The Cold

I guess I should have known that such great days would be followed by a slump. Whennnn will it get easier?? Dear god let it be at least January and let me not worry about money and let me shsooooooooooooooooon.

I had a busy weekend.
Friday: Winter Carnival (German-themed with American carnival rides) in Hyde Park. FRIGID. Tried mulled wine (red wine brought to just under a boil, infused with cinnamon and spices, served warm. Peep Show premiere. <3 Mark and Jez.
Saturday: OODLES of laundry with Michelle. Sex shops in Soho with Marina. Thanksgiving dinner cooked by Michelle with two Germans. The heater in Michelle's kitchen doesn't work. I kept my coat on all night.
Sunday: Five hours of shopping in Brick Lane with Nina. Cold but good. Didn't find anything--think my body type somewhat doomed to find winter skirts that look good.
**I know I said I would take lots of pictures, but honestly, if you were here, you would not dare take your hands out of your pockets either. The cold is different here. It's only in the 20s (F) but the cold seeps into you faster. In Michigan your ears get cold fast. I don't have an ear problem so much as a toes/legs problem here. Well, and if out for too long, my hands literally stop moving. 
All together: not enough homework done so I spent 4.5 hours in the library today and basically after reading a 100-page play I ceased to absorb anything so I stopped struggling through it and left. 

I want old. I want new. I want the old in the new setting, the old in the now. It really sucks when the page in front of you goes blurry and you know you have to make it to the bus stop, the bus ride, Sainsbury's, the walk home in the cold before you reach the safety of your room and then it's gone. Imh SO MUCH.

Happy Thanksgiving

   Yesterday was GOOD. I kind of was all over the place in the morning because I had to prepare to leave from like noon until at least 9pm. I arranged to go to a museum with Kristen and Marina. It goes to show how far we've come since the beginning. Hopped on the tube after topping up at the convenience store across the street (the Indian owner is awfully chatty and nice) and went to Moorgate, which is one of those outsideish tube stations that has like multiple tracks and is kind of intense. I totally navigated everything with ease and got off at Barbicon and it was a straight shot to Museum of London. I hadn't seen the other for weeks and it was nice to meet up and do a chill walk through of the museum (it was Britain hundreds of thousands of years ago to the present, focusing on London obviously). We went to the pub next door afterward cus their sign advertised mulled wine (wine served warm infused with cinnamon, etc.). They didn't have any though! We wandered along the street and went to another pub, but the barmaid said that they probably would start serving it only in the next week. So we just went to Tesco. Lol! I did the lunch deal for two pounds and got a sandwich (salmon and cucumber ftw!), apple slices and a water. Then I just left cus they were going back home and I needed to go to the library.
   Let me tell you, you can google directions all you want but when you come up from the tube it can get disorienting. I wandered along freezing my hands off cus I was eating my sandwich and hoping I was on the right side of the street and looking for the neighborhood maps that are a godsend. I didn't find any of those but finally I realized I was in Covent Garden and saw the Pizza Express with the creepy Italian men. I missed Chancery Lane and ended up walking down Kingsway, which is REALLY out of the way to get to the library. My lazy ass hopped on the bus which took me around the corner but trust me, it saved me time and gave me a bit of warmth. I was at Maughan for like two hours and the WHOLE time the offprint article I needed was checked out. I must have gone to short loan like five times. Anyway, I read for Brit Lit and then went to the PAWS (computer lab) room to read an article. Then I went to Strand for the Inua Ellams poetry reading. He's a Nigerian poet who is London-based. Creative Writing Soc brought him in. I like his stuff read aloud a lot better than on the page. I liked the way he talked with his hands. He was a bit pretentious though, as I guess you could say about a lot of poets. It was fun though. Everyone got to him first so my idea of having him sign his book was lame by then but I had him sign it anyway. I left while there were still a bunch of people milling around and I was still waiting for the bus when they all came out. When RV1 came, Inua was standing just by the opening. I smiled at him (it felt like a grimace) and I don't think he recognized me!! Lol. By the time I got on the bus and sat at the window, he had realized that he had just signed a book for me and smiled and waved. Awkward. Ohhhh Obi. Yeah so I came home and had to do my grocery shopping at Tesco and then I talked to Obi for like two hours. <3
   Today I was supposed to skype with John for Thanksgiving but he wrote on my wall that he was lost in Tokyo so he didn't show. I drank tea and wasn't productive. I watched half an eppy of Shameless. During my break I booked it to Maughan and read the offprint which actually added a lot to my presentation in Jacobean theatre. For just having to answer a question in class, I was terrified. Like sick stomach and shaky. I'm just so scared of saying something incredibly stupid and having everyone think that I'm the stupid American girl. So basically I prattled through my answer practically reading off my paper and saying "like" too much and almost getting stuck. It was awkward. And I have to do it again next week.
   45 min later I met up with Abigail to walk to the Globe. I really only started talking to her in depth this morning before Irish Lit but we agreed to walk together cus she's directionally challenged even though she's from London. There were about 15 of us. Gordon, my Jacobean Theatre teacher, arranged a tour of the Globe by one of his old PhD students. The Globe is an open-air theatre so it was freezing. We basically walked around the stage and backstage and talked about stage directions and projection. Those were the two most important things I learned. Then we went to a pub literally around the corner from my flat! I'd never been there but it's famous. It was a bunch of little rooms and it was packed so there was no great place for us all to sit and it was just awkward. Waiting at the bar to order is awkward. I just left because I knew it was too heinously disorganized and I had mac'n'cheese at home. Came home and had Kraft for dinner (thanksgiving!) and made chili for later days. Now I'm just not being productive. I'm about to do a Graham pick-me-up. Heavens, how I love him! And hope I can get tickets to his show!!

