Menu' at Starbucks, so I decided to try something off it. I tried the Cotton Candy Frappicino, It was good,  I'm not sure which I prefer, that or caramel, probs the caramel. 
AND MY DAD BOUGHT ALEC A BED AT THE APPLE STORE! THANK YOU! Alec really wanted a bed. If you were unaware, Alec is my beautiful and beloved MacBook Air. I bought him this summer and am typing this post off him. Yes. I like to name things. Stop Judging me. Stop it. STOPPPPP. Even though I would've liked a Vera Bradley case, I quite like the black case that I got, it matches the rest of my devices now. 
Oh yeah! and we got SUSHI last night!  If you know me, you'd know that I ask for Sushi literally every night. It's my favorite food. If I were to only eat one thing for the rest of my life it would most definitely be Sushi. To all you sushi haters out there, why? Just, why? 
And before I forget, MY BUBBLE TEA SUPPLIES CAME ON FRIDAY! Since then I have made at least three maybe four cups of bubble tea for myself. It's actually not as addicting when Im drinking it,  but when I'm not I really crave it, I have no idea why. Fiona thinks that the bubbles have heroin in them because she's convinced I'm addicted to them. Haha. 
See you next time, 
Anj. 
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Sorry for not updating sooner! I've been really busy with schoolwork. I've pretty much just been going to school, getting home and doing homework and then going to sleep. Oh yeah, and going to GFit and a little TV here and there. I haven't read a book in a while though :(.  
Okay so last weekend I skipped school on Friday in favor of driving about ten hours down to North Carolina with my parents. They were going down to see a Duke basketball game and I was going down to see my friends that live there, Max and Elise Moses. It was a lot of fun, sadly we could only stay one full day because I had to be back at school on Monday (way to be a downer, BACS.) It was really nice being able to sleep in the car. I was just lying across the back like it was a bed. Then we also stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch! I love Cracker Barrel, the food there is so good. We arrived at the Moses' house, I don't know, around sixish? From there we sat down and had dinner. Unfortunately I was still filled from Cracker Barrel so I didn't have much of an appetite. I'm sorry, but that dinner was not too interesting. Whenever I'm over at anyone's house, it takes me a bit to warm up to everyone so I was just kinda quietly sitting at the table while my parents talked about their work. Not the most interesting topic for me. 
After dinner, Max and I started a game of Monopoly. By the time Elise got home, I was already winning by well, a lot. It's funny because last time I saw Elise and Max I was constantly beating Max at card games. Ah, I love card games. 
On Saturday Elise and I made cookies, but they were out of vanilla so they tasted a little funny. Then I went to Elise's soccer game. It was really cold and I just kinda sat there and watched whilst listening to music for four hours. North Carolina isn't that much warmer than it is here in Pennsylvania. Kinda embarrassing but I was falling asleep on the car ride back to the house. I was very tired, besides, whenever I'm in a car I get tired. Once we got back to the house, Elise and I went up to her room and I spent the next hour trying to convince her to put on a bathing suit. She finally did so, probably just to shut me up. But when we were all ready to go in the hot tub, the dinner guests came over, so we put clothes on over the bathing suits and went down for dinner. So the dinner guests were also friends of my parents' and they brought their grandson, Cam, with them. Elise and I had fun playing with him, that is, until he started crying. Funny story about that, actually. So when he started crying Elise and I tried singing to him, he started crying harder. Then later we tried singing to him when he was happy... seconds later he started crying. Ouch. 
Then we finally got into the hot tub! I love hot tubs. Especially in the winter. It was warm. Haha. We had Max take a bunch of pictures. 
One of the things I really loved down there, were all of the Moses' dogs. If you were unaware, I've always wanted a dog. Man's best friend, right? The Moses' had four. It was awesome. Their names were Lulu, Clint, Izzy and Maggie (I think it was Maggie and Clint). My favorite was Lulu, she was really cute and sweet. It was funny because when we were in the hot tub, Izzy kept dropping a basketball into the water so we'd throw it for her. 
Our 8th Grade play is coming up fast! March 3rd and 5th at 7:30 PM in the Bryn Athyn Church School, you should totally come. I can't say it's really good because I haven't seen many other scenes (haha) beside m own, but you should still come. All our work on building the set is almost done (it looks interesting) and I'm pretty sure we've rehearsed all the scenes a couple times. Next next week we're going to be having all day rehearsals, NO SCHOOL! :D 
As mentioned before, I've been going to GFit. In my last post I'd gone twice, now I'm no even sure how many times I've gone, I'm going to try and go three times a week, but sometimes things come up and I can't go every class. It's a lot of  fun and I'm getting better at it :D Like I'm not sore afterwards anymore, which is great. 
