March Madness

I love March. I love it because it starts to get warm, the days start to get longer, Spring Break comes not a moment to soon, and I can start to see the end of the semester off in the distance. But all of these things do not compare to March Madness!

My whole life I have always been a fan of basketball. I feel like it should go without saying being from Kentucky. However, my excitement about March Madness grew tenfold when I came to UK. There is nothing like going to a school where basketball is everything. We are famous for it. And we set the standard for college basketball across the nation. This is not debatable, we have the most wins of any other college basketball team in the country, not to mention, 7 national titles, 44 SEC championships, and we have been to the final four 14 times.

"When you see Kentucky's fans, you just wonder. You think how wonderful it would be to go to their school. You wish you could trade places for a day, just so you could experience that feeling." - UCLA player Kris Johnson

When we beat Ohio State on Friday, I was ecstatic!! They were the best team in the nation and it was a long shot. Then when we beat UNC on Sunday I honestly couldn't believe it, we were going to the Final Four for the first time in 13 years and I was here for it. Lexington was crazy this weekend! People burning their couches, mobs of people rioting down streets near campus, fire alarms being pulled at the library.

And this was just because we made it to the final four.

I don't know what next weekend holds for the Wildcats, but I hope with every cell in my body it promises a win. Every time I even think about it, I get a little choked up. Oh and I also feel like I could throw up out of nervousness. But we will just have to see what happens.

I am proud to be a Wildcat and a UK student. I love my team for better and for worse and I'm going to pray like hell that we have what it takes to be NCAA Champions!!!!

Mind the Gap

For whatever reason I have really been missing London over the last week. On any given day I think of London or something in Europe at least three times but this last week it has been consuming my mind. There are so many good memories that I have from our crazy days across Europe so I decided to compile a list of my four favorite places to go in London.

(I just looked back over my blog and I saw that I already reminisced about London in one entry but I'm going to do it again because it is my blog and you don't have to read it if you don't want to.)

1. O'Neill's (Wardour Street)- In our first days of coming to London, we discovered that nearly every pub/bar closed at 11:30 because that was when the last tube ran. We were so disappointed until a bartender recommended O'Neill's because it stayed open until 4 am. Oh man if I had a nickle for every Strongbow I had at this place, I would have enough to fly back to London and live for a month. Though it was tricky at first because we didn't know how to use the bus system, O'Neill's provided us some much needed practice. To this day I can read a bus map, no matter how drunk I am. This was the host of some of the best nights out that I've ever had. We met tons of great people from all over the world and this was where I got my first raspberry to the cheek (eww!). 


2. Caffe Forum (Gloucester Road)- We probably hit up this amazing coffee shop at least 4 times a week. They have fabulous pizza for like £3 its thin and delicious. They also have the most amazing chocolate cake and if you ask them really nice they will microwave it and add ice cream to it, just ignore the look that says they think you are crazy. The original draw to this place was the fact that they were open 24 hours and we could come here after a crazy night at O'Neill's. By the end of our trip they not only knew us but they knew how we liked our pizza and how we like ice cream with our cake and had a pretty good idea if we were drunk or not.


3. The Muffin Man (Wright's Lane) You thought I was going to say Drury Lane didn't you? This is one of the most charming places that I visited while I was in London. It is in Kensington and though it doesn't look like much on the outside it is SO CUTE! They have delicious sandwiches, great tea (I hear) and absolutely amazing cupcakes!


4. Eclipse (Old Brompton Road) This was the swankiest bar I've ever been to. They have delicious cocktails that taste more like candy than alcohol, but they give you the feeling of alcohol. This is a great place to go and have one drink, however, we had like 20 between the five of us so things got a little expensive. I would totally recommend this bar for a special occasion!

Beach, Books and Best Friends.

Yesterday we got back from the beach in Delray Beach, Florida. We had an amazing spring break that consisted of mostly just laying on the beach and drinking strawberry daiquiris. I love the beach so much. Every time I go, I try to think of ways that I can just live there forever.

I went with four of my very best friends. I love these girls more and more everyday but nothing builds a bond like driving 32 hours (16 each way UGH) in a small car through the night. This included two stops at Steak-n-Shake in the middle of the night and a whole lot of road rage. However, I cannot complain too much about this trip as it was a lot less eventful than the trip last year where we broke down and had to be towed a 110 miles and had a bubble on the top that threatened to fly off at any minute.

While laying on the beach I got some pretty good reading done with my Barnes and Noble Nook. I feel like I should tell anyone that will listen about the first book I read called Heaven is For Real: A true story of a boy's trip to heaven and back. This is one of those rare books that will forever stick with you. Though I don't want ruin it for anyone that would like to read it, a short synopsis is that it is about a little boy, Colton, that gets sick and has to have serious surgery. During that time testifies to visiting heaven and meeting Jesus and his great-grandpa and sister that was miscarried. His story so powerfully tells of the great love Jesus has for us and all the joy and happiness that exists when we get to heaven.

The biggest thing I felt about this story was that heaven is such a real place. Having been raised in a Christian home, I have always been told about heaven and even as I've gotten older I have read what the bible says about it, but this was the first time I really have thought about it in the sense that one day I will truly be there in the presence of the God of the Universe. The book was thrilling and touching at the same time, and I can honestly say that I have considered what heaven is going to be like a lot more since I read it less than a week ago.

Okay so now I have to confess that my challenge was an utter failure. Not that that comes as a real surprise to me or anyone else. However, I have not completely ignored my blog for the past month but instead have been far more thrilled with the idea of making a personalized background for my blog. I have been obsessed with learning to use Photoshop to make the background and writing code, that far exceeds my Computer Programming 101 class, to make it exactly like I want it. And then when I finally get everything perfect, I make another one and start again. So I cannot promise that I will have a thousand new entries this month, or even 10 but I will promise that before long, by blog will get a whole new look again.