I left my weapons in America...

Only one class today. Oulipo. Uneventful as usual. After that I went back to the dorm and got ready for the cathedral trip.

Brentwood Cathedral is pretty, and rather modern looking on the inside. The whole town of Brentwood looked nice from the window of the bus. It took about an hour to get there, the Mass was an hour and a half, and then another hour to get back to Universtiy. I met two interntional students who go to Mass at the chaplaincy every Sunday, so that's good. They are Miguel form Mexico and Chiara from Italy. Chiara did the cheek-bump thing when she said goodbye! I felt so interntaional : P

Walking back to the tower I encountered a horde of zombies. Then I ate a late meal, took a shower, and blogged.

This is a really short blog because I'm so excited about going home Friday morning I can barely contain myself : P Actually, I have so much to do tomorrow I might not get a chance to blog, so I will state my plans here now:

Myth lecture at 9 AM. Then laundry. Then Early Modern Culture at 2. Some packing. Archery meeting at 6. Brief appearance at Vicki's party at 8, and then some more packing, and finally sleeping!

I will wake up at 4 AM, get dressed, pack last minute things, and hie me hence to ye olde bus stop to catch a bus to the airport, where I will catch a 7:10 bus to Heathrow. My flight is at 11:20 and by 8:20 I should be in Chicago! (that's 8:20 London time - 3:20 Chicago time, 4:20 Lafayette time) YAY!

Can't wait. Gonna go put this energy to good use and revise a paper.

Super Awesome Special Three-Day Update Blog, GO!

Ok so, I meant to update on Saturday, but the Internet went out and didn't come back until Monday afternoon. So then I meant to update Monday evening, but I got distracted... So here's a three-day update! I don't expect anything entertaining to happen tonight, so maybe it can count as a four-day update including Tuesday as well.

SATURDAY

Saturday (I just typed that Satyrday... interesting...) Lisa came to visit! Very exciting : ) I met her at the train station and we bought day bus passes and proceeded to explore Colchester. By the way, the one-day passes are completely worth it if you're going too and from University. The passes cost 2.80, and to get from University to town and back again costs 3.60. Lisa brought me tasty American junk food : )

We took the bus to high street and wandered aroung, thinking about lunch. We went to the tourist information building and asked if they could reccomend any restaurants. They reccomended The Lemon Tree. We thought about it, wandered back up High Street, and completely ignored their reccomendation, choosing to eat at a nice little cafe called Roxi. The food there was excellent and pretty reasonably priced too (in pounds anyway... I'm trying not to think of the dollars : P). The waitresses were all super friendly as well. We got some bread and calimari as appetizers, and then both got cottage pie as a meal.

Cottage pie is a sort of casserole dish... kind of... Well, basically it's beef, peas, carrots, and onions all cooked together, then topped with mashed potatoes and covered in cheese and baked. And the portions were huge.

So after lunch we walked around some more. We went to Red Lion Books... actually, it was Red Lion Ooks... and I finally bought a copy of Peter Pan! The books there were slightly cheaper than in London. Also, Red Lion Ooks is right across the street from the Red Lion Hotel! I took some pictures.



That's the hotel. It's got shops underneath it - a chocolate shop and something else. The dark archway people are standing in has the entrance to these shops, and the entrance to the hotel further back.



This is what you see when you walk in. A staircase right away - hope you're packing light.



This is looking up from on the stairs. The ceiling is a big skylight so the stairwell is pretty bright. didn't go into the reception area and didn't see any rooms. The construction looks pretty rustic, but also in good shape from what I saw. The carpeting on the stairs may be an unfortunate color choice, but at least it's not too ragged : P I didn't see a carpark anywhere nearby, but it is possible I missed it.

Next Lisa and I explored Castle Park. We sat on Roman foundations under a bridge and watched kids try to climb the castle walls. There was some kind of small agricultural fair going on. There was a horse. We xplored pretty much the whole park - it's huge. It has a lovely lake and a river. We got ice cream even though it was a bit chilly, and wandered all over the place.



Pretty flowers



I think this is technically no longer Castle Park, but it was still very pretty.

