angst would be so much better if i were a wizard!

so turns out sunrise in these parts is around 5 AM. I stayed up til about 6:30. I was hoping for a nice cloudy day, but British weather let me down. I slept through the sunshine anyway... yes, my sleep schedule is messed up, and no, it doesn't matter. I work better in the afternoon.

So this morning i started doing my reading, realized I was way ahead of schedule, and stopped. Went to the kitchen for some lunch, but ended up eating in my room again... Lisa did not appear to miraculously cleanse the kitchen this morning. I fear the weekend revelries of the heathens have proved too much for her and she has refused to clean up after them any longer... I really want some real food, but it's gotten to the point where I hold my breath in the kitchen. I don't even want to be in there long enough to wash a dish.

So I got a lot of writing done today. I'm coming very close to the end of the lost pass, so I should shortly have a finished novella on my hands. Which is completely useless. Huzzah. But hey, yay for finishing something... or coming close to it anyway.

That's all today! Tomorrow I go buy more food i can keep in my wardrobe! Huzzah!

Good night for a barbeque...

Today was a really nice day. The wind was not absurd, and the sun was out most of the time. I had class at nine and an extra long myth class at noon. Seriously, they had to make it extra long so two professors could switch off teaching it. The first professor left at 1 to go eat lunch and handed us off to another prof who kept us til two. Of course, the students are all thinking "how come you get a lunch break?". Ok so maybe some of them were thinking about myth. But there were only four of us there... so perhaps not. I wish I hadn't gone to that class since they only discussed stuff from before I was here, which I am not responsible for. Oh well.

After class I did laundry. The dryer failed to live up to its name once more, and so, once more, my room has been turned into a clothing fort. Only this time, I don't have the heat on so my pajamas probably will not be dry when I am ready to go to bed : ( boo.

Took some pictures of some nice trees by the towers that are blooming:



I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but the blossoms look like this:





They are not very fragrant, but they are extremely poofy...

This afternoon I lounged around online, did a bit of reading, the usual hijinks. Around 7 or 8 my flatmates were like "barbeque!" so I was like "ok!". We all went out onto campus where, lo and behold, they have little grills set up. Cool. So we barbequed in the sunset, in honor of manbeast's birthday which was about two weeks ago. Of course it was perfectly nice all day, but no, we waited until it was dark out. It was fun though. I met Lauren and Mike, two of manbeast's friends, who seem pretty cool. Lauren's a creative writing major! Woo!

Some pics from the barbeque by night (I have no clue if i'm spelling barbeque right... bbq?)



Apparantly we have a swan on campus. Scary.



This is Sophie!!



The library and the lake



manbeast - no he's not drunk... at least not very, but i did take him a bit by surprise.



This is my next-door neighbor Phil. Her hair isn't always that color - that's new today.

Manbeast invited me to go out to the castle tomorrow with him and Mike and Lauren, but I think he may have been a little tipsy at the time so we'll see if he remembers. Lauren and I shoved off a little after nine because we were cold. I showered and tried to change into my pajamas before remembering they were wet >.< Argh!

Tomorrow: the castle and who knows what else

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

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 >.<)

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 >.<

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.

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...

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!

Ah, late

Well this post is a bit late... technically this is February 4th. But oh well, I am still awake.

Started the day off with church, only Father Martin was called suddenly away to Ireland to attend upon his dying uncle. Before he left, he consecrated the hosts and left them for the congregation, so we had a "Eucharistic Service" instead. Sister something (I can't remember her name... but she is basically the altar and rosary society hereabouts) asked me to read the Gospel, which was awesome because I've always wanted to read the Gospel (seriously, the Gospel readings are generally much more interesting than the first and second readings). The service was considerably shorter than Mass. And there was a cellist who played beautifully.

I stopped at the campus shop after mass, hoping to find some fruit based candy to aid my essay writing, but alas, I was unsuccessful (ie, no jellybeans). I bought bananas instead. Probably better than fruit candy.

I went back to the dorm for lunch. The kitchen was a mess. Actually, it's still a mess. The cleaning crew doesn't come in on weekends, so the Heathens just leave everything for two days. The floors, counters, sinks, and dishes are encrusted with old food. The garbage is overflowing (anyone could take it out... I did not because it smells suspicious and looks moist and at this point removing it with anything but the utmost caution would probably do more harm than good). I couldn't wash a dish if I used one because the sinks are so full, and the dishes in them are too disgusting for me to want to touch to move them. I threw together a quick sandwich and ate it in my room.