Hey there

   So I think I am going to blog now just to keep myself caught up, and because I don't think I have time to get much else done before I have to leave for the day. I think I might have to live on pasties for the rest of my life...ANYWAY. Obineche Sean came to visit me and I didn't get a chance to see him until Friday afternoon. Due to my lack of directional skills and his lack of coins to make longer than a 14 second phone call we didn't actually get together until an hour after we said. But we finally made it. And it was beautiful. I was so mesmerized by him that I got us lost leaving Trafalgar Square...twice. But I figured it out and I got a pasty for dinner and we went to Chapters (cafeteria at Strand) and just talked for an hour and a half. I swear, being with one of my best friends from home, the world went hazy around me and it was just us talking about middle school and high school and laughing at ridiculous things. It was good. And by good, I truly mean that.
   Emilie had invited us out to get drinks at this bar that had a half-off happy hour so we met up with her, Divya, and Sam and went to Jewel. Sooooooo trendy. Uber trend!! But still cool. There was nowhere to sit that wasn't reserved, but we managed to find five stools around near one of the like five bars there. It didn't quite make conversation that great but it was ok. Obi and I left early because he had to get to a theatre for Harry Potter. We waited ages for RV1 and the whole time he was flipping out a little bit so we got off at Southwark Station to take the tube. His friends apparently were later than he was but whatevs. I was a little wangwung (?) and talked to another best friend. Difficult.
   We had a fire drill at quarter to 6 on Saturday morning. We stood outside for 20 minutes. It took me an hour to fall back asleep and I wasn't happy. So it was quite painful to make myself get out of bed at 9:30. This time I was ten minutes late, but Obi said he was too and it took us only ten minutes to find each other. But we did. Outside Harrods, which we then explored. And dear sweet Jesus, Harrods. The food halls were amazing. We spent the most time in the Christmas area, which was soooo movie Christmas. And cheery. They had a bunch of Christmas ornaments that just said "Harrods 2010" on them in glitter, which I was like, "Whyyy?" Especially because they were 7-10 pounds (cost). I didn't even want to attempt to walk through women's clothes in my state, so we passed through men's clothing. Cue Prada CASE--i.e. locked case of legit Prada clothes that you can't even touch unless you have the money to buy. Yup. Then we kind of realized we were done. Obi wanted to sit so we attempted a Starbucks down the street but it was really full so we walked on. It was cold so I decided to skip Hyde Park, which is just down the street from Harrods. We got slightly lost trying to find a tube station because one entrance we passed was closed for construction. Upon doubling back we realized there was one across the street so we went to Holborn, where we found another Starbucks, under the presumption that we would rest and then tackle the British Museum. We stayed in Starbucks and talked for another hour or so and after that, neither of us wanted to do anything so we went home. Well, we dropped things off and then we went to Sainsbury's to get the rest of the food for dinner. Then we came back to my room and hung out, went to the computer lab so we could print off boarding passes and I refigured Christmas break plans, which cost me more money AUGH AUGH.