After that we caught a bus back to the University and I showed her around the campus. Then it started raining so we hid out in my room and ate Doritos and talked. Lisa colored a picture and shared stories. It was good times : )

I took the bus with her back to the North Station and we parted ways. When I got back to the room I sat down to blog, only to find the internet missing. Sigh. So, I finished doing my research for the Metamorphosis paper and then proceeded to attempt to beat my high score in pinball. It didn't work. In fact it was sort of pathetic.

SUNDAY

Happy belated birthday Grandma! It would have been on time had I had Internet : P

Sunday I got up and went to Mass. Had lunch (I'm slowly but surely eliminating the perishables). The Internet still wasn't back, so I wrote the Metamorphosis paper, so that's done! No more papers! Some revising yet, but the hard part is finished. Then I beat my second highest score on pinball... but my high is 7 million... probably won't be beating that any time soon.

Archery Sunday evening was the first annual super awesome Easter extravaganza : P We pinned balloons to the targets - three types, confetti-filled, pearly normal ones, and animal shaped - and shot at them. There was a pinata pinned to one of the targets, but as it turns out, arrows are not the best way to break a pinata. There were also enormous chocolate eggs at the center of each target. I took it upon myself to only shoot at animal shaped targets, and I popped a lot of them. I was having a really good night for shooting : P I also shot one of the center eggs. Thing completely shattered. It was awesome. At the end of the night we simply tore the pinata open and went on to top bar to hand out prizes : P I won the prize for most animals slain, as well as the nickname The Huntress, which is the best nickname I've ever had : ) Prizes were five-inch plastic trophies. I plan to keep toothpicks in mine.

Here are some pics of the enormous egg I shattered:




Watch shown for size comparison : P It was delicious.

After top bar I found an open computer lab and posted the blog about the Internet being down. Before archery I had stopped by the library to pick up a movie to keep me occupied that night - Troy. I forgive its tragic inaccuracy for its violence and attractive cast : ) I watched it with my tub of ice cream, and it was good.

MONDAY

The Internet was back Monday! I signed on and went to class. After Versions of Modernity lecture, I stopped by the Information Desk to ask where the best place to catch the bus to Stansted is. Then I went by the Lit Office to see if any more of my essays had been graded - and got my Early Modern Culture essay back! I got a 70!! That's a "first"! That's freaking awesome. Of course now he's going to expect my next paper to be just as good... and I'm not sure that it is. I certainly had trouble finding sources for it. Well, we shall see. I'm just glad it's done, honestly...

Got back to the tower and had lunch. By the time I was done with lunch, the Internet was crippled and barely running. Then it went away again, so I took a nap. When I woke up, it was back on and running smoothly! Hurray! Hopefully it is for good this time.

Around 4, Vicki came to get me to make a trip to Tesco. We went with her friends Nora and Lucy, who are fun people. Turns out, Vicki has a car! So we didn't walk : P That was awesome. I bought some milk for hot chocolate and bread. I mean I also bought bread. Not that I bought milk for bread. Because really, bread does not require milk.

Sadly I didn't need anything heavy while I had the advantage of a car. Vicki invited me to a party on flat 4 on Thursday. It's partly a general party, partly a birthday party for Vicki since her birthday is in April and no one will be around. I plan to go - it's at 8, so the archery meeting will be over - but only for a short while since I'll need some sleep, and I anticipate much smoking and drinking anyway.

So I chilled in the room doing random stuff for a while until i got hungry around 8 or 9 for dinner. While I was cooking some pasta, Vicki came in for dinner too, so we ate together and ended up talking until like, 11. Manbeast came in around then completely trashed, followed shortly by Mark or Mike... he lives on my flat and i can't remember his name... The last time I saw someone moving like manbeast was moving, he was promptly sick all over the place, so Vicki and I told manbeast to get to bed. He mumbled something incoherent and Mike, or possibly Mark, led him off in a daze. It was pretty disgusting. I don't get this whole getting drunk thing...

Well anyway, then Vicki and I were like "time to get out of the kitchen". After all, it was St. Patrick's day. So we went back to our rooms. I started talking to Kai and next thing I knew it was 3 AM. But before three AM happened... return of the mysterious thumps! Only this time they were annoying thumps around 2 AM. I'm glad I wasn't sleeping because really they were more like crashes. I think it was the guy below me opening his window, shouting out into the night, then slamming it closed. Repeatedly. Whatever.

