Definitely did not want to wake up for class this morning. There were five students (including me) in the modernity seminar this time - an improvement of last week's three. However, two of those students hadn't done the reading, so it was still on the shoulders of the three of us who were there last week to carry the entire conversation. Antonella said that the paper prompt should be up Sunday, so I should have no problem remaining on schedule.

After class I bought a doughnut that tasted like it had been sitting out for three days, and ate it on the way back to the tower, where I fell into bed and went back to sleep. My alarm almost gave me a heart attack when it went off, and I seriously considered not going to Myth. I went anyway. Teacher is still annoying.

I had been planning to run down to Tesco after class, but I forgot I had laundry, so I did that instead. Good thing, or I would have been caught in the rain on the long walk back from Tesco. The driers tried to thwart me again. The one I picked ate 20p and wouldn't give it back, so I didn't have exact change and had to put a pound into the next drier - which worked admirably, but I was out a pound twenty. On my way out, however, I was struck with a sudden burst of genius and stuck my key into the coin slot, which caused the stuck coins to roll out the coin return. I got my twenty p back, and a pound rolled out too... instant karma! Or something.

Next I headed over to the library. There are not all that many books on the topic I've chosen for my paper, but I took out what was there. Hopefully there will be some relevent quotes because, despite that this school is so concerned with plagiarism, they really want you to just repeat someone else's research. So that was pretty boring.

It's really, really windy outside. Actually, it's pretty windy inside too. The hallway is like a wind tunnel... my coat definitely billowed of its own accord while I was standing in it. Shoddy European construction...

Anyway, off to try some suspicious looking macaroni and cheese...

Classes? That's not why we came to university!

Myth lecture today. Whee. Went to it, sat through it, came back and took a nap until the flatmates woke up and started with the music. Then I woke up too, did some reading, and went to Early Modern Culture. Only two more sessions of that class, and no more reading for it! huzzah.

While I was waiting for my myth reading for tomorrow to print, I read a rather amusing email from the Essex Student Union. There's going to be a protest tomorrow. They are protesting having classes on Wednesdays. You know, earlier, when Sebastian failed to show up for class again, I was wondering why he spent so much money to study here. Now I realize he fits right in. There's reasoning behind the protest though. Apparantly, away games for sports are always on Wednesday, and the inability of Essex athletes to compete because of class is hurting the school's reputation. Or something. Whatever.

Anyway, back at the dorm I ate an early dinner and followed up a few preliminary research queries. Paper writing to commence tomorrow.

Experience an earthquake... check

So, last night, I'm talking to Steph around 1, 1:30 and the tower starts shaking. I was marginally freaked out, but I thought that the wind was just so strong that the tower was swaying, you know, how sky scrapers do. This morning I get up and in the news find out that it was, in fact, the shockwaves from the biggest earthquake to have struck Britain since 1984. Now, granted, that's not really such a large earthquake on a global scale, but earthquakes are pretty rare in Britain. I read it was between 4.5 and 5.3... whatever that means : P

So, for real Wednesday morning - when I woke up, instead of when I was still awake - I got a letter from Grandma, which was nice. Class wasn't til two so I sort of killed time until then doing various frivolous things... class went by pretty quick, and at the end of class the prof announced that we wouldn't have class next week! That means I get Tuesday AND Wednesday free! Maybe I'll finish an extra paper early (more likely I'll slack off...) Either way, it's good news.

After class, it was so nice out I decided to go around campus and take pictures of Springtime, as per Mom's request. Here's the prettiness of campus:



A daisy. Essex has more of these than of dandelions.



Some sort of pretty purple undergrowth stuff...



A close-up of the purple undergrowth



Daffodils! These things are all over the place.



I don't know what this is. It was hanging out with the daffodils : )



A shot to try to show some of the hilliness of campus...

These next few pics are from the fifth floor of the library.








This is Wivenhoe House, a big expensive hotel. The second pic is without zoom.



The North Houses



I walk past this place every time I go to or from campus. It's always got great light and shadow, and when it's foggy, it looks like maybe you could be in the middle of a forest.

And then I went back up to my room to do tons of school reading. Happily, I am done for the rest of the week now and can spend the rest of the night doing... something else : P

The end.

English winters are to my liking

Really pretty day today. It was in the 50s and sunny. Windy, yeah, but that's not so bad as long as you don't wear a hat : P I had some soup for lunch and went out grocery shopping. I bought some interesting cheese.

When I got back I went for a short walk, just around the campus squares and around the library because it was so nice. When I got back again, I finished my reading for tomorrow and some of the reading for Thursday and pretty much wasted the rest of the time reading webcomics. For dinner I put my interesting cheese on my ordinary pasta and it was delicious.

Some writing also occured, of the fun but useless kind.

Basically, it was an uneventful, but nice, kind of day

fun new ways to put off school work...

Only one lecture today. I woke up got ready, and left. Lecture was all right, not bad, nothing special. Afterward, I bought a stapler.

Then I went to see Hazel to hand in my essays, and she answered all of my questions before I even asked them! She had apparantly been trying to call me to let me know that my online submission was all right, too. Basically, she's amazing and should be in charge of the whole university.

I went back to the room and did a little reading for Thursday, which resulted in a lovely nap. There were still a few hours of daylight left when I woke up, and it was a nice day, so I thought I'd go for a walk and get some pictures I've been meaning to get for quite a while.



This is a sign on the door at Tesco. Poor door.



At the Library, though these can also be found near most of the computers in the labs. Every time I walk by the library computers, though, there are less mouse mats...

