Exams can't dampen this kid's mood!!

Hello All!

In just 22 days time I’m home for an entire month for my holiday break! I am of course more than ecstatic about! But man have these two terms have absolutely flown by. It’s going to be nice to be on holiday without any courses to worry about. I have three upcoming exams (I’m clearly procrastinating at this very moment, but a girl needs a break from Contract law) and the school apparently hates my class as they have scheduled our two hard exams (two term courses) back to back. But I really can’t complain since I only have 3 exams in total, 2 three hour and one just an hour and a half. Better than my undergrad at Queen’s really! These exams are our first ones that actually count toward our overall GPA since the first lot we did in June were ‘pre-lims’ so I’m a tad nervous! Can’t believe I’m almost half way through law school, real life is encroaching! We got to pick our options for next year and after much deliberation trying to sort out which courses I can take and not have to take extra accreditation exams when I get back to Canada I’ve figured out I can actually take Sports Law which I am SUPER pumped about. I’ve pretty much decided that I want to take a stab at becoming a sports agent and clearly that course will help since there’s a module specifically on agents. Other good news is that I’ve managed to convince another person from Brighton to come here!! So excited, provided all the paper work goes through in time another lovely blonde Brightonian will be here come January! So what else has been going on…?

Halloween was a really fun night, but exceptionally disappointing at the same time. The English just do not know how to celebrate it properly! We managed to have a great night despite the lack of outsider participation! We did the usual, costumes, drinking games, followed by dancing and debauchery. We also played flip cup with jello shots which was hilarious, and is probably why the time at the club is mucho blurry. Brett (my sister) and I dressed up as ninjas, all in black with some weapons with great intentions to photo bomb people all night but it just didn’t happen…  

Scoring!!

 My hockey team has had a good start to the season. We moved up to the top league in the country so things are clearly much more challenging but we’ve won two and lost one. Not too shabby!! Got a hat-trick in the first game! Woot woot! It’s going to be a tough season, especially since we play three twenty minute periods and we only have two lines. For a boozy asthmatic it’s so harrrdddd. Oh well, I’ll live.

You know how I whined about the lack of butter popcorn and dill seasoning at the movies, it has not stopped me from getting an unlimited movie pass! It’s awesome. I can see as many movies as I want for 15 pounds a month. And being a student, when I’m not studying for exams, I obviously have many evenings free! Hahaha Only thing that sucks is right now is that none of my house mates or friends at school have one, so I can’t just drag em with me, but a friend on my team does so it’s working out ok! Life would be just dandy if they only had better popcorn, although that might be rough on the waist line, so it’s probably for the best! I also went and saw the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn Part 1, judge away, but I loveeeddd it (of course). I stick by my point that Twilight is like porn for girls, not that women don’t like regular porn, but you know what I mean. It’s superfluous nonsense with plenty of eye candy that requires zero thought. I would never dream of subjecting a guy to it.

Speaking of plenty of eye candy, there are some freaking hotties that go to my gym. One in particular, yummmm (Brett knows who I mean). It’s nice when they’re there and I’m doing cardio as I can just enjoy the view (ya boys, we look too). But I’m sure many of you can relate that when I want to use the free weights it’s so damn intimidating!! It’s a really small gym, so if there’s like 5 guys using the free weights it’s crowded. I long for the days of the Queen’s University gym (not that I went). That’s something I regret, not being more active during my undergrad. I wonder if things would have been different had I not been a bit chubby! Hahaha Oh wellll I had amazing cleavage and I was never insecure. Definitely happier with how I look now though, but I miss those cans.  ;)

Did something else embarrassing today, that I’m so not ashamed of, played my Christmas song play list while I was driving Brett to work and at the gym! Bahahaha loveeeeed it. That shit just puts me in the best mood! I am definitely one of those extremely annoying people who love Christmas carols and can’t get enough of them. And on that note, I can’t wait to see you all during the break! I hope there’s some snow when I get home!! I’m also planning on bringing my hockey equipment home with me since I can’t afford to have an entire month off (the aforementioned 3x 20s…) so if anyone has ice time and wants a skater, let me know. Excited! It’s the most wonderful time of the year… :D

Love you all

Ashley

xoxox

Greece Lightning!!

 Sorry for the delay in a new post, but not much was going on last term that I thought was worthy of informing you of! Since my last post a lot has actually happened, which is unsurprising since it’s been a long time! My third term of Law School wasn’t particularly exciting since we didn’t have any exams but I did have to do an advocacy exercise which was essentially preparing and presenting your client’s case in front of a judge, which was definitely nerve racking and scary. But I got through it and think school is going well! Outside of school I’ve taken trips to Ireland and Greece.