So I went to bed around 3, a little after since I stayed up reading Dorian Gray for a bit.

TUESDAY

I woke up around ten this morning of my own accord. It was odd - normally I sleep til about 11:30 on Tuesdays. But it smelled like Summer in my room - like how the house smells when it's finally warm enough to open the windows and you leave the lights off because the sunlight is enough. Like how it smells in the upstairs when it gets warm, before dad puts the window unit in. So I got up. And it was cold. What the heck. I was very disappointed.

I did my morning stuff, read some webcomics... and discovered I had nothing left to do. So I took a walk. It was cold outside, too. When I came back I finally blogged!

Further plans for the evening include: Shower, revising a paper. Possibly a nap.

The end.

still alive...

Just a short post from a library comp to let anyone who was wondering know that I'm as fine as when we last spoke/txted/IMd, possibly even better depending on who you are. Internet's down yet again, and since it went down Saturday evening, it won't be fixed until sometime on Monday (i hope) as no one around here works on the weekends or checks their email. More comprehensive post to follow when Internet returns. That is all.

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

No, I'm not clever. Douglas Adams is. But it is true nevertheless. In my case, time is an illusion that's taking a really long time to get over with... time taking time... hmm, that might be one of those things you don't want to think about for too long.

Early Modernity seminar today. Talked about Kafka. I got a nap afterward. Yay : ) I think I've been grinding my teeth in my sleep. They hurt a bit. Plus I've been having weird dreams. Sleeping is so exciting.

Myth seminar today was all right. My enjoyment of that class is inhibited by the fact that I appear to be the only one who knows what's going on. Of my classmates, I mean. As far as subject matter goes, the professor knows what she's talking about. But today I was the only one who had done the reading. Before class a girl sat next to me (there were only four of us in class today. Students that is, not girls. Three of us were girls if you don't count the professor though...) and was talking about how she just couldn't grasp the ideas and the literature. She said she'd seen me talking to the professor after class, so clearly I know what's going on. I told her it's a certain way of thinking that takes a little practice, but that once you've got it everything seems really clear. We discussed some past texts and I hope I made things a little clearer. I wanted to offer to proof her essay for her, but I don't know that I can in good conscience give suggestions when I have no idea what this professor grades like.

Anyway, like I said, no one had read the text. The professor decided that in that case, she'd just talk to me. Swell. I got some nasty looks, and class went on way longer than it should have for only having one student in it, effectively... ah well.

After class I did laundry. I used a different detergent today. I hope I don't have a reaction to it... after laundry I sat down to research the Kafka a bit, but I fell asleep. Sort of. I felt very aware of my surroundings, sort of in that almost-asleep state. I finally gave it up though and "woke up", very surprised to find that an hour and a half had passed and it was now dark out. I wrote for a bit, then decided I needed some chips before going any further. I ran out to the campus shop and bought some. When I came back I saw Vicki, Sophie, and manbeast in the kitchen so I stopped to talk to them and ended up sitting around with the entire flat in the kithcen having about five different conversations, and wondering why in Britain they call Jell-O jelly, but they still have Jell-O shots.

After a few hours of this, I retreated to my room. Vicki came by later and loaned me a few issues of Sandman and Lucifer : ) Goodbye productivity... I shall try very hard not to read all of them tonight, as Lisa is coming over tomorrow! I am excited, and I hope it doesn't rain.

That's all for now. I should sleep, but instead I will read : )

The missing Thursday

Almost forgot to blog today. You know why? It's because this Thursday doesn't actually exist. There was a temproal fold, and Thursday got lost. Today was SUPPOSED to be a Friday. But calendars can't just skip Thursdays to account for a sudden temporal shift - they're just not that flexible. So everyone's walking around trying to convince themselves it's Thursday when we all know it FEELS like a Friday, and that tomorrow should be Saturday. To further complicate matters, I am writing this after midnight.

