Christmas Break- Finally

The past few days I finally made a few concrete steps into solidifying just what I am doing over Christmas break.

1- I found a group of 4 people to travel with, for a least a week
2- We (using my Twins credit card) booked a hotel for 4 nights in Chamonix, France
3- We also mapped out just how we are going to get to Chamonix
4- Scott booked a hotel in London for New Year's Eve and New Year's
5- I have a general timeline of where I'll be

Needless to say, I'm pleased. I did have a potentially near death experience with the use of my credit card though. I've had a real credit card for about, say 2 months now, and I'm sort of an idiot about how to use it. So when they say I have a credit limit of $500, I didn't know that $500 didn't regenerate every time I paid it off. And I do pay it off completely every month (don't worry parents, I'm not in debt). Needless to say, after dropping $300 or whatever on this hotel, I checked my accounts, and had a quick panic attack when I saw I had only $83 left on credit. So, a quick toll free call later with a barely understandable Indian woman, and I got my credit line extended to $1,000. Situation defused. Booyah.

Anyways, so I am going to fulfill a lifelong dream and ski in Chamonix. The hotel we got comes down to about $20 a night for the four of us, and it's 20 meters away from the cable car up Mont Blanc (the highest peak in Europe). Ridiculous. Needless to say, I'm pumped. We're going to ship out on Thursday, Dec. 14, take a plane from East Midlands to Geneva, than take a train from Geneva to Chamonix. I can't wait. I've wanted to ski in the Alps for so long, and especially Chamonix. I used to get Ski magazine, and they once had this article about skiing in Chamonix, and ever since I read it, I've wanted to go there. It'll be lame to have to rent skis and stuff, but I'll swallow my pride. Man it's going to be intense. It looks like I'm going to be with Mary, Emily, and Kevin, which will be cool. I'm looking forward to it, if I haven't mentioned that yet. Looking forward in earnest. I am going to ski the highest mountain in Europe. Deal with it. Anyways, after the 4 days in Chamonix, we're going to possibly meet up with other Luther folks in Prague for a couple days (rumor has it it's the place to go in Europe now). I'll be returning to London with Emily probably on the 22nd, and will most likely spend Christmas with her and one of her friends before catching my mom in London on the 26th. Check out this sweet and ridiculously low priced hotel.


After my mom and I run around Edinburgh for a couple days, we're going to swing by Nottingham, where we will perhaps take in a Nottingham Forest match with Scott. Scott and I are spending New Year's Eve in London, and will probably jet over to Dublin after a couple days to achieve the long sought after goal of reaching the Guinness Brewery. You have no idea how good it feels to have an idea of how that huge 3 week chunk of time is going to go. I hate just having nothing planned. I have a pretty intense 2 months of traveling coming up, starting with our weekend trip to Bath in the morning. The next weekend of course is our privately funded guys trip to London, featuring Wicked, Monty Python's Spamalot, and our own holy quest for the lone Taco Bell in England. And of course, who can forget the upcoming journey to reunite with my Luther brethren in what promises to be a very intense few days in Vienna? I certainly can't.

In Nottingham news, I turned in my first major assignment/essay today for American History. It was good to get rid of it. On to the next, most likely an invigorating exploration of either the rise of radical Islam or Sufism. Followed by something about Europe. Whatever. On the baseball front, next Monday, the coach of the British national team is going to come to practice and give us some tips. This really impresses me, as this is the man who would theoretically be leading Britain into the Olympics and international competitions and the like. It'll be cool. I went to this band rehearsal the other night, and it actually was very satisfying. The wind orchestra director here knows what he's doing, and we're playing this really crazy 20th century piece for 17 wind instruments. It was a pretty lazy day today overall. I'm trying to learn "Alice in Wonderland" on piano (jazz style), so after a big misunderstanding, I ended up playing that in a practice room this morning instead of my trombone. Turned in the paper, went to class, came back. I expanded my horizons by baking peanut butter cookies from scratch for dinner. Some of them were slightly burnt, but I deemed it a fairly successful first try. I also helped cook dinner. After clean up and all that jazz, a group of us went down to what has been established as "our pub" for a pint and some good conversation. It was good. When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in England, go to the pub. I need to pack. Look for photos from the weekend either Monday or Tuesday. Later.