Holiday? What Holiday?

Whenever I say "I've been back at school for a week", I simply can't believe it. This has to have been the longest week of my entire life, and I wish I was exaggerating. I can't even remember having a holiday, to the point where the entire concept seems completely alien to me.

The worst thing about it is that we haven't even had that much work yet. I've had three pieces of homework. So it isn't even the work load that is getting me down.

I may not have started at a new college, but it still feels like I have entered a different world. I look back on the past fives years I have spent at that school, and wonder where on earth that school is now. Sure, I knew it would be different, but I just feel completely lost. And what's worse is that none of my A Level subjects are exciting or interesting me. My favourite (and in fact, the only one I really like) at the moment is Drama, and I know that as soon as we start properly working on the course, that will all change.

There are some good things about it. Being a student librarian, being able to walk into the canteen early, having a pigeon hole... you have to focus on the little things to keep you sane.

Today has been the worst day so far, not least because I had a big argument with my Dad this morning about something so stupid that I'm just baffled by it.

But to save this from simply being a dull, monotonous whine of a blog, I'm going to tell you about something fun I did on Thursday.

It was my friend Flic's 17th birthday. We went to her house after school and had an awesome children's birthday party, with pass the parcel and sausage rolls and all the fun things of a party. We then went to the theatre to see 'The Grain Store', which is a play about the Soviet Ukraine before World War II. But that wasn't the exciting part, oh no. Before the play started, we, along with 40 other members of the audience, had a banquet on stage with the cast as the other members of the audience we taking their seats. It was a traditional Ukrainian feast of Borsh (sp?), which is a spicy beetroot soup, cheese and potato dumplings and a slice of watermelon. Despite our fears about the meal beforehand, it was actually really nice and was such a great experience- just sitting on the stage, with all the lights on us, sitting with people who I'd seen in so many plays before. It was very surreal, and I've never experienced anything like or before, or expect I ever will again, but it was great fun, and to top it all off, the play was amazing too.

So some good stuff. But there we go. I don't really know what to say now... BYE!

P.S. If you're reading this, which I doubt you are because I wouldn't if I were you, hello to Alice and Olivia *waves* :)

Summer '09: Part 4.

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have no excuse. I do, however, have quite a lot to tell you, but unfortunately I started telling you about my holiday, and so I will finish. This blog post is all about POWERING THROUGH. Then I can move on from the stuff that happened over a month and a half ago...

Wed 29/07/09

Hot hot hot. After an early start, Dad, Charlotte and I took a windy bus through the hills to get to Florence. I went there back in 2007 on the choir tour, but we didn't get to see a huge amount of it, so I was glad to go back and see the rest. The first port of call was the Ponte Vecchio, a mega famous bridge (apparently) with shops on it. We then walked to the top of Michelanglo Mount, to see the stunning panoramic views of Florence.

Florence from Michelanglo Mount

We then walked back down to explore Florence from the ground; we walked past the Uffizi gallery, the fake statue of David and the Piazza della Signora. We went into the cathedral, which was stunning from the outside, but quite disappointing inside. We then started walking around the non-touristy parts, and got lost in the heat of the day. I only remember snap shots of those few hours because I was so dehydrated and heat-crazy. Eventually, we stopped at what looked like a nice café where we could sit down and regain our senses, but after having bought some ice creams, it turned out that was actually an extortionate place where you were charged for breathing. Ok, maybe not, but you had to pay if you wanted to sit down, so we ended up having to stand at the bar. Not great when all we wanted to do was sit down and chill for a bit, but at least we had ice cream :)

We were still extremely hot as we walked through the small streets to San Lorenzo, a nice church, where we saw some nice pieces of art in the museum as well. Afterwards, we walked through the market, but were too hot and bothered to really look properly at anything, and we eventually got back to the bus station, where we sat in the shade as we waited for our bus to come. I slept all of the way back to the camp site, where we had left the girls in the swimming pool. We met up with them and then had a very nice meal (PIZZA :D) at the restaurant, overlooking all of the hills as the sun set...

Thurs 30/07/09

We left Florence and drove to a town on the coast, just outside Pisa. When we got there, we had to put on these yellow wristbands to show we were part of the campsite, or we'd get kicked out. I really really hated that wristband. It just felt completely wrong, and no one else seemed to understand my hatred of it. But I was forced to wear it, and despite my efforts to get it off, I knew I would have to keep it on for the two nights we were staying there. All afternoon, we played Rolit, a french game that is too difficult for me to explain here, but is very addictive. The adults went for a bike ride, and whilst they were gone, us kids turned the van into a posh restaurant: Dora and I were the waitresses, and Becca was the chef. We cleaned the inside of the van, set up a candlelit dining area (using the citronella candles), made posh menus and made a sign saying 'Chez Oz' (Oz is the name of our van), which we stuck to a tree, and I think we forgot to take down when we left :P Anyway, I had lots of fun doing that, but I think Dora and Becca thought I was a bit crazy...

Fri 31/07/09

I actually stopped writing my diary at this point, so now it is up to my brain to remember what we did.

As we were so close, we decided to go into Pisa. We didn't spend much time looking at the tower. We didn't do much. End of day.

Sat 01/08/09

It was time to leave Italy. As soon as we left the campsite, I cut off my wristband. I was free! We had a long drive through Italy, Switzerland and France, which was made longer by the traffic getting through toll booths in Italy and some horrendous traffic in Switzerland. However, we eventually arrived three hours later than planned at our French friends' house in Metz. We ate tea with them, although I have no idea what it was now- I was so tired because it was late and my memory fails. We also met their two new kittens, who's names I have also forgotten, and who were only a couple of months old. So cute!

Sun 02/08/09

We spent the day with our friends- Nathalie, Alain, Claire, Anne and Pierre. We went bowling at the alley, and then went to the local bowles (although it's not called bowles, it's Petung or something that I have completely forgotten) where we split into teams and had a tournament in front of some very experienced French bowles players, who called us English people 'roast beefs', cos apparently that's what we eat all the time. We had a lovely pizza meal in the evening, before going to bed. The adults slept in a room inside the house, so it was only us kids in the van, which was quite fun!

Mon 03/08/09

It was our final day of holiday, and the majority of it was spent on the road. We left Metz quite early and drove back up through Belgium, Luxembourg and France. We spent a few hours at the Cité Europe, where I bought Harry Potter 7 in French, before taking the channel tunnel back to England and driving back up to Charlotte's house.

I had a really lovely holiday, and was so happy to see such amazing places such as Venice. I love camping, and wish I were out there doing it right now.

DONE. :)