The Blarney Stone - signed by Brett

Brett, Mom and I went to Ireland in August which was definitely a good time! I only went for 3 days but they went for a week and covered almost all of the south end of the country. We did a half day horse ride around the Dingle Peninsula and this was certainly the highlight. We actually got to gallop along a gorgeous beach and then stop and have a pint! We also went out in Dublin and surprise, surprise, the Irish party hard. We went out fairly early (for Brett and I) right after a really posh dinner at a restaurant called Piochet. The meal was delicious and after a couple of bottles of wine, we were pretty buzzed. And by pretty buzzed I mean Brett and I were buzzed and mom was hammered! So we decided to head out to a pub right away since our hotel was a bit of a hike and it seemed like a reasonable progression. I assumed that at 9pm the bars would be pretty dead, but oh my, I was mistaken. Apparently in Dublin on a long weekend, everyone is out and the pubs are PACKED by this time! We went to a pub suggested to us by my friend Alison and it was awesome. Live Irish music and delicious pints. The rest of the night was spent babysitting my drunken mother who ‘hadn’t gone out like this in 25 years’ according to her. It was a freaking blast! I definitely want to go back to Dublin, and since St. Patrick’s day falls on a school break next year I think I’ll try to do it then… I think that would be EPIC!

Laganas, Greece (Turtle Island)

Got back from Ireland and the boy I had been seeing when I was home over the break had started to become distant and then all together stopped talking to me. Took me a while to actually find out what happened, but turns out he moved on with a friend of mine and he didn’t even have the balls to tell me. Thought I at least deserved an explanation, but evidently not! Oh well, shit happens and let’s be honest we all knew I can do better. Shortly after I got cyber-ditched I actually met someone here! We started dating and I finally stamped my British passport… wink wink. 

School Party - Caitlin, Me, Ysamin

I just finished up my 3^rd term of school and on the break between the 3^rd and 4^th terms I decided to go to Greece! There ended up being only three of us going on this week long vacation, but it was AMAZING! I went with my friend Caitlin whom I went to Paris with during my first term break and my new friend Ysamin who is another Canadian in my class that I just got to know recently. Although most Canadians would think of going to Greece for site seeing and historical stuff, but Europeans use Greece like we use Mexico and The Dominican. Sand, sun and BOOZE! We literally got to the hotel and they told us all of the events going on for the week, which were all about drinking and having a good time. It was unreal. I have no idea how my body did it but I drank 6 nights in a row. Got absolutely hammered a couple of times but managed to avoid any serious hangovers! It was amazing. We did a booze cruise, foam party, slutty school girl party, and saw a Brit DJ (Reggie Yates). Best holiday I’ve ever had. Met some wicked boys who go to the University of Bath and they definitely added to the fun. We also did some touristy stuff such as visit shipwreck/smugglers cove, went to see sea turtles and swam in caves, but it was definitely the partying that made it an epic holiday. I had never been to a foam party before and I had a blast dancing and sliding around in that stuff!! I suggest it to everyone, however DO NOT make the mistake we did by going to jump in the ocean after being covered in foam since it forms acid on your skin and burns like a MOFO. We did go to Laganas right at the end of the season and still had a wild time, but I couldn’t imagine how amazing it would have been to be there in July or August (peak season). I should probably try and grow up at some point, but I’m not quite ready!

Sea Turtle!!

That’s all for now! Starting my final term of year one on Monday!! Very exciting. Hope all is well back home!

Ashley

xoxo

Quote of the day - I can't fall asleep to the Lion King music, it's too stimulating - Caitlin  

Home and back again! Plus a random sexy afterthought...

Me, Laura, Nat and Thom at Wonderland

Well hello out there in the internet land! It is amazing how freaking fast time is going right now, and sadly, as my mother says, it’s not going to slow down again… Been back in the UK for 11 days after being home in Ontario for three and a half AMAZING weeks! The trip home started off unreal as I was upgraded to first class and got my own cubby and reclining chair. I can definitely see why people pay for that shit. I got off the flight absolutely hammered. Barely remember going through customs… But thankfully the let me in. I happily got to see almost everyone I wanted to even if it was only a short visit it was still great. Tried to make the most of my time and in doing so I racked up about 3000 kms on the car! Visited people from Waterloo to Ottawa, and it was all well worth the driving. The night Port Dalhousie kicked our collective asses was the first of many messy nights shared with amazing people. Having dinner at Ethel’s Diner and then going to see Tiesto in Waterloo were certainly highlights. Spent my 25^th birthday at Canada’s Wonderland with two of my British friends who came over to visit Canada while I was home! They’re from my hockey team and since it’s near impossible to get decent hockey gear in the UK they had a blast at Pro Hockey Life and bought a bunch of new stuff (brought nearly empty suitcases haha). I also got new skates and gloves for my birthday, they are siiiiick!

Reebok 11Ks and Bauer 4 rolls = LOVE

I spent Canada Day weekend in Ottawa which was unreal and the weather couldn’t have been better. I definitely did enough drinking and partying for a couple of people, but hey, I was on vacation! Then there was of course the boy who made the visit even better, but even more difficult to leave. Isn’t that always the way it goes?! Ugh, you win some, you lose some! But I can’t wait to be home again at Christmas and see you all again. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to catch up, I love and miss you all!

