Spring break this way comes

While I am procrastinating on a paper I figured I would fill you all in on the upcoming spring break. It is twice as long as Colgate's break, and once we return there are three weeks left of classes and then finals. It will definitely be hard to get (back) into the swing of things once break is over.

For the first few days of break, we are taking a study group trip to York, London and Oxford. We leave Friday to take the long train ride to York, where we will stay until Sunday night. We then take the train down to London, where we will remain until Wednesday morning, with the exception of a day trip on Monday to Oxford. The whole group is taking this trip - all 17 college kids and our professor and possibly some of her family. It will be like band trips, but different. There are significantly less kids on this trip (I have a new found appreciation for Scott for organizing and controlling the kids on the band trips). But, we are all of legal age, which means that there are no curfews and we can drink the night away. I'm not planning on doing that since we have to be up quite early some days to catch trains and go on adventures. But it is certainly a possibility. I've heard that the Geneva group has been banned from a particular hotel in Belgium, not due to any actions by this year's group but because of something that happened a few years ago. That's all I know. It will be interesting to travel in a group, let's leave it at that.

I did find out that we are going to be meeting up with a Colgate professor who is on sabbatical in London. He specializes in Medieval History and will be taking us to see some of the surviving Medieval structures in London. He will also take us to places that used to be Medieval structures and were destroyed and later rebuilt. Funny thing is, though, all of the structures we will be visiting are now pubs. Yep, you read correctly: Colgate-sponsored pub crawl. Apparently we are going out to have a huge lunch before hand so we aren't drinking on an empty stomach. Some of the kids on our group really don't like beer, so if they insist on drinking vodka at all the pubs they might get left behind pretty early on. I'm going to try and bring a camera with me, so check for pictures of that adventure at some point.

After we are done with group travel people are heading off to all different parts of Europe. Some of our group is going to Barcelona, others to Southern France and Italy. I am going to stay in London until the end of the week. I'll hopefully be able to visit the free museums and get to walk around and explore. Anyway, after London I'm heading to Heathrow airport to catch a bright-and-early flight to France on Saturday morning. There, I am going to meet up with my family and we are going to drive out to a town right near Mont St. Michel. (It's to the west of the Normandy beaches.) I'm hoping to make it over to the beaches at some point during our week-long stay in France. I have wanted to see the beaches for quite some time and am really looking forward to the opportunity to do so. I'm also excited to see my family!! Unfortunately, my favorite family member will be left at home.

Jessie, I miss you. But, Mom, Dad, and Julie are flying over, and it will be a lot of fun to see them. (See that, Julie, I said I was looking forward to seeing you!) Jeff has to stay at home and play baseball. So good luck with that and I hope you guys win some games. I'm very, very excited to see them. I'm going to make sure we take a Colgate picture in front of Mont St. Michel, and that way both my parents can be in my facebook picture. Not sure what the internet situation is going to be over break, but if the opportunity presents itself I will definitely post an update!