Anyway, I also paid off the rest of my accomodation fees. My goodness it's a lot of money... I then went back to the room and proceeded to waste time reading comics and not doing any writing or "productive" reading at all.

Oh, another interesting tidbit. In the computer labs, there are diskette dispensers. You put in coins and get diskettes. I sort of chuckled in a "how cute" sort of way. Then I looked at the computer I was using. Yes, it has a diskette drive, and a cd drive... but I couldn't find USB ports anywhere O.O It MUST have them. They can't be that old. I must go back and preform a more comprehensive check.

Now: frivolous reading.

Later: video chat

Tomorrow: who knows!

post for the whole weekend!

I didn't update last night because I didn't feel like doing anything after I got back from London. So here is a post for both yesterday and today!

Saturday morning I woke up around 8:45 to catch a bus to catch a train to London. There was blood all over the bathroom. Not asking. I left for the bus and startled a vicious looking mommy duck on my way... the entire campus was freaking erupting into springtime. There were yellow daffoldils everywhere, birds chirping, dozens of squirrels chasing each other, and even a bumblebee despite the chilliness. Absurdity.

I was way early for the bus, so I waited for a bit. Luckily, being early meant that the rest of the traffic wasn't out yet, so the bus to the station went pretty quick. I got to the station and asked a random woman if she was going to London. She said yes, so I got onto the train she got on to. The trains are nice. We're not talking South Shore here. Anyway, I was right on time for a train. It was pretty packed, so I sat down next to a girl about my age. When the train started, she called her boyfriend and proceeded to have one of the most inane conversations I've ever eavesdropped on : P I brought my DS, so I spent the train ride getting acquainted with the new Super Mario Bros. The train ride seemed really short. We arrived at Liverpool St. Station around 10:52.



Here's Liverpool Station! It's biiiig. It's filled with American chains - Starbucks, Burger King, and all of that. Lisa met me here, and we decided to go see some museums. We got on the Underground to go to the Victoria and Albert museum. The Underground is really easy to ride and not confusing at all, but very crowded.

When we got off the train, we decided we wanted lunch, and lo - as we left the station a cafe with all kinds of delicious looking things in the window presented itself. I got a Cornish pastry. Yummmm. Then we headed to the museum.

These are pictures of the museum. It's huge. It's basically where Britain put all the souveneirs it took from the countries it invaded, plus some British stuff for variety. We got through a sculpture room, Japan, China, Renaissance, tons of silver oddments, and the gift shop before having to leave to catch the show.

I did not take pictures of Phantom : P I mean really. But the show was amazing - and the Phantom was the most amazing! They definitely should have gotten him instead of Gerard Butler : P The show is much more intense live than on screen. Altogether, a great experience.

We weren't sure what to do when the show let out since we weren't hungry yet, so we wandered through Trafalgar Square, which looks much different when it's not filled with more people than it can hold, and along the Thames

Here's a picture taken from Trafalgar Square... just a general London looking scene, and a chance to use the "night scenery" mode on my camera : P

The London Eye all lit up at night.

The London Eye, me, and Big Ben waaaaaaaaaay in the back.

I must have taken ten pics of Big Ben, but most of them turned out blurry...

Anyway, walking around the Thames was really nice. There were hot dog and roasted nut vendors all over the place. It smelled like Comisky, which made Lisa and me hungry enough to go in search of food. We ended up at a little cafe where I got a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich. Then, we headed back to the Underground and parted ways.

Getting back to Liverpool Station was easy. When I arrived, I saw there was a train leaving for Colchester in about ten minutes, so I hopped aboard and settled in with my DS. I swear the ride seemed like it only took ten minutes, but I was distracted. When we arrived in Colchester, there was a bus waiting to go back to university, which was nice : ) I got back to the dorm around 10 and signed on to see Steph befre she left for turnabout. I got to talk to my mom and dad for a pretty long time - voice chat is awesome. I went to bed pretty early though because I was exhausted.

This morning I woke up, did some low-thought morning activities, and went to church. Then I came back to give my essays one more look over before submitting them to the online work database. Once I finished that, I went and printed copies and filled out the forms needed to hand them in on Tuesday. It's an awful lot of bother just to turn in a paper. Then I tried to pay off the rest of my fees online, but for some reason, could not. I must locate the place to pay in person.

Neither Pete nor Bashar showed up for archery tonight, so I spent the session listening to manbeast babble on about the novel he's never going to write. There have been better sessions.

And now, I am here.

The end.

Another Friday

So normally I have two classes today, but 202 cancelled seminar : ) So, I just had the myth seminar. The prof somewhat redeemed herself by managing to include Harry Potter in her discussion of creation myths. Even so, I somewhat suspect that she is not in fact a classics prof, but rather some evil imitation sent to infiltrate the department... in an hour and a half seminar, and an hour lecture, she didn't give us one Greek term. Highly suspect, if you ask me.

After seminar, I printed out the forms that students have to fill out before submitting their essays. Essay submission here is absolutely nuts. There's no reason for it to be as complicated as it is, especially not for undergraduates, but there you have it. I also bought my train pass for tomorrow so I am ready to go!

Of course, got to get through the rest of the day first.

Did laundry today as well, as is my custom. Unfortunately, the drier decided that spinning my clothes around would be sufficient, and that they did not need any heat. A wasted 60p later, I've got clothesline strung all over my room, bearing soggy clothing. This is somewhat amusing, but also somewhat frustrating as there really isn't anywhere to tie off a clothes line, so I had to get creative with the wardrobe, with the result that I am now cut off from my bed. I'd take a picture if there weren't so many undergarments involved : P

Anyway, the rest of the night shall be spent in frivolity instead of refining my essays and preparing for the next one.