So I’m now in my third term at law school and things are getting real. This term I’m taking Criminal and Contract law as well as a course called Legal Skills and Procedure which is essentially a training course for lawyers where we actually learn what lawyers do! We have to defend a client in a mock trial near the end of the term and it’s very serious. Actually having to stand in front of a “judge” is going to be interesting to say the least. I’ve got some new professors in my tutorials that I really like, very laid back and easy to talk to which makes the learning environment much more relaxed!

Harry Potter fun!

I was planning to try and take this easy party wise since I want to focus on doing really well in school, but that didn’t happen the first week back. I mean, I don’t get tested on two of my subjects until December… So I kinda HAVE to go out! haha So we went out Wednesday for the first mid-week mash-up then Friday night we went and saw the final Harry Potter film which was AWESOME! We were thinking about dressing up, but decided against it since we weren’t going to the mid-night show. Didn’t stop me from dressing up for fun beforehand. 

Then Saturday night we had a ‘birthday’ party for me at our house on the 16^th since my birthday was during the break. My roommate Nicole really wanted an excuse to have a party as she’d be stranded in the tiny town of Bucks for 3 weeks alone so we owed it to her to rock hard. Jello shots, whipped cream and cake! OH MY! So many people came out, it was really nice!  My sister was definitely the ‘pace car’ of the night; a great introduction to the UK for here. She’s fitting in perfectly haha.

What I wore to school the 21st
of freaking July...

That’s about all that’s gone on since I’ve been back. Mom moves home to Canada August 15^th, so there’s lots to be done before she goes. My friend Mandy will be moving in around the time Mom leaves so we’ll have a legit girl’s house! Woo hoo!

Next weekend I’m off to Ireland with my Mom and sister, which we’re all looking forward to, and hopefully we’ll have some good stories and photos to share. Hope everyone back home is staying cool! Having said that I definitely do not have any pity for you since I’m spending my summer in pants and sweaters (trousers and jumpers haha)… Pretty much wear the same clothes all year round here. I’ve worn shorts only twice since I’ve been back. But I really have to no reason to complain as I'm a short flight away from Greece which I'll be visiting on my next break! Bye bye for now!

Quote – “You’re missing the heat wave! Everyone is sweating like a nun in a cucumber patch.” – RhiRhi

This guy def wasn't getting any.

 And here’s an afterthought…  It's not that sexy, but I thought I might catch ya! haha I’m going to take a moment to fill you in on something that just occurred to me. Like most people my age I spend an exorbitant amount of time on the internet. I have Twitter, Facebook, Google+, three email accounts and this blog. Definitely a bit ridiculous but I am far from an excessive user. What I just noticed was how much my internet usage went down when I was at home, and specifically, getting some on a fairly regular basis. Now I know this is no great epiphany as we assume that many people who spend ALL their time online are ugly virgins who can’t get laid, but what about the internet usage of normal people? Haha Silly I know, but I am of the opinion that if you’re in a happy ‘relationship’ where you get to see the person regularly, you’ll probably spend a lot less time online.  Again, not profound, but I mean when I’m sitting around with my family, or friends we all generally have a laptop open in addition to chatting. When I am with a guy, this doesn't really happen… This leads me to ask, what the heck is up with people who appear to be in stable happy relationships but spend a lot of time updating their status to tell the rest of us, just how much they love someone? I mean, tell them not us you weirdo. To me it seems to me if people are happily getting some, the internet no longer owns their life.However there are always exceptions... haha  Anyhooo, just thinking aloud, kind of.

xoxo

Adventure is where your GPS takes you.
(This is an actual road we drove down)

England VS Canada

Since I'm returning to Canada for a visit in a mere two weeks I thought I might share a few of my random culture clash experiences since my relocation to the European side of the pond.

Food/Restaurants/Booze/Fattys

One of the first things that I found odd was that at almost all pubs, which constitute a great number of the places to eat in Buckingham and in most towns, you order food from the bar. When you pick a table you have to remember your table number when ordering or it gets confusing. And they really don't tip at all. Not bartenders or the servers that bring you your food after you've ordered from the bar. All of us Canadians find this quite disconcerting at first! But it is nice to be able to just pay what you see on the menu. However, since they aren't driven by tips, service can be SO SLOW! Especially at clubs when they're busy, ugh unbearable at times. Now we do tip at 'normal' table service restaurants, but they still don't tip as much as we would.

