WARNING: This entry is mostly pictures

That's my plate in the bottom right corner. I CLEANED
that thing.  

Thanksgiving in England is very interesting. Quite a few people will ask what it celebrates. Here's a tip, when in England, play up the survival/feast aspect and not the "You see, the pilgrims were being persecuted in England..." part. Not really a dinner topic of choice here. I was very THANKFUL (haha, see what I did there?) that I got to celebrate the holiday right, which of course includes tons of food. Andrea, who is from Texas and conveniently lives across the hall, has some other friends in the area from America, who were kind enough to include me in their holiday invitation. Dinner was phenomenal. We ate, drank, and were merry. I contributed the mashed potatoes for the meal. I tried to make them like Mom does, but a lack of sour cream led to some MacGyvering. Luckily, Richard Dean Anderson never lets us down, and they came out really well. Enjoy some pictures of our meal and get hungry!


Other than Thanksgiving, the last couple weeks have been pretty slow. I've been working on another paper, which is unfortunately far less interesting than my first. I also have to put together a poster presentation, and two power points before the term ends in two weeks. Weeeeeeee! At least the weather has been helping me focus by keeping me inside. Apparently we had the biggest storm for this area in the last eighty years. I'm not sure I believe that, but it was more rain than I've certainly ever seen. The aftermath however, outside of the flooding, was some beautiful scenery.

A little bit of flood damage.

And some beautiful aftermath. 

Outside the library.

St. Mary's after the storm. 

I like this one because there's a bobby!

Rainy streets in town. 

Out by the River Wear.

 I love this picture of Belinda!!!

Unfortunately with the rain comes ice, and today the city was under a sheet of it. Not nice ice either, but black ice. I almost fell at least five times and had to play soccer on a frozen field in shorts. Needless to say I could not feel my legs this afternoon. I don't think it broke 35 degrees F all day. Don't get me wrong, it is absolutely beautiful, but I don't want to have to worry about cracking my head on the pavement every time I step outside. 

Lastly, I found this outside of a place called Stephanie's Flowers. I wish I lived here simply so I could justify buying it.