Tomorrow: London!

one more month

Exactly one month from today, I'll be home. Well, ok, I'll be in a plane, but that plane'll be pretty close to Chicago!

Two classes today - the new myth lecture and early modern culture (presentation day...). THe myth lecture was... well, I miss the old prof. The new lady doesn't seem as good a lecturer. She taught class from her seat behind a table, and this is not a lecture hall, so no one past the first row could see her, I'm sure. Further, she has a quiet, breathy, moist, pale voice. Mostly moist. The sound of her toungue peeling wetly off the roof of her mouth was louder than her words. It was like she was constantly trying to rewet her mouth, or suck on a cough drop or something. She began every sentence with this sort of smacking tongue noise, and it also interspersed itself throughout her speech, particularly around vowel sounds and consonant blends, so her speech ended up sounding like a series of hard consonants and tongue noises. Also, you know how some people have that problem of trailing off at the ends of sentences? Well she mumbles the first parts of her sentences, clearly articulates a few nouns in the middle, and then trails off again. It sounds like this:

there COMES a moment mumble something mumble MANIFEST itself mumble mumble mumble.

Only even the word manifest is largesly obscured by tongue noises. Oh, and whenever she thinks something is particularly important or interesting, she lowers her voice to a whisper. I guess for intensity or something?? Serioualy, I was sitting RIGHT in front of her, had both my hearing aids in and turned up... Ah, but then, then, she stood up to write something on the board. All of a sudden her voice got louder! I could hear her! Then she sat back down and I went back to doodling in my margins.

Oh, and what did she write on the board? I couldn't tell you. Her marker didn't work. But throughout the class, she got up three times to write on the board, each time apparantly not noticing her marker malfunction, or maybe just pretending it was working... i dunno. Oh yeah, and she's Russian, so I'm dealing with the accent on top of everything else.

I went back to the dorm eager for a nap. But there were workmen with hammers doing... i dunno, something with hammers.... to manbeast's door, so sleeping didn't happen. I thought I'd sign on and read some webcomics, or maybe talk to anyone awake. But the internet was out. Again. At least this time it was during office hours though! I went down to the computer desk on campus and reported it, then planted myself in a lab and worked out my schedule for next semester.

I met Sebastian to go over our projects. He actually showed up, AND he had actually done the research, so I went into class feeling pretty confident. Turns out, he sucks at speaking in front of people. I did most of the talking. Probably better that way. I think the presentation went pretty well.

I went back to the room and booked my bus tickets for March! I'm excited, and all ready to go. Well, ok, obviously I'm not packed. But other than that - ready!! Tonight I tried some "mexican" rice I bought at Tesco. Basically I need to get back to America. The end.

partner projects are always a mistake.

So I did the waking up early and returning DVDs thing again today. But when I got to the library there was a sign up that said "no returns until 9". I looked at my watch. 8:56. I handed the DVDs to a passing librarian and said "These are due in an hour and can't go in the drop box." He took care of it and I left, and went back to sleep until my meeting with Antonella. She told me some very encouraging things, and I went back to the room and made some changes to my paper before class.

Oh yeah, I got another valentines card today - it was most amusing : ) thanks, parents.

Only one class today - Oulipo. Sebastian actually showed up to class for the first time in weeks, I think for the sole purpose of asking me what our presentation topic was again. The presentation that we're giving tomorrow. The topic which we had discussed weeks ago. I reminded him what he was supposed to be researching, and he looked confused and asked me why he was researching that. I told him. He said ok, and I asked if he was having trouble finding enough information or something. He said he hadn't even started. I suggested a few more lines of research to pursue in case he found himself with too little information, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I know enough to cover for him if he majorly screws up. I'm kind of hoping he just doesn't show.

After class I suggested we go to the library since he had an hour before his next class. At first he said all right, but then when we started walking he seemed to change his mind, said goodbye and walked off in the other direction. I'm pretty sure we agreed to meet half an hour before class tomorrow, but we'll see if he shows...

Anyway, I went back to the dorm for some reading, writing, and chatting... and have basically been slacking off all day : )

i have not forgotten the potatoes!

Despite going to bed close to 4 AM this morning, I STILL woke up before my alarm around 8:45. Since I was up anyway, I went ahead and returned the DVDs to the library. Then I went back to sleep for... oh... about 6 more hours, bringing my total sleep to about 11 hours, which is wonderful : ) I got out of bed for real around 1:30, did some reading, and went grocery shopping more for the walk than because I needed lots of groceries. It's still pretty chilly outside, so the walk wasn't so pleasant, but it got me more awake and out of the flat.

When I got back I picked up some odds and ends regarding scheduling for next semester, discussing my essays with teachers, and that sort of thing. Got some writing in as well. All in all, a pretty uneventful, relaxing day. I had a sandwich for dinner which earned high praise from Ben. Apparantly he is the sandwich expert around here and does not give compliments about them lightly. Yay me : P

Oh, I also met a new flatmate at dinner! Her name is Vicki. She moved into a vacant room on the flat. She's local, and had been commuting to campus and got sick of it. She seems pretty nice, so hopefully I'll be seeing more of her.

And then I went back to the library and checked out star wars again to try and actually watch them tonight...

surprise package!

I definitely woke up thinking I had missed my alarm this morning - but it was just that I don't have the myth lecture Monday mornings anymore. I had some pretty entertaining dreams last night, including one wherein I finally received the package Emily sent me...