Indian Food

Some of the food experiences have been admittedly disappointing. The only sushi I've had has been pale in comparison to what we have back home, even in Belleville! But that is nothing when compared to how sad I was when I discovered they don't have buttered popcorn at the movies ('cinema where we watch films' haha), or popcorn flavour!! They only have salt or sweet flavour. SWEET?! I mean what the hell is that about. Now I am aware how silly this is, but I love movie popcorn some ridiculous amount, and without butter and flavour, my movie going experience is rather diminished... One thing that has been awesome, has been the Indian food. Apparently England's national dish is curry, so it makes sense. I am IN LOVE with Indian food. It's amazing and made for sharing. Still haven't convinced my friend Caitlin to give it a full try, but my roommate, mom and I are all lovers. 

Booze is super accessible here. It's in all the grocery stores and corner stores. The drinking age is 18, so people do start drinking younger, but that does nothing to curb the binge drinking at all. The government is considering the binge drinking of young people to be some kind of epidemic haha and I can somewhat understand their concern but it's not much worse then what happens in Canada. I would say that they do drink on average more after work etc since 'going to the pub' is a big part of the culture here.

Some lookers at a local bar

I think they may be getting into trouble obesity wise like the US and to a lesser extent Canada. I mean I don't mean to sound rude, but most women over 25 here seem to be overweight. There isn't a lot of obesity, but I think they're getting there! I recently heard on the radio about a study that said the average waist circumference of children has gone up a lot. I can imagine this is putting a massive strain on their health care system...

'Ice' Hockey

Division 1 Champs!

I have finally gotten used to putting 'ice' in front of hockey when explaining to people what I'm getting up to. In my travels with my team I have seen some interesting arenas. I've seen a couple that don't have glass, only netting. In Bristol the rink was made in a converted garage, and we got changed in a bar that overlooked the ice pad. There are a couple of lingo things that we had to get over when I first started playing. They call their equipment their 'kit' and so all your kit goes in the kit bag and you "kit up." Still makes me giggle a bit. They also didn't know what I meant when I said "fanned" on a shot, or said someone has sick hands... That does look funny when written down, but makes perfect sense to me haha. Only me and one other girl on my team shoot left which I find odd., I feel like it has to do with golf, or field hockey... Women's hockey and hockey in general is coming along quite well here. I saw the top two women's teams in all of England play this past weekend and they would probably be a on par with Senior A back home, so not too shabby. My team won playoffs for our league (there's only Premier and Division 1, we won all England Division 1) so we move up to Premier next year and may have to play those teams and we will probably get killed. Oh well! I was pretty happy with the season. I played 14 games and scored 32 goals, so no complaints! 

Fashion/Shopping

There is a decent sized mall about 20 mins from my place which has been awesome. It has a TopShop, H & M and many MANY other stores. Almost all of my wardrobe is now compiled of those two stores though now. Oh, but if you call it a mall, you get funny looks. It's a shopping center. I would love to go shopping in London, and what not, but I just don't have the money as I'm a poor student :( They are a lot more daring with fashion here and I love it! I mean socks with sandal high heels?! Why not. Tons and tons of harem pants, crop tops, over the top jewelry, messy hair... I look forward to coming home and seeing how differently people are dressing. I wish I was more adventurous in my style, maybe one day! 

Education


I have my final exams coming up which is sure to be an adventure. Luckily I only have 3, but they are all 100% finals. Eeeeek. Almost all schooling here, high school and post secondary has 100% finals. Scary stuff. So I won't be doing anything except studying for the next two weeks. Wish me luck, I may need it!

Things I'm looking forward to having at home...

I'm sure you could guess popcorn and sushi, also chicken wings (not a vegetarian anymore obviously), poutine, pitas, Taco Bell, Crystal light, white russians, Caesars, Coors Light, Timmy Ho's, oh and the list goes on... I am aware that these are all food/drink related, but that's really the only things that are missing from my life; other than my friends and family of course! 

See you in 2 weeks Canada!!!! Oh and GO CANUCKS GO!!! Stanley Cup Finals baby!! I'll be up late watching those games FOR SURE :)

Ashley    

Meat, Weddings and Potter! Oh my!

Woohooo my month as a vegan is over! It wasn’t too bad except for eating at restaurants. Basically I ate a lot of fries since we go to pubs a lot and they don’t have salads. Luckily I managed not to put on any weight! And after careful consideration and a lot of cravings I decided to eat meat today! I didn’t start slowly either! Hahaha I had a huge burger for lunch and then Indian food for dinner where I had some of dishes with chicken and lamb. I enjoyed being a vegetarian (veganism is too hard) but ultimately the craving for a burger took over. I’ll probably just keep a normal diet, but not too much meat as my knowledge of how terrible the meat industry is on the environment still matters to me, but if I want to have a burger, I will!

Group out for a friend's Bday in MK

Things are pretty much back to normal at Bucks, just going to classes and playing hockey on the weekends. We had some absolutely gorgeous days here and I even got some tanning in! It was hard to get any work done on those days so we spent them drinking beer on patios like normal uni students. It was awesome. The weekend of the 16-17^th was my friend Caitlin’s birthday so we bought a BBQ for the occasion and had ourselves a legit backyard BBQ followed by a messy night at the local bar. Just a lovely freaking day.