No one is going to realize this unfortunate occurance until some astronomers go to look at the moon and stars only to find that they are not in the correct phase or position in the sky, at which point NASA will proceed to cover everything up. These are the descendents of the people who decided the Greeks and Egyptians didn't know what they were doing with their calendars that added days here and there to make sure the seasons were in the right month year-to-year, and instead figured that just taking a day on to the end of February every four years should be quite sufficient.

And that, kiddies, is why it snows in March now.

As for real news... there isn't any. But here is what I did today anyway.

First class was Myth lecture, in which the professor proceeded to deliver exactly what I had written in my paper to the class. Uh oh. I went to talk to her afterwards, though, and she says that's totally fine - that I came up with this stuff independently means I interpreted a very difficult text correctly, and also proved the existance of archetype. Good for me. I think I impressed her too, so that's always good.

Early Modern Culture was cancelled this week, so I went back to the room to continue sleeping. I slept pretty seriously. After I woke up I spent the rest of the day constructing timelines and plot summaries, and figuring out characters. Not a bad way to spend a day. Of course I should have been researching for my last paper but... oh well.

Lisa is now coming to visit on Saturday! Fun times shall be had as Saturday is now St. Patrick's day because the Pope said so. It's also the Ides of March I believe so we can celebrate that too.

That's all for today. To bed with me!

I keep thinking tomorrow is Friday.

And it's not. It is, in fact, Thursday. Just goes to show you what a few extra days of not having class will do to you, and that is: make you want more sooner. Days without class I mean. Not more class. Because who wants that?

Today I went to the first class I've been to since Friday, and all that was great. The not having class I mean. Or the having class and skipping it. Both. Today was Oulipo and I really had a big problem caring because both my essays are done for that class, and we have no reading left to do. I wonder what next term will be like, with a new professor (new for me - the nonexchange students had him Autumn term).

I had a letter from both Grandpa and Grandma in the past few days, both greatly appreciated : ) I can't wait to see everyone in... oh... a week and two days! (the counter says a week and a day and 10 hours, but that's til I'll be on a bus to Heathrow. Add another ten hours or so til I get home and it's closer to a week and two days...)

I got my first essay back today. I got a 66, which my conversion chart from Purdue calls an A! So that's good. It makes me less worried about the other papers. For now anyway.

I finished revising my Myth paper today. It needs just a bit more work before it's ready to hand in, but that's not really work that requires effort so that's ok. One more paper to go. The only problem I think I'll have on this one is meeting the word count. Culpability in Kafka's Metamorphosis? After "Theory of Symbols" this is going to be a walk in the park, or perhaps something more imaginative and less cliched that I can't come up with right now. I must remember to ask Antonella about sources, because it would appear that the prompt only requires the novel itself, but some people expect craaaazy things.

Lisa is coming to visit on Monday! I am excited about this. I wish we could manage it on the weekend, but this one last paper must be written. Could be I'll finish it before Sunday... but, knowing me, probably not...

What else what else what else... oh, there's a spoon poltergeist. We keep finding spoons in the hallway that no one will claim... it's rather odd. Vikki told me a story of how one of her friends first year had a haunted room. The girl locked her door to go to class - Vikki was with her - and after class they got back and the girl couldn't find her key. They had to call security to open the door. They walked in the room, and there the keys were, on the bed. Now, the door was definitely locked, and the room was on the sixth floor.... strange indeed.

That's all I've got for today I think. Tomorrow is Thursday. Not Friday. The end.

Anyone in the audience speak Parsel?

So, Tawney Tower has a Chamber of Secrets.

wait, what?

Oh, indeed. I was in the cleaning closet looking for a broom. I opened a door in the closet and found... a bathroom?!

No one ever uses this bathroom... I didn't even know it was there. Clearly, there is a chamber of secrets behind the sink. This would also explain the mysterious thumping! Now I just need someone who speaks snake, and I'm off on a whirlwind adventure that may or may not end in possession or death! Hmm i should get a bow first....

In other occult news, I purchased garlic today.

That is all.

a title a title! my kingdom for... no, you know what, it's not worth it

My paper has a title and that's what counts.