Modernity lecture was not particularly amusing, despite Clare's assurances that parts of Kafka's Metamorphosis are really quite funny... but it was my only class, so that was ok. It was a lot warmer today, and my cough seems to be much better as well. I wonder if that's connected.

Anyway, when I got back to the room after lecture, I remembered my dream, which made me realize I had forgotten to check the post room one more time for the package. I also had to go pick up the new course packet for myth class, so I went back out and did that. The new course packet is pretty thick and does not look at all interesting, but we shall see. Then I went down to the post room - and they did have the package! I was pleasantly surprised : ) I took it back to my room and opened it, rather curious as to what it was. The label said 'book' (wow I just realized that there are no double quote marks on British keyboards... I'm typing this in the library...) but that didn't tell me much. I opened it, and it was a beautiful copy of Neverending Story! Seriously, this book is very pretty. I'm trying to refrain from reading it for a few more weeks so that I'll have something entertaining to read on the flight home, but it is very tempting. So, thank you Emily for that most thoughtful package : )

Then I had a nap, and did some recreational reading. Around five thirty I went out to the library (where I am now) to do a bit more research for my presentation on Thursday. I am now ready to present (I've got a presentation Thursday and another one Friday... I hope I don't get them mixed up (oh I just found the " button. It's above the 2 where the @ sign would be on American keyboards. I've learned that British style papers don't use ", but only ', so that must be why. But my professors have said it doesn't really matter - they'll just know I'm an American : P) because Cherokee creation myths really have nothing to do with travel plays... or at least, not much).

Oh, also, there was a spectacular sunset today. The campus grounds looked amazing. And it would seem that the top floor of the library is just the place to go for great views, because... wow. You don't often get such rich, saturated color. There was a low fog today - I think that might have helped.

I'm about to go check out the Star Wars trilogy from the short-loan desk... I've got a thesis all prepared in case they ask me to prove it's for academic purposes, but really, I don't think they care that much : P Then I shall get dinner and some ice cream and proceed to stay up til absurd hours in what is technically the morning.

The End.

Fun productivity? I... I don't understand...

So, the cough syrup I bought doesn't work, and it tastes really gross - like black licorice flavored menthol. Ew. The only thing that really stops the coughing for a while is hot tea, so I've been drinking a lot.

Anyway, this afternoon was Mass. The bishop was visiting, and he has a much nicer voice and less serious personality than the normal priest. The bishop used to be the priest here at the University chaplaincy, which I thought was pretty cool, and because he was visiting, they brought out the good music - there were two flautists, a cellist, a violinist, a pianist, and two guitars. And possibly some bongoes. I don't know why they don't do that every Sunday... Anyway, they fed us afterwards too, so that was nice : )

When I got back, I worked on my paper a bit more, and I'm fairly pleased with it - only, I'm 500 words short and not sure what else to say. I'll have another look once I've been away from it for a while.

Archery tonight was more crowded than last night, but that just leaves more time for socializing. Bashar and Chris were both absent, so I talked with Pete. Afterwards, I joined a bunch of the group who were going to Top Bar. It was really nice - nothing at all like the bar atmosphere I'm used to. It was actually a good place to sit and talk. I started off mostly talking to Pete, but ended up giving the whole table a mini lecture on Peircian color theory (thanks mr. chris!!) It ended up being a lot of fun, so I think this will become an every weekend thing.

Anyway, I'm back in the dorm for the night since I've got classes in the morning - time to relax with some webcomicry : )

It is saturday.

So lots of stuff happened after I blogged last night.

I heard back from the internship people. They don't want me right now, but they do want to hang on to my application. Well, I've heard that before, but it couldn't hurt.

Then, the Internet went out around 9-10 o'clock. I was in the middle of a conversation with Emily, and had been just about to e-mail Krannert about grad school. The timing sucked... it was right when my friends start to come online. There was nothing I could do about it and I was really bummed out. I wrote a little, but then just went to bed with my school reading. The Outsider bummed me out even more... man that's a depressing book. I don't reccomend it to anyone who enjoys life.

When I got up this morning, Internet was still down. I trudged out to campus to find a computer lab and discovered that it's COLD out. Curses. When I got into the campus proper, the square was full of army guys. It was a little surprising... I guess they were having a family day or something, because a lot of them had strollers. SX Express was absolutely packed with them. Well, I went on to the computer lab only to find it closed. Of course. It's Saturday. I went to the library instead, sent out some S.O.S. messages to the computer guys, and checked my email. Then I went back to the room and went back to sleep, periodically getting up to check on the Internet.

Finally I decided I had better get some work done at the library. I don't like doing presentations and essays in libraries or labs - I need to be able to get up and wander, or snack, or play music or whatever to get these things done, and you can't really do any of those in the library. But, I needed Internet, so I got up, clicked "repair" one last time, and got dressed (this was around 1 in the afternoon. It was a good nap.) To my disbelief, it worked. Yay for the return of the Internet! I signed on and read webcomics...

Then I was feeling so pleased that I went out to Tesco just to buy soup and cough syrup. When I got back, I started working. Right now, I have one presentation finished, the other mostly finished, and half an essay written. It's been a productive day.

At 6 o'clock I went out to archery, which was fun as usual. My high score to date is 15 out of 30 which isn't so great but not too bad... I didn't go to Top Bar with everyone because I wanted to get more done on the essay so I can work on the presentation during the week. I'll probably go tomorrow, though, because they're a pretty fun group of people who aren't likely to pressure me to drink.

