Ashland!
Day 1
We arrive at Ashland around 3:20, waaay ahead of schedule. With hours till curfew, everyone dropped off our luggage and headed downtown to check out the shops. Good thing too because we soon found out that most of the shops in Ashland close at 5 and most aren't even open on Mondays. Lulu and I spend a good hour in a Unicorn shop before we decided on something to buy. (Amanda: $25) Thank god for no sales taxes here. It was tres weird paying exact change, I keep expecting them to ask for more than the amount I hand them. The entire town is very nice and quaint. Everyone there seems so cheerful and helpful. The cars stop if we even get close to the sidewalk. For dinner, Michelle, Christine, Lulu, and I decided that "teachers know best" and dined at the same restaurant they did. It was fun "people watching" because everytime someone walks by, they first see us, wave, and then they see the teachers and have a double take. Haha, their expressions were priceless. For dessert, we enjoyed tiramisu. One word: RUM. And lots of it too. With nothing left in town to do at the late hour of six o'clock, the four of us went to see what everyone else was doing. Only to be sorely disappointed, we found tons of people stashed in Jeff and Andy's room watching *gasp* Smallville. Really guys, we travel hours to a new state and the only source of entertainment you can find is Smallville? At least Michael T and Albert Wu two doors down brought Halo with them.
At first the girls played Karma in Michelle and Christine's room, but then the Smallville crew came back from Safeway and we got yelled at for being too loud. The groupie transfered to Lulu, Lucie, and Jenny's room (mine). Mafia till 11 before everyone turned in for the day.
(total expense: $49.75)
Day 2
Woke up around 8-9ish and went to the Continental Breakfast. After a meal of muffins and cereal, Lulu and I went shopping. Wow, that girl can shop. We went from antique shop to clothing shops to bead shops to card shops. Lunch, we headed into Munchies and found Jeff, Albert, Robert, Jasmine, Baran, David, and others. I had EGGs! And left everything else on my plate. Everyone looked spiffy by the time we went to the theater to meet up with the teachers. We watched Room Service, a hilarious play with lots of shouting, insanely poor people, and a happy ending.
After the play, we took the guys to shop for their respective girlfriends. After lots of "I don't knows" and money, we found the Chocolate shop. Oh horrors. All the guys immediately turned 10 years old and very giddy ten year olds at that. Robert left with three pounds worth of fudge, Mike left with the most gigantic grin anyone's ever seen, and everyone left with at least one slab of chocolate fudge. Dinner at some Grill place. Robert, Mike, Lulu, and I ate a nice meal of fries, burgers, hotdogs, and in Lulu's case, a yummy vinager filled salad. We went back to the Chocolate shop for some icecream, went back to our rooms for a game of Karma, before going back to the theaters for Richard III.
Highlights of Richard III was 1. Mike snoring during a scene full of angry shouting. 2. Vivek hitting his head on the seat when he fell asleep and jerking awake.
So we left during the Second Act. I heard it got loads better, but oh well. Walking around the streets at 10pm in Ashland taught us that this town really really does sleep early. None of the stores were open, not even Starbucks! We ended up playing card games in Robert and Mike's room until the play was over and everyone came back. Btw, Robert has officially beaten me in Egyptian War. Twice.
The end of Ashland trip
(Total expense: $134)