Yeah that's what I did today. Wrote a 12 page paper. Only... it's 11 pages. And it's 229 words short. So, if anyone has anything thoughtful to add regarding Frye's Theory of Symbols, allegory and archetype in "Kubla Khan", or both, I'm taking suggestions now : P

What else did I do today? I slept a lot. I ate lunch. That was fun. Those two are related actually. I woke up at noon so lunch was breakfast. That was cool. Oh and when I woke up I thought "hmm maybe I will go sockless today". This becomes ironic or something later, trust me. Oh, wait, right now actually: walking into the kitchen and finding glass all over the floor while only wearing flip flops was awesome. And not being able to find a broom, that was cool too. Someone had smashed a sauce jar... my sauce jar in fact. It was empty, thank goodness. I had washed it out and left it to dry on the counter so I could use it for pouring grease if I want to make tacos... which I won't be doing til I get another container now. It's not like the thing was balancing precariously on the edge of a counter either... plus it was a pretty thick glass jar, not exactly easy to break... well, that's cool I use a lot of spaghetti sauce so whatever, but my question is this: Who the heck breaks a jar and just leaves the glass scattered all over the floor???? There was no one around or anything, so I went back into my room to wait until Phil woke up so I could ask her where a broom might be. She got into the kitchen before I got to her, completely barefoot. yikes. The two of us cleaned up the glass with no injuries. But seriously... I mean come on.

Yeah that's it, that and a really long paper. blaaaaaaaaah

Been thinking so much I can't even think of a title

Friday: early class then noon class. I couldn't get to sleep last night for some odd reason. When I finally did fall asleep, I slept really well, and was decidedly unappreciative of my alarm clock this morning.

For the first half hour of my nine oclock class it was just me, one other student, and Antonella. I was hoping she wouldn't even bother having class, but Antonella has way too much energy for that, and we proceeded. She mentioned that next week we would be doing Kafka (she mentioned this largely because I had accidentally brought the Kafka instead of the Beckett to class. Oops) and the following week The Wide Sargasso Sea. I pointed out that there wouldn't be a following week - not a Friday of it anyway, because that's the first day of break. It was the first she'd heard of it! The other girl in the class backed me up though, and we both invoked the name of Hazel, which seemed to convince Antonella. She was distressed that we wouldn't be covering The Wide Sargasso Sea but really, I think we'll survive.

After class I asked Antonella about the prompts which are still not posted. She assured me that they would be posted today. "Really?" I said.

"Well, by Monday at the latest." she replied. Argh. This paper will never get written.

Next I went to get Frye's Theory of Symbols from the office. It was thicker than I had been anticipating (The text, not the office. The office was precisely the expected thickness). I tossed it (again, the text. Come on, try to keep up) on my nightstand thing when I got back to the room and took a nap. It wasn't a very thorough nap though, as for some reason I have difficulty sleeping between classes here, and I went to Myth seminar feeling unrefreshed.

At the end of Myth seminar, just because I had a sneaking suspicion, I said "So, next week is the last time we're meeting, right?" The prof said no, we have another class after that. I said, but it is March 21, no classes that day.

She said "It is Good Friday?" pause... "No..." pause... "Already?" So it looks like we won't be discussing Frye's Theory of Symbols in my myth class, which, I later found, is unfortunate.

After myth I ate lunch before doing laundry because I was oddly hungry. I had no issues with driers this time - I've got the good ones staked out, all two of em. When laundry was finally over, I tried the napping thing again. It went really really well. The dings from two IMs did not wake me up. I slept over an hour, hard, and woke up with a headache but I'm really awake now so I'm glad I did it. I sat down to read Theory of Symbols so I could write my essay tomorrow.

Theory of Symbols is hard. I don't understand most of what this Frye guy (hee) is saying, but I think I know just enough to be able to write an essay. You can bet there will be frequent emails to the prof and a meeting when the essay is finished just to make sure, though. I bet this is gonna be tricky to write. We shall see.

