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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Experience an earthquake... check

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

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

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



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



Some sort of pretty purple undergrowth stuff...



A close-up of the purple undergrowth



Daffodils! These things are all over the place.



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



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

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








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



The North Houses



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

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

The end.

English winters are to my liking

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

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

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

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

fun new ways to put off school work...

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

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

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



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



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

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

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

Now: frivolous reading.

Later: video chat

Tomorrow: who knows!

post for the whole weekend!

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

The London Eye all lit up at night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now, I am here.

The end.

Another Friday

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow: London!