Day trip to the local museum

On Saturday, I met with my friends Rob and Jamie to go to the Discovery Museum here in Newcastle. We first stopped at the tourist information place to get a few pamphlets and some information. I really want to go to Holy Island, which is north of Newcastle. It is an island that when the tide is low, you can get to it on land. When the tide is high, it becomes an island! Anyway there is a castle and priory on the island which are a must see from what I have heard. It sounds like a pain to get there, and the lady at the tourist info place said it is really magical if we can stay there. Anyway, moving on.

We then proceeded to walk to the Discovery Museum, which is free (woo hoo!). We only went through one exhibit, which took about two hours. It was an exhibit on the history of Newcastle, starting with the Roman period up to today. It was interesting, a little cheesy for the kids, yet still informative. We then decided to have tea in the cafe there, and some chocolate cake. Delicious. There are other exhibits there that are more scientific in nature, and I think there is one on shipbuilding since I think Newcastle built (or builds?) ships. But it is close to where I live, so I can go anytime if I want. Rob and Jamie invited myself, Alissa and a Canadian girl named Anik that lives in our dorms to come over for dinner.

Since Rob and Jamie cooked, we wanted to bring something, so on our way to their house we picked up some wine. We also got a little lost getting there, but eventually found our way. Rob and Jamie rent an apartment, which is actually a house split into separate apartments on each level. Theirs is really nice. They have two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen. I wanted to move in! Just having a couch and a bathtub is very appealing. Anyway, Rob used to be a chef, so he cooked us pasta with vegetables and chicken breast with melted mozzarella. It was amazing, and I think Alissa, Anik and myself stuffed ourselves silly. It was really nice to have a home cooked meal, and very generous of them to invite us to their home and cook! We hung around for a few hours talking about various things. I think we are going to make a weekly date of going over there to cook. Taking turns of course, but it is nice to have an actual home to go to. I think Alissa and I are going to cook Mexican food this week sometime. We have to try to figure out which days are the best to cook, since we have different schedules. After this week, we should have a better idea of what to expect and what our schedules will entail.