Experience an earthquake... check

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

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

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



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



Some sort of pretty purple undergrowth stuff...



A close-up of the purple undergrowth



Daffodils! These things are all over the place.



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



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

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








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



The North Houses



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

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

The end.

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.