Harry Potter Castle!

Hello again! 

Last weekend we went to go see the Alnwick Castle, one of the castles that Harry Potter got filmed at! It was gorgeous. Extremely big and quite lovely. I absolutely love Harry Potter, so this was really exciting for me :) I'm kind of a nerd in that way. There is just something so creative and imaginary about the books, I just love it.
There is a family that actually lives there between October and March, which I find very strange, because the rest of the months are just for tourists who walked around their house, while they go live somewhere else!

I think that only the first and second movies were filmed at this castle. They used I think four castles around the UK to film the movies, but the tour guide basically told us that almost everything in the movies are so computer generated anyways, that not much of the actual castle would even be recognized.
It was still so wonderful see, because of its massive size and beautiful structure. I absolutely love old buildings, just studying their architecture and gorgeous framework throughout the place. The inside was so elegant and majestic as well, I could have looked around for hours. I don't have any pictures of the inside though, since people still live there, it's forbidden to take pictures inside.

I took loads and loads of pictures, but I had to cut some of them out because a lot of them are just redundant anyways!

That is really all for now, I will have another post coming soon to talk about my trip to PARIS I went on last weekend! Which was amazing.

I hope everything is going well back home, and I will see you all soon enough when I cross the pond in December!

Thanks for checking up on me and my blog :-)

HARRY POTTER CASTLE!

This is where they filmed the first flying lessons ! 

Inside the courtyard

This is an amazing tree house that was close to the castle -- i want to live here someday! 

Friends!

Me

Percy Family Castle

:-)

The countryside of the Harry Potter Castle! So beautiful. These pictures don't show how pretty it really was in person

 They had random sheep all around -- that's what the white is!

Inside of the entrance

Me being random. 

Cute little boy acting as a knight. He was so adorable

More Random

Forbidden Forest! This didn't have anything to do with the movie, but it's still pretty sweet.

Flatmates!

Guten Tag!

Everything is going well over here in England! It has been a little rainy lately, which I guess is a good thing, so it gives me an excuse to sit in and do my homework! School has been going pretty well, just this past week we got into the swing of things, and it came on pretty full force! A lot of research and sketching, that is for sure. I really do like all of my courses so far, except my one history class is pretty boring! But the guy is pretty funny, so I don't mind so much. Plus, I can sketch while he talks :-) A lot of my courses deal with learning new design concepts and models, added in with communication and presentation techniques. Which is just lovely!

Also! Before I forget, I figured out how to work my heat last week :-) Which is just, wonderful. I don't have to sleep with a sweatshirt or socks anymore! yay! I'm sure Grandma is glad to hear that!
I had to tell all of my flatmates how to work it as well, so at least I wasn't the only one who didn't understand it right away! You have to turn on a switch every time you use an outlet, but this switch was located in a different part of the room, so I just thought it was broken. lol.

Speaking of, all of my flatmates (roommates) are very very nice! I'm so lucky to have gotten such a great group of people. We can all relate so well, because this is a new experience for everyone, where we don't know anyone! They all finally got here and moved in sometime last week. They consist of a great American girl from Maryland, a girl from Malaysia, a sweet little girl from Australia, and a guy from Germany. The guy's girlfriend, and a couple of other friends are always around, which is kind of nice because there is always someone to talk to! Which is perfect if I want to push my homework off for a couple more hours. :-)
We cook together a lot, and have been having big meals lately, which has been fabulous! My australian flatmate's parents own a restaurant and serve chinese food there, so she likes to share some of her cultural food and cooking techniques with us.

I feel as though I'm definitely getting a cultural experience living with people from around the world. I really enjoy learning about how different their lives are from ours, and understanding a little bit about their backgrounds and upbringing. It's also very interesting to experience how others view Americans and relating it back to my own life and beliefs. 

I also went to a Newcastle United football (soccer) game last week Sunday! Maybe it's just because I like sports, but I thought it was very fun and a great experience. It was actually a lot more exciting and intense than I thought it would be. It was really fascinating seeing it live versus on the Tele, especially with the rowdy crowd all around us! We did lose though 1-2, which is a bummer, but it was still a very good game, especially the second half. We went out later to some pubs with my new British friend to meet up with some of her friends. :-)

I hope everything is going well back at home! 

Thanks for checking up on me and my blog!  :-)

Me and Hanna, a very wonderful German friend :-)

They are such great friends to me! We have been going to a lot of places together

We all went to the City Centre mall the other weekend -- the biggest mall in Europe! or so they tell me

At the football game with Alex (Britian) and Jennyann (Sweden)!

Newcastle United Stadium!

It wasn't a big game, but it was still packed. the empty sections on top are set up that way on purpose.. to separate the home and away fans! I guess they weren't kidding when they say it gets rowdy.