   Finally, we made dinner to the tunes of my "OBI LONDON VISIT PLAYLIST." Magical. Alison had some friends over and they were making dumplings, so she was to knock on my door when they were ready. Obi skyped with some people from home. Then we went in and ate sweet dumplings and talked and ate savory dumplings and nearly exploded. Obi took a 20 min nap in my room, only waking up when I came in to get my keys so I could let Emilie in. He was very disoriented, thinking at first he was at his host mom's house, then his hostel, then realizing he was at mine. We all played cards for like 45 min and then a lot of people left, so it was Alison, Mark, Obi, and I who went down to play some pool and ping pong. Boy, what a mess. There was tribal and victory dancing and falling on the floor and lots of scratching. One shot I took I was totally confident and it was a beautiful shot, only I sent the cue ball straight into the hole without really touching another ball. Ping pong was almost worse but we agreed that Alison would work wonders on ANTM action shots because she is the most graceful ping pong player I've ever seen. I had to call it a night after two games on my part, so Obi and I chatted a bit in my room before I sent him off on his way. Then I skyped with Ben and Mum and went to bed. (Steve, you should be around to make a four-way skype!)
   Sunday morning was brill. Made an egg scramble with tomato and onion and feta and watched Psych in my uber-grub state. Happy. Then took amazing shower and got work done for the rest of the day. I don't really remember. But on Monday I got out by noon to go to the library. Before that I digress a little bit--for those of you I haven't told, it gets dark here literally at 4pm. Yesterday weather.com said sunset was at 4:02. It's horrible. It makes you feel like you don't want to leave your house. So when I was on the bus at quarter to 12 it felt like mid-afternoon already, which was totally weird. But anyway. I went to Maughan and staked out a spot in the circular reading room. And read. And read. For three and a half hours. I got through three readings and a PB&J. Then I went home. I stopped at the public library on the way to check out a Shakespeare book for next week. In that section there was a book by Jo Brand from 1994. I checked it out and am reading it. Right next to poetry and plays was the LGBT section with books that looked suspiciously like erotica. I will work up the courage to check that section out. On the way out, I saw cooking. It happened. I checked out ONE book. THEN I saw their Bollywood dvd section. Do you know what this all did to me? SHELVES and SHELVES of Bollywood. The only thing that stopped me is that they charge to check out movies. But I will live there during winter break. So I came away with four books stacked high in my arms and a giddy mood.
   Then I came home and read more! A play for Irish Lit called Translations. Made dinner and then had four hours of nothing because I had been so productive all day! Finally, yesterday was another long Tuesday and at only like 1pm I was dying and couldn't believe how long I still had to go. That's one reason why I can't wait til next semester. That long of a day just kills me inside now. And I have that nagging feeling about papers in the back of my mind now. Augh. (Cus over here they don't do exams before break. I have one essay due on the last day of class but then I have one 3500 word essay and one 4000 essay due the day we get back, along with an essay exam that I will have to prepare for over break that I will take the first week I get back. Where is the time for fun?!)
   Ahhh, there you have it. My life. 

"Love? What is love?" ...I think that's something like it

   So there hasn't been a ton to report in the past week but I'll give important recaps, or at least recaps for my own benefit.