Then I had a fun little discussion with Emily. As it turns out, the CLA honors program has different requirements from the UHP for getting an honors degree, and Emily and I have to fulfill them both. Both require 24 honors credit hours, but the CLA wants you to have 12 of them in honors classes outside your major, 3 of them in a 300 level honors class, and 6 of them in 400 level honors courses or just plain old 500 level courses. By sheer luck, I am still on track because I am taking two 500 level courses next semester, and that will fulfill my CLA requirements. However, I still need 4 more credits for the UHP because I don't think they accept plain old 500 level courses. I'm not gonna complain about the 2 extra honors classes I have to do because Emily is in a way worse boat than I am. The thing is though, why didn't either of us know about these requirements? I'm pretty sure they aren't posted online anywhere. If Emily hadn't told me, I would never have known. (edit: I just found it. It's something called the Gold Sheet. It took quite a bit of searching on the CLA website, and certainly looks like the sort of document our freshman councilors should have handed to us with the core sheet and the major/minor sheets. sigh.)

Anyway. Then I went back to reading and did that for a really really long time. I was interrupted a few times though, by a mysterious Thing thumping in the night... It was very odd. I was reading along and thump -it sounded like a sock full of sand had struck (stricken?) my window. I was considerably startled, but went back to my reading. Then another thump thumped and I got up because my desk is very close to the window. I waited a while. No more thumps. I looked out the window. No one was standing on the ground below... and if they were I'd have commended their arm, because I'm on the eighth floor... Phil was not leaning mischievously out her window - indeed her window was not even open, and I heard her come in later, so she wasn't even in her room. I sat back down to continue reading. Then two more thumps thumped! I did not want to look out the window because that last thump sounded worse than the others. I walked out to the kitchen to see if anyone was around, but they were not. I knocked on Phil's door, but as I later learned, she was out. So I went back in to sit down and read and no more thumps thumped. Eventually I checked my window to make sure it was secure - it was, and undamaged. I can't figure out what the thumps were. I think maybe the person above me left his window open and the wind was wreaking havok with it? or maybe he was repeatedly dropping a bowling ball on the ceiling right above my window so it sounded like something was hitting my window... stranger things have happened! Anyway hopefully that's the last I'll hear of the mysterious thump...

And now, I do mindless things! yay!

it's thursday

Myth lecture this morning. I talked to the prof afterward and she said the relevent text for my essay would be available in Hazel's office Friday. Cool. I can write a paper this weekend... yay? After class I swung by the computer lab to print of next week's reading, and then went to the bookstore. They had tons of copies of Odd and the Frost Giants! I now have a copy : ) I had to hide it from myself though because I still have to get through Calasso's Ka, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Life; A User's Manual, and Theory of Symbols before I am well and truly done for the rest of the semester : P Anyhow, I was feeling hungry at that point so I thought I'd pick up a tasty pasty (they don't rhyme, incidentally), but sadly they were all out : ( I had soup instead.

I napped after my very early lunch and got up again for Early Modern Culture. We just reviewed for the exam today, going over a lot of autumn term stuff. I asked what Sebastian and I should expect to be different from the sample exam he showed us and he had no idea. Great.

After class I was hungry again -I guess thinking burns calories? - so I ate a pretty early dinner. Someone had absconded with the dish soap though so I didn't want to get anything dirty. Ramen saves the day! yay for a self contained meal : P

So I got a bit of writing done but was largely unproductive tonight, and that is ok, for this weekend, I shall write a 4,000 word paper (that's about 15 American pages >.<)

i am tired

I didn't wake up till noon today, which was eight hours of sleep, so good for me. Luckily, I woke up with just enough time to get dressed and brush my teeth and look like i'd been awake for a while before a suprise room inspection. Lady came a knockin on doors and inspecting rooms like she was the Patriot Act or something which obviously she's not cuz she's British... anyway, my room is, of course, fine since I just cleaned it yesterday : P She didn't bat an eye at the flying ninja dinosaur either. She did, however, lock Phil's room since Phil had gone to class without locking after herself, which I thought was a bit odd. Not that Phil didn't lock up, but that this lady went and locked the door... I don't really think it's her business if Phil wants to leave her door unlocked? Ah well.

So I ate lunch and read for a bit before deciding that I needed some bread. I walked to Tesco and bought the bread. Then I walked back. The weather is back to nice today, even if it managed to snow yesterday. Go figure.