Valentines Day is tomorrow? Have any plans? I do, I'm making myself cupcakes tonight haha. #loner But I'm helping Caroline bake cookies and cupcakes for Drake today, so that's something. 
See you next time, 
-Anj

The day after London we left the place in Oxford and drove, three to four to five to six hours up to The Lake District. The Lake District was definitely my favorite place to stay maybe it had to do with the fact we stayed there for six days or maybe because it was so pretty or maybe because the bed and breakfast we stayed at was very comfortable. Zia and I stayed in room three while our parents stayed in room six. I got the big bed in the bedroom since Zia made me sleep in a cot last time. We also got the good bathroom, but not a good view. Unfortunately no air conditioning so if we were in the room during the day it was boiling, especially the days without any breeze outside. Howard, Rosa, John, Sophia and Francesca were also staying there, except in a cottage instead of in the bed and breakfast. We had dinner with them the first night, it was a three course meal, the main course being roast beef and dessert was custard and a cookie. After that we went our separate ways. So the wi-fi in the place we were staying sucked unless you were in a certain place, the best wifi spot was on the stairs which was right outside Zia and my room. So we were sitting on the stairs a lot. I finished the Bloodlines books 1-4 there as well as the Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi. Actually, I finished the Shatter Me series in one day. So the first official full day we were in the Lake District we took a boat across the Lake. Except, of course we had to walk to the boat landing. That was rather complicated since we had to walk through a bunch of sheep fields, climb a few fences and then walk all the way back because it was the wrong way to get there, we nearly missed the boat after running to get there. After going across the lake, we were at a small place where there were a bunch of ducks, and people. We ate at the cafe that was right next to the dock, I got a smoked salmon sandwich and a smoothie, sound familiar? I got A LOT of smoked salmon, from the airports, cafes, etc. After lunch, I went out and fed the ducks the crust from my sandwich and that's where my duck feeding obsession started. Our families separated, Francesca wanted to stay by that area and run in one of those blow up hamster ball type things that float in the water, so while their family stayed, my family walked about an hour through a bunch of sheep and cow fields to get to the fair that was on the other side. 
Guess what? We would've had to pay like $12 US each to get into the fair and only have been there for like six minutes before having to walk back, so we just walked back. We walked all the way there for nothing. Joy. 
On day two Zia, John, Francesca, Howard, and my dad went to a place called Go Ape. I decided not to go because 1. I'm slightly scared of heights 2. It didn't sound fun for me. So I saved some toast from breakfast and after having a lunch of half a scone and some tea with my mom, I went down to the lake to feed some ducks. Unfortunately on our side of the Lake there weren't as many ducks and the ducks were scared of me. I did feed them though, there was one duck which I affectionately named TMD, meaning The Mean Duck because it chased away and bit any other duck trying to get bread, though I was able to evade that duck throw bread one way, and while the duck was getting it, throw some to the other ducks. I read most of the day, but for some reason by the end of the day I was exhausted. I think it was the time zone difference. I have no idea what time tone my head was in, it wasn't England's or New York's lol. 
I was really missing my friends by then, especially when Zia and I got into fights. Because of the time difference it was really hard to find a way to text Caroline on Viber, plus, Caroline if you're reading this, you're really bad at replying in the next five minutes. or replying. period. 
On day three we took the bed and breakfast's row boats and went rowing across the lake for the whole day. It was really hot. We stopped at a hotel across the lake for lunch, I got, guess what, a smoked salmon sandwich and a glass of lemonade. The lemonade was amazing there, it was like French lemonade but a little lighter. I saved half of my sandwich to feed the ducks later (the bread not the salmon) and stuffed it in my dad's backpack. After about an hour of rowing after lunch, it got hot. I was wearing my bikini under my clothes so I just lay across the front of the row boat in the sun, that got pretty hot after a while too, though. We eventually stopped at a beach a long ways away from the bed and breakfast. It didn't look like anyone had ever been on that beach, how do I know that? There were a bunch of skipping stones on the beach. I went swimming for a bit but the water was freezing so I got out pretty quickly. And Ugh, guess what I found? A sheep carcass what in the world ate it I have no idea. It was a bunch of fur and bone. And ew I found it's foot. That was really gross. 