Last Friday Chris came to London because we got tickets to see Chris Potter, a saxophonist, who was performing at Ronnie Scott's (jazz club in West End) for the London Jazz Festival. OMG he was amazing. Chris and I, even though we basically had standing room only seats, managed to get a table for two tucked into a sort of corner but with a view of the stage. CP opened with Arjuna and from there played some songs he hadn't yet recorded. I was so excited the whole time. Chris and I really enjoyed ourselves. Our waiter was also super nice to us. I tried a grape martini. CP played a bass clarinet a bit. I enjoyed watching the drummer (they're always the best to watch, we agreed). It was a good time. We went back to my flat after purchasing some cider and played cards and the writing game (HILARIOUS) with Alison, Flynn, and Arif. It was a good night that didn't end until like 2am. The next day when we finally got a move on, Chris and I went to the Imperial War Museum. I had felt rushed my first time through, so we spent over two and a half hours there, and we went to the Holocaust exhibit. It was so extensive that we were in there alone for at least an hour. I came out first, not feeling well and generally feeling emotionally overwhelmed. I waited for Chris for ten minutes and I think he had it worse because he asked for a hug when he came out. I remedied the situation the next day by finally watching Inglourious Basterds.

Classes started up again this week, though with minimal reading and one of them was cancelled. I went to big Tesco yesterday and was completely on budget, which always makes me extremely proud of myself, especially since I bought a big tub of nutella and other things I don't necessarily need. I can't wait until Irish Lit is over because I am not really into it. I never have things to say in seminar because I'm too intimidated. I think I am pretty much just ready for new classes I am actually interested in.

But omg, last night was the best. It was "the Legacy of the Corpse Bride"--an event for Creative Writing Society in the CRYPT on Guy's campus. Whoa, firreal. So the board of cw were all in costume and had characters and it was a murder mystery where the bride died before the wedding and we had to talk to all the characters and figure out whodunnit. It was kind of awkward at first but it got more fun as we went along. By the end, we had about three theories and one of mine was the actual thing--that she killed herself because there was so much shit going on in her life. Also, Korrie was the groom and it was hysterical because we went over to question him and he just was so stiff and kept saying things like, "I have many prize-winning ponies!" and he was kind of a pompous asshole, which kept making me laugh. Then we got to explore the actual crypt, which wasn't anything more than boarded up sarcophagi dating back to the 1700s (and there was a baby). It was still creepyish, especially since a lot of us had to walk home and it was kind of raining. We formed a big group of non-board members since we were all heading more or less in the same direction. I adore cws.

Which is my favourite eppy of Friends?

Can you guess what I made for dinner tonight?
Is it weird that "Sellotape" makes me want to cry (a little bit)?
2450/2500 words. Only 3 sources.
Had drinks with Cathy at Slug and Lettuce this evening. Slug and Lettuce is a chain but it was quite nice and trendy. 2-4-1 drinks special is amazing. Cathy is cool--we will go to burlesque stuff together and fetish clubs.
I only slightly resisted the urge to sing loudly in a falsetto in the kitchen, in my room, in the shower. I laughed to myself on the street imaging one of my flatmates knocking on my door to tell me to cut it out. I was only quietish in the kitchen.
Also, last night was relatively good. Low key creative writing meeting just talking cus it was only like 9 of us. Watched Due Date with some peeps and it made me feel like I was home but I was depressed when I realized I was still in London. American movies make me feel closer to home. It was only ok though.
Will you still let me down?
Will I romanticize everything and muck it up?
It's hard to stay that open.

