Mo' money mo' problems

So in five days I've gone from possessing 360 pounds to 271 pounds and 4o pence. Granted, some of that money I spent on necessary things such as a notebook, pens, groceries, and a copy of Mrs. Dalloway for my British Life and Culture class, and a Tube ticket from Heathrow to Russell Square, but the rest of it has gone to wholly unnecessary things such as a Cornetto while walking by the London Eye (Cornettos are small ice-cream cones, and as I was getting hungry, I suppose that purchase was necessary to preserve the mental health of my walking partners); meals at pubs; and a half-pint of cider. I still have two paychecks from the YMCA coming in, and tomorrow we get a further twenty pounds food stipend from Dr. King, but on the whole I'm rather morose when I look at my shrinking stack of pounds and pence.

I've also booked a flight to Rome on Ryanair on Oct. 7th for the beginning of fall break, so that I'll be bumming around Rome with Erin Ferriman and Nick for a few days. I'm contemplating taking a direct flight out of Rome on the 12th to Dublin, where I'll be by myself for a few days wandering the city, but our British Life and Culture professor assures us that the Irish love Americans. Erin, Nick, and I are having trouble when we look for hostels, because Ryanair, being the most budget of the budget, flies into Ciampino, which is outside the city center. We're thinking of booking a hostel room in Ciampino to stay the night, as our flight gets in at 9:40 at night, and then taking the metro into Rome and booking a cheap hotel for three nights and splitting the cost between us. A hotel is necessary, as there's no hostel that has three nights open consecutively in the female or mixed dorms, and Nick... cannot pull off looking like a woman.

An update for the last two days to follow.