So rowing back was hot and took a while, once we got back I showered, and then went outside for dinner, which was fish and chips. I finally got a coke, and Raziel it was refreshing, I'd been living off tea and water for the last few days. If you didn't know, I hate water it tastes horrible. 
Day four we went pony trekking up the mountain. I was seriously scared my pony would run off or something, Kitty was not being a good pony. she kept stopping to eat and walking off the trail. I don't have a fractured skull right now, so I'm okay. It was REALLY hot out and wearing sneakers and long pants was not helping. It was a really fun pony ride if you put those two things aside, and my upper legs didn't hurt too much afterwards. After we got back to the Coniston (town closest to the bed and breakfast) we stopped at a place and got ice cream, I got honey comb, it was new and interesting. Oh, I forgot, while I was on Kitty, a fly bit my hand and it swelled and the bone in it hurt. For dinner we went to a pub like dinner place, getting dinner took forever so during the wait we talked about some pretty random things. I was able to convince Francesca that the Shatter Me book cover was a mountain. 

I'm still not exactly sure how. I got scampi for dinner, it came with chips *cough fries and coleslaw. The fries were really good but I got full after the scampi and coleslaw so I let Zia, John and Francesca have the rest. Apparently I put too much salt on which is funny because I would've added more if I were to continue eating them. 
Day five I really enjoyed, everyone else went out to climb the mountain but since I didn't bring my inhaler with me I didn't go so I had the whole day to myself. For the first part I was up in my room sprawled across my bed, reading, but after I went down and had lunch (crisps, smoked salmon sandwich, tea) I sat on this green leather couch in one of the extra rooms that I had recently (the day before) found comfortable for reading. I read the whole Shatter Me series that day. 
Over dinner we were talking about british and american words. We got into an argument over cookies and biscuits. Apparently they think cookies like Oreos are called biscuits. Even though it clearly says 'Milks favorite cookie' on the box. It even has milk on the box. Ugh now I'm craving Oreos. Anyway biscuits are those delicious flakey layered bread rolls. 

Day six we got breakfast,packed up, said goodbye to Howard's family and drove to Scotland. On our way there we stopped at Hadrian's wall, it was hot out so Zia and I were none to happy to be stopping. Also, the walk up to Hadrian's wall was like ten minutes and it was really hot, smelly, and stinky because it was a sheep field and the sheep crapped everywhere. I was pretty much done with sheep by the time we left England. Hadrian's wall in on the border of Scotland and England so on one side is Scotland and the other England. The England side of Hadrian's wall was a whole lot stinkier because of all the sheep crap, I did not enjoy walking on the pathway covered in it. Sorry, but I was in a bit of a bad mood then, but I calmed down before Zia did. 

In Scotland we stayed with Helen and Neil Laidlaw. Helen is a really good cook. On day two of being in Scotland and our first full day there went to Edinburgh. By then I was just ready to go home, not because I was home sick but because I really missed my friends and honestly, I was getting kinda/really annoyed with my family, I don't usually spend that much time with them. Usually/never. Edinburgh was cool, we got to go to the Elephant House which was where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, the bathroom is covered in writing, people saying thank you to JK  Rowling and such. Edinburgh castle was kinda cool, I was kind of/pretty bored of sightseeing by then, though, plus Zia was making me really grumpy so I didn't take many pictures there. 
Day three of being in Scotland we visited Tantallon Castle, I enjoyed looking around. For lunch we went to a place where I got a bunch of smoked fish samples to eat. We ate outside, so it was funny because there was a pool in the ocean and a bunch of people were swimming in it. Where it is too cold for us to go swimming, it was warm for the people in Scotland.  In Scotland and England the currency is pounds, which pretty much you double the amount of pounds and that's the amount of US dollars it is. Stuff in Europe was expensive. 

So from Scotland we flew three hours to Iceland then flew six hours back to New York. I was 92% done Lola and the Boy Next Door when my Kindle Fire shut down so I had to wait the last thirty minutes, plus going through customs, then renting a car, to get in the car, and charge my kindle so I could finish the book. That pissed me off. So we had the two hour drive home and when we got back, we were all really jet lagged, I stayed jet lagged for a couple days after. All in all the trip was pretty good. I read 23 books in two weeks, which I was pretty proud of. 