It's Reading Week-->love/hate relationship with my computer

   Saturday night I went to Nando's for the first time with Winnie and I had two glasses of wine and I was a bit goneish in the restaurant, but it helped to like start talking more about random shit that otherwise I would deem irrelevant. We had a good night, though I was home before 9:30 cus Cambridge was the next day. It was nice to get out of the flat because my essay was hanging over my head and it was kind of lonely.
   I woke up at fucking 7:30 in the morning on Sunday. It sucked. But I did it for Chris Davis. And because it was so early, I felt illish and took my time and missed the 9:15 train that I had planned on taking. The next one didn't leave until 9:52. King's Cross was huge and there were pigeons and it was cold. The train was just sitting at the platform with no announcement that that was the train but it ended up being the correct one. It left just on time, unthinkable to one who has frequently used Amtrak. Of course I couldn't read at all--it was my first time out of London!! Eventually I put on some suitable music and watched the quintessential English countryside go by (there were SHEEP and spotted horses!). Pulled into Cambridge and had to wait like ten min for Chris but it was so exciting to see him. We walked up a street and kind of took a nicer way back to his dorm. The campus is beautiful. I hope you looked at my pictures on facebook. Apparently most of the grass is off limits in terms of walking on it so we relished walking on what we could. I was starving, so we hung around in his room until the food place opened.
   After having worked in EQ's dining hall for a year and a half, going to theirs was oddddd. No gloves, and they have to wear freaking vests and bowtie-type things. I got a sausage, an egg, some hashbrowns and a yogurt container. Chris opted for the baked beans as well. We sat with his friend Theresa from Brown, also on study abroad, and she was really cool. The dining hall was like what you would see in Hogwarts, only three superlong tables. We stopped at Chris' room really briefly again before checking out the Fitzwilliam Museum, which was full of art. I was soooo tired and didn't feel well during the tail end of it. :( The gift shop was really cool--it was like the open air but not space from the V&A, where the roof was just glass so the whole space was very bright and nice. They offered tons of postcards but they were quite pricey. We walked around the town after that, college after college. There was lots of live music in the streets amplified. We stopped in a few shops, like Octopus (I think--trendy kitchen shop. For example, whisks were squids!), Hotel Chocolat (YUM), and this wool shop, where I was reminded that Chris has a thing for needing to feel every material. Then we went to Sainsbury's, where we got some wine and cheese and water crackers for later. We then walked back to his dorm and I played Bananagrams for the first time. I didn't get to peel until the second game, and I think we basically ended on a tie. I made "cunt" and "os" and was really proud of myself.
   Finally the dining hall opened again, and Theresa came knocking to go down to dinner. The place was really dim and freezing. Apparently around 7:30 they begin to kick people out because at that point is a formal dinner which one must purchase tickets for days beforehand and wear fancy clothes and a robe to. It costs around 10 pounds for a three-course meal which Chris said is pretty good and offered it to me, but I didn't want to bring extra clothes. After dinner we went back to Chris' room and had wine and cheese and talked and watched videos and it was really fun. I was so tired so I decided to catch a train shortly after 9. Chris walked me to the train station and saw me off. The train home was non-stop and I just listened to music and reflected. Oh, Chris did indeed serenade me a bit on the ukelele like he promised when I was down, and he gave me LOTS of new music (thank fuck!). Also, before I left he said he hoped it had been a good visit to me, and he gave me a really good hug (I'm a sap, I know) and I just felt really happy to have a good friend in my life.
   Anyway, I got back to King's Cross and took the tube home cus it brought me to a safe drop-off point than the bus. I smiled to myself because I knew, back when I first came here, that at some point I would be able to take the tube by myself without batting an eyelash, but at the beginning, the idea terrified me because it seemed so complicated. Hmmm, somewhere along the way I was charged 4 pounds for nothing but oh well.
   So I got home at quarter to 11 fucking exhausted. Took a shower and then basically straightened out a rather important aspect of my life. Well, things are as ok as they're going to be for awhile. I am happy for the resolution, but...life. Stayed up til 1 and crawled my ass into bed.
   On Monday I didn't get out of PJs until mid-afternoon because I had no clean pants. Had to borrow Michelle's sweats to do laundry in, felt like a grub-pot all day. Spent forever putting new music on iPod. Watched a lot of tv online. I don't even know what exactly I did to be honest--feel like I wasted most of the day. I did skype with Obi for like an hour which made me really happy. He's super excited for his visit in a week and a half. I am excited for Chris to be here and to see Chris Potter. So the night did end up getting better though because, even though most of the laundry didn't get fully dry, I spent an hour with naked/clothes time with shirts draped everywhere in my room, trying things on and listening to music and being happier. I turned off the computer at 11:15 and then read for half an hour. Finally started "Eat Me" which is making me happy but also quite nostalgic. Went to bed happy overall at quarter to midnight and didn't get out of bed until 10:30 this morning.
   Made myself be productive cus first essay is due on Friday. Read an article, made notes. Couldn't stare at computer anymore...so went to computer lab and booked hostels for Spain (planes fucked...doing that tomorrow). At least I got dressed. Had planned on going to jazz at the waterfront but no one to go with, didn't want to go out into the cold if I didn't have to. Sat and listened to Flight of the Conchords RADIO SHOW (Did you know this?!) and did sudoku for an hour before bringing computer into kitchen to start essay. Hate everything because stressed due to different requirements in UK. They want a certain word count, not page count. Stressing cus Niko's got 10 sources, and I have maybe 4, chiefly using ONE. Augh. Alison came home and made dinner, so I left paper and made dinner and chatted with her and Katherine before bringing computer BACK to work more on essay. Scared about it. Give up. Eyes hurt. Head hurts. Talk for an hour with them and Arun about our first impressions of each other. Arun surprised to learn that I thought he was an asshole for like the first three days and thought I'd never be friends with him. :-P Back in room. Not having class is good but not good. Sigh.

