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.

Saturday

Today I was supposed to run around campus completing a lot of last minute tasks before classes start. I had to go see Julie Andrews about finding a church and bus routes to it as well as say hello, talk to the Literature Dept. about seminar times, buy notebooks and folders, buy milk and orange juice, and locate each of my classes so I'm not completely lost on Monday.

Most of this did not happen because everything is apparently closed on Saturdays. I decided I would locate the Study Abroad office first, because that would be the toughest meeting to get through. At orientation they had given us the location - south side of square five. Ok. I know where that is. So I walk over there.

The only thing on the south side of square five is a lake. (I later found out that that's acutally North... but the office wasn't in square five anyway!) And some geese. So I ducked (hee) into the library to ask them where the Study Abroad office was. A very nice man told me "Square two. It's definitely square two. The Law offices."

Ok, a bit strange, but I head over to square two. On the way to square 2 I passed through square four and just happened to notice the law offices tucked into a corner in this square. So... hmm. I went in. Sure enough, the study abroad office is listed in the directory, so I head over to the lift.

In the lift were two other girls who were going to the same floor, so I guessed and asked if they were also going to the study abroad office. They said yes, but they were worried it would be closed because the whole building was dark. So we went there, and it was closed. So we went back outside.

They told me that they were from Denmark, and had arrived late on Thursday, and so had missed a lot of information from orientation. They didn't know what sections of their classes they were in, and had no idea how to find out. I told them to go see the departments that their classes were under, because that's how I had found out. So they went to find the literature department and I went to go buy notebooks.

The bookstore was closed. So was the Campus Shop. Phoo. Well, my next stop was the Literature Office. That entire building was dark, too, but I ran into the two girls there again. They couldn't find the office itself, which I could completely relate to since I had spent quite a bit of time looking for it yesterday. So I showed them where it was, but it was closed too. They had a really familiar look on their faces - the "I have no idea what I'm going to do and no one is willing to help me, and I may burst into tears from sheer frustration!" look. So I told them that they should attend any of the sections just so they didn't miss anything, and then find out which one they're really in when the office opens after class Monday (The office doesn't open until 10, and class starts at 9). That seemed to calm them down a little, and we talked a bit more.

Their names are Lina and Anette. Lina looks a lot like Holly! They're both going on the Cambridge trip tomorrow, so I'll see them again then. They seemed really eager to be friends, so maybe that'll actually work out.

After we parted, I went in search of my classes. Unfortunately, even the hallways are closed on Saturday, the doors locked and the lights off. Come to think of it, there are an AWFUL lot of doors in those halls. Weird. Well, anyway i'm just going to have to leave much earlier on Monday to find them all.

I went back to my dorm much earlier than I had been planning, which was ok since i was feeling a bit ill. I put my pajamas back on, grabbed a book, and proceeded to read/sleep until dinner time. I had my first bathroom conflict though... both bathrooms were occupied for a REALLY long time. There's simply nothing you can do in this situation. You can't get onto the other floors without a key. I guess you could walk to campus, but really that's sort of ridiculous...

Anyway, I thought it high time that I tried out my pots and utensils, and the macaroni and cheese I brought from America : P As I went out to the kitchen, I ran into a guy named Ben who lives on my floor. He was really really helpful, and showed me the ins and outs of how things work in the kitchen. A bunch of other poeple who live here also popped up, including my neighbor Phil (who is, in fact, female). They dropped a bunch of army guys with parachutes out the windows and then introduced themselves and started raving about American food, especially Reeses, and about how there's a website where you can get American food, but for some reason they don't have Reeses, and Ben would just about die for one.. yes, they are very energetic people, but Ben and Phil are the only names I can remember. I don't know how close we'll be because they did say that they don't take school very seriously, but they're nice to hang around with for meals and stuff if nothing else.

After eating, I went back to my room, hung up my big calendar and prepared my sharpie for marking off days. I get to start Monday. I think, other than blogging, crossing the day off will probably be my favorite daily activity. This is an improvement: just yesterday, the thing i looked forward to most was sleeping.

I think, perhaps, I need a life. Or some very enjoyable classes.