Then I sat down to work on my essay. This one is really not coming together as easily as the last one. It's still not finished. I will do that Tuesday. I worked on the essay until it was time for archery.

Chris went with me, and we're both thinking of joining. There were a lot of people at this session, so there was a lot of standing around waiting for your turn. But the company was good. I met Mohammed from Pakistan and a Syrian whose name I cannot now recall.

The bows the club uses are definitely heavier and longer than what I'm used to, but I shot well enough with them. I hit the target every time, though only two bull's eyes. After the session I came back fully intending to finish my essay, but glancing at the lecture program for tomorrow, realized I was supposed to read Mrs Dalloway.

So I did that.

All in one sitting.

So basically, I'm awesome.

And now I'm going to bed. Good night.

80,000 different folds... take my word for it

Today I went to a computer lab and printed out my first essay so that Martyn Waites, Essay Specialist, could review it. British paper is weird, and the default is double-sided printing, which is good because it saves me money... but the paper itself is loooong. In my American version of Word, the paper was about nine pages. It is six in the British version, on British paper : P

The essay meeting went really well. Martyn is a pretty young guy (I was expecting an old dude), and he showed me how to do things more Britishly. I'll be rewriting that essay probably tomorrow, and then writing my Yeats one on Friday. Argh.

I grabbed a quick lunch from the convenience store on my way back to the dorm, because my next class was in about an hour. It was this croissant stuffed with sausage and carrots and potatoes, and it was yummy : ) I did some school reading and then went to the art gallery where the writing class was meeting.

We were looking at words as art.

I think artists must get very bored to come up with some of these things. One guy took twelve Oxford English Dictionaries and folded each page a different way, coming up with some 80,000 folds total.... that's what the sign said anyway, i didn't count. We decided to take the artist's word for it. Another artist took the periods from two different computer fonts - Bodoni and New York - and blew them up til they were the size of... hmm. something really big. Bigger than your head. Like, a foot and a half across. And that was it. Two periods. Turns out the Bodoni is pretty lopsided.

After class I went back to the room and did my reading and chatted a bit. Dinner was tomato rice soup that, despite being campbells, was not as good as what you get at home. Phil announced that her hockey team was coming over for "drinking sessions" (and loud rap music apparantly) so I took a quick shower and locked myself in my room... That is where things stand now.

The music seems to have quietened... maybe things will get done around here : P

and maybe the hallway won't smell like vomit when I wake up. It's important to stay optimistic....

So apparantly Monday nights around here are when all the partying happens. I woke up this morning to the smell of vomit and air freshener. Someone had thrown up just outside my door - like, a foot away from the bathroom. Phil said that at least Chris had made it to the toilet but apparantly this other guy, whoever it was, was not so considerate. I really dislike my flatmates.

I packed up some books and went to get lunch somewhere that didn't smell disgusting, and did some reading in the library. Then I went to Tesco to by some disinfectant spray and air freshener to get the smell out of my room. I spent the rest of the day falling asleep over class reading and planning my next essay.

Also, I had my first encounter with British peanut butter today.... it's not as good as American peanut butter, but bearable when eaten with pretzels. The best way to describe it is as a vaguely peanut-flavored paste. I bought the one that had mostly the same ingredients as American peanut butter, but... fail. Ah well, now i know.

All in all, a rather uneventful day. Tomorrow I've got an essay meeting and one class.

The end.

American Jellybeans and Toaster Fires (not neccessarily related)

Today is my two-class day. It was my first time meeting with the seminar for Modernity, and it is a good class. The teacher definitely knows what she's doing. She also gave me a whole stack of books to buy. Boo to that. She also was surprised at my jumping in in the middle of things since this class started last term.

Also, about five people - administrative types too - asked if I was only here for one term. I WISH that was an option! No one seems to know how things work around here >.< The Summer term seems pretty useless anyway... I for one will have already finished all of my essays : P

Since I had a really hard time getting to sleep last night, I went back to the dorm for a nap after my first class. Had a hard time sleeping then too. I hope this does not become a theme.

Second class was uninteresting except that it let out an hour early : ) I stopped by the post office to see about train tickets to London, and found out I can buy a pass for the whole day for 24 pounds that will work to get me to and from London and also on the Underground! Good deal, says I. (By the way, what's a good place to find out what kind of shows are playing in London? Anyone know?... Liiiisa? : P)

Then I stopped by the convenience store for some milk. While I was waiting in line, looking around idly, my eyes fell upon a package with an American flag on it, proudly proclaiming "American Jellybeans!" I got pretty excited and grabbed a pack. After I bought it and looked at it closer, I saw that it also said "Fruity and Crunchy!" which made me a little bit worried...