Go to, go to

   Again in hate with libraries--this time Senate House. Weirdish Friday.
   Last night I didn't have much to do so I wrote for like two hours and finished some new erotica. I was really excited about it and popped my head in the kitchen to ask Arun and Katherine if they wanted to hear it when I was done. So they collected Charli and I read it to all of them when I had finished it and it was well received. What was really nice was that it opened up some dialogue between us as flatmates kind of about what I am going through right now and what we've all gone through in the past. Overall, I felt reconnected with them as flatmates, which was really nice, and it kind of reinforced that should real emotional shit go down, everyone has each others' backs. The three of us just sat around for like two hours (like in the beginning!) and just talked, somewhat losing track of time before I decided I needed bed. It was good.
   Tonight I went to Michelle's Tonight We Cabaret. I kind of went with Sophie and finally met Jingan, so that was nice to put a face to the name. There were mostly singers and some were really amazing. Michelle wrote a monologue which she performed and everyone loved it. OMG the guy who performed in the interval was AMAZING. He is apparently a member of All the King's Men, an acapella group on campus. He basically just sat with a pianist and sang Michael Bubleish, jazzy, cabaret-y tunes, almost better than Buble. AND he played trumpet. He and Michelle were def. my favorites.
   Michelle and I left shortly after she performed, stopping at Sainsbury's for snacks/dinner. We came back to my flat and basically ate and talked for two hours and it was really nice to reconnect with her as well. I think I should make it a point to take time out for people because it makes me feel overall happier to feel like I have good relationships in my life. I should go to bed soon, but I needed some time to defrag on my own. Oh, I wrote a letter of sorts today. It sorted things out a bit, but also muddled things up more. But it was good to figure out my thoughts, to get them out of my head. And I participated once in my history seminar. It's a start.

...to whom?

Happy!