Thanks for reading! :) 
Anji

Our flight to London was three hours. Somehow I was more cramped up after our London flight than the one to Iceland. So, England is five hours ahead of New York time. Joy, that took a while to get used to since I still wasn't used to Icelandic time. So when we got to England we went to a Hertz place to rent a car. It took forever, the lady that was talking to us there took forever to do everything and by the time we were done there it was dark out. Oh, here's an interesting thing that makes Caroline laugh every time I talk about it, so on our way to the hotel we were staying at, we got lost. Yeah, getting lost in a different country, that sure is fun. Especially when it's dark and you have yet to have dinner. I didn't get dinner that night. We spent three hours trying to get to the hotel when it only should've taken one and a half. It wasn't as bad for Zia, because she went to sleep, but I was up the whole time, reading (what else was I going to do?) so it was hard to ignore my growling stomach. We finally got to the hotel rather late and then Zia made me sleep on the cot instead of a bed, gee, thanks sis. At least we had adapters this time. The cot wasn't too comfortable and made a lot of noise when I moved. We were all in one room together so it was kind of crowded. Plus, Zia and I don't exactly get along, so... 
The next day we went to my dad's friend from college's house in Oxford. Howard is a professor at Oxford University so he showed us around. Oxford is a place where some of Harry Potter was filmed. It was really cool. So I should probably explain a packing thing before I forget. So my dad tells me it's going to be cold on this trip so to only pack like three pairs of shorts and a few short sleeved shirts. That turned out to be untrue so the whole trip I was pretty much rewearing the same outfits every other day. Of course when we visit and I bring a minimal amount of short sleeved stuff the UK magically decides to have only hot days. I mean, it was nice for pictures, not so nice for sitting on top of a tour bus. Also, it seems that not a lot of places in the UK need air conditioning, since it's cool and rainy most of the time. That was a high complaint of mine, I'm hot-blooded so I get hot really easily and not having air conditioning didn't bode too well with me. Another complaint of mine was that the wi-fi in all the places we stayed didn't work too well, and since we were in a different country we couldn't really use our phones. 
Back to Oxford, it was interesting to walk around, we stopped at a place for lunch and got sandwiches, I got a tuna melt on a panini. After lunch we went to a bookstore in Oxford. It was so much fun seeing the British version of the covers to all my books. Apparently they don't have hardcovers of Cassandra Clare's books, that would depress me if I lived there. I finished Last Sacrifice while sitting in the room where they filmed The Great Hall in Harry Potter. After walking around Oxford all day, I was really hot and ready to go back. We stayed at Howard's house for dinner, he has three kids, John (18) Sophia (15) and Francesca (11). It was fun hanging out with them, Francesca had a lot of energy. 

So the day after visiting Oxford, Zia, my dad and me took a bus to London. The bus ride was one and a half hours long and unfortunately the 'free wifi' on it didn't work. I slept most of the way since I had nothing to read. Apparently Zia enjoyed taking a bunch of pictures of me while I slept. After we got off the bus, we walked around and found a tour bus, we decided to start off with taking the Big Bus tour Red. Sitting on the roof was hot and it was hard to understand the person commentating since he 1. had a confusing british accent 2. was speaking way to closely to the microphone. We got off at a stop near an area with a blue rooster statue. There were a bunch of money making things there, like one person was drawing incredibly detailed pictures of all the world's country's flags in chalk on the flagstones, there was a dance show/tricks show, a yoda etc. After crossing a few roads and walking around to random places we stopped at a cafe to eat lunch. I got a smoked salmon sandwich, salt and vinegar crisps, and a berry smoothie. The wifi didn't work there either. 
After lunch we got back on the bus, except we got on a Big Bus Tour Blue instead of Red because the Red took forever to find. I liked the Blue one better 1. because we got free headphones 2. because we got to listen to a prerecorded voice that was easy to understand. We went past the bank where they filmed Gringots in Harry Potter. I think our next place where we got off was a cathedral because I wanted to go to Blackfriars Bridge and that was the closest place to it. Problem, I hadn't looked up what Blackfriars Bridge looked like so it took a bit to figure out which bridge it was. Blackfriars Bridge really was the only reason I wanted to go to London. Why? Because of a book, obviously. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare to be specific. Yeah, I was really happy that we went to Blackfriars, though, I was ready to go back right after, haha. 
