So I blogged earlier (on Tuesday) to say that Melisa & I were going out. But what we meant was that we were leaving Bangor. I've spent the past two days cleaning and packing. It was really exciting, but also sad.
Melisa and I had dinner together, then hung out until our train left. Kat and Lauren hung out too, and helped us carry our stuff to the train station. The train ride was kind of long, but it was easy. Melisa and I have a good time late at night. From Manchester Picadilly, we took a long bus ride to Manchester airport. It was sketchy, but totally hilarious. We're a little bit loud at 12:30 in the morning...we got a few funny looks.
Getting to the airport was easy, but tiring. By the check-in desks, there were literally no chairs, so we sat on the ground all night. There was a 24-hour convenience store that we took turns going to. I got a sandwich, a candy bar, and a soda--a meal. However, the machine would not process my credit card. It didn't "deny" it, but it would say "processing" and then freeze. I tried twice, then I stepped aside because a line had appeared behind me. I let about 10 people go, and then tried the third time. It was definitely the machine, and not my card, and the cashier definitely felt bad for me. I offered to use my other card, my debit card, but he just gave me the meal for free :) I get really lucky--strangers are nice to me.
We had quite a few hours until we could check in and go. We just hung out on the floor and tried to stay awake. We wandered around, and played with the pay phones. There were some girls that boarded a plane at 4 am to Alicante, Spain...and they were wearing neon colored tutus with matching leg-warmers and heels. What?! I was trying to figure out whether they were coming from somewhere where they had been wearing that, or going somewhere that required that attire. It was strange.
At around 6:30/7, we were able to check-in for our flight and go through security. Then we hung out on the other side, and filled out forms for customs. We had to go through extra security before boarding the plane--thanks American Airlines. I got patted down and thoroughly searched. Not exciting, but the lady was very nice, and she tried not to disturb everything in my bag while she searched.
The flight was a lovely 8 hours, after the 8 hours in the airport. We were able to watch "The Blind Side" but I opted to attempt to nap during that. They gave us some crackers and soda, then a hot lunch (beef stroganoff, which wasn't very good), and then another snack (ham sandwich, candy, etc). It was nice, and I got around 4-5 hours of sleep. It took us forever to get through immigration--we took turns being questioned about where we had been, and why, etc. Then we had to wait 30 minutes for our luggage...lame. Customs was a joke--I handed them my piece of paper and they waved me through.
My family was waiting there, and I started crying when I saw them. I was excited, but tired, and I missed them. We drove to Panera, where we ate lunch :) I have missed Panera! I love soup :) Then we drove to Madison, where we dropped Melisa off with her family, and my parents took me to my car.
I drove from Madison back to Ripon, where I had plans to meet Leslie and Melissa at Christiano's. Melissa had no idea that I was coming :) I asked Leslie to make dinner plans with her so that I could surprise her. I was supposed to meet them in the parking lot, but my GPS didn't know where Christiano's was, so I had to detour toward Ripon first. So, I ended up meeting them inside. They sat at a booth, with Leslie facing me and Melisa facing away. I slid into the booth next to Liss (crying, of course). She was shocked, but very happy to see me. We had a good dinner--mmm chicken alfredo :)
Then we hid at Cady's apartment for about an hour. I called a "candlelight" for my sorority. All the girls got together at 9 pm, but only Leslie, Lissa, Cady, and I knew why. The other girls had no idea what was going on, and were SHOCKED when I walked in. And then they all freaked out. It was amazing :)
Since then, I've just been hanging out in Ripon. I can't imagine that I will have anything else to blog about, but I'm going to miss blogging. So maybe I'll blog every so often about my summer adventures. I don't really have anything planned, but I'm still beyond excited!! Oh, if interested, check out Facebook for all of my lovely pictures. I can't wait to print some and hang them up!
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