I wish I had a witty title but I don't

East Coast Railway, you're killing me here.

But we'll get to that in a bit. I can't even remember what happened since the last post, since I can't remember when I did it and I can't be bothered to look it up, so I'm just going to talk about everything and anything that has happened recently.



First, I am now a regular on Wednesday night club jaunts. I am also banned from taking pictures on these jaunts, because I am a pro at taking terrible pictures of everyone. The usual plan is to go from a bar called Nag's Head (they have a student night deal) to Flare's (the cheesiest, most 80s-90s club in the history of cheesy 80s-90s clubs, but that's what makes it fun) to either Ziggy's (the seediest club ever) or Willow's (the other seediest club ever). There is a reason for this, and it mostly has to do with student night deals.

Nag's, for example, has a "Trebles for Singles" deal. A treble-shot of whatever in a cocktail for the same price of a single-shot. It is pretty sweet, even though it usually requires me drinking things I don't particularly like in order for everyone to get in on the deal (it only counts for drinks of one type, so if one is buying multiple drinks, everyone gets the same thing. Their screwdrivers are horrendous).

Flare's is the best club I have ever been to, because it is so cheesy. They play awesome 80s-90s music and hand out things like giant glasses. It is pretty sweet. And the bouncer knows who I am, because I am apparently the only Californian who ever goes there. He knows my ID.

Ziggy's I am not a fan of, because every time I've been there something terrible has happened. It is also usually very crowded and the toilet lines are long and the bouncers are mean, but it's kind of one of those places you have to go because it's so awful. It's an experience!

I like Willow's, even if it is also kind of crap. Mainly because they hand out free prawn chips, which are amazing when it's 2am. For some reason, this week I got two hand stamps. Maybe they are also fans of Americans? Willow's is also where I gave a (possible) Welshman a peck on the cheek.

There are a handful of other clubs I have been to, but none of them are all that great.

I just realised it's Week 9, which is scary. I have a paper due in 8 days, and I haven't done any research for it. Luckily, it's just a revision. Unluckily, I still have to do that cursed research.

My English class is going well enough. I kinda sorta made some passing acquaintances. One of them actually talked to me outside of seminar, probably because I looked very lonely standing outside the lecture hall without my usual pair of American friends. And the cute boy told me he likes how I analyse poetry, which I think might be a pickup line for English majors. Unfortunately, I sort of just smiled awkwardly and laughed to myself instead of coming up with a witty retort (or even a reply), which just goes to show I am (still) completely stupid at social situations.

Speaking of men, I received a massive group hug from a bunch of strangely dressed men who were running and screaming down the hallway while I was trying to buy a soda from the vending machine. It was the highlight of my day, because I had absolutely no idea what was happening. One guy was just like "Can I hug you?" and I said "Sure?" and suddenly GROUP HUG. It was crazy. I think it had something to do with a big performance going on this weekend, but then again, this is a university. Nonsense things happen all the time.

I received confirmation that I get to stay in the halls during Easter Holiday, which is wonderful. I wasn't sure until just a few days ago. I suspected I could, but at least there are no more questions. I might have to fend for myself food-wise, but I feel I can handle that. There will be a lot of microwaving going on.

Speaking of Easter Holidays, I have almost finished my travel plans! I ran into some trouble due to procrastination -- the absurdly cheap prices I was so excited about were pretty much all gone -- but I still managed to find something cheap.

Part I of Easter is, of course the Edinburgh trip. Heather leaves quite early on the 25th of March, and I head back down to York for a night. I still don't have my tickets for that train ride, mainly because the cheap site refuses to accept my (American) credit card. I will have to buy slightly more expensive tickets (£17 vs. £25). I am not happy about this, but there's nothing I can do.

Then, on the 26th, I'm off to Berlin for four days. I don't have my train tickets to the airport for that yet, either, because I'm still trying to get the best deal out of those jerks. My flight is inconveniently timed for the trains -- it's at 9:30am, and the train is about an hour and a half, which means I get to leave York Station at nearly 4am. Of course, no buses from University to the station run that early, so I get to take a (quite expensive) taxi.  Wonderful. Unless I want to take a bus at about 11pm and chill in the station waiting room for five hours, which really doesn't seem optimal.

And even getting to Derby station -- the closest to East Midlands Airport -- is a little dicey for me, because the 4am train from York arrives at 7:40am and the bus or taxi to the airport proper takes roughly half an hour, which is cutting it a little close for me. I don't want to have to navigate an unfamiliar airport and get through security and everything in roughly an hour.

So, the remaining option is to take a 10pm train from York to Derby, which requires me sitting in Sheffield station for five hours in the creepy parts of the night by myself. Also not optimal, but at least I arrive at the airport with plenty of time to catch my plane. I need help figuring out WTF to do in this situation...

But once I'm on the plane, everything becomes stupidly easy. I get to Berlin, I hop on a few metros to get from the airport to my hostel (which sounds adorable), and tour around for four days. That's the nice part. I don't speak any German, but hopefully I can learn enough basic sentences in the next few weeks to find someone who can help me. A lot of Germans can speak English, right?

Then from Berlin it's on to Dublin, to stay in Ireland for a still indeterminate amount of time. The problem with Dublin is that my flight gets in just late enough to miss the train from Dublin to Claremorris. However, I do have family in Dublin. I haven't gotten in touch with them yet (I'm not even really sure how to...) but if they can't take me in for a day (or so, because I would love to tour around Dublin) I am not opposed to staying in a hostel. A cursory look has informed me that hostels in Dublin are actually relatively cheap, and I'll have some Euros after staying in Germany.

Then it's off to the farm in Co. Mayo, which will require either a long train ride, a very long bus ride, or some nice relatives driving me. I don't really care either way, though I would sort of like to avoid the bus if at all possible. I do not like long bus rides very much.

I'm staying for an indeterminate amount of time, though it probably won't be longer than a week and a half because I will have absolutely no clothes. I'm flying Ryanair, which means all I get luggage-wise is my little backpack. I am going to fill that backpack with as many changes of clothes as I can. I'm (probably) not even bringing my laptop with me on this jaunt through Europe, because the Berlin hostel has free computer access it will be too heavy and take up necessary clothing space. So I will probably have 3-4 changes of clothes for two weeks. I will be very stinky. At least I can do laundry in Ireland!

Flying home will be stupidly easy, because flights from Knock Airport (the closest to the farm) and Leeds (the closest to Uni) are somewhere between £7-10. As long as I have a ride to Knock, I will be more than fine. And trains between Leeds and York are frequent, so I should be able to get home okay.

After this jaunt through Europe, I will be incredibly broke and will still have 1-2 weeks of Easter Holiday left to do all of my reading for next term. My Summer Term is probably going to be pretty intense, because I'm taking two difficult, work-heavy classes (even if my actual class hours are low). Of course, I won't know the difficulty until I get there, but my supervisor seemed a little worried that I won't be able to handle the amount of work.

Oh, I almost forgot. I sort of mentioned it in passing, but East Coast Railway is killing me. They're the ones with the cheapest tickets home from Edinburgh, but they refuse to accept my US billing address. My credit card has worked for every single other site I've used it for, including Ryanair and CrossCountry trains. If I can't get home from Edinburgh, the rest of my trip might as well be a wash. I even looked for flights from Edinburgh to anywhere in England and they are either prohibitively expensive or do not exist.

I hate you, East Coast Rails. I hate you so much.