I got back to the room and had a really hot shower and hot soup and was still cold. I hope it warms up as quickly as it got cold. I got to talk with Brady briefly, which made me happy, and now my will to work has quite spent itself, so I believe I will do something recreational instead.

That is all.

Friday... finally

Ah it is Friday and the period of silence has already begun : )

This morning was my new early Versions of Modernity seminar. There were only two other students besides myself in the class... apparantly 9 AM classes here are like 7:30s at Purdue. Ha, wusses! Anyway, the teacher's name is Antonella, and she is Italian. She is very enthusiastic about literature. Actually, I think I will do better in this section than in the other. Clare's a great teacher, but her approach to literature is rather scientific, compared to Antonella's more emotion-based approach. At any rate, I made a good impression I think with The Waste Land today, and have emailed to set up an appointment to discuss my paper, and I already have the books I need. The down side is that this class has not yet posted the second paper prompt and I am beginning to suspect that they will not post it until break, which would be EVIL. But that is not Antonella's fault...

I tried to nap for the forty-five minutes between classes, but my throat had other things to say, so I read webcomics instead. Myth class was all right, but I don't think the prof's heart was really in it today. Next seminar will be taught by the new prof, and she's already assigned a presentation, of which I am somewhat resentful given that I have never met the woman. Also might have to buy new books for that class. I'll find out next Friday.

Thanks to the new Myth assignment, I now have two presentations and a research paper to do this weekend, so I'm thinking I probably won't make both days of archery. That's all right, I'd rather get the work out of the way.

I hurt the roof of my mouth biting into a very hard Special K bar this morning. Owch. Thing shattered when I bit it... I think that is not supposed to happen.

So, in conclusion,




The end.

(image stolen from www.icanhascheezburger.com)

Ferris Wheel day!

This morning the internet was out so I went back to bed.

This morning the internet was up so I finished my Oulipo essay and read webcomics until classtime. I was feeling lots better, and break time seemed really really close this morning. Oh, I also got another letter from grandma! Two in a row, how about that? That was neat.

I went to class after having more soup for lunch. I forgot every one of the books for class today. Swell. Not a big deal though, I had done the reading and could still contribute. Having coughing fits in the middle of class is getting old though. Anyway, when I got out of class, I felt like time was moving slowly again and that I might never get home... all back to normal. I went to the library to do some reading without distractions because I can never focus on anything in the dorm. Then I decided to go get a panini to take back to the dorm, because i wanted for-real solid food. I decided to forego my previously planned movie night though, because thanks to my suddenly annoyingly changed schedule, I have an early class tomorrow. I'm a bit worried about finding the new classroom and meeting the new teacher and getting my essays sorted out and finding out if i need more books (because the bookstore will probably be out of them at this point). Argh. What an annoyance.

Anyway, back in my room for the night, maybe doing some writing because for some reason I can do that when it's loud... cool.

The end.

sicksicksick

So I woke up today and had a cold sore. What the heck. I thought you were supposed to get those INSTEAD of being sick. It's really really annoying. At least I don't care what anyone thinks of my appearance over here...

Did some more of my essay before class today. Class was Oulipo and it ran half an hour late. We were trying to sort out the kinks in the schedule that the teacher hadn't thought of - and that I pointed out, so I guess it's my own fault. Anyway, this made me rather late for the meeting I was supposed to have with Clare, but that didn't matter since now I'm switching classes... I need to meet with my new tutor though. This school is driving me insane.

I've been eating nothing but soup because swallowing hurts, with the result that I'm really hungry. Tomorrow I plan to get some ice cream... it'll feel really good, and be a bit more filling I think.

Anyway, that's it for today! Just class and a lot of reading. The End.

i smell... tea

Waking up today wasn't good. It was seven AM and my throat felt like it was trying to eat me... a very interesting sensation, but not one I'd care to repeat. I spent a few minutes gurgling at the ceiling, hoping my voice would hear my cries and come out of hiding. No such luck. And I think I confused the poor ceiling. So I went back to sleep. I woke up again much later, stumbled about a bit finding clothes, my voice, and the courage to face the world. Checked my email - then noticed a brightly colored stack of envelopes slid under the door. Real world mail! Yay!

I had gotten a Valentines card from Brady yesterday. Today I got one from my parents and one from grandma, as well as a letter from grandma, so now my desk is very colorful indeed ^.^ The cards are all greatly appreciated - the letter too. I like having tangible contact with the real world... er, that is, America...

So I debated skipping grocery shopping, but I really needed honey for my tea, so I went. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Even though I'm sick, I didn't need a hat or scarf, and I even opened my coat. Grocery shopping was uneventful. I'm annoyed with myself for buying the wrong kind of pads >.< Now I have two packs of useless feminine products. Ok guys... what are some creative uses for these things?

Er, anyway.

Yeah, bought my honey and lots of soup. Went back to the dorm and began work on the essay. But the noise level gradually increased to an intolerable state and I was forced to stop and read webcomics. Drat.

So far I've drunk three cups of tea, alternating with cough drops. Seems to be the only thing that keeps me from coughing.

Anyway, I'm in the mood for angsty drama now, which is annoying. I need junk food lit : P To the internets!

today is monday...

I woke up today feeling much sicker than yesterday. Bad sore throat... I went to class anyway. In Myth lecture we watched a French version of Orpheus that was actually really interesting... Orpheus falls in love with Death and Charon falls for Eurydice... all around good times. You know what's a great idea? Classics fan fiction. Oh yes.