When I got back to the room I did a bit of writing and some concept work and talked to people. Dinner was pasta. I had a lovely conversation with Vikki. We're both big Neil Gaiman fangirls, turns out, and she told me she had found a copy of Odd and the Frost Giants at Tesco! I was astounded since I thought they would only be available for World Book Day, and then only for the kids with tokens, but clearly I have misunderstood this whole thing and anyone can buy one. I actually hopped onto a bus and went down to Tesco tonight to see if I could get a copy for myself but they were out. I'll keep checking back, because it would be great to have a copy that I don't have to pay absurd shipping on.

Anyway I took the bus back and the whole little trip neatly cleaned out my change purse, which is well enough because I was beginning to get weighed down with all the one p pieces that no one ever uses - just like pennies, only worth more : P Anyway, the point of this whole ordeal is that Vikki is pretty fun to talk to and once I read American Gods we will be discussing : ) She says that Neverwhere is absolutely the best Gaiman book so I will have to be checking out that one too. And Coraline I suppose : P Ok ok so pretty much everything. Good thing I don't have a job in the month of July.

I want to be a famous author... that shall be my job in July. That and studying for the GRE and GMAT >.< blergh

Package of Amazing!

It is Melanie's birthday today! She is 21! They grow up so fast... Happy birthday Melanie! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you : )

So I woke up today around 11:30. The plan was to go to campus and hand in my paper, ask about travelcards at the post office, get lunch, and go grocery shopping. After checking my email, the plan became hand in the paper, ask about travel cards, pick up a package!!!!!!!, get lunch, and go grocery shopping.

So I got to campus at exactly the wrong time when everywhere but the post office was closed for lunch. So I went to the post office and the only questions they answered were that no, they didn't sell travelcards there so no, they couldn't help me. So I got lunch and went back to the room and messed around online until 1:30 when everyone would come back from lunch. Found out that the prompts for the Modernity essay are STILL not posted so basically I'm just wasting these two free days. Anyway, back to campus.

Picked up the package at the post office which was rather larger than I had been expecitng : ) I took it upstairs to turn in my essay and then went back to the tower to see what in the world was making the thing so heavy. Turns out the sheer weight of awesomeness was what did it. Kai and Steph were good enough to include a list of contents so I know I won't leave anything out. First off, they included some colored pictures, as well as a chibi adventure, which have brightened up my room considerably. I was just recently bemoaning my lack of posters to relieve the prison cell atmosphere. They also included two coloring books and a big box of crayons, so guess what I'll be doing until they post those essays!!

Food items included the largest bag of jellybellys I have ever seen with lots of cherry : ) yummm. Also, a box of koala yummies which are hard to find even in the states and certainly don't exist here, a box of pocky because it's awesome, laffy taffy, jolly ranchers, reese cups, gum, and starbursts. Either I'm coming home fat or with extra candy : P More likely the former. Oh, also Peeps to get me in the easter mood!! Non-candy food was Ramen, which they do not have out here - they have similar products but let's face it, Ramen is Ramen. They sent chopsticks with the Ramen so the two Asian exchange students in the flat can make fun of me : P Also, instant microwave rice, fruit roll ups, and cherry tea. The tea is my favorite brand that I only just discovered here - a brand called Twinings. Kai says you can only find it in Disney World in the states. Phoo. Can't wait to try the cherry though. Oh, and they included hot chocolate too, which is good becuase the stuff i took pictures of wasn't so great. Oh, and most thrillingly, they also included a can of campbells soup. I can't wait to eat that. The soup here is just not as good.

In miscellany, one pirate duck and one dinosaur which, as reccomended, became a ninja. I made it a mask to commemorate the occasion. The pirate duck's name is Arrrrgo and the ninja dinosaur's name is was going to be Davey but then I remembered that he's a ninja... oh what to do... so I named it Javey : ) I made Arrrrgo a ship since I made Javey a mask, and now I have a lovely pirate-ninja war going on in my room : )



Unsuspecting pirate duck.....



....suspects nothing...



Death from above!



Arrrrgo is ignorant of his plight!

Yeah... I didn't go grocery shopping today : P With all that food I probably won't need to until I get back from break! And anyway, it started snow/raining and got cold so I stayed inside and gave my room a good cleaning. Then I colored a picture from the Disney Princess coloring book! Yay!



