Breaking the Silence

Ok, ok I know, I've been a bad blogger and have left you all hanging for over a week now. But due to the aforementioned puppy like boyfriend I have had limited time on the laptop and have instead been dragged around campus to parts of it I've never seen before and up hills and over fields etc. All of which makes for some good blogging material! Now I realise I have a lot to catch up on and I don't want to swarm you, so I'll give last weeks adventures to you in bite sized snippets, starting with the first weekend...

Nearly 2 weeks ago I was sitting here, pretty much in the same position on my bed, anxiously watching the clock every second until it would reach 10.45 - Nicks e.t.a on a megabus from Boston. It did finally arrive and despite him being a walking zombie due to his 24 hour journey it was amazing to see him nonetheless! So the week of adventures began starting with a tour around campus on the Friday. This is a picture of me at the top of Horse Barn Hill which overlooks the campus and the countryside surrounding us. A whole-lot-a-nothing except trees! And I thought my all girls Catholic Boarding School in the middle of Dorset was rural.. pfft!

On Saturday we went to the Mall. Yes I know I only went the week before but you'll be very proud to know that I didn't spend any of my money... I just helped Nick spend all of his which is even more fun!

On Sunday we caught a lift with Emily and her parents (thank you Ian and Kim!!!) to Newport in Rhode Island; 'The City by the Sea', 'The Queen of Summer Resorts', 'America's Society Capital'... you get the picture. It was beautiful. The week before had been slightly chilly - I'd even had the opportunity to wear my new winter coat -  but luckily the sun came out for a final burst and it was sweltering. Probably close to 30 degrees I'd say. In fact it was so nice and sunny, that I got a ridiculous tan line on my chest from where my necklace had been! We didn't walk around the town of Newport but instead parked at the beach down the road and proceeded along the beautiful, and famous, cliff path which runs behind many of the mansions.

While it was a very gorgeous day and the walk was absolutely beautiful, as expected, it didn't go quite to plan: To put it briefly we had all gone out to some parties the night before and so I was feeling a little worse for wear that morning and hadn't really eaten that much for breakfast. We then followed the cliff walk in the blazing midday sun for about two hours hoping that it would eventually lead back to Newport where we could get some lunch (because I was of course starving by this point). But no, Newport was in fact several miles inland in the opposite direction. Of course neither Nick nor I realised this until about 2 hours into our walk and so then had to walk back in the direction we had come from. This time however we walked back along Bellvue Avenue which was the main road for all the mansions and they really were mind blowing. Newport was the town in which America's rich and famous built their Summer houses to enjoy when the southern states got too hot. Google some images, they're amazing!

My and Nick's track record of getting lost... actually no Nick's track record of getting lost is phenomenal so it wasn't really new for us at all, despite his proud reminders of being a cub scout, wolf pack leader or something - personally I'm not buying it! While the lack of a map, I have to admit was not a new folly, the lack of food was, and definitely something I don't recommend!