Newcastle! United!

After finishing out the first week of class, the weekend started off nicely. Kate, Rita, Katie, Kelly, Alex and I went to a football (soccer) game. The local team Newcastle United was playing Bristol City. I knew football games had a different kind of intensity than games at home, not that it means much, I've only been to one real game at home. Our seats weren't great, Row T, but we still had a great view of the stadium. Then from the stadium you can see a lot of the city. Typically you can see the stadium from various parts of the city. Our seats were covered, preventing any crazy downpour like previous Yankee games have resulted in. The football fans are truly unbelievable spirited and insane. Before the game even started, fans were chanting.... Newcastle! United! and a few other ones which won't be mentioned here. Similar to the bleacher creatures, the fans continued the chanting basically for the entire time the clock was running. Bristol fans were dressed in red and sitting to our left. Meanwhile as we were surrounded by Newcastle fans, telling the Bristol fans to "....Get out of our club." Definitely an interesting and memorable experience. Newcastle had some really good plays and shots off the posts. The game finished with a tie, Newcastle 0 Bristol 0.

After the game, and almost witnessing madness ensue, we went to Rita and Katie's flat, ordered in pizza, to plan our trip to Paris and other trips. Yes, this weekend we're going to Paris. On the list of things to do/see the Bastille, Notre Dame, pantheon, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, and more! You'll just have to wait and see where I go. We also planned out trips to Dublin and a two night cruise to Amsterdam, both of which were booked today. Officially going to Dublin and Amsterdam!!!! Oh, and Rita made popcorn - like with popping kernels and everything. So good :)

On Sunday, Katie, Kate, Rita and I went to the Tyneside Cinema, similar to Jacob Burns to see the final film in the John Hughes tribute - The Breakfast Club. Honestly I've never see the film before this so I was excited. Plus, we got to eat breakfast before the show at the cinema! Ok, so breakfast wasn't the greatest, but still included with the ticket so not bad! It was a great movie, something I want to watch again... I think I saw a few goofs, regardless it was still funny. Planning to go back and get the huge ice cream sundae!

Monday I started a lecture for my operations mgmt class. This is the only thing I was a little nervous about. I'm still a little anxious because as it turns out this extra lecture (which gives me the 5 more credits I need to have my classes transfer back to Loyola correctly) is for engineering majors who all appear to have taken numerous classes about manufacturing and whatnot already. So I may be in for a little bit more work. This week I got a ticket for As You Like It. The Royal Shakespeare Company is going to be in Newcastle performing the work so I'm gonna go see it, plus I need to write an essay so I figured it should be helpful. Plus when do you get to see The Royal Shakespeare Company in England! Tuesday Kate and I went back to the Tyneside Cinema. It's her new favourite (yes I know I added a 'u') place. They had a free showing of 7 various shorts from Screen Academy Scotland. A good experience, definitely some different things and some I'm not sure I know what happened or what the purpose was. A few were pretty funny, so we got our money's worth!

Like I said, today we booked our trips to Dublin and Amsterdam. Those are coming up at the end of October/beginning of November. Nothing else really planned for the week. Paris this weekend!!!

Also, for those of you reading in the US, I setup calling on skype and can now call landlines/cell phones. The time difference is 5 hours. Email or message me when you're free and maybe where to reach you also. Off to go do work and be productive!
Pictures are up from Scotland and the football match!