Versions of Modernity was not nearly as entertaining. The lecturer called off so we had a sub. It really gets to me how teachers can be sick whenever they want but students aren't allowed. whatever.

After class I went to see Hazel about my shiny new course conflict. I am now enrolled in a different V of M seminar, with a different teacher, different students, and, knowing my luck, a different set of books to buy. Great.

Then I went home and slept til three. Woke up feeling not much better and spent the rest of the day doing things that did not involve leaving the bed - except that i did go out to buy some instant soup that turned out to be half decent, and some tea. Don't have any honey though - tomorrow I want to go grocery shopping, but we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Yeah, that's it for today. Absolutely nothing productive... meh, I'm ok with that.

oh there's no place like London...

London trip today! I woke up this morning at 8 feeling not too terribly tired despite the best efforts of my flatmates to not let anyone get any sleep at all before 4 in the morning. I put all my stuff together and went to catch the bus for London.

It was a long drive - took two hours to get to our drop off point. They played The Devil Wears Prada on the way. I was able to follow the gist of it but I'm afraid I missed the more subtle nuances... and I'm ok with that. When we finally got there, the bus dropped us off in front of a nondescript wall. No landmarks or anything nearby to let us know where we were... so I asked, and we were at Hay Market, and if we wanted they would show us how to get to Chinatown. Thinking that would be a more well-known place for Lisa to meet me, I went along and texted her. Turns out she knew where Hay Market was too : P In fact, that's where we'll be seeing Phantom in two weeks! Anyway, Lisa found me with no trouble and we began wandering about Chinatown. But it was really crowded and we couldn't see anything, though we could hear a parade. The place looked neat:



This is Chinatown all decorated for Chinese New Year!

But we moved on pretty quickly. There were supposed to be some interesting things happening in Trafalgar Square, so we went on that way. The square was even more crowded than Chinatown, though - approaching German Christmas Village levels. We went into the National Portrait Gallery instead and amused ourselves by making up stories for the people in the painting - the ones that didn't already have stories, that is.



This is one of my favorite paintings from the gallery, but it's hard to tell why from this image...



This is the upper right hand corner of the painting blown up. Even here it's hard to really see the maniacal glint in the cat's eye... trust me, it's really funny.

Anyway, from there we headed out for some lunch, and then to Piccadilly Circus:



It's basically Times Square, London, complete with McDonald's advertisments.



And it's got a fountain with huge horses.

We saw some odd telephone booths - they were black instead of red!!



Lisa decided that the phone booths were angry. I decided that they were sad.



Here are some normal, cheerful red ones!!

Next we went through Green Park. Very creative name... pretty accurate too.

This is a circle of trees in Green Park. I call it the Giant Ring.

Just through Green Park is Buckingam Palace! Or, as I like to call it, Buckingham Building-that-doesn't-look-like-a-castle.

These are the gates. Very impressive.

This is a guard. What happened to the red uniforms and big fuzzy hats? Possibly the same thing that happened to those black telephone booths!! O.O

Here's a shot of the facade between the bars of the gate.

And one taken from a distance.




You can see the Eye of London from the square in front of Buckingham Palace... physically, it's bigger than Sauron's, though not quite as scary.

This is a really tall monument to Queen Victoria in the square in front of Buckingham. This picture was me standing at the base and looking up. She's enormous.

The monument from a more reasonable distance

Here's me in front of a random weird looking statue. Lisa and I sat here for a while to rest.

Then we moved on, heading for Hyde Park.

This is a random arch on the way to Hyde Park. It is NOT Marble Arch, but if it was I'd have an interesting story to relate, thanks to Lisa. Marble Arch, which this is not, was built as an entryway to someplace for some kind of duke. But when it was built, the Duke's carriage was too big to fit through the arch. So they picked up the Marble Arch, put it down randomly somewhere else, and built the Duke's obese carriage a bigger arch. I saw Marble Arch... that carriage must have been HUGE.

Look, they put helpful signs in the street for us poor tourists who have no idea where to look so we don't get hit by a car.

Here is the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens! We had to wait a while for a bunch of dopey people to stop climbing all over it, but we finally got a clear shot : ) While we waited, we watched some pretty amusing birds jump on each other... birds look funny when they pop back up from underwater like corks.

Here is me with Peter ^.^ I almost bought a copy of Peter Pan today to keep with my tradition of buying a copy from every country I'm in, but books are SO expensive here, I couldn't bring myself to do it just yet. Maybe when I have more pounds on my Waterstone's card.

The plaque in front of the statue. You can't really read it, but it says who sculpted the statue, and talks a bit about James Barrie.

This is a squirrel talking to a fairy on the back of the statue!! : )

We finished up looking around Kensington Gardens, and decided to catch a bus back to the Hay Market area because we were tired from all that walking! We decided to take the bus to Oxford square, and it turned out to be a bus painted entirely black with Phantom of the Opera adverts all over it! Neat! We rode the bus up Oxford street, and therefore got to see all the shops from a nice safe distance from all the people. There are many retail stores and lots of familiar brand names... Anyway, we got off pretty close to Hay Market, with about an hour and a half to kill before my bus came. So we went into a Caffe Nero and got tea and hot chocolate and sat and talked for the remainder of the time.

Look, a pic of the two of us together! : ) I'm bad at centering...

Then the bus came, and Lisa and I parted ways, but we will see each other again in two weeks.

On the ride back, they played a movie which I think was called The Perfect Man, but which only held my interest because I couldn't see anything out of the windows... when the bus dropped us off, there was thick thick fog. I couldn't even see the tops of the Towers. I went and got a panini because I was too tired to cook and I wanted something hot. I was planning on getting tea too, because my throat really hurts, but the shop was already closed. Ah well. Food and a hot shower made a big difference...