We left Blackfriars Bridge and next went to a Starbucks nearby, I got a grande Caramel Frappuccino, and guess what? The intranet actually worked there, so I bought the first two books in the spin off of the Vampire Academy Series, Bloodlines. After Starbucks we walked around, I bought another postcard (Postcard count 3). Then we got ice cream, and I'm not even kidding I saw a kid with an ice cream cone as long as my arm, that was just gross. Then after getting ice cream we went on a water boat tour down the Thames. The boat tour was definitely my favorite, the guy commenting was easy to understand and it was funny. Also, the wind downed the heat amount. We went to Buckingham Palace and watched the guards for a bit, it was rather boring, do those guards ever get hungry or hot on the job? 
We almost missed the bus back to Oxford, my dad lost track of time, imagine what we'd do if we'd missed it. Actually, I did imagine it as we ran to the bus, I'm guessing we wouldn't sleep on benches but the image did pop into my head. I couldn't get into Bloodlines (click here to read my review on Bloodlines) on the bus, so I just slept on the way back too. So when we finally got back to Oxford it was dark but I absolutely refused to go back and not have dinner again, after walking all around London in the sun yeah, I was hungry. So we stopped at a food cart/truck. Have you ever had a gyros sandwich? Those things are amazing, we got something similar to that at the food truck thing. Pita bread, spicy/sweet sauce, lamb, mayonnaise, salad. Yummy. It was delicious. The fries, excuse me, chips, where pretty good too. Zia and I had already eaten 1 1/2 of the sandwiches before my dad actually came out to eat. 
See you guys at part three :) 

I went on a two week trip to Europe this summer, going to Iceland, England and Scotland. It was a new experience. Honestly, I was more interested in my books than the sight seeing, but I'm always more interested in books. We first went to Iceland, staying in a bed and breakfast in Reykjavik for two days. Actually, the first place we went was New York City, surprisingly enough, that was the first time I'd ever been to NYC. We stayed with my mom's friends from college, Neal and Jane. It was fun going around New York for the day, even if it was really hot out. My sister, Zia and I, went in our first taxi, it was interesting... We got dropped off by where Neal and Jane live but, uh, we walked the wrong way for a while before realizing that we had to walk the opposite direction to get to the apartment... For dinner Neal and Jane took us out to their favorite Italian restaurant, it was cool, especially since we got to sit downstairs in the basement to eat, it was a very authentic Italian restaurant, too. For the sleeping arrangements I slept on the top floor because Zia would probably like to be closer to our parents when we sleep, it was nice, except for it was storming for the first twenty minutes and since I was on the top I heard it. Very loudly. While we were in New York I visited the Strand bookstore, getting a book box set which is still, unfortunately, in New York, I really need to go back and get that some time. I also went to Times Square, around the statue of liberty, and walked around New York for a while. We went on a Water Taxi, too. Sitting on the top was really hot and I'll admit that I may or may not have almost fallen asleep quite a few times. The next morning we were driven to an airport and surprisingly enough security didn't take too long. Though, the plane ride to Iceland was a long six hours. 

On the way to Iceland, I finished Frost Bite by Richelle Mead and started Shadow Kiss also by Richelle Mead. It was a really long time on the plane and since Iceland is six hours ahead of New York, I was pretty jet lagged for the two days we were in Iceland. Well, technically one day and two halves. After renting a car and driving maybe an hour to a half an hour to the bed and breakfast it was already around two in the morning, Icelandic time. Meaning it was like ten in my head. By the time we were all settled in in the apartment we were staying in, it was three Icelandic time. I couldn't go to sleep for a while, actually I'm pretty sure I fell asleep after the sun rose. Needless to say it was really hard to get up before breakfast closed at 9:30 (Or was it 10?). The Icelandic breakfast seemed a little bland to me, maybe it's just because none of the flavory stuff appealed to my taste, because I had some meats, which would be deli meats in America, and some cheese for breakfast, the meats were pretty bland. It was rather disappointing. So anyway on the one full day we had in Iceland my parents decided we should go do some sightseeing, go around the golden circle or something like that. Zia and I weren't as interested but we went along because we had to. 