We had pretty good seats!

Some Friends!

Some more friends! -- Both of them are from America lol

I finally had my first fish and chips! And yes, they were very good

These are not my roommates, but some of us had a family meal together :-)

Karaoke night!

turned into dance party night

Friends  :-)

John Smith's Beer. One of my favorites here! Dear Big Brother Brent, if you could please learn how to make this kind for me that would be great :-)

I made friends!

Hey everyone!

It has been a little bit since my last message, and these pictures are actually from around Newcastle last week as well! But, at least I'm finally getting them on here!

I still think Newcastle is very pretty. A lot of walking around though! I don't mind so much, because I'm so busy taking it all in, it doesn't bother me. There are so many things to look at, besides credit card and insurance companies like in Columbus! The weather here is also very lovely! I can wear a sweatshirt / jacket and a pair of jeans and feel very comfortable all day. It's in the sixties, ( I mean, like 18, 19 degrees! They go by C here, it confuses me a lot) always cloudy, sunny, with a random five minute shower some days. It's also windy..  I know I have only spent a week in Chicago my whole life, but this weather reminds me of Chicago weather. I could be very wrong about that, and I'm sure Grace would know before I would. I could ask her I guess. 

However, my room is very cold. I have to wear a sweatshirt and socks when I sleep! Sorry Grandma Huwer, I have been wearing socks to bed! I know you told me when I was little, it hurts the circulation in your feet when you get older, but it's so cold. I need to figure out their heating system.

Oh! and I found tumblers (cups) on Friday! At the pound store. They don't have them here for some reason, just mugs. 

I also made friends this week!!! AHHH!!

I was so excited. Everyone here is so nice and friendly, that I didn't feel stupid or creepy just going up to people to talk to them. I met mostly German friends, and they have an Australian roommate, who is also super nice! Sometimes I just ask questions out loud, and there is always someone in a store or on the street that will just turn around and start talking to me, write down directions, or tell me some random story! 

Which reminds me, there are pictures of this random boxer guy that came out of a cafe I was taking a picture of. I'm pretty sure he thought I was taking a picture of him (that I recognized him or something?) because he claimed he was a "famous boxeur" and that this was his "homeland" and that we were "Welcome" there! He came running out of the cafe and made me take photos of him with me and Amanda. It was the weirdest thing! I had no idea what was going on. Luckily, we got away after about 15 minutes of him talking about something I couldn't understand! His name is Terry Ivonher? I don't remember exactly, he has a thick Georgie accent. Up here they call the thick English accents Georgie -- and people usually have a thicker accent the farther up north they are. (Newcastle is pretty north!) Luckily, I can understand almost everyone, with an exception of some words, and then I have to ask them to keep repeating it! It sounds almost like thick mumbling.

Also, as we were walking around, we stumbled across this random field in the middle of the city! They just had cattle chilling out by the roads and city buildings. It was fenced in, but they had a bunch of pathways snaking their way through the field. I kind of like it though, it's like a touch of home :-)
This way I guess I can just go to the field and smell the cattle if I ever get homesick! (Sometimes I actually miss that smell if I'm gone from home for too long)

Again, I need to stop writing so much so people will want to read my blog! 

I still hope everything is going well back home! GO BUCKS!

Thanks for checking up on me and my blog :-)

lol. Random famous boxer guy! (with Amanda)

He started grabbing my face.. I didn't know what was going on

P.S. He made me take these pictures, he even looked at them afterwards to make sure they "looked good"

Some monument. Armstrong. I don't know which one, or what he did, but it's still historic!

Cute garden and monument

Just because

Very Pretty building on the main strip

:)

Just because I like cafes

Bus station!

lol. I took this picture because it told me which way to look, so I didn't get run over (I still can't figure it out)

Very pretty lake (pond) in the middle of the city!

So peaceful (and it smells not gross!) lol sorry grand lake

They have swan, geese, and ducks just floating around everywhere.. and they get super close

Cute little boy feeding the ducks! I thought he was precious

Flower :-)

Random cattle field in the middle of the city!

They are right by the sidewalk, I even pet one :-)

I found out, that they use this to put on the roads in the winter

Hot dogs in a jar! Kind of scared me.. I didn't get them

I really like some of their brand names lol.

SUPER NOODLES!

Jubbly's 

This guy at the mall makes and sells his own whisky -- a lot of it!

He also makes up some of his own liquors / drink mixtures

wine :)

My first beer as an Englander! It's a German beer.. but since I was with the Germans, I felt it was appropriate

FRIENDS! ahh!

German girls (they are my friends now!) hehe

They are all german and all have blonde hair, blue eyes. I thought it was funny.. because I am all German too! (All the german I have met so far have these features! Weird. )