And that was my adventure for today! Tomorrow... class... wheeee

i'm lazy, but productive...

Today I had planned to go grocery shopping, work on my essay, and go to archery. When I woke up I just did not feel like walking to Tesco, so I worked on my essay instead, and got the hardest bit done. When I got back from the library though, I went to enter the code into the dorm entrance, and my mind went completely blank. I forgot the code I have known effortlessly since January 9th. I had to wait for someone to walk out, and then go in...

I proceeded to work on my essay for a while.

Then I read webcomics for a really long time.

Then it was time for archery. I looked for Chris, but he was nowhere to be found so I went alone. As soon as I left the building I remembered that I had not found a solution to completely forgetting the key code.... argh. Anyway...

Archery was a much smaller group this time, but Bashar, the Syrian from last time was there, so we talked a lot and I met another guy named Pete, from Cambridge. Both of them are working on their PHDs - Bashar in software engineering and Pete in artificial intelligence (O.o) But they're both really fun to talk to, and are permanent members of the club.

We started using sights today, so I didn't do quite so well as I had the last time : P But by the end of the session I was getting the hang of it. After every session, the club goes out to one of the bars on campus to hang out - Top Bar, so called because it's on the top floor of a building. I can't tell you which because they're not named. I mentioned I don't drink and they gave me this look like "so what?" which was cool : ) Anyway, I didn't go tonight because Pete and Bashar weren't going, but we all agreed to go next weekend.

Bashar and I walked back to the tower together because the way to the Quays is just past there and he wanted to make sure I got in. I did! I remembered the code! That was so weird. Anyway, I ate a quick dinner and here I am.

Tomorrow - LONDON!!! (but i can't text Lisa for some reason! oh noes!)

aaahhahahaha it's 3 am

ok i totally meant to put this in the last post. purple skittles from america taste like purple skittles from america! it's not me! freaking british candy..... isleepnow

bumpy day

This morning the garbage trucks did not wake me up. But the cigarette smoke smell did. Normally Ben limits himself to one a day, but when he starts this early I know I'm going to be spending a lot of time outside.

Since I was up, I had enough time before class to check my email. I found out that applying for 390B instead of 390A gets me a better chance at an actual tutoring position next Spring, so it looks like that is what I am going to do. Also, I had an email about an internship from a New York based company. I'm applying even though I am in England, so we'll see how that turns out.
I needed to rework my resume for both of these, though, and just in general anyway...

Then Myth class, where I found out that the lecture is moving from Monday morning to Thursday morning. Thursday morning is when I have my Versions of Modernity seminar. Can they do this? Well, probably. By the time I got out of class, though, the office was closed til Monday (they close at 1 on Fridays. Most places do around here. How does anyone get anything done?). I emailed Hazel, so we shall see what she has to say about that, though I have no idea what they could do about it just for me... really it shouldn't be possible for me to have conflicting classes. Maybe if the scheduled classes by computer instead of just having students look up the times and write them down this wouldn't happen? I got really lucky that all the classes I chose when I got here didn't conflict. Most students had to reschedule everything. The administration here needs to go to Purdue and figure out how to do things more efficiently. I think it's probably because they are such a small campus here... they can deal with each student individually (that's how I got my schedule: I went in to Hazel and said which classes I was in and she told me the times and I wrote them down. When I dropped one and added a different one, she tried to enroll me in a seminar that clashed with another class - which wouldn't be possible at Purdue. Luckily, I am on top of things.)

Anyway, after myth I did laundry and then I ate an ambiguous meal somewhere between lunch and dinner. Then I sat down and reworked my resume. I thought it turned out pretty well, but when I emailed it to dad the formatting got wonky. Not good. Probably I should use a more common font.

Now, I am in for the night puttering about finishing odds and ends.

Title goes here

I borrowed my title from Emily : P

I woke up at 8 AM today, again. This time I found out what woke me up! It's the garbage trucks. I looked out the window to see what the weather was like, and as soon as I saw them, I could hear them too. Clearly my unconscious hearing is better than my conscious hearing. Now that I know they are garbage trucks and not some beastie coming to eat me, maybe I'll sleep uninterrupted past 8 tomorrow.

First class today was Versions of Modernity, in which we talked about Mrs. Dalloway. There is a scary girl in that class, very argumentative, always has something to say about everything. She got a bit out of hand today, but Clare, the tutor, handled it really well I thought... the girl was going off on a tangent about how Virginia Woolf isn't brilliant because she can write long sentences: any German could do that, and if she (the student) handed in an essay written like Virginia Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway, no one would call HER (the student) brilliant. I think someone's bitter about an essay grade... anyway it was really annoying.

Back to the dorm for a nap. I don't nap very well here for some reason, but it was nice to be under the blankets with my eyes closed, anyway.

Next was Early Modern Culture. No one read the reading for today except me. So the prof asked me to tell the class the story in the last half hour of class, but he kept interrupting to talk about certain points so class went over. In fairness, he was also interrupting because I was glossing over the gross and violent bits, and that was what he wanted to talk about : P

Back to the dorm for some school reading and a teeny amount of writing. Dinner company was good today - Phil and Sam. We decided to organize a flat trip to the local roller-rink, which should be really fun, especially since i'm pretty sure I'm not the most uncoordinated person in the group : )

I got an e-mail from Assistant Director Conrad-Salvo, who is in charge of reading applications for the tutoring practicum next semester. I had applied for 390A, which would lead to me tutoring 306. In her email, the assistant director asked if I'd consider applying for 390B instead, since I am a professional writing major. The difference is that after taking 390B I'd be helping students with business documents, such as resumes and cover letters instead of introductory composition. Now, this is a dilemma. It seems that I would have an advantage applying for 390B since I was specifically asked to. But, on the other hand, I am far better at general composition than I am at resumes... what to do. I had better decide soon.