Did a bit of reading (Lord Foul's Bane is really good). Dinner was some manner of noodles and cheese from a bag (Not a pouch. Here a pouch is... like what a kangaroo has, or a fanny pack I guess. I got some weird looks when I was like "oh pasta in a pouch"...) I ate dinner with Chris, Sam, Sophie, and Phil. Sam told me that they sell some easy-to-make mexican dinners at Tesco. He knows because he is as lazy as I am when it comes to cooking. And apparantly there is a good Indian restaurant in Wivenhoe.

While all of us were making dinner, the fire alarm went off. Curses. We left our food, hoping it'd be all right, and tromped down the stairs into the cold coldness. Turns out this time there actually WAS a fire, though there is some dispute as to whether it was a toaster fire or someone was burning documents. I maintain that someone was attempting to burn documents in a toaster. Anyway, it was sorted out pretty quick, and we all went back up to see to our food.

After all of that, I got to try my fruity crunchy jellybeans. Britain lied to me again: they were not crunchy at all. But in this case, that's a good thing. These things are actually superior to most American jellybeans. Some of the flavors approach jellybelly quality... I am pleased : )

Tomorrow.... possibly laundry, possibly a trip to Tesco... I have not decided... and then, research for my first paper. Oh joy.

It was sunny ALL DAY! (edited at 7:12 PM)

I woke up around 8 AM this morning when people outside started walking to class. Since I have none of those silly things today, I went back to sleep until 11. Unfortunately, I had very bad dreams. Turns out, one of the worst things about waking up 100,000 miles away from home is that there's no one around to reassure you that nothing in your dream actually happened. I figured it out though : P

I walked down to Tesco to buy a blanket of some kind to stop the bed from bruising me any more, as well as another pillow since mine are quite flat. I planned to go to Tesco, then eat lunch on campus. By the time I got to the store, though, I was pretty hungry, and there is a cafe right inside. And they were serving lasagna. I ate lunch there. The lasagna was good. It had an interesting cheese in it that I couldn't place - sweeter, and liquidy. Anyway, it was tasty, though not exactly Mom's lasagna...

As far as purchases, I ended up buying the most cost-efficient items, which ended up being a set of two pillows, two white pillow cases, a big duvet, and a blue and white checked duvet cover. I lugged these all back up the hill and assembeled my new comfy bed : )

Next I decided to wander around campus a bit. There's a path off of square five that I'd never been down, so I headed in that direction, taking pictures along the way.

This is the paternoster lift in the library. on the left are people going up. You can't see anyone going down, because you're not supposed to ride lower than this floor : P

This is a much better shot of a coot : )

Here's the lake behind the library. The sign says something like "Not for use of students" or similar...

The same lake, with an interesting red growth, and some manner of pillar in the distance

Ducks and scenery. Turns out, the back of campus is rather nature-y

Closer shot of the ducks and scenery

More scenery

A second lake, behind the library lake. This one has a fountain in it.

The fountain lake again

The fountain from a distance. And a tree trunk.

A willow.

Library lake, from the other side. That big building that looks like a parking garage (on the right) is the library.

Willow.

A mild-mannered duck. Honestly, this thing was doing all sorts of acrobatics before I pointed my camera at it.
A distant shot of the North Towers. Mine is second from the right.

A shot of campus. This is Square Five. Through the arch is Square Four. It goes on like that until it hits Square One. Classrooms are... somewhere in there. Guess.

Here is the kitchen. It is much cleaner than usual.

The view from the kitchen is actually pretty good, but hard to take a picture of because of all the black window divider things.

This is what I see when I walk out my door.

This is what I see when I walk out my door and look right. (My room is in a corner)

The bathroom. You can see my elbow in the mirror. It was very hard to get far enough back to take the picture. I am on my tiptoes pressed up against the opposite wall.

The shower.

The bathroom AND the shower. They are right next to eachother, you see.

And that was all for my picture taking adventure. Next I thought I should write some postcards. So I settled into my snuggly new bed which is soooo warm and cozy.... and fell asleep...

Next on the agenda: dinner! Away!

Edit: 7:12 PM

Spent a pretty long time at dinner today talking to Chris and two guys from The Other Side (of the flat) named Sam and Dan. Chris, it turns out, was in the archery club last semester, but never went to a meeting. However, there's a club/societies fair this Friday, and if the archery club still exists, they'll be there. We had a rousing discussion about chips/crisps/fries/chips, and who does them better. Dipping fries/chips in a chocolate milkshake is considered weird here too. Go figure. Also, I have not yet had "real chips" because apparantly real chips will make you never want to eat American fries again. We shall see.

