Catching Up: Birthdays, Castles and Halloween, British Style

Hey Guys!
Life has been busy these past two weeks, hence the lack of updates. I wish I could say I've been off jet-setting around, but primarily I've been doing a lot of school work and fun things like that.
Some exciting things have happened lately though- in particular I celebrated my 22nd birthday last Thursday. When I first decided to come here I admit I was worried about being forced to spend my birthday alone in a strange city. Fortunatly this was not the case and I was able to celebrate with about twenty of my closest friends at my favorite bar, The Rocket. I was actually impressed by how many people ended up coming, friends I've made over the past month and half in class, in my dorm and through the Emory programss. Here is a picture which unfortunatly came out rather blurry, although that sort of suited the mood of the night as my drink kept being refilled. We drank snakebites (half beer, half cider with a shot of black current liquor- my new favorite drink), hung out and danced into the late hours. It was a really great birthday and it made me feel really lucky to know so many really awesome people here.
On Saturday we had the last of our Emory day trips, to Broughton Castle, a Medevial castle in Oxfordshire. What made this trip different from the rest of the stately homes we've been to is that Lord and Lady Saye are actually still in residence in the house. They are friends with our trip coordinator Rachel, and thus we were granted a private off season tour of the house. It is huge and drafty and historic of course. Also unlike other tours we were actually allowed to take pictures inside the house. Here is a picture of one of Lord and Lady Sayes guest bedrooms, it is called the Kings Room because, well because that is where the King used to stay back in the day. It was a gorgeous room with this elaborate hand painted chinese wall paper. Everything in the house was rich and opulent and historic, it was so cool to actually be able to get up close and personal with it all (I even got to try on a medeval battle helmut and sword). At the end of the tour we actually got to meet the Lord and Lady, my first brush with the English aristocracy. They were incredibly nice and normal, although they had a very ugly dog. Incidentally the Saye's informal last name is Fiennes, they are actually relatives of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes. This beautiful castle has been used in the filming of several movies including Shakespeare in Love.
It's finally getting cold here.This week has been mostly about paper writing, which unfortunatly caused me to miss out on Halloween festivities. Contrary to popular beleif Halloween IS celebrated in England, just not to the full extent it is in America. I don't beleive Trick or Treating is in fashion, and I haven't seen much about haunted houses. As far as I can tell Halloween is mainly an excuse for young adults to go out and party while wearing crazy costumes. It's a shame I missed it to because I had a good costume too...
This friday I am going to see some early Guy Fawkes fireworks, then I am off to the continent. I am spending my reading week in Prague and Budapest, so prepare yourself for some (hopefully) awesome stories on my return...