Good Friday was a girl on my hockey team’s 18^th birthday (the drinking age here) and also the 23^rd of another girl.  So we went out to the local gay bar! Not because anyone is gay, but because it was where that’s where they wanted to go! It was my first experience at a gay bar and it was a blast! We just danced and got nice and hammered! The next day my riding lesson was exhausting since I was basically still drunk and it was by far the hottest day we’ve had.

Caitlin and I enjoying the beautiful weather!

The week leading up to the Royal Wedding was a write off, I literally went to like 3 classes all week. Just couldn’t be bothered haha Oh well. Two of my Canadian friends at school actually went down and camped out over night at the Abbey to see the happy couple coming and going. She got some awesome pictures FO SHO. I was content to watch it on TV with the Chapmans who were visiting from Canada; we drank Mimosas and watched it from the comfort of the living room.  Man there were some funny hats! Definitely fun to watch. I can’t imagine how much of a zoo London was.

Nat, Emma (18th Bday girl!) and I post jaeger bombs

Saturday (30^th) I drove the Chapmans to Oxford, home of the University and Christ Church aka where the Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter are filmed! Oxford was extremely busy but it is an awesome city. Such old beautiful buildings and great atmosphere. The dining hall at Christ Church is where the great hall scenes were filmed and we got to go in there, which was so awesome. It is much smaller than it looks in the movies, but recognizable. There were also some staircase scenes filmed there and we saw those stairs too. Very cool.

 Hockey is almost over for the season, just two games and a final tournament left. We’ve played all the teams and beaten them that had any chance of challenging us for league champs so the last two games don’t really matter. Then on the weekend of May 28-29^th the top two teams from our Division (South) and two from the North play off for something… haha Not sure exactly what, but we’re spending the weekend in Sheffield! I am really pleased with the skill of the players over here. It was some decent hockey. During my last game I actually skated so hard I was sick… Yep was epically disgusting. We won 2-1. The division of skills in our league is ridiculous. We had games that close and ones we won 20-0. I can proudly say I scored a goal every game (and 6 in the 20-0 game hahaha). It’s been great.

Harry Potter Dining Hall!!!

That’s about all that’s been going on! Nothing exciting on the boy front to report. Thought I might have had a potential romance but he turned out to be a douche. I had friends make a point to warn me about him and luckily all that happened was we hung out a couple times then I just never heard from him again. This is in all likelihood because I didn’t sleep with him. Haha Sucks though because he had the broody good looks and was just generally sexy. But ohhhh well.

Got my exam timetable and I’m done on June 13^th so I’ll be home for a visit from June 14^th to July 9^th!! Sooooo excited!! Can’t wait to see you all! Hope the weather in Canada is improving! See you in 43 days!






xoxoxo


Ashley 

Good weather, good people, good fun!

Asma, me, Niki and Mandy
on St Patty's Day!

As I anticipated St Patty’s day in England is a non-event, but we definitely did ourselves proud! Unforunately Nicole (my roommate) couldn’t come out because she actually has a full time job and it was a Thursday, but I still had a pre drink and went out in Milton Keynes. Not as messy as previous St Patty’s (started drinking at like 3 instead of 10am…) but lots of fun. There were quite a few people at the pre-drink actually. Had a very strange moment when I walked into my kitchen and saw a guy with my sunflower oil almost to his mouth about to take a swig! Clearly I didn’t know this character and haven’t seen him since but the story has been worth some giggles. After I was good and hammered I had to do the very uncomfortable thing of telling someone I ‘just want to be friends’. That was fun… hahaha This guy had a smoking bod (not that I saw it without clothes) but was anyone of my friends will tell you, was boring as dirt.

In the garden of the Musee Rodin (sculpture)

I just had my first school break (March 18-April 4^th) and took advantage of being a short flight away from France! Originally I was just planning on staying in Buckingham for the break and actually being a nerd and doing school work, but the travel bug bit me on my pale white ass. Caitlin and I were sitting around looking at cheap flights around Europe and then she just says, why don’t we just go to Paris? Two days later we had flights booked! We actually could have taken a train (which my mom took when she went) but at the time flights were cheaper! We got into Paris Monday night (the 28th) and it was too late to do much so we just went and checked out the Eiffel Tower all lit up. Then over the next two days we were very effective tourists, saw 4 museums, Norte Dame (did the nerdy audio tour and loved it!), went up the Arc de Triumph and ate lots of food. We tried to go out on Tuesday night and failed miserably. We kept our beer cold with frozen veggies as we couldn’t find ice anywhere then went to the Moulin Rouge district. This was a mistake. We thought there would be clubs, ummmm nope and people said we looked like hookers since we were wearing skirts! Hilarious? Yes. Inconvenient? Hell yes. Someone finally tells us that there’s a big club called Queen down on the Champs Éylsées. We cabbed there only to find it was dead too! We ended up having a drink in a lounge and were given glow bracelets by some old man who also kissed us on the forehead… We got out of there pretty fast after that hahaha But all and all it was a great trip. I look forward to doing more of the same during the summer and breaks during which I’m not coming back to Canada. When we got back to England on March 31^st and spent the night in London and saw Down with Webster play, and they were amazing of course! And since this was their first concert over here it was in a small venue so we comfortably stood 4 feet from the stage and weren’t crowded! I really wanted to stay and party with them, but everyone else wanted to go clubbing, so unfortunately I was vetoed.