Ok, it's not my fault they drew Ariel looking slightly hungry. Why yes, the caption DOES say "nom nom nom". And yes, those ARE fangs. : )

Let's see... in other news... i want another cornish pasty. The end.

Let the second weekend begin!

I really didn't want to get out of bed today. They don't take attendance at the lectures, which was my only class, so it was really tempting just to go back to sleep after my alarm. Two things got me up. One, my favorite prof was delivering the lecture today. Two, it was a lecture on Waiting for Godot and I really need some help grasping that text. No, I still don't get it, but I know that no one else does either, so that's ok. So I got out of bed and found a notice slipped under my door that the flat was being charged for repair work that they had to do on manbeast's door. Argh. Unless whoever is responsible for the damage speaks up, we all have to pay 8 pounds. Annoying.

So I went to lecture, printed out the essay that's due Thursday, and went back to the room for lunch. Upon coming back to the room I saw another piece of mail had been slipped under my door - a letter from grandma! Considerably more pleasant than the previous piece of mail : ) I read it over lunch, and then set out to Tesco to buy stuff for dinner.

It was sunny today, but there was a cold wind blowing. Walking to Tesco I was cold, but walking back the wind stopped and I actually broke a sweat. When I got back I cracked open Dorian Gray, one of the last two books I have to read before exams in May. One of the last two books I have to read at all, actually. I'm determined to say Neverending Story for the flight.

When I woke up I checked the Modernity site to see if they'd posted the next essay prompts yet. They haven't. They are throwing off my schedule.

I actually cooked real food tonight - chicken with peppers and rice. My flatmates were thrilled. Also, Sophie gave me the scoop on what's going on with the extra charges. She said that the rest of the flat is fairly certain who did it (the door was kicked in, by the way). They have no proof, but Sophie said that we're not going to have to pay. If the guy doesn't own up to it, I guess they'll turn him in? I don't know. It was another drunken incident though, which is really not doing anything for the argument of lowering the drinking age in the states. Also, I'm glad I stay in my room all the time.

That's all for today. I hope Modernity posts the essay prompts soon. I've got nothing else to do for the next two days >.<

titles are hard

Church this morning. Uneventful, except that Father Martin announced that the chaplaincy is planning to go to a cathedral for mass during Holy Week if enough people are interested. I signed up for info. I could stand to go to a church where there is music : ) plus, cathedrals are pretty. The one we will be hopefully going to is in Brentwood, which is a little more than halfway to London from Colchester. Probably about an hour drive. I hope it works out.

After church I did some more class reading, which is ridiculous because I'm about two weeks ahead in my reading, which means I don't have much left to read. Then I touched up the essay that's due Thursday, so any work I need to have finished is finished. I was looking at the prompts for the myth paper, and they all suck a lot. I was hoping there would be a question about Kubla Khan, because I could get 4000 out of a line-by-line analysis of that poem, plus there's a lot of material out there about it. Alas, no prompts about Kubla Khan. Depending on how class goes this week, I may ask if I can make up my own prompt.

Archery tonight was good. It was a pretty small group, and we went out to Top Bar after for amusing conversations about strange UK customs that British people think are prevalent all over the world. No, not all restaurants are carpeted elsewhere in the world...

Anyway, now I am here, completely without any work to do. How shall I waste my time tonight....

late late late

Ok so technically it's Sunday, but here's the blog for Saturday.

I woke up, did some more research (eeew) and had some soup for lunch. Then I went to Tesco for a few things I was suddenly out of - paper towels, soup, noodly thingies....



...gummy bears...



...hot chocolate...

Heh... ok... those of you who have eaten with me in the dining courts probably can predict what's next...



bwa ha ha! melllllt my pretties! melllllllllt!

ehem.

Really though, locating gummy bears and hot chocolate on the same day, where there were none before? It was destiny.

Right, so I got back from Tesco and sat down to work on my paper some more and ended up taking a three hour nap instead. I woke up around 6 or something... yeah.... So I buckled down and finished the paper by midnight! Woo! Then I realized I hadn't eaten, so I did that, and then played with my gummy bears a bit... and now I am here, and i am wide awake. Good thing I don't have anywhere to be until noon tomorrow!