It's Beginning to look a lot like... wait... It's Christmas?

England must be confused. That's the only explanation for it. The temperatures are in the mid-40s and it's sunny outside. I happened to be watching the news and I was informed this was the hottest winter England has ever experienced on record. I guess I brought the heat with me. My reaction to this? "DAMN IT! I wanted to see some snow!"

Winter break here consists of 6 weeks. The term 'break' is misleading. A break is what undergrads get to enjoy. All around me, my friends boasted of:

1. Going to America
2. Going skiing in France
3. Going to Prague
4. Seeing family
5. Something else extremely fun and adventurous

You might be asking yourselves what did Emma do with her time?
1. Research
2. Boredom
3. Exercise
4. Boredom
5. Papers
6. Research

Not exactly the break I had been picturing. After literally every person I had come to know and love in Leicester had gone home or jet-set off to foreign lands I begrudgingly began my 5000 word papers each worth 50% of my final grade. After a week and a half of that and nearly going insane from a lack of human contact my flatmate Olivia rescued me!

Off I went to Derby! For those Americans reading this it is pronounced Darby. I tried to inform them there was an 'e' in there, but that didn't do much. Christmas is a time of giving and a time for family. I usually spend Christmas unwrapping presents with my family in our sun room, just the three of us and then go see extended family the day after. It was a very different experience indeed. I earned the nickname Kevin. Some of you might have just made a weird face wondering how in the world I managed to obtain that one. Olivia's brother decided to call me that since I was all alone here and was pretty much abandoned for Xmas aka the same story that happened to Kevin in the Xmas classic Home Alone... minus the getting robbed aspect.

 Twins right? Yeah, thought so too.

Olivia's family consisted of 18 other people and we all shared a mansion. Not exaggerating. It was the typical mansion with a cottage that I swear came straight out of the murder mystery movies like clue. I went around the house pulling on candle sticks and pushing parts of the fireplaces (which were in almost every room) just to see if I could find a hidden passageway. Sadly the house didn't reveal its secrets.

As sad as I was that I was spending Christmas away from home for the first time in my life I had an amazing time. It just felt like a week away with friends instead of Christmas. There was no snow. TONS of rain. We passed the time by playing murder mystery games, watching tv, movies, Jenga, and pool.

On our last full day there we decided to go to a moor that was nearby. It was so pretty! I was the only outdoorsy younger person there so I think I enjoyed it a lot more than everyone else. I would just like to say HOLY CRAP moors are windy. I never really knew just how ridiculous wind could be until I was literally knocked over and rolled down a hill by the wind. Yes that actually happened.

All in all it was a really fun experience. While I was there I managed to scare the life out of everyone there. My best friend of 14 years got engaged. I was in the honorable position of being the first one to hear about it. I received a text saying they were engaged. I immediately screamed and ran down 3 flights of stairs yelling the entire time, told Olivia and we proceeded to jump, scream, and rejoice together. All of the older generation thought someone had murdered someone else and that's why we were screaming, the younger generation was confused and thought we were extremely odd.

I am now back in Leicester and STILL writing papers and researching. Oh how the holidays have come full circle! Merry Christmas everyone!