Adventures in England: More Pictures of Stratford

I decided to post some more pictures of Stratford, including my school, so everyone could see a little more of the town. :) And let me just say...it's SO nice to be finished with class for awhile! Now if only I could finish those pesky essays! Yesterday, Tooley and I had a very lazy day. We slept in, ran some errands, and helped Junko decorate the mini Christmas tree. It was fun! Junko is too cute. We tried to teach her some American slang, so we got her to say "Holla!" Unfortunately, the double L sound is a little hard for Japanese people to make, so it ended up sounding like "Horro!" But she got the gist of it, I think. :) It was nice of Junko to get a tree for us, because she's Buddhist (most Japanese people are) and doesn't really celebrate Christmas. Tools and I tried to get her to sing some Christmas carols, but she only knew part of Jingle Bells. :) We're going to have a little tea party sometime soon, and Junko is going to leave Japanese treats out for us. Last night, Tooley made taco soup, and it was delish! That Tools is becoming quite the little chef. Today I woke up and went to the Post Office to pick up my package from my parents...hooray! It was wonderful! They sent me a baby blue fleece pullover, Downy Wrinkle Releaser (oh, how I've missed it!), my body wash, some reindeer socks (thanks, mom and dad), and my favorite...People and US Weekly magazines! Those magazines are totally my guilty pleasure...I LOVE them! One thing I've recently begun to enjoy about them since I've been in England is the advertisements! It's really nice to see American products advertised...makes me miss home. :) Isn't that weird? When I received my package, I saw that the lovely Customs inspectors had already opened it for me, and had even unwrapped the fleece pullover that had been wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. Maybe they thought the fleece was really a bomb? Who knows? I have to admit, Customs serves a good purpose, but they can kind of be a pain. When you ship something overseas, you have to fill out a Customs form saying what's in the package. People can see what's in the package before they even open it...kinda defeats the purpose! After I picked up my package, I mailed some Christmas cards and stopped by Costa to get some coffee and read some of my magazine. I ran a few more errands, then headed back to the house, and that's where I am now! Tooley has to work til 10 tonight, so I may do a little school work. It's hard to concentrate knowing that I'm going to be going to EGYPT in one week! Walt told me yesterday that the company we booked the trip through contacted him and said that there had been problems with our accomodations, so they upgraded us to a five-star hotel at no extra cost! Wonderful! We're going to be based in Luxor, but travel to Cairo for a few days, where we'll stay in Rachel McDonald's flat, which was very generous of her to let us do! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day, and good luck to everyone at State who is taking exams this week!