You could probably tell from the name that Iceland was colder than America, I got pretty cold sometimes, especially because the whole time we were in Iceland it was wet and rainy. So we visited a geyser place, a place where there were two tectonic plates and the strongest waterfall in Iceland (or was it the world???), it took a couple hours actually to get around. The lunch was really expensive, too, it was like $50 US for two personal pizzas and a sandwich. the geysers had hot water and smelled somewhat of sulfur. Anyway, by the time we got back to the bed and breakfast we were all tired because we were really jet lagged plus we'd been out sightseeing and it was tiring. I think we just sort of rested for an hour, well, everyone else rested while I read Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention this, so my dad bought adapters before we came, for the English plug, but he didn't get one for the Icelandic one. -_- My kindle fire is the first generation, and I didn't bring my kindle. My kindle fire, being the annoying picky reading tablet that it is, will not charge on the USB thing in the plane, I don't know why, I think if we travel more I'm going to need to get a new reading tablet. So after reading it for like seven hours straight the night before, it was dying by day 2 of the trip. Luckily the bed and breakfast had adapters so they lent us one. I was sitting in the kitchen reading my kindle a lot during my time in Iceland. 
After resting for a while we went out and walked around Reykjavik, there was a really cool cathedral right behind where we were staying. We went to a restaurant that one of my parents' friends recommended to us. It was really good, and like everything else, pretty expensive. After dinner, my dad walked Zia back to the bed and breakfast, while I pulled my mom into the nearest bookstore. In a different country? Let's buy books there in a language I don't speak. Yeah, I have good priorities. Well, some of the books were in english, but most of them weren't. It was really interesting seeing the book covers of my well-loved books in a different country. Except the books here were really expensive, maybe $30 US for a paperback book. Yeah, I never did end up buying any books in Europe.
 Anyway, after my dad came back to the bookstore, my mom walked back to the bed and breakfast while my dad and I went to a different bookstore and I got a postcard. We then went to the small, I don't know what to call it, food store, I guess. There we picked up a container of ice cream, for those of you who didn't know, ice cream is a vital part of my existence. The ice cream in Iceland (Yes I did insist that we get ice cream in Iceland, it's practically required if you visit Iceland to get ice cream) is different, it has a slightly more ice-y feel over creamy. It was good none the less. If you've never been to Iceland, you might not know this, but during the summer it stays light out day and night and during the winter it stays dark. So it was rather hard to fall asleep with that much light, not to mention our curtains sucked and there was a light shining through the window. So the next day, we got up, got breakfast, packed up and left the ned and breakfast. Though, before we went to the airport we visited The Blue Lagoon, a giant hot spring. Mmhmmm, I really liked it there. Especially considering how cold it was in Iceland, the hot spring was even more amazing. So we checked in and got bathrobes, towels, a take home gift, and these bracelets. The bracelets were really cool, they were water proof and were the keys to your lockers in the locker rooms where you changed, also, if you bought a drink or a face wash at the bar in the hot spring, then they would take a device, tap it to your bracelet and it would charge you so you paid before you left. 
There's something in the water that really dries out your hair, so you're told to put your hair up in like a bun and put conditioner in it so it won't dry out, they provided soap and conditioner in the bathrooms. So my hair looks really oily in all the pictures, also, if you've seen my hair, you'd know that there is A LOT of it, it's really long so the bun kept falling out. Luckily for me, though, it didn't fall out while we were in the hot spring, otherwise I probably would've flipped out. Getting pictures for this was REALLY gold because standing outside, in Iceland, in a bikini is obviously going to be cold. Plus my dad can't take pictures with the IPhone so we had to take a bunch. Finally getting into the hot spring was a relief, especially because my sister was being picky about the pictures and made me pose for about a bijillion. So with the thing we got to get in we all got one free drink, face scrub and face mask from the bar. I got a strawberry smoothie, it was delicious, Zia and my dad got blueberry and I don't remember what my mom got, you see, I'm typing this like two or three weeks later so I don't have the perfect memory of this trip, I guess it would help if I looked in my vacation journal but I'm too lazy to do so. I definitely enjoyed The Blue Lagoon, though, if you've ever been in a hot tub during the winter, it's a similar feeling, you overheat after a while. Also, since I'm so short, I almost sunk under in some places. After leaving the Blue Lagoon we went back to the airport to fly our three hour trip to London. 
I decided to split this blog post up, because if my part on Iceland is that long, we stayed in the other places for longer, so I don't want to make these posts WAY to long, so this is part one :).