Now I’m back in classes and things are getting back to normal. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the last couple of days which facilitated some mid week day-drinking followed by a night at the campus bar Wednesday (the 6^th). It was an awesome start to the term. Only slight annoyance is the guy from Caitlin’s class who has been asking about me for awhile apparently, was on a mission last night. I literally hid in a bush to get away from him at the end of the night! Hid in a bush! I’m pathetic, but I really didn’t want to deal with rejecting him, so I took the childish route. Which is now fun to laugh about.

View from top of Arc de Triumph

Other than the trip I've had riding lessons every Saturday and they’ve been great! Doing cross-country jumps, going through water and I’m loving it! My hockey team has been killing it our last couple games. I hate winning by such huge goal differences (last two games have been 20-0 and 19-0) but the goal differences will matter at the end of the season and we want to be able to move up to the Premier League. I’ve gotten 16 points in the last two games ahaha ridiculous!

The beautiful weather has gave everyone the BBQing bug so Saturday we’re going to buy one and start grilling at my place since I actually have a back yard! Not exactly sure what I’m going to be able to grill quite yet because I’m vegan right now and all of my favorite veggie burgers over here have eggs in them! So annoying. Looks like I’ll be making some veggie kabobs… yumm. Well I should really stop procrastinating and get to homework.

Hope all is well back home!

XOXO

Ashley Jay

Balls and Boys.

Allo!

George, Me, Caitlin B, Caitlin C:
before the ball

My school holds graduation in February, the reason for which escapes me, and with graduation comes the graduation ball which was on February 26^th. Seeing as we had nothing better to do, and everyone loves an excuse to get dressed up, most of my friends and I decided to attend. First came the dress shopping which turned out to be completely non-stressful for me. We went to Bicester Village which is a designer outlet and I found a dress in the first place I tried any on! It was from Monsoon, and I loooovvveeddd it. My friend Caitlin was a little skeptical since it was white, but I was willing to risk it. So the night of the ball I had everyone to my place for a pre-drink and it was nice to actually get everyone out to my place, which is a real house instead of drinking is res... And everyone looked so great. The ball started at 10:30pm and went till 6am. It was a marathon of drinking, dancing and other things… And miraculously I made it all the way to 6am! Woo! They actually took a “survivor photo” at 5:30 for recognition of the people who stuck it out. I then went promptly home and passed out. My dress amazingly made it through the night without incurring any stains, and the only person who spilled on me was thankfully drinking white wine. The only thing that did not survive the somewhat wild evening was my camera. Luckily the memory card isn’t as susceptible to water damage as the actual camera. Oops.  

So all my girls will be happy to hear that there has FINALLY been activity on the boy front over here!! Starting with the swan ball in fact! This cute British guy and I talked for quite awhile at the ball (which in drunk time was probably like 5 mins hahah) and have been doing some texting ever since, but nothing of note to report as of yet. Later that week (Wed March 2^nd) at the campus bar I got talking to a guy in my program from Bermuda and we actually were talking (well texting) a lot after that night. Something may have happened with him this past Saturday but honestly, I’m not sure. Let’s just say we had a girl’s night and anything after around 12am is very, very fuzzy. He was definitely a gentleman though. He walked me home and made sure I drank water hahaha yeah that night was the messiest yet of my euro-trip. One thing that made me laugh was that he got the impression that I was the “relationship type.” And I just can’t think of anything that I am further from at this point in time. I literally want nothing more than to be single. Is that crazy? There is a lot of European strange out there and I just want to have fun. But at the same time, Bucks is a VERY small school, and I have been behaving myself, somewhat on purpose as I just don’t want to deal with the hassle of hookups. So I can see why he got that impression. I never thought I’d see the day where my studies are actually REALLY important to me and attempting to date someone is such a needless distraction right now. So it’s definitely a catch-22. I even discussed it with ma… hahah I love being able to have real adult conservations with my mom, even though I’m still way immature for my age. But of course, whatever happens, happens. As a result of being torn about not wanting to hook up with classmates, yet wanting to get laid… I’ve toned back the texting until I (or alcohol) decide what I want to do.