Sam thought I could help him with the essay he's writing. It is about American foreign policy. I told him probably not but I would try my best : P

Anyway, it was good company and good talking. I felt part of a group. yay.

Thursday

So the guy who wrote the E-less novel was named George Perec, but in French. The original novel was in French, but the English translation is very impressive. I would say just as impressive, but I don't read French so I can't really tell...

As for how I ended up studying abroad in the first place... I was going to do a six-week program in London, an internship. The study abroad people at Purdue talked me out of it at the last minute and convinced me to do a full semester instead, and the deadline was very soon. So honestly... I didn't have much time to think about it...

Enough about that. I really wish there was a reply option on the comments... oh well.

Today I woke up for my nine o clock lecture and left very early so I could find the classroom. This would be Versions of Modernity, the first lecture of which I missed because I registered late for it. So I found the classroom, and class was cancelled. I must email the instructor I think, because I need to find out what I missed in that first lecture.

Anway, cancelled lecture meant I could run my errands and get back for a much longer nap. First I decided to head to Central Stores to see if my package had come in. The place was, once again, impossible to find (despite that I had been there once before...) But I paid close attention to the route, and I THINK I can find it again. I FINALLY got there after a scary trip through the garage-city under the university, and the package was not there. Phoo.

I made my way back up, and to the post office to ask about trains. I found out that I can take a train to Liverpool Station in London from any of the stations in Colchester, and I got a list of buses that go to each of the Colchester stations.

Outside, I saw a table set up by the Christian Union and I thought... what the hell... I need friends... so I went over to talk to them and see what they're all about. They talked me out of joining their group, because it's mostly lectures and not really a social thing at all. They did, however, point me to the Chaplaincy, which is a room on campus where various religions go at various times to have their various religious ceremonies. There is a Catholic mass on Sunday at noon, so I don't have to take the bus all the way into Wivenhoe all alone. I may meet people there...

Last stop was the Accomodations office to see about my mysterious smoking flatmate. They do not open until 10:30. Nap time.

A nice long nap later, I woke up and read a little bit before class. Then I went to class nice and early to find the room. I'm rapidly running out of novels though, so I should stop going to class so early... Anyway, this was Early Culture, and Sebastian from Oulipo is in this class as well, which is nice. It was a good class and I was able to participate in the discussion. At the end of class, Sebastian and I got our topics for presentation. We are partners on Travelling West, which is about discovering the New World. Shouldn't be too bad.

Also, the teacher is leaving at the end of term, but we are not getting a new teacher. Instead we're just done with that class, except for the exam. Awesomeness.

On the way back, I stopped at the Accomodations Office again. The lady there told me that there is a number to call in the kitchen that will contact a person who's sort of the RA for the whole building, and next time the smoking happens, call that number, and they would go check it out. So I went back to the room, but there is no number in the kitchen. I decided I would ask whoever was at dinner tonight about the whole smoking thing.

When I went to make my dinner, only Chris was in there. I had talked to him briefly before. He's the one with the Futurama poster on his door. So I asked him casually if he smokes, and he said no. I now have my list of possible culprits narrowed down to three rooms! Actually, there are only two possible people left, but I don't know which rooms they are in.

Anyway, I asked him if the smoking bothered him, and he said he had gotten used to it. I said it bothered me but that I wasn't sure how to go about doing anything about it. He reccomended simply talking to the person and they'd be reasonable, so I'm going to take that advice. If it happens again tonight, I will go aknocking on doors.

The conversation progressed from smoking to a discussion about books, tv shows, writing, and movies. It may be the best conversation I've had face to face with a person since getting here. Chris is a big fan of Terry Pratchett, so we had a lot to talk about. He also used to write fantasy, but gave it up to focus on a career in politics, the crazy man. And he doesn't do drugs, much to Sophie's consternation and my amusement.

Then I showered and blogged. The end, unless smoking happens again tonight, in which case I will post about how my confrontation with the person goes...


Turns out Ben smokes. He was very apologetic when I told him it bothered me, and said he would stop since we're not allowed to smoke in the rooms anyway. Yay!

day of coldness!

I woke up not knowing where I was this morning. Man I hate that. So I went back to sleep for another two hours. I woke up really cold for some reason and actually turned the heat on today. I can't figure out why, because it was sunny and in the upper 40s today.