Now I intend to sit down and really do some writing... Tomorrow: Myth!

packagepackagepackage

For some reason this morning I woke up around 8 AM. There was no noise in the hall and I didn't have a class til 2... the only thing I can think is that the sun woke me up, because it was a surprisingly cloudless day today, and my curtains really do nothing to keep the light out.

Well anyway, I went back to sleep. When I did wake up I ate a tiny lunch and began the reading for tomorrow. I was surprised by its length... so far for Early Modern Culture we have only had excerpts, nothing I couldn't finish in a night. This time we had a 68-page (that's English printer pages - larger than 8.5x11) travel journal, written in 1590-something. It was rather boring, and, I am inclined to believe, 60% or more made-up. I read 29 pages of it before I had to go to class, determining to print the rest out because I couldn't handle staring at the screen that long at a solid block of text (paragraphs hadn't been invented when this was written I guess). Right before I left, I checked my email, and lo! My package had arrived!! Excitement.

I went to class and discovered that I had done the reading for next week by mistake. Ah, but it's Oulipo, which really means randomness, so no one could tell and now I'm done for next week.
Sebastian actually showed up for class today and we parcelled out bits of the presentation so that we won't actually have to meet again until the day we present in class. Yay.

After class, I went and printed out the rest of the boring travel journal. Then I went and joined the sports federation and archery club... then I went to get my package!

Contained therein were my workout pants (just in time for Lent), fuzzy toe-warming socks, a spare cell phone battery, clothesline, a booklight (thank goodness!!), a back-up booklight (that is to say, string), and a lot of food... oh yes, various tasty American goodies... on Ash Wednesday. Quite the trial. Tomorrow, I will get fat.

Ash Wednesday Mass was tonight at 6, which was weird because I'm used to going in the morning and having ashes all day. Good thing it was this late though, because man, they are serious about their ashes around here. Rather than just having the ashes in a somewhat indistinct smear across the forehead, they mix the ashes with holy water, making them into a black paste, with which they draw a cross identifiable from rather a distance. It was interesting explaining the meaning of the big black cross on my forehead to my flatmates when I got back to the dorm for dinner. I mentioned something about England being mostly Anglican, and was quickly corrected. England is mostly atheist. Well, at least they are the nice sort of atheist and not the militant kind.

After a small dinner I took a shower... goodbye ashes after only about two hours... Then I sat down to try to read the rest of the boring travel journal. There really was far too much, so I just skimmed for the interesting bits, and was done rather quickly.

Tomorrow is an early class and some yummy American candy : )

The end.

I'm so stuffy give me a scone ^.^

Yay for Tuesdays! One of these Tuesdays I'm gonna sleep in so late that the noon fire alarm test wakes me up. On that day I will likely be grouchy. Today was not that day.

Today I woke up and finished my essay! I am 100 words above the minimum. Yay me! And I know a lot more about Irish faerie folk than I did before, which I guess is always good. So I skipped lunch to finish this paper since I was on a roll. Then I decided that since it's Fat Tuesday, I deserve a pastry. So I went out to campus to get one. It was surprisingly warm outside, despite the gusting wind, so I didn't have to wear my hat. In fact... warm day, strong wind... oh yes, billowing about campus like a specter of the darkness in men's hearts, I descended upon the cafe.

But first... remember me saying how the Ents wall was sort of depressing with nothing on it?....

I guess all I had to do was mention it : P

So anyway, I went to Cafe Vert, and they have this afternoon special where you can get a pot of tea and a scone with jam and clotted cream for 1.75, which I thought was a good deal, so I did. The tea was really good - English style with milk. The scone was also tasty, and clotted cream, though it sounds disgusting, is actually really good. Altogether, a most satisfactory snack.

I went to sign up for a London trip this Sunday after that. For 16 pounds I got transport into London as well as a day pass for the tube and the busses. Excellent. The trip is to go celebrate Chinese New Year, and I think I will be meeting Lisa there so that I won't be wandering around alone : P

Next was a stop at the Computer desk to find out how to change my comp to play region two dvds... Star Wars, here I come. I was gonna print off my syllabi while I was at it, but the lab was too full and I didn't feel like finding another.

Then I headed across the square to ask the Post Office about box sizes, and the lady there had no clue, so she told me to come back in an hour. So then I had to kill an hour. I went over to the bank to see if I could get cash without using the ATM, and therefore without a charge. I cannot. I am going to have to get some more cash before London though. Then I puttered about the bookstore for a bit, then wandered over to the lit lounge to do some reading. After an hour I went back to the post office and asked about the size of packages and found out that it does not matter, as long as I can carry it down there. Cool.

I went back to the dorm to do some more reading and some chatting, and went out again later to get a good dinner in preparation for fasting tomorrow. I can't believe tomorrow's the first day of Lent already. I plan to exercise daily, and wear my retainers every night, and give up cracking my knuckles. This is ambitious, but is definitely for the good.

Tomorrow there's an Ash Wednesday Mass at 6. Other than that, just one class. I plan to spend the rest of the day writing... we'll see if that actually happens : P