Two Roses and Two Thorns:

Rose: The people here are so much more friendly and welcoming than I anticipated. Maybe it’s because we’re not in the city and non-city people in general are just more friendly? Either way, I’m highly impressed. Today, we went to Warwick to visit an ancient castle and after I had seen enough turrets and whatnot, Mikaela and I went to lunch at this cafe that played roaring 20s style covers of American pop songs. (Think Katy Perry meets Gatsby *shudder*). After our lunch, we met up with the rest of the group and I found myself in a super cool thrift shop. I collected what I planned to buy, but my card wouldn’t work and I was one pound short to pay in cash. INstead of forcing me to go track down one of my group mates and borrow a pound, they just knocked the price down so that I could pay for it all then. That definitely wouldn’t happen in DC.

Thorn: I’m still sort of adjusting to the time/not really sleeping enough. The latter is no one’s fault except my own, but I have so much I want to do, that I always end up going to bed later than I mean to. Last night, Sam, Hayley and I had a nice talk about nothing that could really be concisely summarized but it was a nice talk nonetheless. Only problem was that we went to bed around 01:30am and had to wake up at 07:00am for breakfast which leads me to my next rose….

Rose: ENGLISH  BREAKFAST!!! I’ve had it every day since we’ve been here and it just gets better and better each time. I don’t have the ultra traditional version with the mushroom but I usually have fresh scrambled eggs, a delicious tomato that I’m pretty sure they grow themselves, a thick smoky piece of bacon, toast from fresh baked bread (with jam!!) and a cup of tea or coffee. The food here has been surprisingly tasty thus far which is such a surprise since I was a bit skeptical about English food. My favorite foods so far aside from the breakfast have been the kebabs down the street from our B&B and a Thai restaurant downtown.

Thorn: I’m a rather thrifty individual so I’ve been sort of worried about money and how much I’ve been spending and my budget, or lack thereof. Thankfully, I know if I really needed money for something, my mom would help me out (I think…) but I still feel a bit worried about being Broke in Bratislava (this is the working title of my 3.5 week reality show). I think I may call my mom i.e. the money whiz and talk to her about what she would do

Mini Rose Because I Don’t Want to End on a Thorn:

Me and Becca outside of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s theater before Othello last night!