I finished reading Witch of Edmonton this morning before class. Very boring play. Then I went to class. It was fun. Oulipo is all about challenging yourself in weird ways while you're writing. This one guy wrote a novel without using the letter E. Then he wrote a sequel wherein every word had an E in it. Things like that. This calss is going to have the easiest essay of all my classes. Unfortunately, we're getting a different teacher at the beginning of Summer term, so I have no idea what the next essay will be like.

There is another international student from America in that class. His name is Sebastian and he is from Mississippi. He was fun to talk to before class, and it seems like we might have some things in common. He lives on the 7th floor of Tawney, which is one below me. He looks like your typical hard core emo kid, but he's pretty intelligent and said he likes to write, so at least I know someone in one of my classes now.

After class I went to the post office to see if they could help me out in figuring out the trains to Heathrow, but they were closed. So I went and bought a sandwich and went back to the dorms. I read a little before going to make dinner. I had my sandwich and some rice I had bought at Tesco...

The rice smelled like plants. It tasted like plants as well. Next time, I will buy a different brand of rice. The dinner, it was unsatisfactory. But at least I got some meat. (And yes, I KNOW rice is technically a plant. It smelled like ferns.)

Just as I sat down to eat my unsatisfactory meal, the fire alarm went off and we all had to go down 8 flights of stairs to get outside. Once outside, everyone stood IMMEDIATELY outside the doors, less than a yard away from the building, and started smoking. So I asked if this was a routine firedrill, since I know they test the alarms every Tuesday. No, it was not, some idiot pulled a fire alarm. They don't HAVE routine fire drills here. So I'm kind of glad some idiot pulled the alarm. Now I know where the stairs are.

After we got back inside and climbed eight flights of stairs, I finished dinner, chatted for a bit, and went to take a shower. Someone else had just gotten out and the shower was FREEZING. Fastest shower ever. I got dressed in a hurry and sat down to blog... theee end.

Not the end. It's 10:00 now, and I thought I smelled smoke in my room. Well, this happened last night and I walked out into the hallway and didn't smell anything so I figured I was just imagining things. But tonight I walked out into the hallway and immediately could tell that someone was smoking. I asked a passing person and they said that sometimes people smoke in their rooms. I checked the university policies, and this is definitely NOT ALLOWED. I don't know what I'm going to do....

Class

Today was the first day of classes. It began... poorly.

It began with my flatmates waking me up at 1 in the morning with an absurd amount of noise. That is all I will say about that.

I woke up tired, feeling not at all ready to face my Myth class. I left super early to look for the room, still feeling slightly ill but determined to ignore it until AFTER class. I found the room with a bit of difficulty, because i don't think it is acutally room 4.01. There is a piece of printer paper with the number printed on it, taped to the window, and the room is not by any of the other rooms. Luckily, I found it.

And what we are doing for the first half of myth class (until March) is the Myth of Orpheus. Hehehehehe. Easy. I've an essay due April 21st in that class, which means I should try to finish it before March 21st so I don't have to do it at home.

After class I went to see Julie Andrews and Hazel in the Literature Department to buy another course packet and find out some details of the class that the professor didn't seem to know. Hazel knows everything about literature classes. I also bought notebooks. Then I went back to the room to make up the sleep I missed.

After a really really long nap, I went to go look for a class to substitute for my Film Studies class, since I decided I didn't want to have to worry about citing films in my essays as well as books. Plus I wanted another 200 level course, because they are easier. I ended up picking something called Versions of Modernity, wherein we will read classics that most people in America have read their Freshman year of high school. Much easier.

I went to go put the transfer in with Hazel, and it turned out that i'd missed the first lecture: it had been that morning. But Julie Andrews said it didn't matter at all about the first lecture, and I shouldn't worry. Then I went to the first screening for the Film class I dropped, just because I had nothing better to do.

We watched Three Kings, a bloody, slightly depressing war movie. Blah. but it killed time. I went back to the dorm, had a word with Phil about noise, and made dinner. Lots of people were in the kitchen tonight, including another girl named Sophie. She was very friendly, and it was generally a good time. People actually, really cook around here. It's surprising. Most college kids I know would rather just boil something, which is what I've been doing: less effort, less time. But dinner here appears to be a whole big production. Maybe when I run out of noodles and rice, I'll actually buy some meat or something. We'll see how busy I get.

And that is it for today. I'm already sleepy, but I'm going to try to stay up as long as I can since I don't have any classes tomorrow : )