   Ok! So I slept the HELL in today. I woke up at 9:45, no slamming doors or anything!! Awesome. The morning and early afternoon had a very weird feel to them. I changed my sheets and I made my bed (I got a patterned duvet cover this time!!) and it looks soooooo pristine!!! Like really orderly but I want to curl up in it at the same time. It just made me quite happy. So I did some reading in the kitchen then made lunch. My goal was to be gone by 2 to the library to get books and do reading, but I ended up going to the computer room first to buy tickets to Cambridge so I could print. Buuuuut, after the website was really finicky it ended up declining my card (dunno why) so I gave up and left. Did an hour and a half of work at Maughan before walking to a pub on the Strand where we were supposed to meet for Creative Writing Soc. Ok so, this was a very Englishy English pub. I got carded. Wtf. I gave the girl my Michigan ID and she was super skeptical about it and asked me if I had other ID on me, and I said all I had was my king's ID card. But she took the Michigan ID. I mean, all I got was a half pint of cider. I think I was carded because I had my backpack and the average age of the people in the pub was like 65+. Lol. That was just interesting.
   So then I sat at the bar and drank my cider. I was a little early. After I was done, I kind of gave up the excuse of playing with my phone, so I went outside and there was a girl there who guessed from my look that I was to meet up for the same thing. She was from the English Soc. Then Greg from history came and we decided to go back inside. He and I chatted and more people came. My earring broke! I gave Argula directions on the phone and she came. Then we walked to the theatre, and I chatted with this one girl I had met before at a meeting but I forget her name. Her boyfriend goes to Cambridge and she's actually going there this weekend so we were talking about stuff to do there. So the talk we went to was Margaret Atwood and some science-y guy with a person in the middle sort of mediating questions. Basically, creative writing's plans changed to this yesterday so I had no idea what to expect and it was fine until the end, when my attention wandered and I had to pee sooooo badly. I walked back up to Strand and ran into Alison and then Kleio and we all talked for a bit then Alison and I took the bus home together.
   I've watched two episodes of Shameless today. I was basically heartbroken when I caught up with Peep Show but now I'm getting into Shameless a bit more. After that it's Doctor Who, then I'm rewatching Coupling (I started missing it today). Or maybe Coupling before, cus it might be nice to go back to a 30 min show. But I've been running into Robin a bit lately and yesterday I met her boyfriend who she's always talking about (and at least one other guy who's studying English), and she had turned to her boyfriend to say that I wanted to go to Cardiff with them for Doctor Who should that ever happen, so maybe I should get on that shit. Anyways, it was a good day.

   Oh, and the latest Christmas break news is that Michelle can't go on the trip at all. So basically we're staying in London for Christmas. Obi is most likely coming here for about a week. I've mostly convinced Emilie to stay for Christmas. Then I'm going to Spain for new year's. I went through a brief period where I wanted nothing more than to go home for at least Christmas, but 1. Money. 2. It would only be like just over a week. 3. It would upset everything that now hangs in a delicate (or non-existent) balance.

gooooooooooooood.

Reflection and other things

I love two and a half years ago. And I'm ok with that. It only makes me a little sad. But I try to be objective somehow.

I've come quite a long way.

I can't believe it's Monday. Last night was good. We began around 7. Alison made savory pumpkin pancakes--basically just pumpkin innards mixed with flour, green onions and some salt. They were good. Shubha made pumpkin pie and there were also pumpkin seeds. WE HAD SKITTLE VODKA. (That is a shot of vodka with a skittle put in it and left to ferment for a few days until the skittle has dissolved.) That stuff was good. It ended up being a girl's night--all the girls in the flat except Hari. I actually really enjoyed it. We watched the Blair Witch Project in the dark, with only the pumpkin lit and the light from the huge window coming in behind us. Hari came in at one point and scared the shit out of us and the movie basically scared the shit out of us. (When I was trying to go to sleep all I could picture was the last scene.) After that we watched some of the extras from New Moon to laugh at them and made it a drinking came in that we had to drink every time they talked about the "evolution" or "transformation" or "boy to man" of Jacob, every time we saw naked torso, every time there was angst, etc. It was really fun to just let loose with the flat.

Today I had to pry myself out of bed, though I was woken up officially before 8 due to slamming doors. I made some toast and talked to Hari a bit. Then I did work for a few hours and after that met up with Emilie and Mini, then Divya and their friend Sam, to go to My Old Dutch, which is a well-known Dutch pancake house in Bloomsbury. On Mondays they do pancakes for 5 pounds. I got the smoked salmon (normally nearly 10 pounds) in a creamy dill sauce with mushrooms but I really only ended up eating the salmon as the pancake part just didn't mesh well with the rest of it. After that I came home and did more hw and watched another eppy of Shameless. I feel like the weekend was sooo long (iknoy) and it's weird to be going back to school tomorrow. But it must be faced! One more week til reading week and that'll go by faster than I realize cus I have my first ever essay due a week from Friday and I haven't even looked at the topics. Annnnd I'm busy like every night through Friday. Such is life, I suppose. Also, I have purple nail polish!!!