I think that about sums up what’s new in my life! Oh ya, one thing that is shockingly lame about this country, apparently, they don’t celebrate St Patty’s day nearly as much as we do. And ya I’m sure you’re thinking what we thought which is, Umm isn’t Northern Ireland actually a part of the UK? And why yes you’d be correct. It doesn’t make any sense! So despite the lameness of their apparent lack of celebrations Nicole and I are going to host a good ol fashion day drinking party for the Canadians and whoever else would like to join. March 17^th also happens to be the last day before we go on break, so the celebrations are going to be doubly great. We’re really looking forward to it!!

That’s all for now!! xoxo

Ashley

Quote of the day – “Fuuuuuuucccckkkk” – Bridget Jones’ Diary

Things are good!

I know I haven't updated in awhile which is because there really isn't all that much to report! I'm just going to school, playing hockey and of course partying on weekends. Basically same as everyone back home but I'm surrounded by people with funny accents. I did go to a couple of events with my Mom called skeptics in the pub. We went to one in London (Feb 4th) and one in Oxford. These are just get togethers in pubs of nerdy ass people talking about critical thinking and blah blah. But we're nerds and we love it. The one in London was a really good time especially since I managed to get pretty hammered. We walk into the room and it was packed so we just asked some random guys if we could sit with them. Turns out one was from Ottawa (!!) and the other from somewhere in the UK. I went to this definitely not expecting to see any hotties, but I thought I was in luck when I saw this rugby-player looking ginger (ya, ya I know). After the speaker was done I actually got a chance to talk to him and I was so let down. He was so awkward and nerdy! haha I still think he was kinda cute but definitely made me miss the arrogance/confidence of hockey players.

Actually gave me a plaque thing....

The following weekend was my friend Chelsea's birthday (Feb 12th) and that was a wicked night. I was late getting to the pre-drink because I had my first hockey game (hatrick and mvp!!) but it turned out to be one of the best nights we've had here yet! We went to the typical Saturday night bar called 13 High St which is the only one with a legit dance floor. After it shut down at 1am (I know, so lame) we all decided it was too early to call it a night and walked to the campus bar which was having a party till 4am. Things are blurry from then on... One thing that sucks about Buckingham is that the cabs stop running at 2am, and I don't live near campus/any of my friends, so thank goodness I have a slightly insomniac mother who doesn't mind picking me up at ridiculous hours. hahah Yeppers she picked my drunk, pizza eating ass up at 5am that night (morning?). Don't worry, I saved her a slice. 

The next day myself, and two of my friends dragged our hungover asses out of bed and went to Bicester Village which is a high end shopping outlet. We were shopping for gowns because we have a ball to go to!! The Swan Ball happens every year at our school and it's an all night party. Luckily I was able to find a gown (shhh it may be from the bridal collection) and I can't wait to wear it! I'm nervous of spilling on my dress, but I'm sure after a few pops I won't be too concerned. They actually serve us breakfast this party goes so long. Ah! Excited. 

Al and Rhi these are for you. ;-)

So that about wraps things up for now. Oh had my second hockey game today and we won 13-0, so nothing exciting to report... Love playing on a real team again, even if we blow people out of the water. 

I'm so glad I've gotten to talk to some of my girls back home on the phone, so good to hear your voices! 

Hope the cold winter back home is treating you all well. I miss me some pond hockey and well, drinking beers watching the Leafs suck and the Canucks dominate. Till next time! 

Ashley <3

Quote of the Day - "Hey hey hey, save your anger for the bedroom where it belongs." - Karen 

Surviving!

My first two weeks at Bucks have been pretty decent. I am finding the learning strategies in Law quite a bit different from say bio and psyc… Shocker there I guess. There’s no straightforward read this and be asked questions on it, it’s much more difficult. My brain is certainly getting a work out! So far I like all my profs except one, and unfortunately he is also my “personal tutor”. He’s this short, bald Irish dude who stares right at you. And I made the mistake of sitting across from him at the tutorial table so for almost the entire hour I could feel him looking at me. Just a bit intimidating, frig! He’s SO intense, like don’t make any noise (rustling papers etc), everyone has to answer his general questions to the group and he was playing with a stress toy the whole time!! Freaked us all out. Having said that, the work load isn’t bad yet, so I’m still finding time to have some fun! I don’t know what it is but I’ve been getting drunk REALLY easy these days. We drank at the campus pub last Wednesday, we just call it OTM (Old Tanlaw Mill) and I got a wee bit out of hand. Got Momma bear to pick me up hahah We live like a 25 min walk from there, and I was definitely too drunk to make it back on my own. Took it easy the next couple nights but then went out again Saturday (the 22^nd). We pre drank at Res (I feel like I’m 19 again hahaha), played some slightly handicapped beer pong (One heavier ball lol) and walked to a pub called 13 High St which closes its doors at 11!! Same pub I couldn’t get into that first week because I was too late. I didn’t think I’d be able to drink enough before getting there since I didn’t want to spend too much money, but alas I did not have any problems lol I was surprised at the size of the place. It just kept going. It’s so funny because Buckingham is like the size of Brighton and has like 5 or more pubs. It’s definitely a part of their culture. In my drunkenness I apparently hit on a lot of guys, no surprise there really and I recall having a great time. I remember talking to this cute French guy for awhile but not sure what happened there… So this night did not have a happy ending unfortunately! I went back to res with a couple of friends since I didn’t have to walk back alone (couldn’t cab either because I spent all my cash and don’t have a proper bank card yet lol) and at about 4am I was awoken by severe pain in my ear. Finally after being in pain for awhile I give in and called Mom (again) since I knew something was seriously wrong. She picked me up around 5am (aren’t moms great!) and took me to the hospital. I didn’t have an infection per se, but my ear was severely inflamed as a result of a cold. So I didn’t get antibiotics, but they did give me some codeine! The thing that really sucked was that I was so out of it (dizzy, nauseated, deaf lol) on Sunday I had to miss my first hockey game. I’m still bummed about it! My team did win which is nice but I was really looking forward to it. And we don’t have another game until like Feb 12^th or something. Succckkssss. It’s now a full week later and my ear still isn’t better. It’s still clogged or something and it’s extremely irritating. I think I’ve had a cold since I got into this country. I blame stress (new place, new school, and family crap)!

