What do you mean it's week 10 already????

I woke up this morning, went to the gym, had some breakfast, walked to class, sat down in the lecture theatre, got out my pen and notebook, started to write the date and week number on the top of the page... WEEK 10!? Already!? That has gone so ridiculously quick! That means there are only a couple of weeks left of classes! I'm not actually sure if there is 12 or 13 weeks...either way- not long to go!

On one hand I feel excited because I know I get 3 weeks away from classes for Christmas, but on the other hand I feel so sad because a lot of my friends will not be returning after the break! When I think about it I get this little stab of anxiety in my belly- I am going to miss my friends...

So with that mentality- we have been making the most of it!

I will warn you, this post has a lot of random stuff in it- I have been a bit lazy on the updates! So this is what I have been up to in the past week...

Last Monday I went with a group of people to the Lumiere Festival in Durham. The festival is a celebration of light and the advertisements for it on YouTube looked really interesting- plus I had never been to Durham so I was very keen to go!

There was a group of about 8 of us and we all caught a taxi to Durham. When we got there, we were a bit early for the festival and a few of us (me included) were really hungry. So we went to a Thai restaurant to pass the time and fill our tummies! They had these really cool green teas on the menu- each one had a different type of flower in it which opened up and expanded as you drank the tea. I wish my green tea was like this everyday!

After eating and walking around Durham for a little while, we made our way into the festival. Durham is so pretty- but I have to admit it was hard to see a lot of it because the streets were absolutely packed with festival-goers! 

I can't wait to go back to Durham for a day trip! It looked like such a cute little town,
even at night!

The Lumiere Festival was really cool- I enjoyed seeing it. The main attraction was a light installation that was projected onto the town cathedral. It was really impressive...

The streets of Durham were also lit up- this was my favourite alley way because I thought the lanterns were so pretty...

...But when we looked closer it turned out that the lanterns were made from rubbish bags!
It was an environmentally-concsious piece!

This was one was one of the more interesting installations- it must have taken sooooo long to set up! The little figures were made to look as if they were crawling all over the building and dancing on the top- it made me laugh!

But this was my FAVOURITE light piece from the night- It is hard to tell from the photo,
but this classic red phone box was full of fish!!! 

Such a strange a wonderful idea- I stared at it for as long as I could! I thought it was so funny that the
fish swimming around in there were so oblivious to the crowd taking photos around them...

This was another cool one- for areas in the world where people cannot even afford light, a guy invented
a way of making light in coke bottles by mixing water and bleach... some people are so smart! 

You could hear this guy from miles away- stamping his feet and blowing his trunk the whole night!
He looked so realistic, and when you walked under the bridge and looked back, you could see him from behind as well!

The festival was really cool. Some of the installations were so clever and I liked how a lot of them had a really eerie feel...

The idea behind the festival was to create light during a time of year in which many people struggle, so I thought that was a lovely sentiment...

Missing my gorgeous friends from home xxxx

As much as I will miss all my amazing new mates, I do miss the ones back home, too! I have had such heightened emotions lately- anxiety about missing my new friends, excitement about seeing my old ones again soon! I'm feeling quite torn to be honest- but it is something that everyone has to deal with... I know I have made some life long friends here and it is awesome to have so many of them sprinkled around the world! Because you know what that means? PRESENTS IN THE MAIL!!!!....

My best friends from home sent me this Christmas jumper and some
cute new gloves! Bless them! (please excuse the ridiculous photo of me- it is a
silly one I sent to them when I received the present!)

After a few late nights in the library as well as a few social-life sacrifices, I finished my biggest assignment of the semester- my Shakespeare essay. Would I be a complete nerd if I said I actually enjoyed writing it? Hopefully that means I will get a good grade back?!

I am pretty proud of myself for staying on top of all my uni work while being here- it is hard with so much going on! But I have got a few grades back and so far I have done really well!

Oh...and something else happened last week...no big deal or anything...but....

IT SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was sitting in the library cafe when Beth called me- she said 'Look out the window!' Expecting to see her out there waving, I looked outside to find snow falling instead!!!!

I was so excited that I ran outside to stand in it, looked up into the sky and got some snow right in my eye! It hurt! My German friends could not stop laughing at my excitement (and my pain after I got snow in my eyeball!) 

Look- snow in Rose's hair!!!!

Look how excited we are!

Friday night was Matt's 20th Birthday! Beth and I spent all day making a cake out of his favourite American candies- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! The cake was chocolate, but the icing was peanut butter, cream cheese, butter and icing sugar and it was soooooooo good! We had a party for him that night in our kitchen and it was really fun- I don't have any photos from the night yet but I will put them in my next post!

THE CAKE!

I also went to Newcastle a couple of times in the past week. The first time was on Wednesday with Sascha on the serious business of buying him a new winter jacket. We were very serious shoppers that day, but you will be pleased to know we were successful in our mission!

The Christmas markets were on too! So many nice smells coming from the stalls...

Sascha's new jacket! Very Stylish!

The second time I went to Newcastle was last night- a group of us went for a nice family dinner at Beth and I's usual favourite restaurant. The food was delicious, the wine was awesome, the company was epic- such a good night! I felt sorry for our waiter, though- so many different accents to deal with! We had 2 Australians, 2 Germans, 1 Spanish, 1 Argentinian and 1 American...such a multicultural little group! I think the waiter struggled with switching between all of us!

My friends under the Newcastle Christmas lights- Matt, Ruben,
Theresa, Beth, Rose and Sascha...I adore them!