Nicole has arrived!! Despite an 8 hour flight delay she landed in Gatwick safely yesterday (Saturday Jan 29th).She was understandably too tired to come out last night, and she missed a humdinger! 11 of us including my mom went bowling in Milton Keynes. It was SO much fun! I am absolutely terrible, but I found the beer definitely helped hahah After bowling we decided to go out in MK and danced the night away. Finally stumbled home after a somewhat stressful cab ride around 3am exhausted and ready for my bed. Woke up this morning pretty sore! Not sure if was the bowling or the dancing, but definitely worth it!! We'll be hitting up those bars again! Hope everyone back home is staying warm, miss you all! xoxo

Ashley

Quote of the Day - He's an explorer, like Magellan. Or Dora.

My social life is finally on the up!

Caitlin, Markus, me, Ndabu,? and Georgeina - Out in Oxford

Orientation was definitely hit and miss. I missed anything going on the first couple nights because no one had cell phones yet, and I’m not living on campus, so I was out of the loop. Friday night I knew where everyone was but couldn’t get in because I had hockey practice and they closed the doors to the pub everyone was at, at 11. 11!! So lame. Finally on Saturday had some fun! Jeff, a fellow Ontarian, was my connection to the party. He lives in res so I met up with him and some boys and went with the other “freshers” to Oxford. We get on the bus and everyone is like “Hey Jeff!!” Apparently a popular guy haha. It was about an hour on the bus and we were all pretty hammered. It was funny trying to watch everyone try the bathroom door unsuccessfully. After that night I can now confidently say I have a good group of people that definitely like to party. We get to Oxford around 10pm, and go right into the bar. I haven’t been at a bar that early in a long time, but since there was such a big group of us (about two coach buses full) it was a good time. It was huge bar, so it didn’t really fill up until much later, and we were definitely way drunk by then. There are definitely some cuties that go to Bucks, but I pretty much behaved myself that night! Insofar as slept in my own bed, alone. Haha It’s a really small school, if I hook up with someone I’ll definitely see them around, so I’m not going to make any rash choices… Funnily enough, there’s this events coordinator named Peter, and he apparently told another girl that “everyone fucks everyone at Bucks”. Not so surprisingly his nick name is Peter-phile. He’s a 40 something dude who plans and attends social events with university students. It’s a bit weird.  But he’s nice enough, although he definitely thinks I hooked up with this Swedish guy Saturday night because we got off the bus together... oops. And for the record, we didn’t. But he is a hottie, not saying I won’t, but I didn’t lol My social life has definitely improved immensely since my last entry when it was just me and Mom… Our house is a bit too far of a walk to the campus which sucks because I’ll be walking home at night a lot, but it’s a very small community. Hopefully it stays that way! I’m hoping to have some parties in the future; I’m suffering some flip cup withdrawal. 

At orientation I also got my class schedule, and classes started Monday (the 17^th). I must say, much less busy then I expected. Max of 3 hours in one day! Love it.  I really do plan on doing well here, so I am going to try and limit my partying to the weekends (shocker there). I must say, it’s funny not being the gun-ho party person for once! I’m also trying to keep the weight off that university round one gave me, so cutting down on the booze and drunk food is key!

This coming Sunday I have my first hockey game with my new team and I’m really excited! After the second practice I’ve realized my team is actually pretty good! Best quality I’ve played in awhile. There were more girls out who weren’t there last time. Pumped to play with them!!

I’m not missing Canada right now considering you have -20 and beyond weather and it was a chilly +6 today hahah love it! Stay warm, miss you all! xo